Our last weekend in Rwanda

Ron in paradise

We spent our last weekend in Paradise!  We went to Lake Kivu and stayed at Paradis Malahide with Irina, Elena, Tatiana and Alexander.  Lake Kivu is beautiful; we took a boat ride to the island, swam across to the peninsula, and generally relaxed and ate delicious food.  An excellent final weekend.

Alexander and Tatiana

Fishing boat on Lake Kivu

Lizard in Paradise

Final year project presentations

My fourth-year students gave the presentations of their projects on June 30.  

Jean de Dieu and Dieudonne discuss traffic accidents in Kigali City

Monique and Evode modeled population growth

Evode is operating the projector 

Ron asks Milton and Jean Baptist a question about immunization

This is a very big event, with families and friends invited.  They did very good presentations.  Dr. Wali was pleased that they stayed within the allocated time!  Afterward Ron and I went to the home of Evode for a family gathering.  Parties like this always involve people making many speeches; I had to make a speech – I’ve gotten reasonably used to this.  Since most people don’t speak English, Evode’s brother translated to Kinyarwanda.  I had a fine conversation with Evode’s aunt in French – I was very pleased that I could stumble along as well as I could.

Engineers without Borders

Yesterday I went with the Engineers without Borders, Mathis and Donata, plus a civil engineering student, Joseph, to examine a footbridge in the northwest of Rwanda.  It is the Engineers without Borders next project.  Some engineers will be coming from Germany in September to do maintenance work on the bridge, and we were doing preliminary work:  measurements, identification of problems, logistics, to make their work more effective.  We had a KIST pick-up truck and a driver from KIST.  The bridge is about 30 km south of Musanze (aka Ruhengeri) which is near Volcanoes National Park.  That 30 km took about an hour and a half.  It is an unpaved washboard road - the surface was volcanic rock and we got thoroughly shaken.  Mathis, Donata and Joseph examined the bridge for problems; I numbered sections of the bridge so they could tell the next group exactly where the problems were. I numbered sections from 1 to 39 but I left out 26.  I should have used my calculator.  Here are a few pictures of the bridge and the surroundings.

It's a serious river the bridge crosses

Mathis is measuring the amount of sag when there are people on the bridge

The children from this village must cross the bridge to get to school

The bridge is missing some boards and sways a great deal.   Joseph conducted a meeting with the people in the village; they had much to say about it.  They will be very happy to have it repaired. 

I'm a TA now!

I don't have any classroom duties during June, so I told the head of department I'd do whatever was needed.  This semester they have tutorial assistants (TAs) (they had none last semester, as KIST tried an unsuccessful cost-cutting measure), but one TA is in the U.S. and will not be back until the end of June.  So I am being a TA - I have 6 hours of tutorial, plus I attend the 4 hours of lecture that go with it.  It keeps me out of trouble.  I actually enjoy it a great deal - I do problems, help students, but have none of the planning or grading to do.  The best part of teaching.  Maybe that will be my next career.

Breakfast

This morning we went out to breakfast.  I had a ham, cheese and tomato Panini on a croissant at La Galeta, a German bakery and cafe, in Kigali.

A visit from Annie and James

Annie and James came for a visit.  They were here a bit over a week, and now they are back in Massachusetts.   While they were here we went to visit with the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park and we went to Akagera.  We also visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the market near KIST, two  artisan cooperatives and a pottery maker.  We kept us and them pretty busy. 

Gorilla trekking was fantastic.  We left Kigali at 4:00 a.m. and drove (were driven) to the north-west part of the country.  It was a nice drive, our driver was full of information, and stopped to let us photograph the countryside. 

The earth seems to be much richer in this part of the country and the farms looked really productive.  We had a long and strenuous climb up the mountain – we had been put in the group for the ‘easy’ hike but the gorillas moved, so we had a much longer and more difficult hike than anticipated.   

It was an absolutely beautiful hike through the forest, and then we got to hang out with some other primates for a while.  The gorillas pretty much ignored us – a couple of babies seemed to be showing off while on their mothers’ backs but the older gorillas just went about their daily business and paid no attention to that other primate pack nearby.  They must be really used to it. 

We were pretty tired at the end of the trip.  We took things pretty easy the next day. 

On Monday we went to Akagera again.  We saw an elephant!  It’s right there at the edge of the water in this picture.  It turns out that elephants look like small black rocks.

Here are a few more pictures from Akagera.

A&J

Annie and James arrived yesterday.  After 24 hours of travel with no sleep, they were extremely tired.  So we will start our explorations today

Engineers without borders

Two civil engineers from Germany, Donata and Mathis, are now living at the guesthouse.  They have come to Rwanda as volunteers from Engineers without Borders to repair a bridge in the countryside.  They have two blogs which will be interesting to follow:

Engineers without borders _ Germany

and

Mathis' s blog

They are working with a group of civil engineering students from KIST and have been out in the countryside working on the bridge.  They are experiencing much more of rural Rwanda than we have.

Annie and James arrive in two days and will be here for 9 days. We have lots of plans for while they are here.

Grades

The final is over, I have finished marking it and have turned in my grades. The process is a little more bureaucratic here than at Emmanuel.  The grades go first to the head of department who signs off on it, then to the department examination officer and to the university examination office.  After the department examination committee meeting goes over them and approves them, they go to the faculty senate.  Only after approval by the senate are they released to the students.  I'm not sure when that will be!

Ron is away for a few days at an off-site meeting creating a strategic plan for KIST.  I am eager to hear his experiences.

End of Semester

I gave my final exams last Friday (29 April - I'm working on the practice here of writing dates day/month/year) and now I am marking them.  Every aspect of academic life is more bureaucratic here:  for final grades, first I compute them, then they go to the department head, then to a department committee, then to the examination office, then to the senate:  I'm not totally sure what happens at each stage, but it appears to be some approval process.  With all this, the students do not find out their grades until the middle or end of next semester.  Most of the students did ok (that means C or better).

We have  had no electricity and no water since yesterday (Tuesday) morning and it is unknown how long this situation will last.  This is a supplier problem and affects a fairly large region of Kigali near KIST.  Apparently a cable burned up.  Only some of KIST is affected (but that part includes my office and the guesthouse) - I am using the office of a friend to charge up everything.   The water problem is because the guesthouse has an electric pump.  I may go investigate the opportunities for using the fitness and pool facilities that are available at several local hotels.  I keep reminding myself that no running water and no electricity is daily life for 90% of Rwandans.

Updating

This is a vacation, so I'm using time to update.  But you can pretend these were posted at reasonable intervals over the past 3 weeks.

Zanzibar

Classes are over.  In the interval before exams start we are taking a purely-rest vacation in Zanzibar.  We're on the Indian Ocean at a beach resort.  I've read more books of the strictly entertainment variety during this week than perhaps in the entire past year.  I hope I'll be re-energized for the return.

Sunshine Hotel, Matemwe, Zanzibar

The Beach

Graduation

March 24 was graduation for the class of 2010.  After the academic year is over in August, students have an opportunity to take a make-up final exam in any courses they have not passed.  Since the final must count 60% of the grade (and passing is 40%), this is a real opportunity to change a fail to a pass.  The supplemental exams take place in November for both semesters.  This is all part of why graduation takes place in March – it still seems far from the actually completion of work, but I’m sure there are other reasons.

Graduation was pretty much like graduations everywhere:  full of proud parents and proud students.  There were various speakers, including a student speaker who was very good.  I enjoyed the music-and-dance interlude – something we don’t have. Kist supplied academic regalia for all faculty. 

Me in KIST-supplied robe

The processional

Dance interlude

Akagera

We went to Akagera, a national park in the eastern part of the country on the border with Tanzania, with others from the guest house.  As we got farther away from Kigali bicycles play a more important role in transportation – second only to foot.  

 First we went to a place near Akagera where a women’s cooperative produces traditional imigongo art.  These are made using cow-dung which dries on a board and is painted.  It was used to decorate the insides and outsides of houses and important buildings.

 

Then we went to Akagera where they have the animals we often associate with Africa.  It’s a really great park which would be wonderful for mountain biking except for the possibility of encountering an angry buffalo or irritated baboon.  You are required to stay in the vehicle and have a park guide with you.  Most of the time the animals leave as we drive up.

Ron and I stayed in the hotel; the others camped (I don’t know how to reconcile the camping area with the above requirement, but the guide said its totally safe).  In the evening I went to the lobby to read.  There were two books there.  Here’s one of them, and also Ron trying to read it (but it’s in Dutch) - and another picture of it next to some weaver-bird nests.

(Just so you know:  Linda Barnes is a Boston mystery writer)

The Ad World in Germany

Tonight at dinner we learned a lot about advertising in Germany from Irene and Christoph.  English represents new and modern, so many terms are adopted - whether or not they are appropriate or understood.  For example a carry-all for young girls is marketed as a "body bag".  And during the world cup they attended many "Public Viewings" - places where the game was projected onto a large screen for the benefit of the public.  My favorite is a cosmetic and perfume shop whose slogan is "Come in and find out".When they checked to see what people's understanding of this slogan is, they found that people translate it  as "Come in and try to find the exit".

Oh, for the public viewing they use a Beamer - that's a projector.  And the common term for a cell phone is a "handy".

The Art Gallery



The Art Gallery in front of the School of Architecture

 Toma is converting an old shipping container that is sitting in front of the school of architecture into an art gallery in which to display student work – maybe faculty work too.

Oliver filling holes in the walls

 He wants to have it all ready by this Thursday which is graduation for the 2010 class.  Friday he was frustrated because the electricians did not arrive, so Saturday Ron (who knows how to wire) and I (unskilled labor) volunteered.


Toma creating ART




I'm helping to create the ART only I don't know what it will be

Getting the wiring done was really important.  Ron did it.



Ron the Electrician

We got a lot done.     There were lights by evening. 

Football fans

Last Weekend there was a big soccer game played in Kigali at Amohoro stadium.  I saw fans on their way to the game as I was walking around the city.  Here they are:

APR won the game 3-2 over Rayon Sport.