Our 10-month sabbatical and professional leaves in Rwanda have come to an end and now is the time to reflect on our experiences here in this 'land of a thousand hills'. Our reflection will be both personal and professional and will be framed around four major questions: What were some important lessons learned? What impact has this adventure had on us? How do we feel we impacted the lives of others in our Rwandan community? What would we have done differently had we had the opportunity to rewind and reset the experience.
This will be the final story of this part of our lives. Our blog has given us the space to record our thoughts and activities. We hope you readers have enjoyed the journey as much as we have - bumpy and comfort-level testing at times, often new, surprising and rewarding, and always one heck of a ride! We also hope that you will continue to share future stories with us as we turn the page and start another chapter in our lives.
Important Lessons Learned
As seasoned travelers and expatriates who have lived and worked abroad most of our lives, we didn’t think there would be a big learning curve with our Rwanda assignment. We had read extensively on the history, culture, geography, politics, education, and economics of this country. However, the first semester at the University of Rwanda, College of Education did provide us with some surprises and challenges. We struggled with getting information as to when the academic year would begin, who did what, what we would teach, where we could get our hands on necessary course and university documents and other essential information. We learned to step back, not push for answers, and go with the flow. During the first two weeks of our course - English Teaching Methods, we discovered that the Class Representatives - usually only one student but in this section, a male and female - had most of the answers. Other “Go-To” persons were Emmanuel, our Department Chair and Anthony, our colleague who served as our mentor. Our WhatsApp class group software application was a great tool for not only communicating with our students but also for distributing information to them.
In addition to learning the communication ropes, we relearned the importance of adaptability and flexibility with regard to our assignments and duties.
“Debate Club? Sure." We knew nothing about the British Parliamentary Debate Style, but we read up on it.
"The debate competition is next week? Sure." We met with the students and coached them...or to be fair, the second year students coached us!
"Debate class next semester? Sure. How many students? 850? Hmmmm. Perhaps we can…….” A postscript to the debate class which was to be held in the spring semester is that despite English-language testing over 787 first-year students and selecting 50 who were at an intermediate English language level, the actual non-credit class never materialized. Whew!
A third important lesson, and probably the most meaningful, was the result of our constant reflection on the many privileges we "haves” bring with us...everywhere! Before our stay in Rwanda, we had read a very informative book, African Friends and Money Matters. Shortly after arriving in Rwanda, it became obvious that those who have any access to material things, like us, are expected to share them with others. We had requests from acquaintances to give them money to replace a stolen cell phone, to cover the cost of getting a driver’s permit, to go back to school for some sort of certification, to start a business, to buy medicine for a sick relative, to provide work, to name a few. We wanted to be generous but not naïve. We often wondered when and if we were simply being taken advantage of - ironically, we with all the advantages! With this great economic divide between us, it was hard at times to maintain balanced relationships.
We ended up being very generous, particularly with the staff at the Rubangura Apartments where we lived. In addition to parceling out most of our clothing and all of the household items we had purchased (i.e., coffee filter, a couple of pots and pans, glasses, utensils), we put money in envelopes and gave them out to the front desk staff, the guys who washed our car every week, the housekeepers, the laundry guy, and the security staff. We became particularly close to Claire, the woman who came six days a week to clean our place and, as a result, we were very generous in providing her with financial support to train to become a hotel front desk person or to help pay expenses for her upcoming wedding in October. It was a “no strings attached” gift that she was overwhelmed by and very grateful for. We would practice our French with Claire as we shared our life stories. We accepted invitations from Claire to hear her sing in her church choir, to attend her brother’s wedding, and visit her in her miniscule “chambrette” (little room). We no longer complained about our studio digs when we saw the room she rented for $20 a month. This rented room represented one-third of her monthly salary. These monetary gifts felt right. Our connection to our Rubangura Apartment family felt genuine and continues with their daily greetings on WhatsApp to “Mama” and “Papa.”
Impact on Us and Our Community
If impact is the strong effect one has on someone or something, we can unequivocally state that our students and people, like Claire, have changed us in many ways. Our students at the University, at AIMS (the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences), and in our TOEFL Preparation classes have reminded us how lucky - indeed privileged - we are to enjoy the life we live. All of our students demonstrated their hope for a better life which in the Rwandan context translates into furthering one's education which entails attaining proficiency in English. We were again and again reminded that it is more than our responsibility to give back to our community; it is our obligation.
The people we came into contact with in the local community (especially the Rubangura Apartment employees) impacted the way we have related to people on a daily basis. Taking the time to greet every single person one comes in contact with is very important in African cultures. In Rwanda, no matter who you are, everyone gets a morning greeting (Mwaramutse) or an afternoon or an evening greeting (Mwiriwe) followed by “How are you?” (Amakuru). The answer is “Ni meza” (I am fine). A person always replies he or she is fine regardless of the person’s situation or condition. We learned how to shake hands a bit differently to indicate respect for the other person. This involves taking one’s left hand and grasping one's right arm as one is shaking the other person’s hand. We learned very quickly that it is important to take time out of our day every day to ask about another person’s day. Rwandans make time for other people. We are very mindful of this as we return to an America where “Time is money” and “Let’s get down to business” is often the rule of thumb.
As far as the impact we made on our students and on the people in the local community, we feel we were good ambassadors for our country and came across as kind, soft spoken people open to learning about their customs and their culture and respecting their ways. We practiced humility, dressed and behaved conservatively, and demonstrated care and concern for those around us.
Our humanist, constructivist pedagogy in the classroom resulted in establishing an excellent rapport with our students and requiring them to become active participants in their learning. The hours spent weekly on our lessons to address the learning outcomes in each of our courses resulted in success for the students who attended our classes. The only failures were a small number of students who never or rarely showed up for class.
Feedback from our students came from our WhatsApp class groups or in person. One of our TOEFL Preparation class students gave us a letter thanking us for our efforts, parts of which we have included here and in a previous blog post.
At the AIMS graduation, several came up to us to thank us for the English language training that helped them succeed in their master's oral defense and written thesis. Blaise, the Academic Director, personally thanked us in his speech to the graduating class, their parents and friends.
Pressing the Reset Button
If we had to do this all over again, we probably wouldn’t change much of the last 10 months living and working in Rwanda. Our previous experiences of living and working in Africa plus our extensive reading about Rwanda prepared us well. However,
with that being said, the following are a few reflections of what we might do differently if we could press the reset button.
Learn more Kinyarwanda. The few greetings and phrases we learned were very appreciated. As language teachers, we feel an obligation to make an effort to learn the language. However, with an assignment of this short duration, we realized from the start that our motivation was more instrumental than integrative and, as such, we focused most of our energies on doing tasks that would see us through the limited time period we would be in Rwanda.
Involve ourselves more in groups or organizations that are multicultural in nature. Our involvement with the Association of African Teachers in Rwanda (ATER) was a wonderful experience to work with teachers from all over the world. Our work on the proposal committee for the Africa TESOL Conference 2017 in Kigali was extremely rewarding and provided us with opportunities to collaborate with fellow educators.
Expand our social life and make an effort to meet others - Rwandans and expats - who share our same interests.
Visit primary schools to see firsthand what the teachers were dealing with in their classrooms. When we wanted to arrange to take groups of students in our methods class to primary schools for observations, the primary schools were on vacation (November to mid January).
Final Final Thoughts
The experience of living and working in Rwanda will remain with us forever (mostly because this is the first time in our working lives we have documented our adventures). Hopefully, we have become better educators, better human beings, and more responsible global citizens. We leave Rwanda with much more than we arrived with. We are grateful to Florida Gulf Coast University, to the Fulbright Scholar Program, and especially to the people of Rwanda. Farewell. Murabeho.
This is our last media presentation, a short one of less than four minutes. Animoto for Education auto produced it. Hope you enjoy it!
Suggested Reads
African Friends and Money Matters: Observations from Africa by anthropologist David Marzanz is a must read if one is interested in visiting, living, or working in Sub-Saharan Africa. The author, whose experience in Africa spans 40 years, describes African social and economic behaviours. Here is an excerpt:
"Ambiguity is an art in Africa, and imprecision is its first cousin. Africans speak naturally, with eloquence, and without hesitation or stumbling over words, but their language is often imprecise and their numbers inexact. Every personal interaction becomes a discussion which establishes a basis for the relationship between the two parties. Westerners should probe gently for specificity and details until they are reasonably satisfied that they understand what is meant even if not stated."
Thank you all for reading our stories!
Till next time...may all your adventures move you and others...