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Musanze, RW.10, Rwanda
Today was a weird day.
I woke up feeling a bit worse with this blasted cold. It’s not too bad, I’ve definitely had much worse colds! But it’s a drag to feel slightly crummy when you live with cold water and cold cement floors, and you have to get up and teach regardless of how you feel. On the other hand….I’m pretty sure I’ll live.
I had a great time teaching Senior 6 this morning and this afternoon. I had promised them we’d practice using direct and indirect speech using pictures (and our imaginations!). First I held up a picture of Britney Spears with one of her kids (thanks for the People magazine, Dad and Peggy!!!). I asked them what Britney and her son might be saying to each other. The first class raised their hands and came up with the cutest dialogue, to the effect of:
Britney: Ah, my son! I love you!
Son: Thank you, mommy!
Britney: You are so beautiful!
Son: Oh mommy, don’t say that. I know it!
The other class said something similar but included:
Britney: My boy, you will be a big man!
Son: Oh mommy, I will study and have richness!
I got such a kick out of it. Anyway, I wrote their dialogues on the board and then together we changed the whole thing into direct speech, then we changed that into indirect speech. The exercise was clear, so I handed out pictures that I had photocopied from one of my grammar exercise books. I had six different pictures and I assigned each one to a different tense. Therefore, the students had to write a dialogue based on the picture (use your imagination!) and include language in whatever tense I assigned to them: present, present continuous, past perfect, future or past. That resulted in some awkward dialogues, but what can you do. They got a kick out of it. At the end of class I collected them all and explained that later in the week they’ll receive new pictures with dialogues that other pairs have written. They’ll have to change those dialogues into direct speech. After that I’ll collect and redistribute again, and they’ll have to change those into indirect speech. Between that and the homework (take the lyrics to Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” and change direct into indirect and indirect into direct) I think we’ll all feel like vomiting at the mention of direct and indirect speech.
After the first Senior 6 class I went to the teachers’ lounge for tea break and to hang out with my colleagues. I sipped my tea, chatted with other teachers and flipped through the dialogues I had just collected. After about an hour we all heard some screaming outside the teachers’ lounge, near Headmistress’s office. One of the teachers cracked the door and we all peered out to see what was going on. It was a Senior 1 student with whom everyone is familiar now. She has been screaming uncontrollably since the term started. It’s actually more of a very loud inhale than a scream and it almost sounds like a sick bird…hard to explain. I’ve heard her from all the way across campus at a few points. Most people just ignore this student, but there come times when she’s so disruptive it must be addressed.
One such time was last week. I was walking through the courtyard between student classrooms towards the teachers’ lounge when I saw one of our teachers and this student standing outside. Guillaume beckoned me over and I thought for sure he was going to pressure me to attend sports practice or netball match. I almost ignored him but I decided to go over since he was standing with a student. She started making her funny noise and when I joined them Guillaume said, “She wants to greet you.” I took her hand and asked her name, introduced myself as Kim, asked how she was doing and how her day was going. She shyly answered all of my questions. Then Guillaume said, “Thank you, now I think she will be quiet in class” and they went inside. I was a bit baffled about the whole thing until today.
As I said, today this student was standing outside of Headmistress’s office surrounded by school administration and making her sick-bird noise. The other teachers chuckled and went back to their work. Since I met her last week, I went out to “greet” her again and see what was going on. As she made her noise, Headmistress clapped her behind the neck, smiled and said repeatedly, “Oya, oya!!!” (No, no!!!) She kept stroking the student’s neck and shoulders and the student calmed down. Clementine and one of our new student teachers were also there speaking to her in Kinyarwanda. When she started up again I put my arm around her waist and asked her in English how she was, did she remember greeting me last week?, how were her studies going, is she happy?, does she know why she is making this noise? She answered no to the last question and make a big cry.
Eventually the student teacher took her to the refectory for something to eat I think? The rest of us talked about what this baffling condition could be. A lot of people think it’s a cry for attention (literally) and other think it’s a medical condition. In general, Rwandan students don’t want extra attention. They hate being singled out especially for something unfavorable. So I tend to think she’s got some psychological problems and I suggested she has anxiety or something else wrong and she needs to speak to a psychologist. They agreed with me, but….good luck with that. Clementine says the girl’s dad is a nurse and he claims there’s nothing wrong at home. But what else would he say? Who knows what’s wrong.
Just when I thought the drama was over, things got more dramatic. I was turning to walk back to the teachers’ lounge when Clementine said in a low voice “We have bad news.” She told me in few words that a Senior 4 student has died – one of my Senior 4 students. I’m not clear on the details, but I understand that she was an orphan and was poisoned by her neighbors. I know if you’re reading this you probably have the same questions that I do, such as Why? Who was caring for her? What will happen to the neighbors? etc. Unfortunately I don’t know any of those answers either, except that when I asked Headmistress if the “bad neighbors will go to prison” she answered probably not because it will be difficult to know exactly who did it. As a motive she basically said – jealousy, anger, craziness…take your pick. Who knows.
As I was learning this news, the Director of Studies was informing my class. It was just about lunchtime so the teachers all headed to our little lunchroom and I went to my room to get my laptop (I wanted to show them photos from Friday’s party).
En route to my room I noticed that all students were convened in the courtyard where they usually receive daily announcements at 7:45 am. By the time I grabbed my laptop and left my room, they were filing into the refectory in complete silence other than sniffles. Their sadness was palpable and it broke my heart. I didn’t see any of my Senior 4 students in the group so I walked towards their classroom and saw Headmistress standing at the doorway, surrounded by a half dozen students with tears streaming down their faces. I almost started to cry myself, despite the fact that I don’t know the student we lost (I have 41 students in that class and 3 of them shared the same first name! They say she was extremely quiet and so I’m almost guaranteed not to know her. Bad teacher.). It was just heartbreaking to see these students so visibly distraught, and of course Headmistress was clapping them on the necks saying “Oya, oya!!!”
There’s not a whole lot of room for sadness or anger around here. I’m remembering how many students wrote on their final exams that they once made the mistake of feeling sad and they won’t make that mistake again because sadness destroys your mind. I’m really conflicted about this. On the one hand, I can see how it might seem necessary to bury feelings and move on in a country that was ravaged by civil war and genocide just 16 years ago. Almost everyone here was witness to such atrocities that if they wallowed in their memories the whole darn population would be incapacitated with depression, PTSD, anxiety, you name it. On the other hand, let’s be real! Sadness is a normal reaction to sad events! I haven’t been through as much as I have without learning the hard way that we have to indulge our feelings and not push them aside. That just doesn’t work. And why should it?
So, with that in mind, I started my afternoon Senior 6 class by asking how they were. Some of them were quiet and some of them answered “Fine.” I asked, “You’re fine?” and they responded again with “Not!” I told them I knew we had received very sad news today and I was very sorry. I said I wished I had words of comfort for them but I don’t. Then I added that I would tell them one thing I know if they wanted to hear it. Some of them practically jumped out of their chairs wanting to hear what I knew! I proceeded to tell them that regardless of what they’ve been told, I truly believe that it’s OKAY and NORMAL and NATURAL to feel sad sometimes. I said that I think it’s bad to pretend we don’t feel sad when something sad or bad happens. Then I told them that if anyone wants to talk to me about their feelings they should feel free to find me. I’m no counselor, but they have no one else. There’s no such thing as school psychologists here. Some of them might take me up on it. My Senior 6 classes are my darlings. If I had heard one of those students had died I would have run there immediately and cried with them. Unfortunately I don’t feel the same about Senior 4. I’ll be more than happy to be available to them, but we don’t have a strong connection like my S6 classes and I do. That just happens.
Despite the bad news, the afternoon Senior 6 class said they wanted to do whatever activity I had planned for them, so we did the pictures and dialogues. They were champs and did well. I went directly from their classroom to teaching the Sisters and Discipline staff (more prayers that Headmistress brought…90 minutes of rosary prayers……zzzzzz…..) and from there I went directly to a meeting for all Senior 6 students in the big auditorium.
Because this meeting started late, I only got to attend about 15 minutes of it before leaving to teach the District office staff. BUT, I loved being there for those 15 minutes. I found out that the students themselves requested the meeting with Headmistress, the Director of Studies and all their teachers so they could discuss how we can help prepare them for their National Exams at the end of the school year. I’m so impressed! I wasn’t there long enough to get the gist of the meeting, but I’ll find out tomorrow. On a related note, I told the Director of Studies beforehand that I’d like to find some professionals in the students’ prospective fields and have them come speak to the classes. For the MCB track that would be a doctor or nurse. For the PMC track that would be a civil engineer. He thought it was a great idea but said we’d open it up to the entire school. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s better than nothing and maybe I can still swing some class-only time for my girls.
After excusing myself 15 minutes into the Senior 6 meeting I went to wait for any District staff students to show up. Four of them came tonight, two of whom already have missed too many classes to get the certificate. Five classes down, seven to go for them. Ugh.
As for the itchies….they’re here and spreading. Now I have spots on my legs, neck and back. I predict imminent obsessing and detailed descriptions of exactly how disruptive this next scourge is…..should be fun for both of us!
from: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gypsygirlri/2/1273002005/tpod.html
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