meanwhile, in rwanda

Right this second I'm sitting in Shokolat in Kigali, or rather lying in Shokolat in Kigali, as I am essentially stretched out horizontal on this incredibly comfortable couch. Jane is sitting/lying next to me and we are happily ignoring each other while soaking up fast internet. Shokolat is our new favorite place because they have high-speed internet and they don't kick you off after an hour, like damned Bourbon, which is now the scourge of our souls. Shokolat has a cozy feel, complete with a large library of books in English, and they sell chocolate chip cookies that may or may not be warm.

John just walked in and said "I no longer have a kettle" the way some people might say "I am no longer married to Marie". He went to the Chinese shop and they wouldn't give him a new kettle but refused to relinquish his old one once he had given it to them, saying that they will try to fix it and give it back to him "maybe on Monday". The shop owner gave him a paper with a number on it and a lot of handwriting in Chinese and then shooed him away. Pretty standard.

Things in Rwanda have been a little tumultuous since the start of the second term, and everyone from the WorldTeach group seems to be having bit of a tough reentry into teaching and Rwandan life in general. For me, things were pretty tame; the worst of it was when my iPod, hotplate, and computer power cable all broke in the same week, and I got sick, and my roommates thieved so many of my things that I started locking my kitchen and hiding my radio, leading to a cold war in the house that still has not lifted. One of my best friends here, Susan, undoubtedly has the worst return to school. She had gone back to the US for the break, so readjusting to Rwanda was rough, but she also had to contend with roommates from hell, an incredibly apathetic student body, and a remote placement in town with zero resources. As a result, she decided last week to leave WorldTeach, but thankfully to stay in Rwanda. We were all having a hard enough time to inspire my Field Director to host a contest where we all had to come up with our best strategies for fighting foreign-living frustration. The contest winners were meant to be announced at a WorldTeach-funded party in Kigali this weekend, but then our faithful FD contracted a bad case of malaria and is currently out for the count (but doing better every day, thankfully). Long story short: Blargh!

In spite of the hiccups, I think things are starting to look up here in the big RW. I've been teaching computer science, creative performance, and English this trimester, and having much more fun with that lineup than I was with entrepreneurship. The kiddos are CRAZY for computers; even stuff that we might consider boring, like formatting Word documents or creating Excel spreadsheets, is apparently great fun for them, and I'm having all kinds of cheesy teacher moments, when I show a kid how to do something and their eyes light up. We just started playwriting in creative performance (thanks to the breakdown of my iPod), and I've been trying to get the students to write about their favorite quotes, songs, photographs, and memories to get them talking about what motivates them so they can figure out what to write plays about. This has been going surprisingly well, and I can't wait to see some of their performances in a couple weeks.

In an effort to become less computer-dependent, I went up to a quiet part of the school last night with a great view of the surrounding hills and watched the stars come out. It was fantastic. One frustrating thing about this country is that there are people everywhere all the time, so even on a long walk or in the house, it's really hard to find a quiet moment to yourself. The part of the school I watched the stars from is where the new dorms are being built; I don't think the students are moving in till next year and the workers all leave at the end of the school day, so maybe I'll spend more evenings there, soaking up the calm.

Not much else to report at the moment. Time seems to be moving along pretty quickly for now; hard to believe that we've got just eight more weeks of teaching for this term, then exams, then break...! Right now, I'm looking forward to our midservice conference in a couple weeks, the World Cup in June (not a diehard soccer fan by any means, but I am surely a fan of mass hysteria), a quick visit from Jason in July, and then a monthlong romp through southern Africa with Morgan! Thanks to WT friends, support from home, plantains, epic books, friendly cafe owners, sharp students, The Avett Brothers, starry nights, and BBC Focus on Africa with Hassan Aruni, I think the day-to-day in Shyorongi should be pretty swell until then :)