Catherine’s Exciting Teaching News

Seven years ago when I taught in Rwanda, I left with the vision of helping teachers here receive the professional development they wanted. I looked for experienced teachers in Australia who wanted to come here but found none. After a few years I realized that I was being provided with experience leading teachers in Australia that I could use in Rwanda too.

Then I had a child, soon two. By the time we arrived with a crawling baby and a two-year-old I wasn’t at all sure when my role as a mother would leave enough room to do anything else. When Bishop Nathan asked me to help establish a new school I agreed to look into it, and prayed that if God wanted me to take on this role he would make it clear.

I looked into the new school in small ways. I researched government guidelines for schools and how to apply to begin one. When I happened upon people involved in the field I asked them for advice. Then in July while we were at Kumbya Conference a colleague suggested I talk to Jeff Komant, who had established a Rwandan Christian school recently.

I was nervous about this meeting – hunted through my wardrobe for some professional clothes and left the kids with Tim at a friend’s house in Kigali. I caught a motorbike taxi to the Wellspring Academy; the school that Jeff’s foundation had built as a shining example to elite private schools. Jeff, a friendly Canadian and young father, set me at ease as we sat and chatted. It was exciting; we share a dream for education in Rwanda! I was even more amazed to hear Jeff’s foundation has started to make that dream come true.

Building a new school had been very expensive and was teaching a small number of children. It had a purpose in raising the bar for such schools but Jeff and his team wanted to reach more teachers and students. God introduced them to Kirsten, a British teacher, and together they developed a two year upgrade of skills program for teachers in Rwanda. The Wellspring Foundation now has a team of twelve Rwandan teachers who, having been trained, enter schools to teach their teachers and leaders. They are now running this program in forty government primary schools in the district surrounding Rwanda’s capital, and reaping wonderful results.

Jeff offered that if I wished to lead the expansion of this program into my district in southern Rwanda and could find a team of people, they would be happy to help train the team on the job alongside their own. They are also happy to freely share the resources they have developed. To top it off my role managing the team could definitely be part time, leaving me plenty of time to focus on my children. All in all, he was handing to me on a platter the role I had thought to play for so many years but with a lot of the hard work already done!

‘Hmmm, how would I find teachers for this training team?’ I wondered in the days that followed. Then I realized that a most perfect candidate was my closest friend here; Clementine, a Rwandan mother of three who trained in teaching, is naturally gifted, and wants to get back into the workforce to do some good for the community. I was feeling out-maneuvered and in awe of God’s planning and care. I felt like I had sat on my behind and done almost nothing, and yet God had arranged things so fully that I would have no excuse other than to participate.

On Wednesday Jeff Komant, his co-founder and I met with Bishop Nathan. The lead up to the meeting was very stressful, including a car accident on my way there! However the meeting went well. Bishop Nathan, to my delight, is very supportive of my following a call to train teachers rather than build a school, and is also thankful for the openness with which the Wellspring Foundation is sharing its knowledge and resources.

So a new phase in my life is about to begin…

A couple of home projects ticked off the list!

Tim (with help from Catherine) built some shelves in our store room on the weekend. It was a lot of work (you can see a third of it below), partly because local wood is unpredictable in every dimension, green rather than aged and the nails like to bend. But it has made a HUGE difference to the house, especially the kitchen! Nepo and Clementine are pleased with their pigeon holes too.

Note the huge purple bucket – that’s sugar. The 25kg sack next to it is rice. (These are two ingredients we go through at a rate of knots! Four spoons of sugar in a cup of tea is normal here.) The big yellow jerry can is one of our four water storing cans for when the mains water is off; a regular occurrence. We are back in a rainy season so the children love to get muddy outside and sometimes it’s a bit frustrating when I bring them inside to clean them up and despite the rain pouring down outside there is none in the house!

Catherine’s project today was a little shop under the tree house. William has requested a door so at some point it might gain a couple of walls. She was thankful when our lunch visitors helped out in the afternoon to finish it off.

Belinda

 

We have a new member of our family… Belinda the goat.

She’s 6 months old, has small horns and is gradually settling into life in our household. Hannah was equal parts fascinated and intimidated when first approaching her, but now seems to be growing in confidence. Catherine, too, has found a surprising affection for our newest addition in our mu rugo (literally “inside the wall” – thus the home and garden). For a self-avowed “not-a-pet-person”, I think Belinda’s sociability and ability to convey emotion by bleating has come as something of a surprise!

The kids (human ones) have particular habits of falling asleep at the moment that can be quite cute – Hannah classically at the lunch table halfway through her meal, and William preferring to be close to one of us – in this case Mama typing on the computer…

Last weekend, we spent three days away at Kumbya by Lake Kivu with our friends the “French family” who are working as Catholic missionaries in our town. It was great to get away for a short break and to spend some time exploring each others’ lives, Christianity and family traditions. Their kids have now adopted the grace “God is Great” in English, sung with vim and gusto!

   

One of the many advantages of having children is that it does give you the opportunity to photograph sunrises!

When we got back, I had the pleasure of examining the final group of Interns for the year (Final year medical students) in Kigali on Tuesday – they acquitted themselves admirably and I was very proud of them in a proprietorial fashion. Each group this year has been better than the last, more proactive in their learning and organising and seeming to get further in understanding clinical medicine. I’d like to think my teaching has played a role in this, but it may well be just their maturity growing across the year. Here’s a photo of me with this final group, a UK Med Student and one of our postgraduates who has been learning gastroscopy from me:

I’ve also been invited to Kigali once a week to teach the specialist gastroenterologists there colonoscopy, which seems a promising development as it may open up fresh opportunities there. In addition, the General Director of the hospital here is raising funds for a new “National Cancer Centre” based in Butare and seems to think I’m going to play a leading role as the oncologist… not exactly my skillset or in my range of interests but we’ll wait and see what comes of it!

Finally a pic of our “Private Clinic” where only the wealthy can go – it costs $8 a day for a single room with balcony views over the Rwandan hills. Send me an email if you’d like to book a room for your next operation!