As I mentioned in my previous post, our education project involved a number of volunteers in Kigali and around Rwanda, teaching English to hundreds of Rwandan English teachers.
As I and seven other volunteers arrived at the Fawe boarding school on Monday, including Andrew Mitchell and Francis Maude, we were all filled with a sense of trepidation. Only one of the volunteers had taught before, and we were all worried about our lack of experience and our ability to teach for six solid hours a day.
Most of us were revising lesson plans the night before, well after midnight.
Day one began with being introduced to our classes. Despite severe nerves, we all passed the day relatively successfully. Our teachers were enthusiastic and hungry to learn. Each day starts at 8am. There is a short break at 10 and then teaching until lunch. Some of us have an assistant teacher, a trainee, who is there to learn from our techniques (or lack of them) and to help us in the classroom.
We all leave, exhausted at 4pm, chatting in the bus on the way home about what we have taught and how well it went down with opr students. There have been some memorable images of Francis Maude busy missing his lunch to mark exercise books.
Day two was a remarkable affair. The school laid on a special ceremony for the teachers and to welcome us. The Rwandan Education Minister turned up to thank all the Conservative volunteers. His speech was preceded by some inspirational tribal dancing and singing, which transformed the atmosphere considerably.
So far we have survived almost a week of teaching. It is tough, tiring and exhausting. But it is exhilarating too. The adrenalin flows after each day and we look forward to opening a bottle of beer (Rwandan Primus) as soon as we get home.
