Courtneyspondence: Tutoring Club Year End Party

Sometimes I am surprised. That's happened more here this year than usual.

So third term exams have finished and we're in the grading week. Some of the kids will be leaving next Saturday. (I CANNOT believe how quickly the year has gone, and I'm devastated I'll be saying goodbye to 6 Eleanor Roosevelt cousins in just a few days.) Some Enrichment year and all of Senior 6 will be sticking around another few days for some exams.

There are many end of year functions to say goodbye for the year and farewell to the graduating Sr. 6 students.

This Sunday was the Tutoring Club Year End Fete. I ended up having an amazing time. This was a surprise.

There's a lot of things I love about the village, but clubs are not in that set. Clubs aren't really what you would expect if you think of high school clubs in the US. Clubs here meet once per week. (Mondays from 7-7:50 PM) and kids don't choose the club, they get assigned. So you end up with kids who don't really want to be there and who don't really have much at stake. Compare this mandatory 50 minutes to my high school club experiences (debate and theatre) where I spent many hours with people I loved working on things I chose, and it's not really a fair comparison. The tutoring club encourages studying, best study strategies and facilitates pairing kids who need help in a subject with someone who can provide it. It is not that exciting as extracurricular activities go. By the time you settle in to the meeting and take attendance, there's time for one or two items. As a club we weren't exactly world beaters. We posted inspirational quotes. We researched modern learning methods and tried to explain them to the school (deep learning by making connections, not rote memorization). We organized students into study groups. I felt sometimes like the club was not accomplishing that much.

That said, I now realize that some things happened that were great. I had an excuse to meet with 16 Sr. 5 kids once a week and practice our English. We had a topic to discuss (tutoring). The kids got practice running meetings, setting agendas, reviewing action items. The kids debated their suggestions and chose a course of action when they reached consensus. Our president gained confidence in leading and in delegating. They are things maybe I took for granted. These are just kids, and not kids who've had the chance to be in many different organizations before Agahozo.

This Sunday the club planned the end of year party. There was a large event in the village (3000 trees were planted with hundreds of visitors from the Rwandan office of immigration). That event ran over a few hours so when it was time for our party (3:00 - 4:00 PM) the kids were all still eating lunch. At 3:50 or so when the president, Claire, came to find me I asked her if she even wanted to do it, or if things were to busy in the village. I didn't think the party would be that big a deal and it was already way past the scheduled time. She was adamant. I went to the orange clubhouse and slowly things started to take shape. I brought juice and ground nuts (aka peanuts) to the party as instructed (that I had gone to Kigali to get the day before).

The kids had organized other refreshments (chapati and sambusas [with meat!] and we had the juice and ground nuts). There was a strict protocol (of course, Rwanda!) with an emcee calling on the president to review the year, the former president as the guest of honor and even me to give some advice. I was shocked that I was presented with a gift (a beautiful woven traditional trivet and a cute makeup bag from traditional fabric). Last year's president, a kid I adore named Emmanuel gave a wonderful speech about what his time here at ASYV had meant to him. There was a DJ. There was dancing and good cheer. The kids went around in a circle and all said one thing they learned from the club. Everyone had a great time. I cried in my goodbye speech.

Okay so I can be a hard woman. The club didn't cure hepatitis or build jet packs or change educational standards nationwide. That wasn't the point of the club. The club created some additional focus on academics in the village. I got to know 16 kids I wouldn't have interacted with much otherwise, and we practiced English, how to run a club and how to cooperate. I learned a lot more than I thought I did.

Here is about 1% of the photos taken at this event: