"I am happy when I see you smiling." - a student

Did I mention that many Rwandans cannot differentiate between “r” and “l”? Here are some funny examples to support my claim.

“I like to pray football.”

“The most admire for are the girls because they rough very good.”

In the latter, the student was trying to explain that he admires girls because they have nice laughs. Ah.

My students (so far) are gems, as are my fellow teachers. Both groups are equally curious about Rwanda’s level of development in comparison to that of America. I enjoy the discussions we’ve already had. Being so busy and having so much direction (it’s all relative) helps me imagine how quickly the two years will pass.

The first day of teaching went as follows. Arrived at school for a prompt start time of 7:00 and was met by about 300 stares. I’d like to say I’m getting used to it. Classes actually started around 8:00 because the students had to clean the classrooms first. Isn’t that cool? Gives them ownership of the school and cuts down on costs for the government. Began teaching at 8:40 and didn’t realize until about 9:15 that the students weren’t sure what I was supposed to be teaching them. English is a new course for some. To the surprise of all my colleagues, I walked home for lunch and cooked for myself. Read a little Ken Kesey. Returned to lesson plan, chat with Christine and teach. As I left the school, I had to walk through the primary school courtyard. About 50 kids greeted me, 3 hugged me, and 20 young kids walked me home as I held my neighbor Alice’s hand. For both the two hour classes I taught, these were the order of questions that they asked me:

1. Are you married?
2. Do you have two parents?
3. How do you find this region?

I get those a lot.

As my school is a boarding school, the students are very well behaved, very sharp and many have scholarships. Global Fund is a big one. My advice would be to support Global Fund and it’s cousins. I’m seeing their work in action! In each class, I asked every student what they want to do after they graduate and every single one said something high-reaching and heart-warming like doctor, nurse, teacher, president, government minister, mayor.

EDUCATION IS OUR FAVORITE! Sibyo? Nibyo.