Teaching the Teachers

I arrived late in the town of Huye, previously known as Butare, late on Sunday and was thrust into my first lesson as an English Teacher at 8.00am next day. I have a class of around (it has varied by session) 40 teachers, of a broad range of ages, experience and knowledge of English. It's occasionally a challenge! We are working from a 2 week prepared course with plenty of scope for improvisation. We have played word games and sang, and today the class made presentations on the theme, "What I would do if I were the President of Rwanda." I heard much about the Teacher's priorities for improving the education system, the care for children and the work needed on economic development. We teach until 2pm with two half hour breaks and so there is time to visit the local area after we have finished working.
Yesterday I went to the Rwandan equivalent of the FA Cup semi final with the local team making its way to Saturday's final in Kigali on the away goals counting double rule, since both legs resulted in a draw. The local crowd went wild and it didn't seem possible that a fairly small by UK standards, crowd could make so much noise. Today I visted the Rwandan National Museum which is based here and provides a backgroung to the country's more distant history and culture.
We will be here until Friday when the course finishes and we make our way back to Kigali for a final night with the entire team on Project Umubano and our flight home on Saturday.

Soccer match

Last year I thouroghly enjoyed the match we played at the textile factory. Yesterday we went back to the community centre the contruction team completed last year. We played a rolling five aside game against a team of youngsters aged between probably 8 and 15 and I think we lost about 10-9. At one stage they were running rings around us which was pretty embarrasing considering we had three FA coaches amongst us, taking part in their own project working with the Rwandan football authorities and including Alastair Burt MP. It was great for those who had helped construct the pitch see that it is put to such regular use and we had a fun, if tiring, afternoon after the physical work earlier in the day.
Today I will be switching projects to join the teachers in Butare where I will be taking over from Nick Hurd MP who took the class last week. Never, having taught before, I am approaching this role with a degree of trepidation, although Nick tells me the students are great. I'd better get my lesson planning done!

Umuganda

Normal life comes to a halt on the last Saturday of the month in Rwanda when everyone is expected to take part in a community activity called Umuganda. Yesterday we joined a huge group of people laying a drain on a hillside, digging the trench and filliing it with rocks and stone. I joined the team mixing cement, a task which was attacked with great gusto. By the end of an hour or so I was exhausted and with hands covered in blisters. In a slightly surreal moment, just now on Sunday morning, I have been listening to Andrew Mitchell MP, the leader of our project explaining how pleased we were to be taking part. Outside where I am staying are are number of houses where the kids play outside and the radio is often on. I awoke to hear an English language station with the morning news and Andrew's dulcet tones!

Meeting the President and Ministers

On Friday I was invited to join MPs and Candidates who are in Kigali to a meeting with President Paul Kagame. This took place in the eqivalent of the cabinet office and we spent two hours talking about the five area that make up Project Umubano. A discussion took place on matters affecting Rwanda generally and in greater detail about the relationship with neighbouring Congo; the state of the official opposition and the recent banning by the Rwandan Government of the Kinywandran local language service of the BBC. In each case the President put forward a strong case for his Government's interests, putting them in the context of Rwanda's recent history and current situation. After the meeting I was able to speak to Minister of Education, Daphrosa Gahakwa in more detail about our project to help survivor students compete in the jobs market.

Norwich North

Great result; well done Chloe, although there will be a long wait to take the seat in Parliament due to the extra long recess. This result is really encouraging for the candidates with me here in Rwanda with whom I've already struck up some great friendships.

The Project Progresses

I have struggled to blog as we have been busy putting the documentation together on the advice to college leavers. There is some urgency since the document needs to be ready for printing on Sunday and on that day I leave for my teaching role in Butare in the south of the country. We have met with fomer students to learn their perspective on the recruitment process at the Groupe des Anciens Etudiants Rescapes du Genocide (Group of Former Student Survivors of Genocide). This is a well oganised group of young people who are helping one another to overcome the major difficulties they face. Our discussion moved on to politics more generally and those we met were keen to learn more about our system. I also found time to meet with one more employer, Raj Rajendran, MD of the textile manufacturer, Utexrwa, with whom I spent several days last year. It was great to see the progress the business has made in its new fields of silk production and mosquito nets as well as to find about the internships Raj is setting up in his business,

Meetings, meetings

Our project is now gathering momentum. In order to advise candidates how to best prepare for applying for jobs we have started off by meeting employers. This is to understand the recruitment process here in Rwanda and find out what is expected of applicants. So far we have met The Public Service Commission, The Rwanda Development Bank and The Rwanda Development Board from the public sector and RwandAir and MTN, an extremely progressive mobile phone company from the private sector. The next stage is to meet up with students to get their perspective on the process before pulling our ideas together and prepare a prersentation and handout. Key to our thinking is to leave behind a process by which candidates from the survivor community have an improved chance when they apply for their first position in work.