St Patrick's Day Party

Travelled to Kigali on Saturday for the annual Irish revelry.  Here are just a couple of snaps of some of the action!

The dancing was good, the company good and hopefully they raised a lot of money for charity.

Byumba Trip Feb 2013

This was eventful weekend 2^nd and 3^rd of Feb to celebrate Lesley's birthday.  Unfortunately travelling this weekend was a bit difficult as all S1 and S4 pupils were returning to school so the buses were cram packed with students. 

Arrived at 1.30 after a two hour wait at Nyabugogo in Kigali.  Went for a lovely walk.   Byumba is a hidden treasure.  Rolling lush green pastures with lovely banana trees everywhere and wonderful views.  The day was bright and sunny and clear.  Wonderful.  Forgot to take my camera so will now have to go again to snap the views.  Returned for a meal at 4pm to the hotel which was also very nice (Ubwuzu) The manager is called Blondine and it was a lovely stay.  In the afternoon they organised a band of drummers to come.  They were very good.  Spent the evening there then went to Lesley and Steves in the evening for a party for Lesleys birthday. 

Next day we set off in a bus to the marshes and Lake Burera to do some bird watching.  It was a very hairy trip with the bus having to go across some very dodgy looking bridges made of logs (about 10 in all!)  Each time the whole bus held its breath in case the bridge collapsed!  We finally made it.

The bus ride was about 1 hour then we arrived at the boats with an audience as usual.

Had to walk some of the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set off bird watching and saw these!

 

Crested Cranes

Bishop Bird

Kingfisher

Not sure what this is!  Any ideas?

Pelican

Yellow billed ducks

 

We also saw spoonbills and herons but could not get close enough for a picture.

 

This is a picture of the wonderful scenery we saw all weekend.  All in all a wonderful weekend.  Thanks Lesley and Steve!

Cow for Kabuga and toilets!

My good friend Jax who visited Rwanda last year has been raising funds in her school to enable Kabuga to build some new toilets.  When she visited the school the number of toilets was inadequate and the existing loos were full!  What can I say.  Jax provided some money to have the loos emptied.


Waste having been emptied from the 'old' toilets

The 'old' toilets were then cleaned and ready for use.




















She also raised money to pay for them to dig a hole to enable the school to build a new block of toilets.  Digging the hole is not as simple as it sounds due to the fact that the school is based on volcanic rock and there are no tools available for digging it so it has to be broken up by hand - a very long job.

The hole at the beginning

 

The hole gets deeper.

The foundations are prepared.

 

The funds raised also went to buy a cow so that the pupils in school can have milk.  This was a challenge for me knowing nothing about cows!! but I went with the head teacher to one of the local farmers and purchased the cow and then we had to take it to a place where it would stay until the shelter was built for it nearer the school.  The cow is pregnant so in September should have a calf and that calf will be passed onto someone in the local community who is very poor in order to help them.  This is a tradition in Rwanda.

 

The cow who has been christened Arboyne

 

The cow's temporary home

Nursery Nyamagumba

I managed to write a successful bid to Solidarity Entraide for funding for a nursery in Musanze called Nyamagumba.  On return from home at Xmas I set about getting the items for the nursery that they needed in order to make it functional.

These pictures shows the nursery before.  In Rwanda nursery education is funded by the parents of the schools so they need all the help they can get.

The rooms as they were.

We had 65 chairs and 11 small desks made for the pupils and had new blackboards, provided equipment for the teacher to make visual aids, and another lady who visited me (Jax) came from England and bought loads of soft toys and jigsaws and games for the nursery.  We also managed to provide swings and a slide for outside the school.  We also bought two desks for the teaachers and four chairs for them and shelves for the books and a box for all the toys to be stored in.

These pictures show the 'new' nursery.

New blackboards, desks chairs and toys.

New slide

New swings

New desks, chairs and visual aids made with materials supplied.

Christmas 2012

First of all apologies to all for not having blogged for such a long time.  I was unable to upload photographs to the blog site for many months so I resorted to Dropbox to show my family and friends images I wanted to share - but now Blogspot have thankfully enabled me to upload images again so here goes.

I spent a wonderful Xmas at home with family and friends.  I visited many people and did many things and it was a cram packed two weeks.  Here are just a few of the photos of the whole family together.  It was a lovely time and one I will treasure.  Thanks to my Mum and Dad for having me for the two weeks and for putting up with an endless stream of visitor and catering for them all with such care.

On the last day at home I went for a meal with James and Emma and then on to the cinema to see Cinderella at the Alhambra.  A really nice experience.  Thanks to Emma for arranging it.

Update Term 3

It has been a long time since I have blogged and much water has gone under the bridge!  I have carried out several training sessions for staff and pupils including:-

Training teachers on how to use a reading book effectively in the classroom
Training head teachers on developing a vision for their school, Action Planning and Strategic Planning.
Training SEO’s in another District (Muhanga) on analysing annual examination data.
Training SEO’s in my District (Musanze) on analysing annual examination data.
Training head teachers on analysis of termly examination data.
Training for teachers in Busogo sector on how to make visual aids using local materials
Training for cluster schools in the UNICEF child friendly schools programme on how to use the materials they supplied for the schools in the classrooms.
Training for students on how to use the libraries that have been created in their schools.

In addition I was asked to be a judge at a competition at a school for judging the contributions of the pupils to work they had done on protection of the environment.  They had done art work, poetry, compositions, drama and handicrafts as part of the competition.  The competition was arranged for the schools who are partnered with Tanzania and Zambia in Rwanda and pre-empted a visit to Tanzania by 10 teachers, head teachers and students from Rwanda to see how schools worked in another country and to share their cultural experiences.  The project is part of the British Council Connection Classrooms project.

 

I was also invited to visit some lessons being run by another NGO called Art for Conservation who function in schools in Musanze District.  It was a lovely day when we went to Nyange I to see some of the lessons they were running for pupils.  The students benefitted from outdoor lessons which were very child centred and involved lots of teaching and learning materials.  They were run by Rwandan teachers who worked very effectively as a team.  A joy to see.

Things are now settling down due to the commencement of examinations.

Another bid to Solidarity Entraide proved successful and thanks to them I obtained 65 small wooden chairs and 11 low tables for the pupils at Nyamagumba Primary school.  The pupils were soooo excited with their new furniture.  Thanks again to Solidarity Entraide for their continued support.

 

Cyangugu and the Congo Nile Trail

The team set off from Kigali on Saturday 1st Sept and headed to Cyangugu in the South.  It took about 5 hours to drive down there and we were met by Christine at her house and shared a lovely meal.  The next day we went for a walk into Cyangugu and spent some time by the Lake - it was beautiful.  Then we set off to wend our way back up the Congo Nile Trail which winds up the side of Lake Kivu. Unfortunately we got a bit lost at one point and headed inland on some terrible roads but Dave our fearless driver kept drove on despite every setback and we eventually got back on track.  Stopped at Kibuye for an overnight after 6 hours of driving we all needed a Mutzig or a Primus to refresh ourselves!  Set off the next day to Gisenyi on the same road.  Some stunning scenery.  Called at Paradis Malahide (one of our favourite spots) before heading back to Musanze.  The crew dropped me off at Mukamira and then went down the Ngororera road back to Nyanza and finally to Kigali.  A wonderful trip with wonderful memories.