Has it been just a week?

Wow and wow! What a crazy week(just a week? really??) Every day has included so many mini-adventures...I feel like my head is always going in a million little directions(am I lost? did I take my malaria pill today? where's my wallet? will my pant leg get caught in the moto taxi? I cannot stop sweating!) while at the same time trying to ensure I have a classroom to teach in, space for all the text books, enough supplies for my students, etc etc.

The good news is that over the past week some of those things have smoothed themselves out... FAWE school for girls on the outskirts of Kigali where I'm teaching, made sure my classroom was all set...all the texts I sent ahead of me arrived safely and are in the possession of the girls now...my stapler/paperclip/post-it supply is definitely adequate and has inspired many "ohhhs" (thank you mom!! :))


The best part is that I've had 3 amazing days of teaching with the girls. I knew they would be ready to go, and determined to soak up every little new piece of information they heard...BUT, I didn't know just how determined they'd be.  From the very first moment, I knew it was different than any other class I'd taught. No one wanted to take a break(the first part of the day is 4 hrs)...Everyone had their hand up asking questions or making comments, and honestly I know it's hard to believe this could be true, but they were all smiling almost the whole time. Of course this is the first week, but their energy is contagious! I have 3 teaching assistants, and today we were talking about that very thing, saying it makes the class time fly by. It's just really exciting!

Also exciting in a different way is getting to know my way around Kigali. It is such a great city....full of hills, views and a million different neighborhoods to explore. After the genocide, Rwanda received(still receives) quite a bit of government aid and has used it to pave roads, re-establish a health care system, construct new offices/buildings in Kigali, become a "green city( no plastic bags at all!)...It's so clean here, a fact that many people told me time and again before I came and is definitely true. Plus...people are genuinely friendly so that adds to the ease of exploration!

The only snafu of the week revolves around my housing.. ;) I originally had planned to stay at FAWE, where I'm teaching, but when I first arrived I realized it was far from the center of town and not really close to any stores/food. So I decided to stay in the city, get to know my way around and then head to FAWE on Sunday. Which I did. When I got there, the campus was nice and quiet, and since it's on top of a hill, the views were amazing. I had just started to wrap my head around being there, when suddenly I heard what sounded like a crowd marching. I must have looked alarmed because the security guard laughed and said, "Oh, no problem no problem. Just people coming to stay at school." I nodded, but still looked skeptical because he motioned someone else over who spoke better English. That's when I found out that 700 other people were coming to stay at the school, which is actually a boarding school, but the schools are closed for the government census/summer holiday. That part I knew, because that's why we're able to use the classroom. However, I did not know I would be sharing the campus with 700(!!) people who were there for various government trainings! It was crazy! Full families descended on the school and all of a sudden it was chaos. :) Instantly, kids were screaming 'masungu!!' (white person) and following me as I went to my room(then proceeded to jump up and down trying to peek in the windows). For some reason I thought of my brother, mimicking George Costanza on Seinfeld "Serenity now!" And that made me laugh.


After a couple of sleepless nights though(I thought there was a feral cat in my bed, but actually it's what lots of crying babies sounded like through my earplugs), I am feeling like I might have to make a move back to town at the end of the week.... We shall see. The afternoon knocks on my door, shuffling of feet and whispers of little voices saying "Masunga! Picture?"is pretty cute.


One last thing before I sign off(I'm sorry for the long post! I'll work on getting less down more often!)....It's a very important thing though and I can't go to sleep without writing it.
I realized I like Nescafe. With powdered cream and sugar. It was a surprise when I discovered this(yesterday), but I imagine it will be my drink of choice at break for the next 5 weeks. The head of school already mentioned it's also good with chocolate powder ...
:) That's it for now! A few pics to see...

My students!

My neighbor :)

Our classroom

Ahh. Nescafe ;)

View of Kigali from our classroom

Paulin and Erias, Assistant Teachers

My room(far left..but those aren't my clothes :))