In class

Communication is definitely an issue.  When the change from French to English has been in place long enough that students arrive at the university with many years of English study behind them, it will be much easier, but the current students have only been studying English for a few years.  In addition, the English of instruction comes with a wide variety of accents:  Russian, Indian, Korean among others, and my American accent is difficult for them to understand.  Part of my solution is speaking slowly and writing everything I say on the board, but that is an incomplete solution.

In today's class, I went over some problems of the type "Is this function a solution to the given differential equations?"  Each had a yes or no answer, so to break the ice, I answered on Kinyarwanda:  Yego or Oya.  The class loved this.  Later in class I asked a question and a student came to the board to answer; I asked him to explain his response to the class, and that he could use whatever language he chose, so he chose Kinyarwanda.  The class was very attentive and also participated in the solution - this was a very good part of the class.

At the end of class they taught me a new word in Kinyarwanda:  "nahabutaha"   which means "see you later".  And now I must do my homework and learn it.

The rainy season will come

Everything is very green around here.  We have frequent showers and some serious rain.  But this is the dry season.  I understand that the rainy season is February through May.  There is a lot of construction taking place in Kigali, and much of it seems to be improving drainage for when the rains arrive.  Each building has drainage around it, the streets and sidewalks incorporate drainage channels.  Here are some pictures from Kist and the neighborhood.  I hope I will get pictures of these when they are in full use.

This is around the guesthouse.

 We cross this footbridge as we walk from the parking lot to the guesthouse.  They have made the drainage ditch deeper.

 This is from a nearby residential area.  The water flows under the sidewalk and to the other side.

I'm looking forward to seeing these in action!  (I'm sure I will regret that statement.)

Some pictures

 This is the guest house where we live.  We have a room with bath and balcony; in addition there is a kitchen and many common rooms. 

 This is the Science Building - also known as KIST 3.  I have an office with two others on the first floor.  My classes are also in this building.  I took the picture from the front yard of the guesthouse.

Old New Year

There is a significant community of Russian Expats in Kigali.  Two women from Russia, Irina and Elena, teach at KIST.  They invited us to an "Old New Year" party given by friends of theirs last night.  The couple giving the party were a woman who is from Russia, then moved to Israel, then to the US (Framingham, MA).  Her husband works for US AID and is now posted in Kigali, working on programs to reduce malaria. They live high on one of the hills of Kigali, quite far from the center of the city, in an absolutely beautiful house with yard.  I doubt that we would have ever seen this area otherwise.  On the return trip we had a fantastic view of the city.


It was a great party - very international.  Irina's explanation of why there are so many Russians here is that Russia has a great many highly educated people, and simply not enough jobs requiring that level of education. 

I have Internet!

Today my office mate, Denis, showed me what I needed to do to access the internet from KIST so I am now connected!  People are very helpful here, so learning my way around has not been difficult.

Classes have started; I am teaching the two courses that I expected to teach - differential equations to two different groups of students, math majors and physics majors.  I have met a tutorial (recitation section) with the physics majors; that went well.  I must be careful to speak slowly - my accent is difficult to understand.  I will see the physics students again tomorrow, and the math majors on Friday. 

Just because I know that there is a major snowstorm in Boston, I will have to mention the weather.  It is warm and sunny most mornings; frequently a shower in the afternoon, and it cools off at night - sometimes we even need a blanket.  The sun rises and sets around 6:00 (a.m. and p.m. of course) - we get up at 6 and go to sleep when we get tired.  It really is amazing weather.  We eat lunch at the school cafeteria; it costs 1,000 Rwandan Francs which is about $1.70.  It's all you want of a wide variety of vegetables and if you want, a piece of meat.  We're sort of being vegetarian but we are eating well.

January 9

I still cannot access the internet but Ron can use it from the Science building.  The biggest news is that today I met Dr. Wali, the department head, at last.  I will be teaching the two courses I thought I was going to teach – that was not confirmed until today.  Unfortunately they have been scheduled to meet at the same time, and in the same rooms, but they are two different courses.  Since classes start tomorrow, this may mean a rocky start to the semester. 

We have had a LOT of rain.  We’ve had heavy rains most days, and it is raining hard right now.  I have been noticing the drainage systems around all the buildings, and I see why they are so extensive.  It’s too dark now for me to see how deep the water is in the ditch.

Still in start-up mode

Monday we moved to KIST - to the guesthouse for visiting faculty.  There is one other person living there now, a man from South Korea who teaches electrical engineering (I think).  We do not yet have internet access there; my posting to this blog will be infrequent until I have regular access to the internet.  Today we are at the US Embassy for the third consecutive day in our efforts to get a work visa.  Right now we're at the embassy because it is right next to the immigration office so after submitting our papers we came here to use the internet.  I think we  now have all the papers that we need submitted, and we should receive our visas next week.  Tomorrow or Monday I will learn my teaching assignment; I hope it is differential equations, since that is what I am prepared to teach.

The weather here is amazing - warm and sunny in the morning, an afternoon shower, and pleasantly cool at night.  The food is good; we ate in the KIST student cafeteria yesterday - there is a large assortment of cooked vegetables (all you want), and a piece of meat, all for the equivalent of $1.70.   We've met many people - I am having trouble remembering so many names.  I am looking forward to starting classes- that happens next week.

Happy New Year from Kigali

We arrived in Kigali December 30.  Ravi (from Cornell, taught math at KIST in 2009) met us at the airport and helped us get to our hotel.  We are temporarily at the Iris Guesthouse, until KIST opens for the new year and we can move to housing there.  The Iris is very nice, and very comfortable:  I strongly recommend it.  Yesterday Ravi took us on a long walking tour of this part of Kigali; we went to KIST and looked at buildings, classrooms and the housing there – all was open despite it being break.  The three of us celebrated New Year’s Eve early with dinner at Heaven – Ron and I were pretty tired from both the traveling and the walking tour.  Today we got telephones, and an adaptor - now I can use my computer.

Kigali is beautiful.  I will upload pictures, but I will wait for a better internet connection.  It will still be slow, so there will not be huge numbers of pictures.  Everything was open yesterday and also most things were open today, New Year’s day.  There is much construction going on in the city – we are in a prosperous area, and there are many buildings being built or renovated.  The plants are amazing – there is a lime tree covered with limes in the courtyard of the guesthouse, on our walk I saw avocado trees, and there is a sheflera  (I do not know how to spell this one but I've got one growing in a pot in the dining room) growing up the side of the restaurant building of the guesthouse.  Amazing plants and amazing birds – I do not know their names, but will perhaps learn some of them.  

Tomorrow I am going to KIST with Ravi – he is meeting with some of his former students and I am joining them.  I’m looking forward to this first unofficial meeting of people from KIST.