More music: Christian is also in a group called Black Diamonds and we went to hear them at “One Love” guesthouse and club. They started after 9 p.m. ( Ron and I were up way past our bedtime). It started off with jazz – and they were hot – in fact, so hot that in the middle of one piece, they blew out the electricity. They continued the piece with a long drum solo (no amplification needed) but that could not go on all night so there was a pause in the music. Lots of people pulled out cell phones which double as flashlights while repairs were made. The music continued after electricity was restored – Ron and I left at about 11:30 but Christoph, Irene, and the other Ron from Newton, MA had all started dancing by then so they stayed on.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
My math majors
A little more from class: this is my class of math majors taking differential equations.
They are taking a quiz in this first picture.
The students are very strong and eager to learn. I plan to ask permission to photocopy a couple of completed homework assignments as examples of what well-done homework should look like. This group has class from 8 to 11 Friday mornings – three hours is a lot for just listening to lectures so we vary the activities – I present new material and do some problems, then ask them to work in groups on a problem. They really do this well – they are very good at working collectively and really stick to the task at hand and also explain the material to any in the group who do not understand. Here's one group:
And another
They also enjoy presenting the completed problem to the class.
My taking a camera to class was a big event, so many wanted pictures of me with them. I have really enjoyed teaching these students and will be sad to leave.
More people
More people in the guesthouse – it has been very busy. There’s another Ron from Newton, MA here for two weeks to teach medical informatics in the E-Health program.
Birthday Celebration
February 26 was Toma’s birthday and many people helped him celebrate at dinner at a restaurant in Nyamirambo called Ten to Two. Nyamirambo is the section of Kigali next to KIST. The restaurant is mainly a fish restaurant – they serve grilled tilapia which is really the best food we have had in Rwanda. They serve a whole fish – we had one for each two people although that was more than we could eat. There are no utensils – there are places to wash your hands before and after eating and you eat the fish with your hands. They also have potatoes and beer – who could ask for anything more. The restaurant is high on one of the hills of Kigali so we got a wonderful view of the city – a night view, I’d like to return during the daytime to get a day view. There were about 30 people in our group, mostly from the school of architecture or friends of friends of members of architecture. It was a very good celebration.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Jazz in Kigali
It’s been a long time between postings – and that’s an indication of how busy I’ve been. We had to turn in final exams at the beginning of March to be sent to an external examiner to be approved. Each course needed two final exams, the regular exam and a supplementary exam. Students who fail get a second chance at the final. Since the final must count 60% of the grade, and 40% is a passing grade, this is a real second chance. In addition to the final, we had to turn in complete solutions including how many points are to be awarded for each step of the solution. This was intensely time-consuming, although now that it is all done, I not only do not have to create the final exams, I totally know what I will be teaching for the rest of the term. So that’s a plus.
On February 21 we went to a jazz concert given by the group “Men on Hills” (Rwanda is the land of 1000 hills). A man in the KIST School of Architecture, Christian, plays bass in the group. The concert (well, Christian referred to it as a public rehearsal, but it sounded like a concert to me) was at 2 in the afternoon at a small recreation club - it has volley ball, a pool, a restaurant and bar. We had gorgeous weather for this. The group is very international: Christian is from Germany, I think the guitar player, Toma, is from Congo, the drummer is from the US. They played lots of great stuff including "All of me", “Sitting on the dock of the bay”, “Summertime”, “The girl from Ipanema”, almost everything was familiar. The lead singer was fantastic. Here are some pictures. Christian is also in another group, and I hope we’ll hear them next week.
Christian
Toma
From L to R: Christian on bass, Toma on guitar, Eric on drums, Djedje - vocalist, Michel on guitar, Eckert on sax and guest vocalist Rebecca on the right
I’ll continue this update, but I need to go grade some exams now. Tests other than the final exam are called CATs – continuous assessment tests. In one class I am not giving a midterm exam but just lots of small continuous assessments (weekly quizzes, homework). They asked if we would be having a CAT – I told them no, just Kittens. Then I had to spend 10 minutes explaining that. But they liked it.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Another blog from KIST
Christoph and Irene also have a blog - and with lots of great pictures. Here is the link:
http://africa.markelic.de/
Yesterday we spent about 3 hours walking around Kigali, in areas we had not visited before. We walked past a manufacturing cooperative where people were making furniture, metal items, other stuff: it was like a large, open warehouse. In different sections people were working on making different things. Much of the metalwork was being made from old steel drums, so it was also a recycling plant. We walked through residential neighborhoods, on the paths that go through them. It was down hill and up hill and down hill and up hill and then up hill some more - at about the 3 hour mark, a taxi drove by and we hailed it and went to the market at Amahoro and bought vegetables. I bought some peppers from the same person from whom I had bought broccoli last time; he remembered me and said I am a regular customer and gave me a good price. I think that is the way to go - become a regular customer of a few people.
It absolutely poured rain late in the afternoon. Our rooms on the second floor are right under the metal roof so the rain sounds even louder there than outside. We had a reservation at Heaven - Saturday night they show a movie and we decided it was time for hamburgers and a movie. The movie was "You will meet a tall dark stranger" - good fun.
I am preparing to plant a garden. This afternoon I hope to look for seeds and a small gardening tool.
http://africa.markelic.de/
Yesterday we spent about 3 hours walking around Kigali, in areas we had not visited before. We walked past a manufacturing cooperative where people were making furniture, metal items, other stuff: it was like a large, open warehouse. In different sections people were working on making different things. Much of the metalwork was being made from old steel drums, so it was also a recycling plant. We walked through residential neighborhoods, on the paths that go through them. It was down hill and up hill and down hill and up hill and then up hill some more - at about the 3 hour mark, a taxi drove by and we hailed it and went to the market at Amahoro and bought vegetables. I bought some peppers from the same person from whom I had bought broccoli last time; he remembered me and said I am a regular customer and gave me a good price. I think that is the way to go - become a regular customer of a few people.
It absolutely poured rain late in the afternoon. Our rooms on the second floor are right under the metal roof so the rain sounds even louder there than outside. We had a reservation at Heaven - Saturday night they show a movie and we decided it was time for hamburgers and a movie. The movie was "You will meet a tall dark stranger" - good fun.
I am preparing to plant a garden. This afternoon I hope to look for seeds and a small gardening tool.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Kigali adventures
This morning I went to the big market in the Amahoro section of Kigali with Toma, one of the other visiting faculty members. The first part of the adventure was taking a mototaxi there - this is a very common form of public transportation that I had not yet tried. These are motorcycle-taxis - the drivers carry an extra helmet and drive around Kigali just as a taxi would do. They only carry one passenger each (a good thing) and are faster and cheaper than car taxis and much faster but more expensive than buses. Here is a link with a picture and lots of description: http://www.livinginkigali.com/transportation/taking-a-moto/
The market is huge, and has fabric, crafts, housewares, grains and beans, fruits and vegetables, fish, chicken, probably more. We bought a huge amount of fruit and vegetables - we will have to do a lot of eating to use it all before it spoils. I got broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, tomatoes, a pineapple, and mangoes. The market is reasonably clean, well organized and the people are very courteous - they do try to sell you stuff but in a courteous way. Communication was not difficult except one problem at the end - I wanted to get a mango and I am sure that I was told by several people at different stands that they were between 800 and 1000 francs each (it's 600 francs to the dollar). Since we had bought some for 200 francs on the weekend, I thought that was too high. But Toma convinced me to try one more place, and offer 500 francs - I had a 500 franc bill. I did, and the seller happily put 5 mangoes in my bag. So apparently these were 100 francs each ???
There were 3 very small boys who seemed to adopt the muzungu (that's me) - they led me around for a while holding my hands and tried very hard to get me to take a picture of them - I had no camera - their miming of the picture taking process was absolutely charming. So I violated one of my rules and gave them each 20 francs.
We both had bought a lot so we took a car taxi back.
The market is huge, and has fabric, crafts, housewares, grains and beans, fruits and vegetables, fish, chicken, probably more. We bought a huge amount of fruit and vegetables - we will have to do a lot of eating to use it all before it spoils. I got broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, tomatoes, a pineapple, and mangoes. The market is reasonably clean, well organized and the people are very courteous - they do try to sell you stuff but in a courteous way. Communication was not difficult except one problem at the end - I wanted to get a mango and I am sure that I was told by several people at different stands that they were between 800 and 1000 francs each (it's 600 francs to the dollar). Since we had bought some for 200 francs on the weekend, I thought that was too high. But Toma convinced me to try one more place, and offer 500 francs - I had a 500 franc bill. I did, and the seller happily put 5 mangoes in my bag. So apparently these were 100 francs each ???
There were 3 very small boys who seemed to adopt the muzungu (that's me) - they led me around for a while holding my hands and tried very hard to get me to take a picture of them - I had no camera - their miming of the picture taking process was absolutely charming. So I violated one of my rules and gave them each 20 francs.
We both had bought a lot so we took a car taxi back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)