This month I have been mostly moving around special schools in Rwanda. I visited the west district and an amazing little school which caters for a variety of children with Special Educational needs. I'm slowly picking up Rwandan Sign Language and have my own "sign name" which represents me as the one with tied back curly hair! I got the chance to be in class with the children, teach them and helped to train the staff there (alongside fellow volunteer Jo) in resource making, which was ace! I'm due to go back there in a couple of weeks to assist again with resource making skills for SNE which I'm really looking forward too. I also visited it's a school it feeds an watched two qualified teachers in each class deliver the curriculum to both hearing and deaf children. One supporting the other with RSL. I am amazed by all of these teachers (some who have no teaching qualification) at the level of professionalism and willingness to learn when they earn roughly £30 a month and work double shifts with a different group of children in the morning and afternoon.This week I visited a school for the deaf in the north east of Rwanda to help them with their website. It started off with a long journey from Byumba - about 5 hours - then a 40 minute moto (pillion motorbike taxi) ride which I was thoroughly enjoying, as the landscape is very different from where I live in Rwanda, however... The last 2 minutes of the journey involved crossing a small wooden bridge over a rainwater ditch, which has obviously been dry for months (more on that later) which my young driver completely misjudged and made the moto rear up like a horse, sending me flying off the back, onto my back! Luckily I had my bag on my back, with laptop and lots of clothes which cushioned my fall. Miraculously, my laptop emerged from bag uninjured, which is more than I can say about my bruised legs and bottom and sore neck and back! I lived to tell the tale and have jumped on at least six motos since - a must in Rwanda unfortunately. After that rather brutish end to my journey, I entered a small school with about 100 children who are either totally or partially deaf. They all board and and use RSL as their mode of communication. The school is great, with six primary classes plus working carpentry, handicraft and tailoring rooms for when the students complete their primary education and cannot continue to secondary school. they have cows which have been donated from people overseas and I'm told will soon be getting chickens. I was treated to 'fresh from the cow' milk which made a delicious cup of African tea (minus the spices because we had none) and Isobel (another volunteer) made a lovely fresh herb salad and fried some chips for dinner. I spent the whole day on Wednesday taking photographs, updating the website and discussing plans with the director and deputy head, promptly finishing the day with a coke in the nearest town of Rukomo. I was ready to head back to Kigali and Byumba on the 6am bus the next day, but was informed the children were being taken home for their 3 week holidays at 4.30am, so I jumped on that bus instead - missing out yet another dodgy moto ride over that bridge! I slept a lot and enjoyed the different landscapes and scenery as my mind wandered whilst listening to 90's britpop and American hiphop on my ipod. We did stop to drop children off all the way to Kigali and on one of those stops were greeting by two interesting characters. One who was completely drunk, proceeded to open my window and tell me that he wanted to talk to me because he loves me, to which I promptly replied - "you don't know me" and closed and locked my window! The other guy didn't speak to me, but, the director of the school who was seated behind me, was asked if "all of these children are deaf" and, when told yes, asked if they were being taken to the hospital for foolish people. So for the next little while I was plunged into thought over whether the children actually enjoy going home for their holidays, to villages where they are seen as "foolish" because they do not communicate in the same way as everyone else and their communities have not learnt sign language to communicate with them. I wondered if they were more excited about the journey home in the holidays, or the one back to school in three weeks time, where they seem very loved and cared for by each other and the staff. I reached Byumba around 1pm and after working until 5pm, was completely done in! Me and my housemate Angela did take a little time to watch a silly American movie and laugh at the crazy behaviour of university students there.
All the children (and staff) showing their sign names on the last day of school!
Almost at the end of a nice rambling blog now!This month has also been a month of Jerry Cans. I found out (on my moto rides) that the big yellow 20l Jerry Cans we use originally contain paint, but are washed out and resold for the bargain price of about £2 for people to reuse as they wish. Since we have moved into "Dry Season", the Jerry Cans are mainly used to carry much needed water. We have 3 at home in Byumba, and after 10 days with no water coming through the taps, they were all sent off on a bicycle to be filled and brought back for cooking and washing. So in the last 2 weeks, we've got the grand total of half a bucket from our own tap and most of Rwanda is the same. I thought it was confined to Byumba where hoards of people can be seen flocking to the tap near the Catholic Church to fill up their Jerry cans and make the long walk home with twenty litres balanced perfectly on their heads. However, since I've been moving around, I see jerry cans everywhere. I was most surprised to find people (probably around 30) filling a group of them in a dirty little muddy water stream near the bus station in the Capital City yesterday! It's seems the water shortage has hit home everywhere and I have never been more conscious of how much I use. I have worked out that it takes me about 2l of water to bathe and about 10l to do a weeks worth of hand washing - oh how I am going to enjoy turning a tap on that actually produces water and being able to drink it safely when I get home! I talked to my Principal about the water situation and he says it will be like this until September when the season changes again. That 36p spent on getting the bicycle to fetch 60l of water is well worth it until then!
To end on a light note, there have been lots of parties this month; leaving, birthday and hen and I am off to KigaliUp! this weekend, the music festival in the city, so I'm sure my next blog will have a more musical theme! I also visited a couple of Art galleries in the city and especially like the little people paintings!
