Sambusas, Pumpkins and 100 Franks

So far 2012 has lead off with some amusing and poignant moments. Thanks be to God, this year I am only teaching 175 students. I’m actually teaching more hours but I’m teaching only four classes. I’m teaching all of Senior 3, the O-Level English class. I’m legit people. It was all kinds of fabulous even though Senior 3s are a bit jaded in life. Some of them are all right because they remember me. Others are a bit troubled by the whole exam pressure. Understandably, that exam is really rough for village kids. Sadly, Senior 1 showed up this week. And there is too many of them. So while they build new classrooms, my 175 S3s were crammed into three classes of about 60 students each. No me gusta, but such is life. The upside is now I only teach 15 hours a week. Which means on Wednesday I am finished teaching at 820am. Crazy. I spent all day marking today though after my class, though I did watch The Boondocks at the same time which is a hilarious modern day satire cartoon of American society.  Thanks to the Hoples for the introduction.

This year I am quite busy with secondary projects so it is very good that my schedule has worked out to look a lot better. I’m working on a Lower Secondary School O-Level English collection and development of Lesson Plans that help the kids pass the O-Level Exam. We want to leave this for our Rwandan teachers and also for future Peace Corps Volunteers. I’m also working on a project funded by USAID to teach Judges and Court Officials English.  So one Saturday a month I’ll be heading to the Musanze Court House to teach English to interested adults. I’m also continuing with my English Club and hoping to create an Art Club. Aunty Sonali and Aunty Helanie, two Sri Lankan American friends of my parents, sent a whole lot of school supplies with my parents in November. This included color pencils, markers and construction paper. Crayola just hit my town. I’m really excited to see if anything cool can develop with this. (Btw, Crayola this is kind of an amazing advertisement opportunity. I’m available for hire in 10 months….)

But, here are the funny and truly remarkable moments that I promised you.

-One glorious day last year, there were sambusas in my town. I was so delighted, I bought five. The next day, I went back to the shop and asked for more sambusas. But there were none. My heart cried but my spirit grew firm. For months following this incident, many a day I would walk to same shop and pester them for sambusas. It worked. Now, there are very often sambusas in the tiny town of Kivumu. You have to keep trying. Persistence and pestering really does to far in life. The most important thing the Peace Corps has taught me is that life really is all about the small victories. On that day, I was the happiest of Tashiyas. I was victorious.

But I must always remember Daniel’s advice, “now you must eat these magical sambusas all day every day, or the market will be angry. just make sure your demand doesn't exceed the supply, because prices might increase!” This was followed by another Daniel Facebook comment that was, “What is a Sambusa?”

- There is a shopkeeper named Jackie who was nice to me all of last year. She kept asking me to visit her. My mind was too occupied all of last year honestly to bear out of my Parish, Nun, School circle. This past Monday, she cornered me.

“Wednesday, 5pm you will come visit me,” she said firmly. What could I say, I had been rude for a whole year.

“You wait for me at your shop, “ I said. She nodded. Wednesday, I headed out to the shop. No avail. No one. I asked someone where her house was.  Found it and ventured up the hill opposite mine. Met her husband, her children, and a woman who works at the health center. It’s interesting. Rwandans aren’t normally very funny people. They have fun but only after you know them for a while. But, they seem to have the greatest amount of pleasure listening to me talk. Probably because I’m butchering their language. Nonetheless, I’m glad I can provide so much entertainment to so many people. When I tried to leave after an hour, I was stopped and given a Fanta. When I refused the second one, I was protested against again. Then they asked me all the food I liked in Rwanda. When I listed (a few), Jean Claude, Jackie’s husband, wandered off and came back with this HUGE yellow fruit. I thought it was a papaw. I had NO IDEA what it was. I walked through town asking all my students I met wondering what in the hell it was. No one knew what it was in English. I finally showed it to the Head Teacher who chuckling told me it was a Pumpkin. To my credit, it is yellow and Halloween taught me that Pumpkins are orange. One of the most interesting presents I’ve ever been given. I was touched by their generosity and their constant repetition of how happy they were that I visited.

-I walked into my S3D class and there was an animated discussion going on. The Class Chief respectfully asked me for five minutes. I agreed mainly because I was tired and it was the last class of the day. They were deciding on a number, which turned out to be 100rwf (1/6^th of a dollar). “Everyone will give 100rwf,” the chief announced. He sat down. “What are you collecting money for?” I asked. “To help that boy with school fees,” another student answered. He pointed to the best student in the class. I almost cried. These kids who also have so little wanted to help out their friend. It was a beautiful moment of humanity. People will surprise you.