Green Hills Academy

Thursday, May 15th

This morning we met Jill Fenton, a former principal in Canada, who now a principal of Green Hills Academy. Green Hills is private school that is truly at the high end of the spectrum (I heard the president's children attends this school). This school serves 300 nursery (there are no day cares in Rwanda), 700 primary, and 350 secondary students. The schools top student last year is going to Harvard. The school uses the CAS (Creativity, Active, Service) instructional model. Green Hills is the only school in Rwanda that accepts children with disabilities (2 downs syndrome & 3 autistic). There is a psychologist that comes in once a week to work with these students who are mainstreamed. The inclusion of special needs students in the regular classroom, the use of IEP's and aides are the same practices used in the United States. Green Hills is also the only school in Rwanda that allows female students to wear trousers to school.

The school's fee is on the higher end in the country, but not the highest. 80-90% o the teachers are Rwandans, but some are from Congo, Burundi, India, and other places around the world. All the teachers are paid on a local salary, and have benefits such as: healthcare, free education for two children, food, and transportation. The school just bought two buses which pick up students and faculty.

This school unlike some has a small class size, the max for nursery school classes is 25, primary 30, and secondary 30 or less. The school also has quite a few international students whose parents usually work for government organizations which pay thier school fees.

There is a very spacious dining room at the school that is rented for weddings on the weekends which generates income for the school.

Prior to Jill's arrival the school was small, with no textbooks, and a library with few books. There have been many additions since her arrival and they are now constructing a new nursery school, which is being build on African time.

After our meeting with Jill we were taken on a tour around the school by the head boy and girl (Tony & Meme). After the tour we were assigned a classroom to observe in. I was assigned to Teacher Anna's secondary English class (S1-12 &13 year olds). There were 21 students in this class who sat quietly completing a lesson from their text. After this class she had a break where we went to the teacher's workroom to talk. While talking to Anna, another teacher heard me say that I was from Alabama and asked me to speak to her class about segregation and issues in the south in the 1920's. Why? She teaches literature, and the class read the poem "I Know Why th eCage Birds Sing" by Maya Angelou which ells about her life which led to discussion about issues of oppression that she couldn't answer. I agreed to share MY experience as an African-American from Alabama with her class. The director of secondary education quickly called students together for a special session. I spoke about my background, experiences, and answered the many questions that they had not only about he south, but about America. After this time was over she begged me to return to her class sometime during the week.

Later in the evening we visited Gisimba orphanage. When we arrived the head patron was standing outside with a little boy about 2 years old who had just been dropped off by the police. He was walking along the street alone when he was spotted. The little boy did not speak and was very dirty.

While at the orphanage we spoke with the head patron about working together to create a website for the orphanage as a part of our service learning. I brought along nail polish and the group was charged by children who wanted their nails polished...even boys.

Education is the Key!

Wednesday, May 14th

After breakfast at the hotel we went to Gisimba orphanage to observe in their nursery school. The nursery school not only serves children from the orphanage, but the largest number come from the surrounding community. Parents pay a fee for their children to attend this school, which supports the teachers and other staff. Fees are small, so you can imagine how much the teachers are paid. It is said that Rwandan teachers make about $50 U.S. per month. What makes them get up for work everyday? The classroom that I observed in had 3 and 4 year old students (27 total) and even a 2 year old roaming around freely. I thought that they were learning to write the letter I, but they were learning the concept of horizontal and vertical lines, which will allow them to move on to drawing shapes, such as a square. The teacher Athalie only spoke French, so it was hard for us to communicate, but with a little extra effort and the help of Dominic as my interpreter I was able to ask a lot of questions (you know how I am). She explained to me that there is no standard curriculum, but she did show me her plans/goals for students for the four quarters of school. I checked her closet for resources and they were few and very old. She cut copier paper in half and wrote three I shaped designs on the top of every student’s paper, so I began to help with that as she wrote the student's names at the top. The children filled each page with the shape.

Coats, backpacks, and lunch boxes were placed on a table in the back of the room.
The only source of light in this classroom was from the windows, there was no electricity. There were hand drawn pictures on the wall around the room of various things including apples, banana, leaves, butterflies, and flowers.

Once the students completed their assignment the teacher moved on to another lesson teaching the concept of on (sur) and under (sous), by using various objects in the room. She placed a book on the table or chair and then under, on her head then on the floor, and involved students by having them do the same. These teachers also have to artist. In the U.S. teachers tend to use a lot of worksheets, but those resources aren't available here so teachers use what they have. The teacher drew different items on the board, continuing to teach the concept of on and under. Oh...I forgot to mention that the teachers at the nursery school have no formal training.

Upon completion of this lesson the kids left the room to wash their hands, and returned to say grace followed by a stampede to the back of the room to collect their packed lunches. Most students had some type of bread and something to drink (juice, tea, or water). These young children were very independent, only relying on the teacher to help pour their beverage into the top of their thermos.

After lunch all four nursery classes played outside and I stayed behind to sharpen the worn pencils that the children in this class use. After the break we left the nursery and returned to our hotel for lunch with Robin. Robin is an American married to a Rwandese and is building a school in a nearby city. While we were waiting for our lunch I met a U.S. Marine from Ocala, FL (My friend Tricia lives here!). His wife graduated from Oakwood College and Alabama A&M (My school) in Huntsville, AL. (It's a small world).

Robin talked about thecurriculum model and framework of her school, building cost, sustainability, donors, and teacher recruitment.

After lunch we went to Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) for a tour of their facilities. We had little interaction with students due to them taking exams. KIE has the only teacher training program in the country, and offers full-time day classes, evening classes, and distance education. Since education is one of Rwanda's primary goals a teacher training college is key. Most of the teachers were lost in the genocide and they are still recovering from this loss.

Later in the evening we returned for to our hotel for dinner. We met a young American man in passing and invited him to dinner. He was very entertaining and also shared with us information regarding the work that he does all over Africa with school lunch programs and other child advocacy issues.

It has been a long day! Stay tuned for more!

City Tour (5/13/08)

Since I haven't had internet, I will go back and make post and include the date. I am writing in Word and transferring, so I hope the format and wording is fine. I look forward to adding more each day.

Tuesday, May 13

After breakfast at the hotel we met our driver Aloys, a handsome 25 year old man who took us on a tour of the city. During our time in Rwanda we will have the same driver and we are wheeling and dealing in a Safari style, 9 passenger Land Rover.

Our city Tour included:

l Affluent areas of town,

l slums of the city,

beautiful views from the hilltops (Rwanda is called the “Land of a Thousand Hills” and now I see why,

l passing by numerous schools, government agencies/embassies and literally thousands of people in the street (I have never seen so many black people in my life),

l I saw everything from women carrying things on their heads and a baby on their back to prisoners doing community service in their pink short sets,

l There was a huge contrast between the classes of people. Large plots are being bought by the government to build decent housing for people in the city, but a lot of the huge homes are owned by business owners, and government workers.

l Along our journey we noticed a sign that read “Rwandan Women's Network” and decided to stop to see what type of work they do. After receiving clearance to enter the compound we learned that the organization helps women, many of them who are HIV positive. At this center they are taught to sew and do artwork for sale in a private market that they have. It was interesting to see that this organization was really teaching women young and old how to “fish” but they did not have a good way of marketing their products, because people have to gain clearance before entering for purchase of their goods. There was one female and one male there who taught classes at this award winning organization.

l We went to lunch at Bourbon coffee, a nice cafe that reminds you of Starbuck's. This was in the downtown area of Kigali.

l Off to UNDP, where I used a fake ID to enter the facility (I am now Dr. Leah C. Keino from Kenya :). I was hoping that they didn't stop me and put me in a pink prison suit on my second day in Rwanda. There we got to visit Dr. John Musemakweri's office (recent ISU graduate). He introduced us to his office mates and the director of UNV United Nations Volunteers. UNV is the equivalent of what Peace Corps is in the American government. We met with the director to get details about the program.

l From the UNDP we went to the Genocide Memorial where we were guided on an outside tour of the memorial and then a self-guided tour inside. This memorial has around 258,000 people buried in mass graves and only about 20,000 have been identified. This was a very eye opening experience. It is really hard to talk about or describe the things that we learned through this encounter. There is no admission fee for the museum, but they do accept donations. The bodies were brought to this site in 2001 and started with 5 mass graves, but now has 15, and is not the largest burial site. There are around 70 other mass graves across the country. The inside tour of the memorial started with the colonial times of Rwanda, moving to the introduction of identity cards by the Belgian authorities, which started to identification of certain groups of Rwandese (Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa). This imposes identity began to determine individual's opportunity in Belgium's reshaped Rwanda. There was much to see in the memorial, one of the things that was interesting to me was the Hutu 10 commandments written in 1990, which forbid the interaction with Tutsi's on many different levels. This country has been through hell. The 1994 Genocide was only one occasion where mass numbers of people were killed in this country. The most moving area of the museum was the children's room. I skipped the room which contained the skulls and clothes that the deceased were wearing. The children's room contained large photos of children who were murdered during the 1994 genocide. Below the pictures their name and age, among other things such as favorite sport, drink, best friend, and cause of death were listed. Most of these children's cause of death was “Killed by a machete”. They even listed that one small child had dreams of becoming a doctor. After this room I had to exit the facility and waited for the other's outside. The memorial also included information about other genocides across the world including the Holocaust. After leaving the memorial we rushed back across he hilly city to meet with Dominic (a volunteer at Gisimba Orphanage) to go to the orphanage.

l Although very dark when we arrived, we were greeted by tons of small children who pulled us from our vehicle. The children in this orphanage range in age from 2-24 or so they think, because the youngest child was left outside of the gate and they guessed his age upon arrival. We met with the head patron of this orphanage and were given a tour (in the DARK) of the compound, before being formally introduced to the students.

l John Musemakweri invited us to dinner at a restaurant called Africana where we had some traditional African chicken (Umm Umm good!) freshly killed right before we arrived I'm sure. Reminds me of my days as a child in Union, AL with my grandparents.

l After we returned to the hotel to find that there was no Internet connection again. We stayed up really late to catch up journaling, blogs, and other things.

l Whew!! This was only one day. Can you imagine we have fifteen or so more days to go? It is sooo late and I am typing this in word, hoping to post it on my blog when the Internet is available. It is 7:29pm in the US, so it is 2:00am here and I have to be up at 6:15.

--muramukeho or au revoir

Arrival

On Monday, May 12th at around 1:00 p.m. we arrived in Kigali, Rwanda with swollen ankles wearing two day old clothes. I am truly a descendant of Africa, because I keep time just like they do...whenever I show up is when we get started. That is exactly how everyone here operates. The van was almost an hour late picking us up from the airport, and the hotel is only 10 minutes away. But that was okay, because we made it here safely, tired, but safe. When we arrived our rooms were not ready so we went to an outdoor cafe for Fanta's.

The Flight

On Saturday, May 10th at 3:10 pm. we departed on our trip to Rwanda from Des Moines Airport, Des Moines, Iowa. We traveled on United Airlines making stops in Chicago and London before transferring to Ethiopian Airlines for our flights to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (which stopped in Rome for 1 ½ hour) and then to Rwanda. This was a long journey.

We had a 12 hour lay over in London, so while there we took a self guided tour of the city (walking and by way of the London Underground). Imagine that! Big Ben, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace are among the sites that we saw while in London. We happened to be there during a huge memorial parade, and met a lot of the soldiers in a pub following the parade. It was a good time.

Blog

Due to lack of internet connection I am very behind on blogging. Please continue to check my blog and I will update when I have the opportunity. Thanks! I miss you all!

Trip Preparation

In preparation for this trip we met every Monday following spring break for 2 hours (or more). During this time we discussed the details of our trip and heard from various people who previously traveled to Rwanda. We were also assigned various articles and text to prepare us for our journey. You will find pictures attached of some of our classes and gatherings prior to the trip.

There are so many people involved in this journey: family, friends, our community, professors (ISU and other universities), Lisa Holmes, the Mayfields, the Metcalfs, Great Apes, Games Travel, and all of our contacts and colleagues in Rwanda. This is an amazing trip.