Amakuru? Nemeza!

A few days later as planned, but here is our story about the training Tineke, Elske and Floor gave last week. As with everything on our trip so far, it was an experience! We had a very challenging target group, very different from what we are used to in Holland. Rwandan people are not used to the type of training we know, actively participating, lot of exercises and discussion. In Rwanda it is normal to sit down and listen, letting the trainers fill you with information and knowledge. But thinking for themselves was a new experience for our ‘class’. The first day, 36 people showed up! So that was almost everybody. The whole day, we thought we did pretty ok. But afterwards we got critics! It is very hard to get a right impression of what is going on in the head of a Rwandan person. They thought we did not bring enough, and they had to do all the thinking. But that was exactly how we planned it!

Second day, they made us quite nervous…. But something changed. They began to understand our way of training, at least, some of them. We explained again and again how important it is to think for your self, have discussions with your colleagues and bit by bit they started to agree with us. At the end of the morning we already had some deep discussions between the employees and they saw the importance of that. At the end of day 2 we got a lot of compliments and even applause!

During the evaluation at the last day, people told us they really learned a lot. We were exhausted and happy that it was over. But it was a very interesting experience. Providing a training in Holland now is a piece of cake for us… ;)

During these 3 days, Eric and Christine were busy teaching the teachers English at the primary school in Nyagasamba, while Graham and Gordon were painting the classrooms. The school is very, very basic. The toilets are horrible and the classrooms look depressing. The painted walls make a big difference. Also the guttering continuous…. Next week, they will be able to collect the rainwater in big reservoirs, Afrotanks, to use for washing hands. Because we are in the rain season, the tanks will be filled in a short time. And last, 2 toilets will be placed to replace the holes in the ground that now serve as toilets.

The last two days we acted more like tourists: we learned African dancing, went to the market again, had nice lunches and went out for dinner and we (Tineke, Eric, Elske & Floor) went to a real Rwandan nightclub! We all danced the whole night, what a nice experience!

Graham and Christine went to see the gorillas.

Our trip is slowly getting to its end. So next time we will tell you about the genocide memorial places and our trip to Kibuye.