Today was a Good Day

Didn't mean to quote Ice Cube, but today was a good day. This morning I, along with 2other PCVs, had a meeting with the mayor of our district. We are planning to have a big festival at the Nyamirambo stadium (date TBD), which will be geared towards young people. The theme of the festival will be teaching health through the arts- specifically music, dance, and painting. We're planning on having art competitions and dance offs with prizes, as well as booths where the youth (14-24 year olds) can get information on health and art, which are both things that I feel need some improvement here. Of course, I understand that there is a huge lack of resources. I'm really excited about this, and can't wait to get the ball rolling. For the month of October, we're just going to work on the project proposal and budget. Then we'll look into sponsors, figure out the logistics, etc.

Next I went back to my umudugudu and walked to my school so I could conduct the essay competition for GLOW camp. We don't have much time to plan the GLOW camp, so as soon as Meredith e-mailed me the flyer, application, and information for heads of schools, I made sure to tell every single student of mine about it yesterday, and decided to hold the essay competition the next day, Wednesday, since it is a half day for them. I arrived a little early and was able to witness some of "church day". Since the school I teach at is officially a private Christian school, every Wednesday they have a service led by different students from the school. Since I don't teach on Wednesdays (and, to be perfectly honest, since I try to steer clear of any religious ANYTHING here) this was my first time to actually attend this, despite the fact that I've been been teaching at the school since April. Even though I don't usually like church type settings, and I didn't understand most of what was said since it was in Kinyarwanda, it was still interesting to get to see my students who are normally so shy leading charismatic sermons and singing songs in harmony. It made me realize how much the language barrier prevents me from really getting to know my students.

A surprising number of students (28) showed up and stayed after school for the essay competition, so I'm really glad I decided to ask my students if they were interested. I'm still a little worried though. The main requirement for the students to be accepted to GLOW camp is how well they speak English, and most of my students don't speak or understand English well enough to follow a 5 day camp that is conducted almost entirely in English. Last I heard, the camp is going to be very small (about 50 students), and I know most of my students won't be picked, but hopefully I can vouch for some of them. I really do feel like I have a few diamonds in the rough who really deserve an opportunity like this.

I decided to host one of the new PC trainees when they come. It'll be really cool to see their reaction to the way us PCVs live and work (which, truth be told, varies SO MUCH here in Rwanda). It's always fun to see newly arriving Americans reacting to things I now find so normal. Peace out.