Alright, so with this blog update I’m hoping to finally be caught up updating everyone. And it’d better be worth the 2hrs I’ve spend sitting at the internet café, haha.
I’ve filled you in on GLOW and weddings galore. That brings us up to the last trimester of school which was a breakneck 8 weeks long. 8 weeks to teach is basically nothing. I was able to get 2 short units in for my Biology classes, the Urinary System and Non-Flowering plants. I’m not sure how much the got out of either, but it was good to finish up there…I at least finished further along than last year which is good for the students. With my English Literature students, we attempted, key word attempted, to read the first couple chapters of a book called Nervous Conditions, which is about an African girl and her story about her battle for education. Well, we read, but I don’t think we understood much at all. Instead, we developed some serious critical reading skills. They did exercises every week where they had to answer questions about things in the text, got really good at identifying and looking up unknown words in their dictionaries AND they got really good at telling me “Teacher, we have no idea what this book is saying but we’re really happy to practice speaking.” Okay…so I guess that’s a win? But yes, third trimester was super fast and now…well, it’s over and basically has been for the past 2 weeks. We started exams super early, actually the week my replacement came to visit site, not very ideal for her, and now it’s just correction and deliberation. But really, that’s all that’s been happening in the last trimester at school. I’ve been grading, filling out report cards, giving “second chance” exams and marking those. Next week all the teachers will finish up, my S4’s will have a “celebration feast” which I’m invited to (I don’t really know what it entails) and then we’ll have a teacher celebration the day after on November 9th.
And then, then (here’s the kicker), the next day I move out of my village. That’s right friends, family and all readers…it’s been 2 years. I move out of my village in one week, I will no longer be a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1.5 weeks and I leave Rwanda in 2 weeks. Things just got real.
But let’s take a break from that real quick and let me fill you in on some awesome news: my site is getting a new volunteer in December! Hoo-ray, this is very very exciting because I know that Muremera is one of those places that will thrive with another volunteer in place. Anyways, her name is Julia and she came to visit the second week of October. I kind of wish we hadn’t started exams that week, would’ve given her a chance to watch teaching/maybe teach herself BUT all in all I think we had a solid 4 days during her site visit. Julia is an awesome girl and reminds me a lot of myself when I first visited Muremera. Loved the scenery and view, was really freaked out about living with no electricity. However, I think, given time, she will adjust (like I have) and do really well at Muremera and teaching at Munanira. She seems like a very focused individual with many ideas. So, I’m hoping that she will be able to implement some secondary projects that never came to fruition in my time since I focused mainly on getting the village used to having a foreigner there. So, shout out to Julia, my replacement volunteer, I think you’re going to do great!!
And now back to the reality of leaving. It’s hard to believe I’m leaving. I’m pretty sure I’m in denial. Who wouldn’t be in denial? This place has become home and I’m leaving in a very short time. It’s very surreal and strange and I’m pretty sure I haven’t fully accepted that I’m moving out, leaving and (eventually) going home to the USA. Weird. Enough moody thoughts, I’ll leave you with some fun photos from this past weekend when we had the baby naming ceremony for Euphron and Aloysie’s new baby, enjoy:
The happy new family
My best friends: Euphron and Twaza
No comments:
Post a Comment