The morning air is cool despite the humidity that sticks to our bodies. Every day we eat breakfast as a team, fresh fruit and a loaf of bread, before heading up the hillside to our ministry. As we walk we gaze over the landscape before us. Rwanda looks like a tropical rainforest with lush green banana and mango trees scattered around. They stand in stark contrast to the red dirt roads.
This came as a surprise to me after leaving the dry arid climate of Ethiopia. Ethiopia was cold and dry and reminded me of a Colorado winter day. Rwanda reminds some of my teammates of Southern California, warm and beachy, despite it being a landlocked country. We walk slowly up the hill, dodging large holes and bumps in the ground, trying not to fall or twist an ankle. We laugh at the baby goats and mimic their calls to one another, while chatting about our future farms and stating how many goats and chickens we want to have someday.
We trek up to the local village school each morning to teach 3-5 year olds English for a few hours. There are three cement classrooms, painted with alphabet letters and numbers. Each classroom has a chalkboard and wooden desks that the students share. The large classroom dubs as the village church at nights, too.
The lessons are simple for my classroom which is called ‘middle class’. The students understand basic, “Hello, my name is,” English, but not much else.
When we walk in they all stare at the ‘muzungos’ (white people) as if it’s the first time they’ve seen us. They poke one another, snicker and point to us giggling little phrases to each other. We flash them a smile and wink and they all erupt with laughter. Typically when we arrive the teacher already has a lesson on the board, so we walk around and help them finish the lesson. It ranges from matching pictures to copying and writing numbers. Then we typically sing songs. Each student will come to the front of the classroom and sing for us. They know ‘Head Shoulders Knees and Toes’, ‘When the Saints go Marching in’, and a couple ‘I love you baby Jesus’ songs that don’t really have a melody. After each student sings, the whole class claps for them and sings them a song. This song is sung whenever anyone does anything in class, sings a song, writes on the board, or answers a question. It’s just a way for the student to be praised for their efforts.
The song goes like this:
“Esther, Esther
You are so good
I love you I love you
Are nice
Pose down
Education wonderful”
We asked the words to the last part of the song, and yes, “pose down” is correct, we just have no idea what it’s suppose to mean. The best part is the student who is being sung to has to put their hands on their hips and shake them back and forth to the beat of the song. It’s seriously the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!
The best part, (or maybe worst part coming from an ESL teacher) was watching the kids sound out the alphabet. You know, A says “ah”, B says, “buh” (sorry, Tanisha, no “UH” sounds in real life!! Hehe) The students would confidently go to the board with a little stick pointer and begin sounding out the letters. This quickly became comical when we realized they had no clue what the real sounds were.
The teacher stood up, clucking her tongue, “No. No. No. Say again.” She would point to a letter and make them repeat it.
Surely the teacher would correct the sound we thought. Not quite. She would correct it to a completely new sound that was either flat out wrong or hilarious.
“i” makes the “E” sound.
“B” says “boo”
And don’t get me started on “L” which sounds like “Ree”. No wonder Carla’s name is so hard to pronounce.
Here is the alphabet:
A says “Ah”
B says “Boo”
C says “Cah”
D says “Dee”
E says “A”
F says “ffff” (yay it’s right!)
G says “gah”
H says “hah”
I says “E”
J says “Gee”
K says “Cah” (repeat, no problem)
L says “Ree”
M says “moo”
N says “knee”
O says “Oh” (yay it’s half right!)
P says “poo”
Q says “quee”
R says “Rah”
S says “ssss” (success!)
T says “Tee”
U says “ah”
V says “Vee”
W says “we”
X says “Kiss”
Y says “Yee”
Z says “zee”
After all the students get up and repeat the sounds (with a little hip-shaking dance at the end) the teacher shouts at Heather, “Teacha, you go!” pointing with her stick. Heather stands awkwardly looking at me helpless like, “These sounds are wrong, what do I do!?” Noticing our facial exchange the teacher asks if these sounds are correct. Heather honestly tells her, “no”, and proceeds to run through the whole alphabet and their correct sounds.
Honestly, it made us laugh so hard! And regardless if they are saying “Bee” or “Boo” we are just lucky to be in their little classroom participating with them. A classroom in a Rwandan village is drastically different from an American classroom, or even a South Korean classroom. They have one piece of chalk and a makeshift eraser that is a wrapped ball of cloth. The students have pencils that are broken, chewed and missing erasers. There are no bathrooms, just holes in the ground; or for the boys, just going right outside the classroom door. There are no books, no toys, no other activities. Just a cement room with tattered painted walls. But do you know what the kids do have? Joy. They radiate happiness. They are curious, bright and playful. They take care of each other and share what little they have. They put themselves second to those around them and strive to do the best they can, even if it’s saying “poo” for P.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the conditions these children live with, or forget that this IS their life. We are only here for two weeks and then we leave. We get to go back to America that has an education system that, yes can be improved, but isn’t a cement room packed with kids, no electricity or materials. I’m just so grateful to God for opening my eyes to the real world. There’s no way I can go home the same as I was after experiencing life like this.
So this month I’m thankful for our little village. I’m thankful for the trek up the green mountainside. I’m thankful for the sweet kids I get to “teach” and I’m thankful that in this village, P says “Poo”.
