Working Girls (and Boy)

Note on previous post: the rest of that nursery rhyme is "home again home again jiggety jig." Thanks mom!

Yesterday all six of us got our assignments. We (who are now "recovering assistants" or "RAs", thanks) were lucky enough to get to go and see where everyone would be working, because we stuck close to Claire, our fantastic coordinator who also runs the GBV (gender-based violence program) with which we are working directly.

We started off by traveling to the site of FVAs new orphanage, which they hope to have building permits for in March. Currently its farmland, and they will continue to grow crops there and use the money they get from selling them to support the orphanage and other FVA programs. Sustainable! We love it. They're growing peanuts, lots of corn, bananas, PUMPKINS (I know go figure) and they have papaya trees. Ian "picked" a few papayas (you knock them out of the tree with a stick and try to avoid them as they fall directly towards your head) and RA2 managed to knock one down as well.

We dropped Ian off at Les Enfants de Dieu (Children of God), an all boys orphanage that takes in street kids. They get a full education and have a really interesting internal system of government. The boys elect ministers - a minister of education, a minister of technology - from among their peers. These ministers have control of the orphanages entire budget and administration. The adults and directors must go to them for permission to purchase or change anything. It gives the boys a great learning experience, agency and empowerment.

Maggie May is teaching English to teachers at a private school.

A NOTE ON THE ENGLISH THING: In hopes of opening trade and tourism with neighboring countries who were colonized by Britain (such as Uganda) as well as North America, about a year ago, Rwanda made a decision to switch to English. Having been colonized by Belgium (it's all about colonization here), they spoke French for many years, and many people still do. Kinyarwandan was introduced as a common, unifying Rwandan language, and everyone speaks it (Muraho!). And then a year ago - English. Learn it. It's like the government of America declared, "Everyone must speak Swahili." Teachers don't know it, and they have to pass on this knowledge they don't have to their students. On the plus side, for us, teaching English here is NOT a vanity project. If we pass on one word of English while we're here, it's huge. The people Maggie May is teaching will, we hope, be passing on that knowledge to children who have a real chance of bring Rwanda into a better future.

Many people here are TRILINGUAL, putting us and our 4 words of Kinyarwandan to shame.

Tsufit is teaching Gisimba Orphanage. It was founded by (and is named for) a man who saved 400 people during the genocide by hiding them in the orphanage and buying off the genocidaires one at a time when they came around. He's a hero in Rwanda and is mentioned at the genocide memorial. We plan to spend some time at Gisimba and we're considering productive ways to do that - story time, dance hour. The older kids there go off to boarding school, and one of the women who is working at FVA and going to university (getting her degree in Sociology!) lived at Gisimba for 9 years. They do their best to give the kids there every opportunity, they get an education, and many go on to be very successful. That said, there are so many young kids there in need, it is incredibly overwhelming. As you walk through they grab you, grin at you, or hide behind a bigger kid and stare. They love digital cameras and the smile on their face is amazing but it breaks your heart when you have to take the camera back and they look miserable - or worse, cry. One kid was particularly awesome. He had a big smile no matter what and took very, VERY good pictures, whether by design or accident we may never know. He had a little kid who clung to him, who is deaf-mute and almost never happy, but clearly loves this older boy. We found out later he's HIV+.

C-Note, RA1 and RA2 (like Little Thing 1 and Little Thing 2, but not as long to type) spent yesterday afternoon realizing that GBV is starting from scratch, which is both overwhelming and exciting. It leaves us a lot of room to expand and hopefully tailor classes to the women's exact needs.

Today was our first full day of work. GBV consists of women who come to participate in "Income-Generating Activities" and talk and spend time together, a small school of roughly 8 with WIDELY varying skills and ages (Peace is our translator/TA for this, and we adore her), and women who come in for counseling. Our working schedule currently has us switching days for the school (tomorrow is my first day teaching!) and participating in IGAs, as well as offering classes on whatever the women feel they'd like to learn about, and doing home visits and counseling as needed.

If you're thinking we're not qualified to be doing these things, join the club! But our friend Zak gave us an excellent reminder: We're not qualified, but we're the most qualified people in the room. Fake it til you make it. And now we know a little but about what it's like to be an army medic who walks into a hospital and is treated like the Surgeon General - and expected to perform surgery. We now have two mottos: "Go slow, you'll reach", which we saw on the back of a truck, and "But I only know first aid!"