A week in the village (School’s out for summer!)

The summer holiday in Rwanda is usually for about three weeks in August.  However, this year there is a national census taking place and this census is being carried out by primary school teachers.  For the last few months they have undergone much training and this has intensified in recent weeks.  So the school holiday has been extended to almost double its normal length.  In most districts the lack of availability of teachers has meant no training is taking place, but my DEO and her SEOs decided we should give it a try.  And so began 3 weeks of training at 5 locations around the district.



Participants making resources
at Zaza TRC

Previous training I have run has been held at the District office, but it is difficult and expensive to ask teachers to travel here, so we decided we would go out to different bases so it was less difficult for the teachers.  We invited 3 teachers from every school and did a couple of days in each location focussing on Methodology.  This meant the second day was all about making resources from local materials, so it became a little bit “Blue Peter”!

For the first week, Jen came to stay with me so we could run the workshops together.  They went far better than we ever expected and we realised that the new DEO is a great woman and very organised.  We visited a couple of locations nearer to my house.  The second week was roughly half way so we stayed at our respective homes.  For the third week, I went to stay in Zaza – Jen’s village.  It is dry season here and water shortages are very common just now.


The view over Lake Mugesera

Like any good week in the country, it began with a visit to the local pottery.  Bear in mind we were at least an hour from the nearest tarmac road, so fairly remote...the walk to the local pottery took us about two and a half hours.  And it was very, very hot.  And, of course, very, very dusty.  It was a nice walk through the countryside and we went through lots of villages.  In one of them, a group of children were playing in their very own miniature “playhouse” version of their own mud house.  We tried to tell them it was great, but they just ran away screaming and laughing.


Several people came to ask us where we were going and joined us for short parts of our walk.  Eventually, Jen announced we were almost there.  We were so hot by this point that I was delighted.  It was 11:30 and the sun was high in the sky so there was no shade to be had anywhere.  We were directed down the correct path through the crops by a local man who wished us well on our way and arrived at the compound of the Freres of Nyange.  We went inside and one of them was sat under a shade in the courtyard.  He came to greet us and ushered us into a room.  We exchanged pleasantries and he explained everyone else was at mass – this being Sunday an’ all.  He offered us some refreshment and we gratefully accepted.  A few minutes later he arrived with two bottles of pineapple wine and a straw was sticking out of each one.  It was 11:30 on a Sunday and I had spent two hours trudging through the deep dust of Ngoma District, but what could I do...?  I drank it of course.  It would have been rude not to.

Our host kept popping in and out to make sure we were OK and he managed to contact the others to tell them visitors had arrived.  We spent some time looking at our surroundings and the religious pictures on the wall and enjoying the break from the heat of the sun.  By the time we had finished our wine (I have to admit I was quite giggly by this point), the other Freres turned up.  We greeted each other and had a chat for a short while.  Then they showed us around their pottery.  Jen tried out the potters wheel and we looked in their kiln and asked when they would next be firing it up.  Apparently they do it twice a year.  Then we went into a little room that had several pieces of their pottery and we both chose some bits to buy.  I bought a gigantic pottery mug, a lovely little casserole dish, and a vase.  After further conversation, we walked back out of the compound and in true Rwandan style, the Freres walked us along the road a little way.  We had to walk through their pineapple plantation (which was quite vast) and they explained that this is where they grow the pineapples for their wine.  At this point, two of the Freres who had disappeared for a few minutes reappeared with 3 enormous pineapples, which they gave to us as a gift.  Rwandan pineapples are DELICIOUS.  But we did now have to walk home weighed down by our pottery and pineapple and giddy on the effects of pineapple wine.  Such hardships!

We walked part way before giving in to the taxi bikes that kept offering us a lift.  We got a taxi bike for part of the journey and then walked a bit before having to stop at a bar for refreshment.  It was here that our friend Kate came to join us and we had some fantas and water and brochettes.  Eventually we felt galvanised to continue the journey back to Jen’s.  I have never looked such a site – I had a thick layer of orange dust coating my legs up to where my trousers began just below my knees.  I was filthy with grime!  The heat of the day was waning, so the remainder of the journey was not so unbearable.  And then it was home for more liquid refreshment and an evening of rest, ready to start our final week of workshops.

Participants get busy in Kibungo

We ran our next workshop in the Teacher Resource Centre at Zaza TTC and this was great.  It is always nice to be able to show teachers just what you can make out of locally available materials – cardboard, tins, string, paper, bottle tops...and of course...rice sacks!  The teachers made their own copies of the materials we showed them and were pleased to be able to take them home for their own classrooms.  We held another workshop out in one of the further sectors.  We got the sense that not many such events had taken place out here.  As with all the workshops, the teachers were lovely and it was a pleasure to be with them.

Collecting the precious rainwater
(tap in the background was not forthcoming!)

At the end of the first day, the heavens opened and a huge rainstorm began.  There was nothing to do but sit it out.  We could not continue the training as you could not hear anyone speak.  Jen and I were quite glad about the rain as we had just about run out of water supplies as we had been without running water for four days.  However, we were not at home so could not fill up our basins.  After about an hour and a half the storm subsided and we were able to leave as our moto drivers arrived.  We returned to Zaza and checked the tap – still no water!  Thankfully it rained again and we managed to get the basins out and fill them up.

To celebrate we had some waragi and tonic and cooked smores over the charcoal with the materials (Hersheys chocolate, Graham Crackers and marshmallows) Heena had left us before she returned to the States – they were good!