Postcards from Rwanda

I was just sitting waiting for a document for the workshop to load and thought I'd look back in the archives of my blog to see what I had written in the early days.  I read what I had written about the book "We Wish to Inform you..." and I think I will have to change my opinion on that one.  Although I would not discount what Gourevitch says 100%, I would say it presents an overly rosy picture of the current administration and is in general one-sided.  For those who are truly interested in understanding the situation in Rwanda (past and present) and the Great Lakes Region in general, you will simply not find one book that tells it all.  If you want, read "We Wish to Inform You..." but I also highly, highly, highly recommend "A Continent for the Taking" by Howard French, "The Graves are Not Yet Full" by Bill Berkeley, "King Leopold's Ghost" for stuff about the Congo.  THe book I'm reading now is "The Fate of Africa" by Martin Meredith.  It's a big book with loads of information and it constantly reminds me of how ignorant I am about African history and politics.  I also have come to realize that ignorance is the world's worst enemy, and I'm not talking about illiteracy and the like but ignorance about the effect of what we do everyday on other people's lives.  In fact, if you are a well-meaning, compassionate person who wants to help less-priviledged people, I suggest you start by reading and learning about this part of the world.  I'm more and more convinced that if there's a way out of this mess it's not by the rich opening their wallets but by the whole world, especially the rich opening their minds and acquiring a better understanding of the world.  THe next book I want to get ahold of is called "Blood Diamonds" about the Diamond trade.... by the way 'conflict-free diamonds' doesn't mean a thing.

Ok my rant is finished thanks for reading this far if you did. 

Two weeks to go and I will be in Canada.  It's hard to believe.  It will go by so quickly I'm sure. Right now I'm in between two workshops that I'm doing with the "Southern Province Working Group".  Last week we did a workshop for primary school teachers in grades 1, 2, and 3.  The workshop focussed on teaching languages (French and English) by using more active methods.  My part was mainly musical as I taught them about 3 or 4 children's songs a day in both languages.  I also have done a sample lesson of teaching language through children's stories.  It was good fun and the teachers will now be preparing a workshop that they will give to the colleagues in their schools.  The second workshop starts tomorrow and will be very similar but for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers.  In Rwanda students start learning French in first grade but by fourth grade they're supposed to have all of their subjects in French, a very ambitious goal and many students just don't understand most of what they're taught.  WE'll be talking about how to do cross-curricular teaching (teaching French in your geography lesson and vice versa) in order to finish the curriculum and have students understand the lessons in different subjects.

After this week's workshop I'll go home for a couple of days, pack my bags and head to Butare, Kigali, Gisenyi and then the airport for my flight home on Sunday the 3rd of December.  Elson will come with me to say good-bye for a month.  He'll be spending the holidays at home with his family in the North of the country.  ANyways, gotta run and get ready for the workshop.  See you soon! 

ps I know I've neglected posting pictures for a while but since it's so difficult I decided to wait until I'm in Canada.  Soon.