Thursday, March 25, 2010

"I put my hands up, they're playing my song..."

Hey guys!
Just in case you didn’t notice on facebook, I have started another blog that has NOTHING to do with Rwanda. Well, mostly nothing. It’s everything I’ve been thinking and writing that I probably wouldn’t have thought or written if I weren’t in Africa, but it’s not About Africa.

http://anotherpieceofmy.blogspot.com/

Suffice to say, it has been engaging enough that I have been sitting here at the computer for the last 2 hours and completely forgot to turn on my borrowed ipod (yes, ipod #2 is being bratty – it’s also suicidal) and have only used the interwebs for minimal research (like who wrote that book I read about traveling the English coastline?).

Ps. Apparently this is the blog entry of the ‘ – ’. I’m in love with the dash today. And emphasizing words with capitals. =D

I have been to mass a few times here – the weekends I’m not visiting friends or bumming around in Kigali. Mass is a popular option here for PCVs because it’s usually only about 2 hours long as opposed to the 3-5 hour protestant services. You may think that 2 hours is a long mass, but you have to take into account the dancing and special gifts section. 80% of the prayers are sung, and transitions between pieces of the mass are all accompanied by traditional dancers. They also take 2 offerings because people who don’t have cash to give bring baskets of grain or beans or the like and these need to be collected carefully. I usually spend my time counting the panes of colored glass in the windows or trying to day dream without falling asleep. Helps that I’m sitting on a very short, narrow wooden bench with no back.

New PC Trainees are here! It’s the second batch of Health PCTs and WOAH are they different from my group. I was invited to go down for a session on gender roles and relationships and Michele and I stayed for the weekend. We were planning on hanging out with the newbies during their breaks, but they were all busy – studying. All of them. Apparently they do this all the time. They are all so eager to be here and many of them have very specific ideas of what they want to do with their time. We had a great time conversing with many of them and I made friends with the girls who are now in my room. They’re awesome. I’m excited that they’re here and we’ll see how they space out this many PCVs across such a small country.

I like trimesters here almost as much as I did in college. It always feels like school is almost over. Of course, this is annoying when you haven’t accomplished what you want to, but it also makes the year fly by. I have drafted a syllabus / curriculum for the S1s (Secondary, level 1 = grade 7), S2s, and even S3s next year that I’m hoping to teach. I have re-written S1 and S2 a few times because it took a while to make them understood. I have finally worked out a schedule with the S2 teacher for when I will teach and how we will plan it and what the lessons should focus on. It’s only based on this that I could plan next year already – the S2s that pass, I’ll know what they learned. The S1 teacher really Wants to work things out in detail, but he is in charge of pretty much everything at the Secondary level – registration, collecting funds, organizing the other teachers, being liaison with Head Teacher – there is an official title for this job, but it’s in French and I never really paid that close attention. I’m hoping that over the break we will be able to work out a plan.
During exams, I have my own plan – I have officially started my first ‘secondary’ project. I’m going to organize the book room behind the head teacher’s office. I suppose it could be called a library, but it’s more the resource room – all the textbooks are here and they’re all mixed up by subject and level and even language (some are in French and some in English and some in Kinyarwanda). I’m excited to be able to put my organization skills to use to help here.
Part of the reason I want to get this room organized before next term is my school is in line to receive some textbooks from the Books for Africa drive. It’s not going to do us any good for these books to sit in their boxes collecting dust like their predecessors. Also, my school was recommended for the official hand over with media coverage and everything. If the Rwandan news and MINEDUC and USAID people are going to be here, I want them to be able to hand the books over to a place where they will obviously be valued and used well.

After exams next week, school is on break for 2 weeks. In the middle of these 2 weeks is Memorial Week (April 7-14) where the entire country has community events and mourning periods. I may be invited to participate with my community, they may decide that I can’t really relate to what they are dealing with and I may be politely excluded for a week. Dunno yet.

On the last day of break SEAN ARRIVES. Unfortunately for him, the first ~4 days will be getting dragged around to meet everyone in my neighborhood and learning what it’s like to travel and eat Rwanda style. That’s what he gets for landing on a Saturday night. =) the next weekend (starting on a Thursday) will be more relaxing and chilling in Kigali.

After Sean leaves, I am embarking on a HUGE experiment. I am going to try and stay at my site for 1 month. People may come and visit me, and once a week I can go to Byumba since this is really just an extension of my town anyway. But I will not go to American Saturday or Kigali overnight or indulge in ‘escaping’ my life in Rwanda. I want to use this time to brush up on my language (which has dwindled terribly), focus on my spiritual journey here and seeking guidance, and possibly work on my creative expressions more. I will also be available to my school for meetings and trainings on the weekends, which will probably be good.
Pray for me! I will probably spend more money than normal on phone credit and may be calling some of you from time to time…

Ok, I’m sure there’s more, but I want to get this posted before they close tonight.

Love y’all!!

Friday, March 5, 2010

new address

ok folks, here it is

Charissa Knighton
Peace Corps
BP 50
Byumba
Rwanda

that's it!