In Country Training

16 of us met up at Heathrow airport, highly conspicuous by the motor bike helmets that some of us were carrying, which some people had been told had to be packed inside suitcases, and one poor girl who was charged £157 to load on as extra baggage! Our flight to Addis Ababa was dogged by long queues where we patiently waited to have our baggage weighed, this then resulted in suitcases being opened and luggage being redistributed to ensure both cases weighed under 23kg, then our hand luggage was weighed and then weighed again, very stressful for those who knew they were overweight and asked to pay £10 for every kilo over.

The complete group which finally arrived at the guest house, which was to be our home for the next 10 days, comprises of 1 Dutch, 3 Canadian,3 Irish, 2 Welsh, 2 Scots and 13 English. The age profile varies from several fresh and enthusiastic young teachers who are to work with teachers in schools on methodology or teacher training colleges, some who are working with disability and special needs and 5 of us of the more mature variety who are to be Education Leadership Advisers working with District Education Officers and Head Teachers.

The training programme has been intensive, with breakfast at 7.00am ready to start off each day with a 2 hour Kinyarwanda lesson, followed by a whole series of workshops looking at the issues surrounding the education and disability programmes here in Rwanda, sessions looking at cultural and political aspects of Rwanda along with individual discussions surrounding our placements.

We have all been highly impressed by the organization and professionalism of VSO, in putting together such a varied programme with a variety of invited speakers and current volunteers who have come along to share their experiences and it is good to know that we have a list of VSO management staff who can assist us with the challenges we are likely to face.

We have been shown how to use a kerosene stove and lamp, a charcoal burner, and also how to use the water filter we have been given, once we have boiled our water, all highly time consuming tasks.

On Saturday we all attended a welcome dinner along with the VSO staff and current volunteers where we were entertained to some Rwandan dancing and many of the strange experiences encountered by the existing volunteers, everyone is so friendly and there are already invitations to go and visit different parts of the country.

We have each been given an allowance to purchase some household items and fortunately I have seen the inventory of the house I am going to from the previous volunteer so I don’t need to get too much, unlike some of the volunteers who are starting from scratch. The store we were taken to was the equivalent of the pound store but we were appalled to discover just now expensive everything was, it would appear our meagre monthly allowance is not going to go very far!