A Tale of Two Schools

 The one and only primary classroom.

 No interactive whiteboards here

Well today has been a very long and eventful day. After a "comfortable" night sleep....... ha! Some of us began to experiment with the washing equipment we were provided with (i.e. a water filled jerry can, and a basin) which was a challenge.

On arriving at our first primary school visit we were swarmed by children as soon as they saw the bus turn the corner. It was amazing to see the vast amount of children rushing out of the very small school building. After the struggle of getting out of the bus and through the mob of children, Callum Hall began to start a massive game of tig with the entire school chasing him! With help from our legendary bus driver, Silas, we finally gained control of the children and attempted to teach them a few songs such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” which was amusing as the children tried to repeat back to us.

We then split up into 3 different groups to teach the children some lessons of our own. It was fun to be involved with the teaching of the children and we were surprised at some of the pupils’ level of English ability especially as we were located in such a rural part of Rwanda. We also experienced our first drop hole toilet………. very interesting?... after having a traditional Rwandan cuisine of cassava, beans and cabbage… and of course bananas.

Continuing our journey of the bus to the second school, which was both a primary and a secondary, we had a great time as we sang a mash up of classic songs and passed many interesting animals on our way. On arriving at the second school the atmosphere was a lot more subdued as the children were very disciplined. They were not used to seeing white people and were a bit spooked, they wanted to touch Ms McKillop to see if she was made the same as them.The school had a small assembly waiting for us where we introduced ourselves and sang a song to them. We met the head teacher and learned more about the school and that some of the children have to walk as far as 15km to get to school each day!!! It was astonishing to lean that the school only has 28 teachers to teach around 1500 pupils, which is in great contrast with our school of 700 pupils and 63 teaching staff. The school has very limited resources with only 2 computers and very little science equipment.

Overall today has been excellent and interesting (even after our weary nights stay at our new location). After coming back from the school visits we ventured down to the shops in the local village where we were offered a cow and a goat for Joanne’s hand in marriage to a local man. However we did not accept the offer as we believed she was worth an additional chicken as well which he was not so willing to give!

 Don’t worry parents (Erica’s mum and dad) we have been wearing our sun cream after being attacked by Gerry with factor 50!!!!!!! Thanks again to all our followers it is greatly appreciated to see so much interest in our activities out in Rwanda.

Good night all.

Love from Lucy and Erica along with the rest of the group xxxx

P.S. Happy birthday dad for tomorrow!!! lots of love Erica xxxxxxxxxxxxx :P