The 'Great Football Giveaway' in Ngoma. Yehaa!!!!

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi all,
I hope you are all well. This week has been incredible busy with all sorts of events. I did run two work shops in quite far out areas and they were great fun, even though it was incredible hot in the classrooms and that can be quite challenging. The teachers were amazing and so interested in the different topics and therefore....as always..... running the work shops just felt right and was a real pleasure.
Also, on Monday I received a phone call from Paul and Jason from 'The Great Football Give Away' who were on their way to Kibungo. You should check out their webside as it is really cool what they do and it would be great if you can support them in their future work.

http://thegreatfootballgiveaway.org.uk

A few hours later they did rock up with a car full of balls and camera gear and of we went to different schools and places in the Ngoma District.

We drove along the roads and when we saw kids playing with self made balls we stopped and supplied them with proper footballs or netballs.
Wouw...they eyes did light up and the kids were in between disbelieve and happiness. It was great to see them kicking of the proper balls and playing.
The nicest was to go to one field with heaps of kids and giving them balls. These children were just so happy and could not stop playing. I am definetely going back there and kick some balls, as I played myself for about 7 years.
The evening was great as we did have some good food and Mutzig and it was great to talk. Paul and Jason are two really interesting characters and totally open minded and king sized fun to hang out with. Yes....hi 'Billy and little sister'....Daddy was here in the middle of nowhere near Kibungo!!!!!!
On Tuesday we all had breakfast at my house and then they gave me a lift to one of my schools - that was great....no Motorbike ride in the morning!!! When we arrived at the school Paul and Jason did give away loads of balls. It was great!

Rwandan discipline

Happy faces, kids being kids and just playing. But....what are they actually looking at...????

......ah....Jason is filming...the future football stars in 'Sake'.

Yes guys....this is a big 'Thank you' form the kids very close to the Burundian border to everybody who did support the 'Great Football Give Away'. These kids are playing with the balls you helped to buy.

The work shop was great even though I felt so tired after a very short night!!! As always we had a huge amount of pupils looking through the windows and trying to find out what is going on in the classrooms. The kids do love it when we sing songs or when I introduce games to the teachers.

On the way back I passed by the place were the others were. So I just jumped of the motor bike and enjoyed the rest of the day driving around with the others, bringing balls to the children and playing with them.

Children next to the football pitch.

Children playing football in the background. Some children have to take care of their little sibblings but they do enjoy watching the game.

Everybody from the area is coming and checking out the football field. This little girl looks very mailnutritient and I just hope for the people that the rain will start very soon!!!

Paul and Jason did leave a box full of balls with me and my plan is to go to really far out areas that you cannot reach with a car but just with a Motor bike and bring balls to the children that do live in the most disadvantaged areas.

Future football stars posing at the side of the road

It is getting dark and we are stopping along the road to play with children.The children are in disbelief about the ballsThis is probably the first time in their lifes that somebody gave a present to these kids. The life of children over here is so very different. That does not mean that they are more or less happy than children at home. It is just different and these kids really did appreciate the balls.

It will be great to go to the places where the children did receive balls and to supply balls to more areas and I am looking forward to play with the children in the middle of nowhere.

Thanks Jason and Paul, I had two great days with you and ...Sarah....send your husband to a free climbing course next time, as he almost fell down the hill while trying to bring the ball to some kids who we could not reach otherwise!!! He is a crazy, good hearted 'Muzungo'.

Jason and Paul slipping down hill.
'Guys...it is actually a long way down and
....I know you are really keen on bringing those balls to the kids down there....
.....but.....
what about staying alive!!!'

On Wednesday Anna moved into the house and Jason moved nearby. It is great to have two more VSOs in Kibungo and they are incredible nice and it will be so much easier to work in a team! Great fun!!! That is a very happy 'ME'!!!!!!!!
Thursday was another work shop. It is cool, as I came past a school were Paul and Jasone were on Tuesday and I saw the kids playing with the balls and having fun. I just love it when they take their sandals of and play barefoot as that is better for kicking the ball and they can run faster.
Well....when I needed to run to the bus stop on Friday to catch the bus to Kigali....I did take of my shoes and did run bare foot...as it actually is ..... much easier!!! I guess I am becoming Rwandan.

Jambo Beach at Lake Muhazi

On Saturday Anna, Jason and I did travel to Lake Muhazi and had a really nice and relaxing time there.

Jason is really into birdwatching....

....and....
he did spot the most amazing eagle I ever saw in my life:

The week has been very busy but very good.
I hope that you are all well,
take care,
have a great week,
xxx Tina

One year!!!

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi, it is the 6. of September and that means I did fly out exactly a year ago.

That was my plane: 21.20 to Addis Ababa

So many things have happened since then. Good things and bad things:
Ups:
- meeting amazing people
- making good new friends
- working in a really rewarding job
- making all sorts of contacts with other NGOs, Unicef, etc....
- getting an understanding for sustainable development work
- running work shops
- working alongside teachers
- having fun lessons with the children
- riding on a motor bike taxi on the shittiest dirt roads in the middle of absolutely nowhere
- shopping on a market
- travelling Rwanda and Uganda
- learning from a nation that has gone through a Genocide
- seeing an incredibe beautiful country
- and so many more

and downs:
- being covered in rat poo and pee after trying to wash the draws where she lived in....thanks to
the water pressure everything splashed up on me
- having the biggest spider ever next to me, yes it had huge jaws and had legs like baby fingers
- experiencing an earth quake (5.2 on scale with its Epi Centre in the Kivu area)
- having flees and bedbugs and being bitten as there would not be a tomorrow
- having a broken door for 2 month and therefore having no door for two month
- having an invasion of about 100 bees (just yesterday)
- needing to fly home with a bad Kidney infection
- being hassled
- being mugged twice
- and.......a few other things

All of us are asking the same questions: Where has the year gone?????
This year has been incredible good, challenging, hard, amazing, bad, great, fascinating, rediculous, cool, sad, brilliant,..... and fast.
I am looking forward to hopefully doing my Masters in 'Development' in London from September next year on. I will see.
Take care,
xxx Tina

The rainy season started

The rainy season just started 5 minutes ago.

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

The Motorcycle Diary continues - Work shop in Bare and a chicken for lunch at Leandre's house

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi,
I had a nice day training teachers from 10 different schools. I did train them before and it was great to see them again. I could not believe when we drove there that the old dodgy and bumpy dirt track road was actually a proper straight sand pist. What happened over the last 6 weeks. I actually did like the jump onto the old horrible road. Where is the adventure???? Well...for the Rwandan people I do appreciate the change. And...at least it is still sandy and dusty. So here is the news from today:

Getting my gear ready in the morning. Material for the training, water, First Aid Kit, helmet......hmmm....everything there? Yeap, ready to go. Well forgot my purse today but there was nothing to buy anyway where I went and ....puuuuh....I could pay the motorbike in the afternoon.

Work shop in 'Bare' in Mutenderi. I like it here. This is just a part of the school. There are also a few much nicer buildings.
The kids were so funny and could not believe how many teachers were in one room. As always I did put the tables into groups and as always the teachers found that weird at the beginning but then enjoyed it during the day and understood the reasoning behind 'Sitting in a group'.

This work shop had the topic 'Spelling'. Here the teachers looked at a text in a school book and decided which words would be good to teach to their pupils. They had to think about important and less important words and how to actually choose the right words.

After work Leandre invited me to his house, where he lives with his family.

Washing hands before having food.I was very honoured as Leandre bought a chicken at the market and slaughtered it for me. He said it is very easy to kill them....and by now....I know, yes, you have to break its neck quickly and then cut it...... Hmmmmm, not really what I intend to do. I rather like somebody else to do that .... killing job....and then...enjoy the chicken. His Mum cooked the chicken and plantain and the food was amazing. Leandres fiancee was there as well and we had a great lunch.
I still cannot believe they prepared a chicken for me that was really an honour.

This is the field of Leandres MUM. No wonder that we had plantain.Feeding the pigs. Funny hungry creatures!!! Look how they are begging for food. You should have heard there loud squeaking!Leandre and his Mum. They are amazing people and Leandre really does anything to help me doing a good job. He belongs to the people in this country on whom I can totally relly. Getting ready for the journey back to Kibungo. It is just a quick jump, about 45 minutes with the motorbike.
xxx Tina

Creatures

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi,

work has been good today and I am ready packed for my work shop tomorrow.

The weekend has been just trash. And therefore today I try to keep myself busy by exploring the settings on my camera. I have to use a very small 'image size' as the Internet is so slow.

If you have a good idea about a more creative setting....send it via e-mail or as a comment to this blogpost, as I just want to be more creative outside my work and hope to learn from you guys. I know Dinos, Mike and Sandy, you are quite good with this stuff. But also...anybody else.... it would be great to get some ideas. I have got a 18 - 55 mm and a 70 - 300 mm (1.4 - 5.6) normal /macro lens and the Camera itself can almost do anything.

Enjoy the pictures of my 'house mates'.

Have a good week,

xxx Tina

Parcels, meetings, school visits or ....a life of a VSO Volunteer in Rwanda

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi everybody,

I received the most amazing parcel yesterday. Austin did send a whole box full of presents with a little note on each of them.

He is such a good man!!! I opened the first present which said: ‘Open this when you need a cuddle’.

This is so exiting. I will keep them all wrapped for the right moment and it will probably take me 3 months until I will open them all.

Otherwise….today….is just another day in the life of a VSO Volunteer in this country. I, as usual, woke up by the sound of our guard sweeping the floor. That always means…that I can still sleep for about one more hour. Then it is time to have a freezing cold shower….when we have water. And….since I am back we have had water every single day…. I really do appreciate that. Afterwards I have a quick breakfast and then it is time to…..walk up the hill to the office or to walk to a school in Kibungo or to take a Motorbike into the middle of nowhere.

Today we had a meeting in our office with a representative from ‘UNICEF’ and two Project Managers from ‘ADRA’ (Adventist Development and Relief Agency Rwanda). We discussed about that at the moment there are 56 ‘Child Friendly Schools’ all over Rwanda. The future goal is that all primary schools all over Rwanda are ‘Child Friendly’.

The meeting was very interesting and I hope that together Rwanda will be able to achieve this goal in the future.

Straight afterwards I rushed to the meeting with all the Primary Head Teachers from our District, as I am going to deliver 5 workshops in the next 3 weeks and I wanted to inform the heads about dates, venues and timings. The meeting took place outside which was for the first time, as normally we are in a room.

It was pretty funny and my part took just 15 minutes but the other topics from the other facilitators took about 2 hours. By that time…..I had ants all over my pants….inside my shirt…and just everywhere. Huge ants…..I think it was quite funny, as I tried to get rid of them and not kind of disturb the meeting to much.

Well, quite a few of us kind of wiggled and giggled around. I think I was not the only one.

After the meeting I went to the market and it was funny how everybody greeted and wanted to tell his or her news of the last 6 weeks. Well….I did not understand a word but it was good fun. It seems to be a good time of the year, as I was able to buy nice peppers and even cucumbers. Cucumbers are very seldom over here and most teachers I do train do not even know what a cucumber is. Therefore I was really happy.

I went home with my goodies and made a huge salad and a sandwich with avocado in our amazing kitchen.....well the colour of the walls is amazing.

And the view from the kitchen is just.....stunning.It is good to be in Kibungo when it is market day as otherwise….there is no shopping for fruit or veggies. You need to wash the veggies quite well when you make a salad in this country.

Look at all the goodies I bought today!!!

After lunch I walked to one of my schools to talk to the teachers, as I want to teach along with them tomorrow and show them some child friendly active methodology. Therefore I needed to ask what content I need to prepare and at what time the lessons are.

This is the view from our living room window. The school I went to today and I will go to tomorrow is far behind the row of trees you see in the very back.

As usual I had a lot of small talks along the road, met a member of my Volleyball Team, got laughed at and so on. It was funny.

I came home after a long day with loads of different things going on. At home I filtered 5 litres of water and then Danny came along and we had a nice coffee. Epi came to my house at 5.30 and we cooked some ‘Chilli con Carne’ without beans and without meat….but it was still great, as we had rice, peppers, tomatoes and an onion and a pack of sauce from the UK. We watched a movie and had the most relaxing evening since ages. She is staying here overnight and it is great that she lives in Kibungo as well. We will try to cook together once a week and as we have different sport DVDs we want to start doing some sports together. I never did sport with a DVD but bought a Box-Aerobics action DVD to get that energy out of my body. Well…to be honest….I did walk in the heat for 2 hours today and we are living at quite an altitude….and therefore….I have done enough exercise for today. It needs some time to adjust again after having been in the Uk for a while.

I should probably try to sleep now as I need to teach and train teachers tomorrow. It has been a good day.

Take care,

xxx Tina

Back in Kibungo

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi all,
I arrived back in Kibungo yesterday afternoon and today I had a very nice day back at work.
I was quite lazy in the morning and decided to chill and have a coffee in bed and read a book until 9.00. Then I just could not face a cold shower on my first day back home. Therefore I boiled some water and had a hot bucket shower with some nice soap from the body shop…. That was a good start into the day.
One of the best things I brought back from the UK are 4 Kilos of really nice Muesli. Therefore I had my first nice and healthy breakfast in Kibungo since September last year. It does sound stupid….but it really does make a difference.
Around 10:30 I thought it was finally time to go to the office and I climbed up that steep hill…..oh…oh….oh….how do I hate that walk in the heat in the morning!!! But it stunning beautiful.

View from my way to work.

On my way to work.
A lot of people do wear traditional clothes over here.Once I arrived, it was really nice to be back in the office and talk to the colleagues and also to see some of the head teachers. Everybody had a good word to say and they were very sweet. I did my workshop plan for the next 2 weeks and wrote a letter to all the heads. I just love that I can create my job myself and then discuss it with my boss in the hope he will one day create these ideas himself. Afterwards I phoned Suzanne and we went for lunch at restaurant 'Moderne'. Food here means Omelette, goat, chips or Melanche....that is it. So we went for Melanche and.....wouw...they did actually have nice vegetables (green beans and carrots) and fresh salad with .... Vitamins!!!! That was great as the amount of Carbohydrates - and just only Carbs - you normally get is horrible and I was just happy to have had the opportunity to get some vitamins into my body.

This afternoon I went to a school and it felt like coming home and it was just great to meet all the teachers and children. They were so welcoming. It was really cool.

Outside the school.

Playground during lessonDuring breaktime.

BreaktimeOn the way home I came past a little house that sold 9 tomatoes, 5 onions and 20 plantains (probably that was everything that was growing in their garden). So I bought 3 of each and am happy that I have something to make a fresh salad tomorrow.

In the evening I met some friends at a bar. Suzanne brought another parcel from the UK with more books for Primary Schools. Thanks to everyone who has send books so far. If your are interested in taking part of the book project, you are welcome to send books. I will give you more information on how to do that on my blog in the near future.

These books arrived so far and will be used to create libraries in different schools.

After having some good Primus (rwandan beer) I walked home through the absolute dark night. The stars and the sounds were amazing and it felt really peaceful. I felt like going for a really long nightwalk and I think I will do that soon with a friend.
Kibungo can be absolutely boring ....well...more than boring!!!!.....but it is so much nicer than Kigali and people do really care for each other. This is a nice place to be even though buying food and preparing water…and….and…and can be difficult, tiring and time consuming at times.
But the people here are just nice and caring and the nature is absolutely stunning beautiful.
Altogether this was a really good day and just what I needed: a good start over here.
I hope you are all well,
take care,
xxx Tina