Let me first start off to say that this is a blessed experience. As scary and uncertain as it was to make the decision to follow God to Rwanda, I can’t imagine a more defining route for my life. I feel like I learn 10,000 new things a day; whether it be about the Rwandan culture, how to be a teacher, or the differences between American and British English. (I have a roommate from England) My support system is unreal here. I’ve already made great friends with other teachers and am excited for those friendships to flourish over this next year. I feel very taken care of and looked out for by many people who have been in Rwanda a while longer than I have.
There are still things I’m not sure how to get used to! Our lights don’t work in the upstairs of our house, in the bedrooms or main bathroom, so flashlights are the way to go. It gets dark at 6pm year round so, seriously, flashlights are essential. Power outages happen frequently at the school. Students don’t even flinch when the lights turn off and on during class. I find that amusing when I’m looking around, out in the halls, to see who is pulling this not so funny prank. Internet is touch and go. We have internet maybe 30% of the time at the school. It’s always a victory when I see I can connect to the internet even though I know it will be short lived or insanely slow. Understanding tons of different English accents has been quite the challenge. I’m teaching about 140 students at this school. There are 30 different countries represented in that bunch of students. I never know what kind of accent I will have to try to decipher in each class. It’s pretty spectacular. Also, trying to pronounce some of their names has caused for a good laugh. I will say it wrong over and over again and the student just takes the abuse because his name is so un-phonetic that probably every teacher butchers it. I am learning to use cash again. My debit card is useless unless I go to one of the two ATMs in Kigali. Mental math is a common practice when trying to convert Rwandan Francs to US dollars to make sure I’m not paying too much for things.
Along with learning how to live in Rwanda, I’ve also been learning how to be a teacher! I have been coming up with my own curriculum for grades K-12, which now that I think about it, is an incredible opportunity to really be stretched as a teacher. I’m currently trying to come up with a unit for every grade I teach, which is a pretty big-sized goal. So, I don’t have a lot planned for next week yet. Yesterday, students came up and asked me what we’d be doing in art next week. My response was, “Sorry, I can’t tell you!” But what I really meant was, “I have absolutely no idea!” I’ve never had to do things on the fly like this. It’s thrilling and stressful all at the same time to live day by day, not having a set plan for weeks ahead. The students, on the other hand, are going to be really fun to work with. People love art at this school! Yay :) This is the first year for elective classes for secondary students and so many people wanted art! Unfortunately, not all of them could have art, but it’s nice to be appreciated as an art teacher.
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