It's the end of an academic year at the University of Rwanda, College of Education. The time, she has flown by, n'est-ce pas? We have wrapped up our outreach activities at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and our 9-week TOEFL Preparation class run by the American Embassy. Another academic-related activity was our visit to a secondary technical school where we facilitated three interactive speaking activities related to the use of reported speech. "What did we just say?" It wasn't all work and no play, though. We had a wedding and reception to attend. Wait a minute. There was work to be done. With a month to go before departure, we had to sell Frankie, our faithful Toyota RAV4.
Gilbert's Class
We met Gilbert, an English teacher at St. Emmanuel Secondary School, at a professional development workshop we gave in March on the relatively new competency-based primary and secondary curricula here in Rwanda. When we ran into him again at the Africa TESOL Conference in May, he invited us to his school. We originally thought the visit would entail observing Gilbert in action in his Senior 5 (S5) (similar to American high school juniors) class and then have a few minutes at the end of the 100 minute-lesson for the students to ask us questions. After some back-and-forth WhatsApp messages, it became clear that he wanted us to do the teaching of his class - the entire 100 minutes. We engaged his 28 students (24 boys and 4 girls who were studying electronics) with some interactive speaking activities, the last of which was to interview us. We gave them the scenario that they were journalists writing an article on the Simpsons. With a little nudging, they came up with some probing questions on our personal and public lives. For example, one boy asked, "Do you have a daughter and how old is she?" Hmmm...wonder what the motive behind that question was.
AIMS (African Institute for Mathematical Sciences) Class
Our last AIMS class was an optional 10-minute individual writing consultation with either of us to work on one aspect of the master's research essay: the abstract, the introduction, the conclusion, grammar, or word choice. We told them we would NOT look at the body of their 30-35 page essay. About 12 of the students signed up and eight showed up for their appointments. No doubt panic was setting in with only three days to finalize their essays and submit them for review.
The previous week, we took a class picture and thanked them for their participation in the class. Of the 23 who were targeted for this English language instruction, we had a core group of 12 who would come to class regularly and commit to doing the work needed to improve their English language skills. The last month, we held class in the morning as this was the time devoted to the writing of their essays and meetings with their tutors and supervisors.
Our working relationship with Joanne Uwera, AIMS-Rwanda Country Program Manager, Blaise Tchapnda, Academic Director, and Beathe (pronounced Betty), the AIMS bubbly secretary, has been very positive. They have fully supported us at every step of the way in terms of access to research essays produced by students in the South Africa AIMS cohort, access to visiting professors and tutors, photocopying services, free parking, and a special invitation to attend the graduation at the end of June.
In an effort to continue providing English language instruction for future cohorts of AIMS-Rwanda, we have not only left hard and soft copies of the curriculum we designed, but we have given Joanne information on how to work with the American Embassy and apply for an English Teaching Assistant or an English Language Fellow to work with students in future AIMS cohorts who need English language instruction.
TOEFL Preparation Class
Our last TOEFL preparation class was focused on how to write the college essay that most universities require as part of the application process. We spoke about how to organize the essay and how to break down the five writing prompts that are provided in the Common Application essay. We covered some DOs and DON'Ts, and concluded with a mini-workshop on writing effective introductions.
As in all of our final classes, we asked someone out in the hall to take group photos. Students gathered around after class to put the 9 weeks of materials on their flash drives and say goodbye. One student gave us an envelope and told us to open it when we got home. It was a very touching letter of thanks for working with him to improve his English and for motivating and inspiring him to pursue his goals. We'll include a copy of it in our final blog post - Story 20 - in early July. He also wrote a short meaningful saying that we've added to the video in this post.
When asked by a few people, including friends and family in the States, what we will miss most about our time in the Land of One Thousand Hills, without a doubt, we will miss our students. Forty-five years later, these encounters with students from all over the world continue to inspire us to be the best we can be as educators, learners, and good human beings.
A Rwandan Wedding
Our stay in Rwanda would not have been complete without experiencing a Rwandan wedding. Every one of our Fulbright friends here had attended one and filled us in on what to do and what to expect. We were told that there would be hours of speeches, lots of waiting and sitting, no food except for a piece of the wedding cake, and one drink.
So you might ask, "Why would the Simpsons want to experience a Rwandan wedding?" Claire is the reason. Claire is the person we see and talk to six days a week here at the Rubangura Apartments. She makes our bed, cleans our place, delivers our laundry, gets things fixed or replaced when they break, practices French with us, tells us the news that's current in the building, and most importantly, shares her personal stories of her life here in Rwanda.
Claire hand delivered an invitation to a wedding and reception of her brother Patrick and his very lovely and very
pregnant finance, Germaine. The event included invitations to the giving of the dowry, the religious ceremony at the Catholic church up the block from us, and a reception at Amahumbezi Village in Kibagabaga, which is really a neighborhood in Kigali and not a village. We went to the religious ceremony and the reception (a day that lasted from 2:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.).
Observations on the wedding and the reception:
We shouldn't have gotten to the church early as the ceremony/mass didn't start till around 2:30 p.m.
The choir's performance was the highlight of the church wedding. It felt more like a concert than a church affair.
There was no bride's side or groom's side of the church. People sat anywhere.
Sitting at the back of church gave us a great view of the women in their multicolored outfits---both traditional ones (umushanana) and modern ones. The men were not as colorful in their dark suits and ties.
Although everything was in Kinyarwanda, the "Do you take this man/woman...until death do you part" part seemed pretty much the same.
The bride and groom greeted everyone outside the church after the one-and-a-half hour ceremony.
Everyone piled into cars and trucks and followed the head car with the newlyweds to Green Park Square to take photos. Green Park Square is an grassy park in the middle of Kigali near the Genocide Memorial. It is a popular venue for wedding photo shoots.
We arrived at the reception just before sunset. There seemed to be a friends-and-family-of-the-bride tent and a tent for the groom's family and friends.
The bride and groom danced side by side to piped in music down the pathway to their tented structure. A bottle of champagne was shaken and popped in front of the couple. They were given a glass each to give to one another.
They couple was joined by their god-parents who immediately sat down under the tent designated for the wedding party. The couple stood through the speech making, which went on for hours, and through the gift giving part of the program.
There was some dancing when groups of gift givers came down the aisle to the couple's tent.
Our speech (in Kinyarwanda) was the shortest of the evening and read from an index card, "Tubifurije ubukwe bwiza n'urugo ruhire." It was well received and apparently understood and appreciated by all. Rwandans love it when foreigners speak even a couple of words in Kinyarwanda.
Fireworks were lit, the wedding cake sliced, and small pieces were distributed to the guests along with their choice of Fanta, Sprite, water, or beer.
The couple left around 8:30 p.m. to change. We left with four other friends of Claire who lived near us in Kimihurura.
We grabbed a bite to eat after dropping off Claire's friends and acknowledged that it had been a long but meaningful day.
Frankie's Sold!
Something else we never want to do again is sell a car in another country. Frankie, our RAV4, had gone though quite a few adventures with us since we purchased it in October. When two roads diverged along a pot-holed dirt road, Frankie always chose the road least traveled by and that was not always the wiser choice.
In addition to posting ads on sites, like Expats in Rwanda and Living in Kigali, we put two big "For Sale" signs on the car. Initially, our mechanic recommended putting the car up for 8,500,000 Rwandan francs (500,000 RWF more than we paid for it). When a prospective buyer asked to check the registration 'yellow card', he informed us that the 2004 model we thought we had purchased the previous October turned out to be a 2002 model. Price dropped to 8,000,000 RWF, and then to 7,500,000 RWF. Unfortunately, at this time of the year, it is a buyer's market with a glut of used cars for sale.
A couple weeks after placing the initial ad, we got our first serious bite. It turned out that a Catholic priest from a village outside Kigali was interested in looking at Frankie. The scenario got a little complicated because this priest, Father Edmond, was really interested in buying it for another priest - his brother - who is in Rome now studying biblical exegesis - the interpretation of the Bible - and won't return until October. However, since the priest in Rome couldn't be present to purchase the car, Father Edmond would be the buyer of the car (the only issue being that he couldn't drive and had a fellow friend - yes, you guessed it! - another priest, Father Everiste, do the test driving). Father Everiste liked the car, relayed the news to Father Edmond who called his brother in Rome, and a meeting was set up to pay for the car, transfer the title and seal the deal. We co-wrote a sales contract noting that we would keep the car until the day we left and would pay all expenses in case of an accident before the actual exchange of the vehicle. Gulp! We reduced the price another 500,000 RWF to 7,000,000 RWF and agreed on a cash deal. Four bank trips later, Father Edmond and Father Everiste turned up at our door with two large paper bags of bills. At 2 p.m., trips were made to the Rwandan Revenue Authority to transfer the ownership of the car (after a trip to the Inspection Office to have the car inspected), and finally, back to the Revenue Authority - all before closing time at 5 p.m. Sold! Whew!
Back at the hacienda, we all sat around our coffee table and out came the bundles of bills, most of which were in 2,000 RWF note denominations (a little over $2.50). The largest bill in Rwandan currency is only 5,000 RWF (equivalent to about $6.00). The scene was something out of a drug deal film (minus the briefcase). Seven stacks of bills were there for the counting. One stack contained a hundred 2,000 RWF bills. Okay, that is 200,000 RWF. How many does that leave? A picture is worth a thousand words.
A trip to the foreign exchange office was in order the next day to get the money wired to our U.S. bank. We put our stash in the backpack, headed for Kigali Heights mall, passed through security without them opening our paper bag of cash, and completed the paperwork. Frankie is now St. Francis and we are happy he is in good hands though he will be traveling 15 kilometers off paved road each day. Once again, he chose the road least traveled.
The video below is 7 minutes long and includes photos and edited video clips of our last days in our remaining classes, a visit to Gilbert's school, a Rwandan wedding, and the sale of our car. The soundtrack is Afro by Mani Martin, a popular tune in this part of the continent. Don't miss the YouTube music video of it...it's a gas!! We hope you enjoy our video!
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Suggested Reads
V. S. Naipaul's The Masque of Africa goes beyond a travelogue of the author's journey starting in Uganda, and going to Ghana, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, and ending in South Africa. The book focuses on the theme of belief and the role of magic and ritual in these countries. An excerpt is below.
So Amin and Obote have a kind of ancestry: The British colonial period, with law and without local wars, has to be seen as an interlude. But how do Africans live with their African history? Perhaps the absence of script and written records blurs the past; perhaps the oral story gives them only myths (p. 28).
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