Rwandan Cultural Differences

Taken from the Welcome to Rwanda packet I received from the Embassy upon arrival:

"In Rwanda, people tend to concern themselves with the present rather than the future. Nothing gets done in a timely manner. Planning for the future is virtually unheard of. Those of us who are task-oriented, who are accustomed to being successful at making and executing plans may find it frustrating to be in situations where schedules and time tables are not important"

Um, yeah, I think I'd have to agree... My module will be finished after this weekend and that means the next module begins the following Tuesday (Feb 1). It is a team-taught module that I am contributing one of the four weekend sessions, yet, no one seems bothered by the fact that we don't have a syllabus developed yet. So I spent the better part of yesterday creating a syllabus. I sent it out over email yesterday but still haven't heard back from any of the other instructors. Even though I had a lot of other things I needed to get done yesterday, it was worth dedicating the time to developing it just because it makes ME nervous not to have it all planned out ahead of time (I know, call me crazy for wanting to plan a class an ENTIRE week ahead of time!). 

I think it might be worth investing some time to observing some of the other Rwandan professors while they teach a class. Maybe it will give me some perspective of what is expected! I only have my Columbia experience to draw upon and clearly that structure differs from the one being implemented here.

Failure to Launch

The second marathon lecture session went well. The students seem to be embracing the active learning style and are engaging in discussions. The lab session, however, was a nightmare.  It was meant to be an exercise to get them familiar with the IUCN website (the redlist of endangered species) and it required internet access.   Sure, I suspected the internet would be slow, but what I did not understand beforehand was that the students had very limited computer experience and their level of english fluency would make the exercise extremely painstaking. I decided to modify the lab mid course to make it shorter and easier and the good news is that they were able to finish, but boy, was it trying.

The weather seems to be shifting a little bit now. Instead of daily downpours, we are now on what seems to be an every other day or every 2 day rain schedule. I've gotten where I can *usually* tell when I leave the house in the morning if it will rain. If it is gorgeous and sunny outside early in the morning, that usually means rainstorms in the afternoon. Cooler and hazy in the morning, and the afternoon will be nice. Predicting the weather impacts what shoes I wear because the walk from town to our house are on dirt/mud roads. And they can really get awfully muddy fast in the rain.

We've made friends with another set of mazungos (white people) in town: a Flemish couple. The husband is volunteering with me as a teaching assistant for my class and hopefully will also be helping me with my field work once I start in Feb or March. I'm anxious about starting because the more I hear about Nyungwe, the more overwhelming the forest seems to me. First off, it is huge (1000km2). The terrain is very rough and steep and I wonder what I've gotten myself into trying to catch some of the most elusive animals in Rwanda in this huge forest! Wish me luck!

Okan is off to Kigali again tomorrow for phase two of the car search. He thinks he has settled on a car he likes but we are still in the process of amassing the wads of cash necessary for the purchase.  His bank account keeps getting frozen because they think someone is illegally using his account in Rwanda. Alas, it is just us trying to pull out money for the car. We've told the bank a million times that we will be in Rwanda for the year, but for some reason it still keeps getting frozen.

We hired a man named Martin to help with the cooking and cleaning at the house. He worked for Nicole and Simon (the other mazungo couple we know in Butare) a few years ago and they really liked him. He has been doing a great job and it's nice to have someone help with the shopping and cleaning. The shopping is especially hard because if we go to the market by ourselves, the price of food is about triple what it is if he buys it. Yesterday was his day off so I whipped up some cole slaw for the three of us to eat for supper. I wasn't sure if he would like it, but alas, he loved it and literally would have eaten the entire bowl if Okan and I weren't there. 

Second Class

I am preparing for my second marathon teaching session beginning tomorrow afternoon. I've had a hard time trying to decide what to have the students do for the lab on Saturday.  I want to get them outside and looking at animals and birds, yet I hardly feel like an authority on any of the local wildlife since I'm still so new to Rwanda. I decided to take a chance and put out some sherman (small mammal) traps this morning in the arboretum to see what small mammals I might capture. If I am able to capture anything I think I will have the students practice handling/processing animals for their lab.  My back up plan is the internet based lab I planned for last week.

I've been feeling a little lonely as of late- missing my friends from home. I've met lots of people so far at the University, but I'm still very new and feeling a bit like an outsider (I guess it's only been a week and a half!).  Okan and I are also constantly stared at whenever we walk around. I'm fairly used to just zoning out and being in my own head when I walk (as I do in NYC). But the staring does get old after a while.  We're probably 2 of 20 white people in all of Butare.

The workload of teaching these back to back classes on Friday and Saturday also is challenging. I haven't had much time to give any thought to my field work, which I hope to start next month. We're also still looking for a car (which we would need to do the field work!). We've found one we like, but the owner wants cash.  This presents two challenges- first, there is an ATM limit to what we can withdraw and the only alternative is taking out larger amounts within the bank which means hefty bank fees.  Second, and more amusingly, the largest bill in Rwanda is the equivalent of a $10 bill. So paying for a car means having absurb amounts of Rwandan francs on hand. Something on the order of a briefcase full of cash! We figure we can probably use the ATM's to get enough out in another 10 days or so given the daily withdrawal limit.

On the bright side- the electricity is back on! Yay! Which is good because it has been quite cool this week (so no more cold baths). I'm off to check my traps this afternoon- hoping some small creature will be drawn to the peanut butter and oat bait!

No Electricity

The house still has a number of problems. Foremost, no electricity since Sunday. Which means, amongst other things, cold baths. The average high temperature is 73 in the middle of the day with lows in the afternoons/evenings in the high 50s. So not the typical hot weather that most people imagine with Africa. We're not very optimistic the electricity will be fixed anytime soon so I guess we had better get used to cold baths. I guess it will be good to get used to since my field work will probably be under similar conditions.

Okan started back working at Kaplan today. As long as he works from campus he seems able to get some work done. The internet on campus (which has been working most of the time- touch wood) is actually really fast. We've been pleasantly surprised. The modem we got for the house is miserable- hardly worth getting online unless it's for something important.  The biggest challenge for Okan is that the NYC workday starts at 4pm our time.  Although now that we have no electricity, there's no real rush to get home anytime early! I have an extra desk in my office so we're sharing office space which is nice. He'll head back to Kigali later this week to keep up the car hunt while I do my teaching.

Settling In

Teaching went well on Friday and Saturday. The biggest challenge is the language barrier- Rwanda made the switch from French to English as their official language only in 2009. I spend a lot of time repeating myself. But the students couldn't be more engaging and eager- a real treat to teach.  Another challenge was the laboratory I had prepared was meant to be conducted on computers with internet. Alas, the internet was out (it had been so good all week!!). So I put something together new over lunch right before lab. I think it worked out ok given the circumstances.

Okan and I are still working to settle into our house. The landlord has turned out to be lame so we are probably going to move in February sometime. I won't bother explaining why he is lame, but he's what you might refer to as a scrooge. So we are looking at other places to rent that also might be less expensive. It's not that we're paying so much (it's Africa after all), but by most standards, we're paying too much for what we're getting (Sorry Joy, Margaret and Paul! Hope the new digs will be big too!).

Moving, no matter if it is in New York or Rwanda, is generally a pain (but not as much of a pain as it must be riding this bicycle). Rwanda has its' own set of challenges. For example, it appears that no one sells sunscreen in all of Butare. And Okan looked for some when he went to Kigali (2hrs away) and couldn't find any there either (though we're told it does exist). So I'm walking around with a bit of a sunburn at the moment.  Our electricity has also been out for the last 24 hours and getting the scrooge owners to help isn't easy. But all of these things are typical normal hurdles one expects when living abroad.  I'm trying to take these challenges in stride.  I like to think of myself as a rubber band that hasn't gotten stretched in a long time (maybe since Mexico?) so I've gotten a bit tough and lost some flexibility. And that living in Rwanda is a good experience to help me stretch my horizons and outlook on life. I am working on becoming more flexible.

On a lighter note, here's an amusing billboard that is posted just outside of campus. I can't read the kinyarwandan, but I think the Sugar Daddy part and picture make the message clear!

Teaching

Tomorrow is my first day teaching. It is an exciting time for the department because this is the very first class of a new graduate program that has been in the works for several years now. I've tried to remain zen about things, but I get news of problems or changes with the classroom/labs/my course expectations about every 30 minutes throughout the day. Once all the "fires" are put out, I generally feel prepared and excited for a great first class tomorrow (3 hr lecture on Fri, a 3 hr lecture on Sat morning, and a 2 hour lab on Sat afternoon!).

I think the students will be in for a bit of a shock with my teaching style (American)! In Rwanda, most professors teach by lecturing straight from notes for several hours at a time. And the students receive the lecture notes. I will be doing neither of these things and I know the students will be surprised at this different sort of teaching strategy. My lectures are based on active learning- with lots of discussions. I ask them to break out into pairs to discuss questions I pose in class and then we discuss as a group. I'm expecting it will take the students some time to warm up to the idea. I'm told that Rwanda's educational system was developed by the Belgians and that their system was very hierarchical. The professor was the boss and the students better just be quiet and take notes. For one, I don't have the attention span to lecture straight for three hours. But also, how are the students supposed to stay awake for three hours?

Working at the National University of Rwanda

I walked to school on Monday for the first time. It takes me about 50 minutes to walk from home and it's about 75% up hill. While it's not exactly the way I like to start my day at 7am, I figure it will be good training for my field work up in the mountains of Nyungwe. I started work at the National University of Rwanda (I just call it NUR) on Monday. It's an interesting place but has baffling bureaucracy. It seems that the government recently changed the scholarship system for its' undergraduate students. Previously, everyone received scholarships- starting this academic year (Jan 1) only the poorest students receive them. The result I'm told, is that the vast majority of students have not shown up for classes which were meant to have started this week. I'm told that most students can't afford university without the scholarships. It's unclear what will happen. The professors seem to think that the students will be able to collect money from their families and eventually attend- maybe in a week or two weeks time.

I'm lucky because I am teaching graduate level students who are not affected by this scholarship rule. I start my first lecture on Friday afternoon. Because my students are all working- mostly as civil servants, I teach 3 hours on Friday and another 5-6 hours on Saturday. I was given the option of breaking it up over Fri, Sat, and Sun, but I decided I need one day off! I've been working really hard trying to put together 8 hours of lecture material for this first week's meeting. It is like cramming the equivalent of three weeks of material into a weekend! And for a class I have not taught before (Wildlife Ecology & Management). While I'm nervous about what the class will be like (I'm told the student's written and oral English is not the best), it's exciting to be holding the very first class of a brand new (first ever in Rwanda) Masters program in Conservation Biology! We are having a small party to celebrate the beginning of the program tomorrow night.