Ancient Life is better than Modern Life

“Ancient Life is better than Modern Life” - the motion for the first debating competition between Wisdom Primary and its friendly rival Sunrise Primary!  I was very excited to secure a place on the Wisdom supporters’ bench for this important inaugural event, held at Sunrise.  And very professional it was too!  The teams comprised 8 boys & girls from each school, aged between 9 and 11 years old.  Both were dressed incredibly smartly (Wisdom children in their Sabbath uniforms of blue and white striped dresses / shirts) and were well versed in the rules and practices of professional debating including starting address for each speaker (“Madame Chairperson, Secretary, Judges, Proposers, Opposers and the House at Large”) and how to challenge the other team by making either a point of order; point of enquiry or point of information. 

Sunrise were great hosts and before the competition gave us a tour of their school (which is 10 years old, hence more established than Wisdom, which opened in January 2010) and had dancers and music to entertain the audience (I think the music was supposed to be background music pre-debate but in true-Rwandan style, as soon as there is music there is singing!).  The quality of the debate itself frankly blew me away.  Each child was able to stand up in front of what must have been 200-300 other children/teachers in the audience and raise many good quality points addressing health, community, technology, family and ethical issues.   I would have been surprised to see such a debate from secondary school children, never mind primary.  As the children got more confident, they started to challenge each other’s points (and members of the “house” were also able to challenge), sometimes quite harshly, but always politely.  Amazing to watch!   Slightly unusual judging system in that the judges comprised one Wisdom teacher and one Sunrise teacher, who marked independently then the scores were added together (unsurprisingly each gave their own team the highest!).  On an aggregate basis, Wisdom were the winners!!   And seriously (I know I might seem biased) but they did make better quality points, which was all the more impressive given that they were proposing the motion, which I think made it even harder. I was so proud of them.  And they were soooo excited!   My ears were aching with the din of victory singing on the bus on the way back to Wisdom.  What a result!  Both schools acknowledged the event as a huge success and there will be more to come.   And a great sign, that children of this age can debate so professionally – maybe some future politicians for Rwanda?

Life here continues to be good.  The rainy season seems to have started with rain most nights and often mid-late afternoon (and the very occasional rainy morning).  Not today tho, which was absolutely gorgeous.   Here is a picture of my walk to work from this morning – volcanoes in the distance and beautiful farmland along the way (newly ploughed – planting season has just begun).   I went to the deaf school this afternoon, and was in luck when a moto stopped as I waited for the bus from the primary.  I’ve wanted to get the moto to the deaf school for ages as the route is sooo stunning and I love the exhilaration from being on the back of a motor-bike somewhere beautiful (yes, Ian – I know you’ve been telling me this for a long time  - it’s only taken me about 15 years to acknowledge!). Usually the moto drivers don’t want to go to the deaf school as it’s the wrong direction from town and not so easy for them to get a fare back, but I was in luck today (they must have been on the way to collect someone).  Then more in luck, because I got to the school much earlier than I would have done on the bus and it was still lunchtime for the children, which meant I could join in the volleyball (my sign language is coming along but not great, but who needs language when you can knock a volleyball around?) 

I love hanging out with the children at the deaf school.  Just the loveliest group of children – so smiley and happy - and I love that they act like a big extended family with the older children looking out for the younger ones.  They even humoured me when I missed the shots in the volleyball game!  There are 68 deaf children at the school, which is one of only six in the country, so they are the lucky ones who get opportunity for an education, as so many deaf children don’t (and there is still stigma in Rwanda that deaf children are stupid so it’s a rough future for deaf children who can’t go to school and be supported by an organisation like FCYF).  Louis, the director and the other teachers (and the trainers that do vocational training for the older children in the afternoons) are absolutely amazing with the children.  You can tell that they genuinely love being with the children.  The children don’t have a lot but there is a lot of joy and laughter at the school.   Since I have been in Rwanda there have been 2 volunteer experts visit the deaf school, one an audiologist and one a speech specialist for deaf children, and both said that they did not have resources to work with every deaf school in Rwanda but chose to work with ours because they love the energy, enthusiasm and positive, open attitudes of Louis and the team.

At the weekend, I went to Nyungwe Forest National Park in southern Rwanda, one of the oldest forests in Africa.  Becky’s parents were still in the country so I was lucky that they invited me to tag onto their trip as you need a private vehicle to get to Nyungwe and it would have been difficult and very expensive for me to travel there alone.    It was incredibly beautiful – like an enchanted forest, sitting behind the tea plantations.  It took a day to get there from Musanze, via Kibuye where Becky and her parents were staying and a scary 4 hour drive down a slippery, deep mud road with sheer drops either side.  Good job our driver was experienced!   The lodge we stayed at was very pretty and friendly and the following day we headed into the Forest with a guide for a 4 hour roundtrip walk to see a waterfall.   Our guide was great, pointing out birds, plants and trees and the work itself through the Forest was fabulous with the added bonus that we didn’t see a single person so it felt like we had the Forest to ourselves (in fact it is more than 1,000 sq km so plenty of space to not run into other visitors!).  It had that fresh rainforest smell  - I realised how much I missed going hiking.  In the afternoon, Becky and I went to see the colobus monkeys, who were very cute, but unfortunately hanging out in the trees by the roadside – we had both fancied another walk into the Forest!   After another great meal at the Gisakura Guesthouse and my first glass of red wine in a month (very kindly supplied by Becky’s parents), it was time to pack up for a long journey back to Musanze the following day.

We stopped off in Butare on the way to Kigali, where we were dropping off Becky and her parents.  Butare is the 3^rd largest city in Rwanda and has a really nice feel to it.  It is home of the biggest university in Rwanda and a world class museum, which we stopped off to visit.  The museum was exceptional and could give any museum I’ve seen in the UK or US a run for its money.  It’s the national museum for Rwanda, but does not focus on the genocide at all.  Instead it has rooms on Rwandan geography, history, and its way of life, including model homes, background to agriculture, handicrafts, customs and culture.  Very impressive.  After lunch in town, we headed on to Kigali, then back to Musanze.

After 3 weekends in a row of travel, am looking forward to staying in Musanze next weekend and focusing on the schools and their activities.   And cracking on with the accounting!