Visitors and Gifts

Thankyou sooo much for the clothes for the children x 

I’ve been rather busy this week – so I’ve not been able to write up the blog until now. 

I am on leave from work for three weeks because I have two visitors from the UK. They came with two suitcases each, but only one was for their own belongings. The other suitcases were mainly full of clothes for the children here. Thankyou sooo much to all those people who sent clothes – believe me they will be fully used here.

Phil also brought lots of gizmos to play with!

The living room at the Hacienda was full of baby clothes, boys clothes, girls clothes and lots of lovely football shirts collected by a young friend and  a lovely lady in the Salvation Army Shop in Flimby. Thank you.

We went to visit the office where I work and Wendy soon made herself at home. 

My sister, Wendy sitting at my office desk

You will also see an orange box on the table - not only did I receive gifts from suitcases this week but also a parcel through the post! Thank you Ann, lovely chocolate, cereal bars AND (my favourite) Kettle Crisps - Cracked Peppercorn. I'm not sharing them with my visitors!!

Pictures on the wall above my desk

I hope you can spot the postcards of Blackpool sent to me by the lovely Christine! For those of you who don't know,  Blackpool is my home town where I was born. When I look at the postcards it reminds me of my Blackpool family.

This was the first day of our holiday and following our visit to the office, we went to the market, bought some fabric and went straight to the dressmakers to ask her to make two dresses for my sisters.

I have so much more to write about because it's been a very exciting two weeks. But my blog must wait a little while again...

Pictures tell lies.... and hurray for football!!

Looking down over one of the valleys

I visited a school in the most beautiful location on earth. 


It is in the northernmost sector of my district and very difficult to get to, even on a moto. I had to get off and walk on several occasions.


The school is a Primary school perched on top of a hill overlooking three valleys in different directions.

It is surrounded by pine trees which give welcome shade because even at this altitude the heat from the sun can be very intense. 


The air is fresh and clean, a welcome relief from the dust and dryness.


Truly a beautiful paradise?

I have some photos. 


I showed them to the headteacher when he came to Gitarama to visit me in the office. He spent a long time looking at them. He looked up and said "The pictures tell lies."


I knew exactly what he meant.


The pictures showed a beautiful scene with children playing in the shade of the trees, in the fresh mountain air - idyllic.

But the reality is a hard struggle for existence. Families are completely dependant on the land and the climate for their very means of staying alive.


To my eyes,the hills are beautiful but when you are carrying a heavy jerry can full of water up and down those hills for the survival of your family maybe the hills lose their attractiveness.


The pretty terraced hillsides are achieved by the hard physical toil of women with hoes(some men, but mainly women)working in groups, supporting each other. So when the rains come and still wash away the soil and your crops, it can be  struggle to start again. The pictures tell lies...

The little boy is quiet and still, nothing affects him, he doesn't talk, he doesn't smile, he doesn't cry, he doesn't respond at all.He stays close to the headteacher who is a kind and gentle man. 


I ask "Is he always like this? Does he ever change?Does he cry? Have you ever heard him laugh?"


"He's always like this, except when he's playing football with his friends, then he is happy!" 


So, HURRAY FOR FOOTBALL!!!


Lots of love to everyone and please keep up the comments.xxxx

Gitfest - Rwanda's answer to Glastonbury

Madonna in the early days

Mystery Woman

home made festival  lanterns 

The lovely and talented Ella Fitzgerald

 

Denise and Arnaud and me

I received this message from a friend in South Africa

Hello supporters

Thank you so much for everything you do for Msizi Africa.  However, this time, I’m not writing about our children. 

Most of you will know a famine has been declared in Somalia. 3.5 million people risk starving to death (many are children).  Islamists who control most of Somalia have banned the World Food Programme from working there.  As a result, tens of thousands of Somalis are fleeing to Kenya to find food.  They walk for weeks to reach the Dadaab refugee camp but often in vain – children arrive so weak they have less than a 40% chance of survival.  We’ve all seen disturbing images of starving children for years and now most recently coming out of Dadaab – these children are a long way from our healthy, happy children in South Africa and Lesotho.

When children arrive in Dadaab they are given Plumpy Nut, a peanut based food for use in famine relief, formulated by a paediatric nutritionist.  I am liaising with Save the Children who source food from a UNICEF cleared supplier in Nairobi.  I am going to buy Plumpy Nut from this supplier DIRECTLY and Save the Children will drive it straight to Dadaab and distribute it.  Whilst we must safeguard funds for our own children, we have a responsibility to help others when the disaster is on such a huge scale.  Depending on the child’s level of need, it costs in the region of £2 to give a child the Plumpy Nut they need each day. 

We’re donating £1,330 to buy Plumpy Nut for 50 children for 2 weeks – the same number of children in our orphanage.  You now have a chance to donate DIRECTLY to this crisis in the knowledge that 100% of your donation will be spent on Plumpy Nut which will be driven into Dadaab and given to the neediest children immediately.  There are NO admin costs so this is your best way to donate if you haven’t done already.  We will keep our appeal open until Sunday 31^st July and submit an order based on our donation and yours on Monday 1^st August.  Next week we will contact donors to tell you know how much Plumpy Nut we ordered collectively and when it has been delivered.

Join us and donate at - www.bmycharity.com/eastafricacrisis- let’s all try and help!

Thank you

Oh dear.....

I’ve just seen a poor man being sick and the vomit was bright luminous pink. I think this may be the local  medicine for a poisoned gut. The idea is that if you get a stomach or intestinal problem , you take a local ‘poison’ which will make your system exclude everything, resulting in a cleaned out gut. I’m not sure if this is efficacious and I must try to find out more about local medicinal plants etc. It certainly has nasty side effects.

A night out in Kigali

 However I would not like to give the impression that health care in Rwanda consists of this approach . There are many Pharmacies where you can get  drugs that we have in the  west. The qualified Pharmacist will also give advice on what to take for various ailments. I have only had to visit the Poly Clinic once so far and I received excellent care.

A day out on the road

There are two more weeks of the school term remaining. This week there are  examinations in schools and next week the teachers will be marking and correcting examinations and students will be leaving to travel home. The next term is the third and final term of the school year and starts on August 22^nd.

Most of August for me will be taken up with relaxing with my visitors from the UK. I’m really looking forward to it and to showing them around my new life!! Also, another exciting thing will be the visit of my friend Fidele who came in February to visit his family – see blog dated Sunday February 20^th 2011.

He is planning to build a Nursery School in his village and I am going to help train the Nursery teacher, so it means I get to go on another boat ride on Lake Kivu – YAY!!

Don’t forget to tell me what you are doing for your summer holidays. Love, Tricia

Domestic Goddess in Rwanda

OK, so usually we are ‘cooking on gas’ but what happens when the gas bottle runs out and how do other volunteers cook all the time?

When volunteers arrive in their placement home we are issued with a cooking appliance. If we’re lucky enough to have electricity we get a two element electrical hob. If there is no electricity we get a kerosene stove. 

But if you live in the Hacienda of Dreams we have a full size gas stove – I rush to inform you that this was not provided by VSO but purchased by the occupiers of the house. It is a wonderful invention because we have an oven, in which cakes (especially chocolate brownies) can be baked, and frequently are! 

But the inevitable happened this week and we ran out of gas

 – right in the middle of baking a collection of chocolate cookies for a friend’s birthday – disaster – although the consolation is that even uncooked cake mix tastes good!

So you can see me cooking on the kerosene stove. It feels like I’m back camping in the Lake District but the kerosene is very smelly and smokey, it does the job however and soon we are eating a lovely meal. We also have the double element stove which is very slow but gets there in the end. I have to say my pancakes are not up to the usual high standard when I cook them on the electric hob. Lots of honey and fruit salad are required.

Oh, just a side issue – one of my targets whilst I am here was to teach a certain Australian to toss a pancake instead of using a spatula – success!!!! I have achieved something in Rwanda!

In August I will be having visitors from the UK and although we have one spare bed, we have an empty room which needs another bed. So last week I ordered a new bedframe from the carpenters and when it was ready I went to collect it. There is an amazing delivery service here. The bed is delivered immediately, even if it has already gone dark. 

The bedframe was loaded onto a wooden barrow and the guy pushed it all the way to my house. You will not understand the significance of this unless you know the topography of Gitarama and how far it is from Gahogo (Plateau) to my house at  Nyamabuye Umurenge. Also it was dark and the road was busy with traffic – I was petrified that he was going to get injured, so I walked along behind him with the light from my mobile phone as a warning to road users that there was a hazard. Passers-by thought I was mad, but that’s ok it made me feel better. Anyway the bedframe got home safe and sound and so did the delivery man, so all I need now is a mattress – how will that be delivered? I’ll keep you informed.

Another week begins on Monday and I will return to Kiyumba to visit the remaining four schools with the objective of 'assessing the impact of the training'. It will also be the last overnight stay at that particular priests house for some time. I will miss them.

Lots of love for now, Tricia

PS Please don't forget to comment or send a message on Facebook so that I know I'm not talking to myself. OK, yes, I know I do anyway, but go on indulge an old lady! x

I hope you're as happy as you sound...

People say to me’ I hope you’re as happy as you sound’ or ‘Tell us about the bad times as well as the good.’

The problem with the bad times is that whilst you are in them you can’t write about them because you’re feeling so bad! But just now I am alleviating the ‘bad time’ by eating a whole bar of chocolate to myself. I bought it as present for a friend but I reckon my need is greater than his at the moment!

So, the bad times! – snotty, running nose through crying and no soft tissues left; wanting to sleep but knowing that you won’t; sitting up in a damp bed far from home, under the mosquito net , yes, but that blasted demon bug means I can’t go to the toilet. Smelly drains in the toilet anyway, why does this house always smell of cabbages? I’m not sure this bed has got clean sheets on it; oh, god, the drip, drip of the leaky tap...

 What’s happening at home? There could be an emergency happening right now and I’m not there to help. Panic, panic, shall I phone home? Oh god, not enough air time – more chocolate required ‘No news is good news, no news is good news’ – repeat the mantra.

Think happy thoughts, - smiling children, lovely black faces, bright eyes open in wonder.

Welcoming greetings. People who are always pleased to see you.

Fascinating conversations.

Cultural differences, learning from each other.

The best of both worlds.

Is it the positive thinking or the chocolate that is working the magic? Shall I try to go to sleep? Maybe just another piece?

How can you resist those eyes??

Singing in the rain!

The best thing about the bad times? I could say ‘the chocolate’ but I’m going to say ‘The best thing about the bad times is that they don’t happen often.’

And the next day  there is a lovely parcel from home – with a handwritten letter. 

Thank you angel.xxx

Sunday afternoon tea in Rwanda

The guys 

This week, I had a great weekend in Gitarama. Sometimes, it’s good to go away for the weekend and visit friends, see new things and find out how other volunteers are getting on in their situations. Last week I went to visit  a friend who is working in a Teacher Training College in the north west of the country. But this weekend I just wanted to stay at home and have a relaxed couple of days.

Saturday market

Having a laugh with the stall holders

So, on Saturday morning I went out shopping for food in the market. I used to find it overpowering - it was busy and strange and confusing. I could see the fresh vegetables but had great difficulty asking for them and not knowing what price to pay. But now, I'm so familiar with the whole set up that I can have a joke and a laugh with the women. They are very shy about having their photo taken but are also intrigued when I show them the resulting picture and often want me to take more!

After shopping in the market for fresh goods (and I mean straight off the bush, straight into the basket on the head and down to the market the same morning)I go into town to buy bread, tea, milk and other basics. With my arms full of shopping and a heavy bottle of oil I hop on a moto. The drivers are beginning to know me and enjoy my particular brand of Kinyarwanda.

A beautiful baby girl

Following my choir practice in the afternoon, on  Saturday evening three of us got together and had cocktails, home made Indian food, chocolate and watched a film, on the laptop.


Sunday was a day for visiting a 'miracle' baby. She was born 3 months early, and in the hospitals here there are not the same resources available to promote the survival of infants like this. 

She was in an incubator just to keep warm, no feeding tubes or anything.  But look at her now, seven weeks later and she is thriving. Of course I couldn't resist having a cuddle!


Later that afternoon I prepared a traditional Sunday afternoon tea for our guests.Home made scones, jam and cream (yes, we even managed to find some cream but I must admit whipping it with a fork  for half an hour for it to end up looking like curds and whey was probably not worth it)


Proper Rwandan leaf tea, teapot, cups,saucers, tablecloth, sugar bowl, sandwiches cut into triangles - the works! Our Rwandan guests were delighted and delightful! They enjoyed the scones so much that they requested a cookery lesson!


So, a lovely weekend. The next two weeks are four day weeks for work. On Friday 1st July it is Independence Day when Rwandans celebrate independence from the Belgium colonists. Monday 4th July is Liberation Day when Rwandans remember the day in 1994 when the RPF took control of the parliament in Kigali.


At home, I hope you are enjoying many summer days and late evenings, lots of BBQs and fresh chilled white wine. mmmm!!


Love to everyone and don't forget to write. Tx

Summer solstice and Lunar Eclipse

lunar eclipse

This year I’m celebrating the solstice in Rwanda and last week I experienced the total eclipse of the moon for 100 minutes – it was like someone had stolen our moon! It made me very thankful that I had a scientific explanation for what was happening.  It did help me to understand how such a phenomenon could be very frightening for people who didn't know what was happening. That sort of thinking makes me all the more thankful for education but also makes me realise how much ‘awe and wonder’ we are missing in our 21^st century thinking. Anyway, happy summer solstice to everyone and may you have many more long summer evenings.

Here in Rwanda the nights and days remain the same length and the dry season continues (although there are occasional massive rainstorms) The second school term of the year is passing by and the inevitable exams will begin on June 27/28/29, then again in week beginning 18^th July. Examinations take place so frequently for everyone in schools that it leaves precious little teaching time. As a friend used to say ‘You can weigh a goat, and weigh a goat but if you don’t feed it, it won’t make any difference!’

The v sign is for peace!

This weekend I went to visit the home of another volunteer in the north of the country.

I came across this group of guys collecting sticks for firewood and like a group of friends anywhere in the world they were having great fun together. They love having their photo taken, and then to look at themselves on film. No doubt making rude comments about each other's appearance.

www.mangotreeuganda

a room for girls to rest

bottle tops

This week we went to visit some 'Inclusive schools'  and we were very impressed. The teachers and headteachers are really committed to including children with physical and/or mental disabilities into mainstream schools. This is a big challenge in the UK so you can imagine the enormity of the challenge in Rwanda.

There is a group working in Muhanga District called 'Handicap International' and they have designated one school in each sector to be an 'Inclusive School' So in my district there are 12 of these schools. You can see from the photos some of the improvements that have been made.

I don't think I've told you about our Musical Film evenings here at the Hacienda of Dreams. One of the volunteers borrows a projector from work and the film is projected onto the wall of our living room. Lots of volunteers come to watch and join in the singing! This week we had 15 friends; a couple of people cook a meal using our gas cooker - ( a rare opportunity to cook on a proper stove). This week we had delicious Indian. 

Since I came in January we have had four such evenings. The first was Bugsy Malone, followed by Mama Mia (my favourite) then Grease and most recently The Sound of Music. We are hoping to get hold of Calamity Jane, Mary Poppins and the Jungle Book. 

It can be very tiring when you are constantly surrounded by a different culture and language particularly when you are trying to do a job of work as well. So, we work hard and then we relax.

Sometimes I relax with other people but I also appreciate time on my own. I haven't done much art work yet and I feel the lack of it. I have materials but there always seems something else to do. I read, knit and mess around on the computer! I am determined to take a short break away soon.

I know how lucky I am to have this opportunity to live in Africa for two years and I want to make the most of it. As my daughter says - I am making new memories for the future (she's very wise, my daughter!!)

So, I hope you are also making good memories for the future.  With all my love, Triciax

Six Fantastic Days Training

Periodic table in bottle tops

Microscope Work

All my plans have come to fruition – not necessarily in the exact way I expected but certainly very close. You will remember from a previous blog, I wrote about a big training project in one of the focus sectors in the north of my district? We have now completed the third stage of the plan!! The fourth stage will begin in 4 weeks but we are already planning the fifth stage!! Ha Ha!

During the last two weeks we have spent 3 days each week training teachers. We have been staying in one of the northern sectors with the priests. (I told you about the big celebrations last week). Each morning we go out on the motorbikes to a school which is fairly central to the sector. Most of the teachers can walk there from their homes (short journeys of about 1- 1 ½  hours) There is one school in the sector where the journey is too long for the teachers so we will be going to spend a whole day in their school, doing training just for them. However, teachers from the other schools have managed to get to the various training days. The first day was training for Senior Science teachers, the next day Primary Science, then Social Studies, Maths, English and Nursery.

What is this crazy white woman doing to me?!

Oh the Hokey Cokey

All the sessions were successful because the teachers really wanted to learn and were very enthusiastic. Many of them had had hardly any teacher training at all. Each day included teaching on how children learn and the importance of active participation. It involved lots of playing games and using a variety of teaching strategies and, of course, making teaching materials. As you can imagine, teaching resources are few and far between so we use any available resource. The main items are bottle tops from Fanta bottles (or Primus – whatever you can get hold of!), also rice sacks, empty tins of dried milk powder, cardboard boxes from triangle cheeses, plastic bottles etc  etc

There is a highly developed curriculum in Rwanda but I have doubts about its relevance apart from passing exams, however VSO is working with the Ministry of Education to lobby for change. The biggest change may come from Nursery upwards. Most schools have a nursery class and one of our schools has 81 children in that class, with one teacher!!!! The Nursery teachers design and plan their own work, which is hard for them because they have not had training in child development or how children learn. So the Nursery day was filled with games and activities, songs and stories – my favourite day! I hope that, maybe, I can be of assistance in working to develop guidelines for teaching in nurseries throughout Rwanda – that would be such a wonderful opportunity.

No need for childminders
when you can bring your
baby to work on your back  

So our six days of training are over and the next stage of our plan will take place in 4 weeks time when we re- visit each of the schools to see if the teachers have been able to implement any of the strategies. My job is to persuade the headteachers to use money from their school budget to support the making of teaching aids, and to persuade headteachers of the importance of lesson observation and the quality of teaching and learning. This is not an easy task when there are so many other demands made on their time (sounds a familiar story to me!) Our plan has a fifth stage but I’m keeping that under wraps for now.

The Motos

The Comedy Duo Moto Drivers

By popular request I am including a photo of the Moto Drivers who give us such a laugh - see below. There's nothing like free wheeling downhill for twenty minutes after a hard day's work - the red dust blowing in your face and knowing that the driver can't see a thing cos he has no visor on his helmet! Seriously these drivers are amazingly skilful on these mountain tracks.

So, thanks guys for getting us to schools safely and especially for delivering the Fanta and mandazi!!!

Keep safe everyone and enjoy the long summer evenings. Let me know what you are doing.

Lots love T xxxxx

Suddenly it's the Dry Season....

The road building continues

 For weeks it has been raining almost constantly – just like being in the Lake District, only the mountains are more numerous and closer together. Then one day it didn’t rain... and the next day it didn’t rain... and now it hasn’t rained for over a week. The roads are already very dry and dusty. The tarmaced roads are ok, but riding on the back of a moto on an earth road in the wake of a lorry , bus or car is very challenging. The driver is hard pushed to see where he is going, especially if he doesn’t have a visor on his helmet. So we travel slowly and arrive at our destination covered in a light red dust.

 

Imagine the dust cloud from this lorry

I watched a mum with a baby on her back and shopping in her hand get on the back of a moto. Before they set off she passed her shopping to the driver who put it in the front, then she wrapped an extra piece of cloth around the baby so that his head was completely covered by the cloth to protect him from the dust. Then she put her helmet on and off they went... I wish I had a photo.

Making teaching materials

I can't resist... 

This week’s travelling has been up to one of the beautiful rural areas. The training is for three days and so we travel up on Monday mornings, stay overnight at the priests’ house and return on Wednesday afternoon. This week we had a science training day for senior school teachers, followed by a science day for primary school teachers and then a social studies day for primary teachers.  Our main aim is to encourage pupil participation and active learning methods, to make learning fun and effective. We certainly had fun, and it was great to see teachers taking on board all the new ideas and methods. We introduced role play and as Rwandans have a great sense of fun they really threw themselves into it.

The lads enjoying themselves

Health and Safety Exec eat your heart out!

A day off school and best clothes

Whilst we were at the priests house there was an amazing celebration at the church including an outdoor service of Mass for 6000 people!! The singing and music and drumming was wonderful. The crowd was enormous and we had difficulty getting through but a kind man cleared a path for us.

Everyone was enjoying themselves and many many people in the community were involved, it was a very special day. 

The clearing up afterwards took no time at all with all the willing helpers.

The local children had the day off school. Some of you will remember playing with a similar toy when you were young!!

After such a strenuous week I was glad to get home and relax with my knitting. Thanks Cat – my scarf is going to be beautiful, and warm during the next rainy season xx

Lots of love to everyone. I hope you are enjoying some lovely long summer evenings. 

P.S. I think the 'Comments' gadget is not working and I don't know how to fix it, sorry about that but please feel free to send an e- mail.