Hello everyone
Its been a while since I last wrote, I have been extremely busy. I am now starting to teach art which I am so excited about. They got in another teacher today so I am in the midst of switching everything over to her. Very complicated but hopefully it will all be done soon. For some god forsaken reason they decided to completely switch up the curriculum AGAIN and now the students are reading totally different books. Nice job green hills. Nice job.
But anyways, I am now doing all the primary school art classes and then assisting in the upper school classes whenever I don't have my own classes. I am also going to be available for writing/ language help as well as college counseling so that will be fun. I am doing that mainly so I can stay connected with the older students or else I would go completely insane dealing with screaming children all day.
Lauren and Alex and I went to Lake Kivyu (spelling?) on Sunday. It was about a 3 hour drive, and oh ya, did I mention we convinced the school to lend us a car on the weekends! So we now have transportation which is absolutely amazing! . It was gorgeous at the lake though, Lauren and I will definitely be making a few more trips there and spending the entire weekend instead of just a few hours.
I am also having a dress made for me at one of the markets and I am picking it up today. I cant wait to see how it turns outs ☺
Ok must go, and I am sorry for everyone whos emails I have not returned, whenever I have internet I am frantically trying to get all my college applications done. And internet is really expensive. Im working on it I promise!
Also, I have deactivated my facebook account so for anyone who wants to get in contact with me, shoot me an email to gmail ha that rhymes! Ok must go. Love to you all.
Alexandra
Monday, 25 January 2010
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Email 2- after 1 week
Hello Everyone
It is Sunday afternoon, I am sitting in Bourbon, a coffee shop about 5 minutes on a motortaxi/ 30 min walk form my house and right next to school. I have officially finished my first week in Kigali and have never been enjoying life as much as I am right now.
As I said in my last email, it is extremely challenging at the school. Just the number of classes, the disorganization, the administration, and the frustration that the school has so much potential but is just not quite reaching it. Just a quick recap for anyone who did not get my last email, I am teaching English to grades 7, 9 and 10, two class for each grade. totalling in 25 classes a week (may i just point out that this is more than Lauren, John (our close friend and history teacher) and claire have!) Anyways, as you can imagine my days are extremely tiring and pretty stressful form class to class because I can honestly say I have no idea what I am doing But I am learning very quickly and am beginning to get into the swing of things. My 9th graders are definitely the hardest, mostly because there are about 30 kids in each class after they decided to add and entire class 9C to my 9A and 9B classes. so not cool of them fyi. but im making it work haha.
Yesterday we went to the market to buy groceries with our friend Eric who we met/ who works at Bourbon. Hes Rwandese and a really nice guy, he claims to be 25 but we think he is lying and trying to make himself seem older so that he can get with Lauren. Clearly being 25 rather than 22 will be beneficial when hitting on a 40 + year old.... Anyways hes extremely nice and helped us to not get completely screwed over with prices at the market. We bought lots of salad stuff since literally all we have eaten since getting here has been carbs and starches. We also attempted to buy chicken but got distracted first by the full skinned cow that was hanging from a hook and then by the skinned rabbits that were packed into a cooler. I think we'll be sticking to vegetarianism from now on :)
After the market we went back to our house and all passed out from being so tried after the school week. We woke up and went out that night for the first time since being here. We went to this club called Cadillac with our friends Eric and Yanni. It was absolutely hilarious and one of the most amusing nights I have ever had. From the old white men grinding up on prostitutes, to old Rwandese men slapping our backs and saying "dontworrydontworrydontworry", to the fact that here, men dirty dance with each other and therefore with out white guys friends who couldnt manage to get anyone but old men, to the fact that some of our students were probably there and we didn't even recognize them! the entire night was just one hilarious thing after another. Also, what can top going out clubbing with a former teacher?! Such good times!
Apparently prostitution is a huge problem here though, and we definitely saw that last night. It may have been the most disturbing thing I have ever seen, these disgusting white old men probably pushing late 60's getting with these gorgeous young women. Truly gross, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to make some money.
Today, we are going to one of the memorials for the genocide which I am really looking forward to. Mum, i started to tell you this, but there are exhibits about 40 minutes from Kigali that are literally areas that have just never been cleaned up since the genocide. All of the bodies have been preserved with lime and you can see all the slashes and dismembered people. Lauren wants to go and take pictures for future references for art and I am probably going to go with her. Alex and Yanni said that it is extremely disturbing and they are not planing on ever going. One of the women who overseas the exhibit, her two daughters were killed and are in the pile of bodies. Apparently she goes every day, takes the two girls hands and talks to them about her day, how life is, and telling them not to be scared.
Although looking at Kigali on the superficial level you cannot see any sort of remnants of the genocide, it is truly everywhere. Even just in how people pretend that it does not exist, makes it exist even more. Since Kigali is so small, you have to be extremely careful who and what you talk about because everyone know eachother and overhears you. Even at the house, if the conversation ever turns to the genocide, we literally have to whisper just incase any of our neighbors o hears us. Basically you have to pretend that it does not exist while also constantly remembering what happened.
K im off to get my nails done
talk to you all soon.
Love
Alexandra
It is Sunday afternoon, I am sitting in Bourbon, a coffee shop about 5 minutes on a motortaxi/ 30 min walk form my house and right next to school. I have officially finished my first week in Kigali and have never been enjoying life as much as I am right now.
As I said in my last email, it is extremely challenging at the school. Just the number of classes, the disorganization, the administration, and the frustration that the school has so much potential but is just not quite reaching it. Just a quick recap for anyone who did not get my last email, I am teaching English to grades 7, 9 and 10, two class for each grade. totalling in 25 classes a week (may i just point out that this is more than Lauren, John (our close friend and history teacher) and claire have!) Anyways, as you can imagine my days are extremely tiring and pretty stressful form class to class because I can honestly say I have no idea what I am doing But I am learning very quickly and am beginning to get into the swing of things. My 9th graders are definitely the hardest, mostly because there are about 30 kids in each class after they decided to add and entire class 9C to my 9A and 9B classes. so not cool of them fyi. but im making it work haha.
Yesterday we went to the market to buy groceries with our friend Eric who we met/ who works at Bourbon. Hes Rwandese and a really nice guy, he claims to be 25 but we think he is lying and trying to make himself seem older so that he can get with Lauren. Clearly being 25 rather than 22 will be beneficial when hitting on a 40 + year old.... Anyways hes extremely nice and helped us to not get completely screwed over with prices at the market. We bought lots of salad stuff since literally all we have eaten since getting here has been carbs and starches. We also attempted to buy chicken but got distracted first by the full skinned cow that was hanging from a hook and then by the skinned rabbits that were packed into a cooler. I think we'll be sticking to vegetarianism from now on :)
After the market we went back to our house and all passed out from being so tried after the school week. We woke up and went out that night for the first time since being here. We went to this club called Cadillac with our friends Eric and Yanni. It was absolutely hilarious and one of the most amusing nights I have ever had. From the old white men grinding up on prostitutes, to old Rwandese men slapping our backs and saying "dontworrydontworrydontworry", to the fact that here, men dirty dance with each other and therefore with out white guys friends who couldnt manage to get anyone but old men, to the fact that some of our students were probably there and we didn't even recognize them! the entire night was just one hilarious thing after another. Also, what can top going out clubbing with a former teacher?! Such good times!
Apparently prostitution is a huge problem here though, and we definitely saw that last night. It may have been the most disturbing thing I have ever seen, these disgusting white old men probably pushing late 60's getting with these gorgeous young women. Truly gross, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to make some money.
Today, we are going to one of the memorials for the genocide which I am really looking forward to. Mum, i started to tell you this, but there are exhibits about 40 minutes from Kigali that are literally areas that have just never been cleaned up since the genocide. All of the bodies have been preserved with lime and you can see all the slashes and dismembered people. Lauren wants to go and take pictures for future references for art and I am probably going to go with her. Alex and Yanni said that it is extremely disturbing and they are not planing on ever going. One of the women who overseas the exhibit, her two daughters were killed and are in the pile of bodies. Apparently she goes every day, takes the two girls hands and talks to them about her day, how life is, and telling them not to be scared.
Although looking at Kigali on the superficial level you cannot see any sort of remnants of the genocide, it is truly everywhere. Even just in how people pretend that it does not exist, makes it exist even more. Since Kigali is so small, you have to be extremely careful who and what you talk about because everyone know eachother and overhears you. Even at the house, if the conversation ever turns to the genocide, we literally have to whisper just incase any of our neighbors o hears us. Basically you have to pretend that it does not exist while also constantly remembering what happened.
K im off to get my nails done
talk to you all soon.
Love
Alexandra
Email 1- 3/4 day
Hi everyone!
Okay so I am going to write sort of a mass email to everyone just so I don't have to say the same things over and over again! In general everything is going really well. I am completely loving it and honestly have been having an amazing time. Mum, KEEP THIS IN MIND WHILE YOU READ THE REST OF THE EMAIL.
Okay so the planes getting here were honestly the best flights I have ever had. Even the rwandair flight. The pilots were all amazing and on two of them I did not even notice that we had taken off, it was actually really odd. Rwandair is a smaller plane with one row of 2 seats on each side but it doesn't feel that small and again, best flights ever. When I got to Naorobi I had a minor, MINOR, freak out in the morning where I was like, I have no internet, no phone, im in fucking Kenya, what the fuck am I doing with myself?? And I tried making myself go back to sleep so I didn't have to deal with leaving the room, but alas, I could not. So I got up, went outside and explored a little and then everything was totally fine and amazing. I walked up to this raised patio where you could see 360 around you and it was amazing.
The house that Lauren, Claire and I are living in is really nice. It is about 1-2 miles all uphill pretty much from the school so we get quite the workout walking home after school. Its all really safe though and completely fine to walk home alone regardless of the time of day/ night.
The school has been pretty interesting. I got here on Saturday I think and was expecting to be teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to grade 9 and romeo and Juliet after that. Wellll as many of you know, I have been MUCH busier. I met with Alpana, this abrasive little Indian lady who basically runs everything and she told me that not only am I teaching 6 different classes, but I also cant teach the two books I came with. I ad not read any of the books that were available for reading so that was the two major shocks. I am now teaching 10CB and 10 CA and we are reading shakespears Much Ado About Nothing, 9CB and 9 CA with the same book. The CA and CB is what level they are. So CA is a higher level than CB based on the second letter. Basically one speack better English than the other. The C stands for Cambridge Institute I believe ad you can look that up online. It is just a pre set curriculum that lays out exactly what you have to read/ teach/ are tested on etc. It is because of the Cambridge list that I couldn't teach the other books. I am also teaching 7CB and 7CD. D barely speaks English so that is an interesting class.
The classes and how they organize the schedule is unbelievably archaic. They literally have a huge bulletin board with tiny handwritten/ colour coded labels stating where everyone is supposed to be during each period. Therefore it is extremely unorganized and no one is ever in the right places at the right time. It is truly insane. But everyone says that in a few weeks everything will have worked itself out. An example of how this ‘method’ does not work is that I meet with 7 B 8 times a week and 7D only 3? Go figure.
I am literally a teacher though so it is quite odd. But Im really starting to enjoy it. As you may have figured Im writing this over a period of time so by now it is about 8 oclak at night here on my second day at work, fifth day in Kigali. I had a really gooda day of classes. My 10’ were really into the discussions and worked really well, im starting them on thesis essays tomorrow which shld be fun. I had a double period of 7th grade of the same section and they spent most of the time working on prompts that I had given. Im basically trying to figure out what their reading and writing skills are at this point and we’ll figure the rest aka teaching the books, out later! In my advanced 9 class there is a kid who literally cant write any English and can barely speak or understand it so I think he is going to get moved to another class. There are a few other students in the same position, none quite as bad. My 7 D class is a 50/50 english French group. So last year they were taught in both and then this year they are learning just in English so we go pretty slow.
I think once I am done with the English I am going to start do college counseling type things for the 10/11/12 grades as well as art and volleyball. At the moment though I don't have time for anything else. I am teaching a totally of 25 (the maximum) classes a week, so there is noo free time.
Im opening a bank account tomorrow, just have to bring my passport down to officially open it.ummm what else… I think the food thing is the hardest so far. I have never had to go and buy my own groceries and then cook a meal and since I had sooo many home cooked meals at home I am lacking ideas. And they dont have like frozen premade things which is annoying. Ill figure it out eventually.
Oh and ash asked how the students are. My first day and my first class was grade 10 a class of about 23 boys and 2 girls so that was interesting. They basically just stared and laughed, much of the rest of the day went like that but then today was one hundred times better. They are like typical students, some participate some don't the usual. I officially feel bad for every teacher I ever gave attitude to aka all of them. Anywho karma I suppose? So ya classes went amaingly well today and hehe my students told me they like me except that I give a lot of homework I think but its not actually that much just more than they are used to. Who woulda thunk id like being a teacher??
K have to go scrounge around for food.
Love you allll
BYE
Okay so I am going to write sort of a mass email to everyone just so I don't have to say the same things over and over again! In general everything is going really well. I am completely loving it and honestly have been having an amazing time. Mum, KEEP THIS IN MIND WHILE YOU READ THE REST OF THE EMAIL.
Okay so the planes getting here were honestly the best flights I have ever had. Even the rwandair flight. The pilots were all amazing and on two of them I did not even notice that we had taken off, it was actually really odd. Rwandair is a smaller plane with one row of 2 seats on each side but it doesn't feel that small and again, best flights ever. When I got to Naorobi I had a minor, MINOR, freak out in the morning where I was like, I have no internet, no phone, im in fucking Kenya, what the fuck am I doing with myself?? And I tried making myself go back to sleep so I didn't have to deal with leaving the room, but alas, I could not. So I got up, went outside and explored a little and then everything was totally fine and amazing. I walked up to this raised patio where you could see 360 around you and it was amazing.
The house that Lauren, Claire and I are living in is really nice. It is about 1-2 miles all uphill pretty much from the school so we get quite the workout walking home after school. Its all really safe though and completely fine to walk home alone regardless of the time of day/ night.
The school has been pretty interesting. I got here on Saturday I think and was expecting to be teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to grade 9 and romeo and Juliet after that. Wellll as many of you know, I have been MUCH busier. I met with Alpana, this abrasive little Indian lady who basically runs everything and she told me that not only am I teaching 6 different classes, but I also cant teach the two books I came with. I ad not read any of the books that were available for reading so that was the two major shocks. I am now teaching 10CB and 10 CA and we are reading shakespears Much Ado About Nothing, 9CB and 9 CA with the same book. The CA and CB is what level they are. So CA is a higher level than CB based on the second letter. Basically one speack better English than the other. The C stands for Cambridge Institute I believe ad you can look that up online. It is just a pre set curriculum that lays out exactly what you have to read/ teach/ are tested on etc. It is because of the Cambridge list that I couldn't teach the other books. I am also teaching 7CB and 7CD. D barely speaks English so that is an interesting class.
The classes and how they organize the schedule is unbelievably archaic. They literally have a huge bulletin board with tiny handwritten/ colour coded labels stating where everyone is supposed to be during each period. Therefore it is extremely unorganized and no one is ever in the right places at the right time. It is truly insane. But everyone says that in a few weeks everything will have worked itself out. An example of how this ‘method’ does not work is that I meet with 7 B 8 times a week and 7D only 3? Go figure.
I am literally a teacher though so it is quite odd. But Im really starting to enjoy it. As you may have figured Im writing this over a period of time so by now it is about 8 oclak at night here on my second day at work, fifth day in Kigali. I had a really gooda day of classes. My 10’ were really into the discussions and worked really well, im starting them on thesis essays tomorrow which shld be fun. I had a double period of 7th grade of the same section and they spent most of the time working on prompts that I had given. Im basically trying to figure out what their reading and writing skills are at this point and we’ll figure the rest aka teaching the books, out later! In my advanced 9 class there is a kid who literally cant write any English and can barely speak or understand it so I think he is going to get moved to another class. There are a few other students in the same position, none quite as bad. My 7 D class is a 50/50 english French group. So last year they were taught in both and then this year they are learning just in English so we go pretty slow.
I think once I am done with the English I am going to start do college counseling type things for the 10/11/12 grades as well as art and volleyball. At the moment though I don't have time for anything else. I am teaching a totally of 25 (the maximum) classes a week, so there is noo free time.
Im opening a bank account tomorrow, just have to bring my passport down to officially open it.ummm what else… I think the food thing is the hardest so far. I have never had to go and buy my own groceries and then cook a meal and since I had sooo many home cooked meals at home I am lacking ideas. And they dont have like frozen premade things which is annoying. Ill figure it out eventually.
Oh and ash asked how the students are. My first day and my first class was grade 10 a class of about 23 boys and 2 girls so that was interesting. They basically just stared and laughed, much of the rest of the day went like that but then today was one hundred times better. They are like typical students, some participate some don't the usual. I officially feel bad for every teacher I ever gave attitude to aka all of them. Anywho karma I suppose? So ya classes went amaingly well today and hehe my students told me they like me except that I give a lot of homework I think but its not actually that much just more than they are used to. Who woulda thunk id like being a teacher??
K have to go scrounge around for food.
Love you allll
BYE
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