Catching up on some Photos

Hi there.  Just checking in with a few photos from the phone.  

Crystal Cola is popular in Rwanda and you can buy it for take away in most of the tiny shops around:

IMHO, Our friends at Crystal may have some copyright and trademark discussions around their choice of font.
They are real, check them out here.

This sign is at a sports club in Kigali.  I was terrified for a while, but now I think it is a typo for a 'cap'.

Eleanor Roosevelt lives two houses away from my house, but right next to the boy cousin's house.  About 10 feet apart. All my girls are in love with the boy cousins, in a cute way.  (Mostly Avi & Miki.)  It's possible someone in the photo below has a little crush:

Adelphine and Avi

Remember the first day of school?  Here's some of Eleanor Roosevelt on the last day of school, getting their report cards.  

Yvonne, Josiane, Violette, Grace and Samila

They were also assigned combinations (like Math, Chemistry and Physics) or (History, Economics and Geography) and these are the only subjects they'll study for the next three years of high school. I'll be honest, there were some tears.

Doing laundry during grading week after exams:

Yvonne, Josiane, Josiane and Adelphine

After you wash your clothing you can just spread them on the ground to dry.  It works just fine.  It really does.  Also, as I assume I've mentioned before, you can wash your shoes after every wearing just like clothing.

Remember Immaculee?  She's finished with secondary school now, and she is glad:

Immaculee after her last National Exam

So, the kids are done with exams and leaving or left and I am working in the village for a few more weeks with a select group of Sr. 6 kids on TOEFL prep and university scholarship applications.  It's crazy and stressful and pretty amazing.  More on ER soon.  

I played pick up in Kigali the other day.  The girls are amazing. Like really aggressive on D and can put it.  It was awesome.  Also, I am old and out of shape.

Hope you are doing well.  I guess the global warming scientist can say I told you so now about the super storms for the Nth time (Sandy, Katrina, Hayian).  I wish that were worth a dern.

Diva: Violette in the Fashion Show

Thanks to fellow cousin Isabel for these much improved photos of Violette at the fashion show:

Nothing on this is sewn. It is pinned together from flat sheets of fabric that will amazingly be whipped into the next dress when the pins come out.  The kids do all this themselves from pieces of plain, loose fabric.

Rwanda's Next Top Model anyone?

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:

Fidele presenting me with a gift

Fidele, me, Julius and Emmanuel

Chipati & Sambusas  for the party

Fidel enjoys juice and chipati

Me, President Claire and Julius, the event Emcee

Emmanuel and Fidele toast with some juice

Patrick and Emmanuel

Aminudab, Me and Claire

Jackie, Emmanuel, Claire, Me andAminudab

Me and Fidele

Claire and Me

Claire, me and Fidele

Patrick and Me

ASYV 2013 Tutoring Club

Tutoring Club Ballers: Aminudab, Fidele, Julius and Emmanuel

Party breaks out

Peaceful Resolution

I know you were all up all night holding vigils about this.

Luckily, the situation has come to a peaceful resolution.  My aides in this difficult situation, Miki and Kome, were able to intercept a transmission from this previously unknown cell of Boko Haram operating here in Rwanda that the hostage was being held on the village water tower.

The situation was precarious when I arrived but I was able to perform the rescue which was captured by a local news team.  See below:

Clown for Dancing Party

This is the 2013 Agahozo Shalom 'class of cousins'. I.e., this year's ASYV volunteers. We're 9 people from the US, Israel and Nigeria and in addition to being assigned a family we all have different jobs.  Though everyone get's pulled into all kinds of things, here's a rough rundown L-R:

1. Elizabeth is from NYC and is working with the Alumni (college aps, scholorship search, etc.).
2. Michelle is from Pittsburg/Philly and coordinates English Learning for kids and staff.
3. Avi is from Israel and organizes guests and visitors (& teaches carpentry).
4. Kome is from Nigeria and organizes the sports programs the village (teams and rec).
5. Shira is from California and works on village internal and external communications.
6. Miki is from Florida, back for a second year of lording over the Science Center.
7. Isabel is from DC and Middlebury and teaches Art.
8. Me - Professionals Skills: CV creation, Career Awareness, Teaching TOEFL.
9. Jerrod is from Denver and teaches Music and Theater.

Want to be in next year's photo?  You can apply here:  http://www.asyv.org/application

If you do, you might get to see a lot of interesting things, including:

a)  A neon orange moth on your sink when you get up to brush your teeth: 

b) The scariest mask.  [The small print describes this item as a "Clown for Dancing Party" Indeed. I will not be attending said "Dancing Party" thank you very much.  RwF 2500 is ~ $3.75]

 c) This is my gym now.  These are two paint cans filled with cement separated by a broom handle.  Since I hurt my Achilles and can't run I am trying to lift to still do something at all for fitness.  Hopefully this is the amount weight you like, because in Rwamagana there's no adding 5 pounds a set until you max out.

Serengeti Safari

Back during the break in April, I went on an incredible Safari in Tanzania with Ellen.  We went to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire National Park.  

At the time I had a million things to tell you about it but then I came home and the frenetic pace of life at Agahozo took back over. I saw many amazing animals and the scenery was breathtaking.  Highlights included: seeing 5 lioness go on a hunt, watching graceful giraffes graze on tree tops,  watching hippos graze out of the water like cows, and watching baboons play on a river bank.  (Arusha is nothing special, but it was even kind of fun to learn that.)

Like with the gorillas trip,  I took just a few crummy photos with my iPhone. At some point I'll link to Ellen's photos with the nice camera and you can get a better sense of what I saw. 

Still even from these you get the idea:

Our guide and our rover 

 Awesome fancy camping lodge just outside of the Serengeti

 Ellen snapping some 'Phants

 Baboons were super fun to watch play.

About a zillion impalas

 The mannequins in Arusha emphasize different features than you might expect.

Here's the rest of the pics.
And even more good pics from Ellen:
https://picasaweb.google.com/mellengilman/201304AfricaCourtney03?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHcjcO10ZaRbQ&feat=email#

I had a lot of fun, though four days in a safari rover is definitely enough.

A few more of my faves:

(Thanks Ellen!)

Some Summer Pics (as promised)

In no particular order:

 It was great to see Green Means Go captain and cheeseburger expert Dorko in DC last weekend after sectionals.  This is Keri "not drinking" at the Argonaut. We promise.  Keri and I are taking over Philly the weekend of November 11 so look out.

This is a crazy, wack moth-like bug I saw in Raleigh near my sister's. (Actually outside my niece's dance studio.)  It's wings look just like leaves.  Nature!

At Oak Island, met this super cute baby dog. He is a Havanese, so likely a communist.  If that's what Communism looks like, I am all for it.

Here's Danielle, Me and Emily in NYC at her surprise 40th b-day party.  I am looking forward to turning 40 and looking like that!

 I hope to never own a car again.  If I do ever own a car, I hope it is this one I saw on H st NE DC.

A certain someone got a pretty high score on my semi-functional Ms Pac Man machine and wanted to make sure I captured it.  My 2nd place 52360 is particularly embarrassing given my home court advantage.

I went to the Kennedy center with Sarah and Frank to see Seinfeld.  This is the "Foyer of Flags" or some such nonsense.  I am looking forward to their wedding, which is coming up soon.