Our Kigali Highlights

We have now come to the end of our Tearfund ICS placement, partnering with AEE based in Kigali City. We have had some of the best ten weeks of our lives; doing our project work, creating relationships with the staff, living together, celebrating birthdays and just generally having adventures.

SO we thought, what better way to end our trip than to celebrate all of our team highlights!!

Gasabo Mission Outreach:

Our entire team loved this day - leading the children in Sunday school, playing games with them after church. It was the first time we had done any work with children and having such a positive reaction from both the children and their leaders was fantastic, and a great encouragement!! We loved getting to dance with members of the community and see numerous choirs perform.  It was an honour being asked to come up and pray for people - it was one of the first times we felt we had truly integrated with a community.

Mission Outreach Blog Post

Moving in Day!!

We were sad to be leaving our friends from orientation however, our first day in the AEE guest house was full of laughter and joy as we couldn't wait to get started with the work and really get stuck in to the reason we came out here and joined ICS in the first place.  Further we were also so excited to properly bond as a team and live together - deciding who was sharing with who etc...

The First time the Staff Meeting was held in English:

This was one the best moments of the entire trip. Prior to our English lessons the staff were unable to communicate effectively in English and required a translator at all times. However after a couple of lessons their language skills improved dramatically and they were able to hold the meeting in English!! This was a great reinforcement that what we were doing was worthwhile and was having a positive impact. Post this and with more lessons the staff were able to hold a fully fledged debate in English during our last week.

AEE English Lessons Blog

Feeling like a Part of the Team:

We loved the way we were taken around the see all of the self-help groups and the projects that AEE were a part of - it really made us feel like part of the team that they wanted to share all of their work with us. Also the way that they included us in the staff meetings was lovely and how they were so genuinely interested in what we had been up to during our week and weekend.

Going out for Dinner:

We loved all our hangouts as a team, visiting different restaurants, experiencing new sorts of food. We even introduced Henry and David to the delights of Mexican food by taking them to Meze Fresh. We always had so much fun; laughing, joking, messing around, telling stories.

Climbing Mount Kigali:

We climbed Mount Kigali as a team - and although we didn't find the cafe at the top and it took rather longer than we expected. We had a fantastic time working together as a team, telling stories, encouraging each other and hanging out. We got down just at the rain began to start - lucky timing!! As a team we really showed how strong and determined we are through climbing Mount Kigali.

Conquering Mountains in Kigali

Celebrating Chinwe's Birthday:

Chinwe turned 20 whilst we were out in Rwanda and to celebrate her birthday we threw a party with popcorn, samosas (her fave!!) and cake. We were fortunate enough to be able to borrow some speakers and we all had a fantastic evening dancing and singing with friends. We were so happy that Chinwe enjoyed the evening  and thought that it was a fitting celebration for a 20th birthday.

Hanging out as Team:

All the nights that we hung out together: watching films, playing cards, playing murder in the dark and mafia. Nothing got the Dream Team going like a heated game of charades and the name in the hat!! So many nights were spent laughing and joking about that it would be too difficult to pick a favourite!

Picture of the Day 05/09/2014

Today we held our group debate with the AEE staff. Despite some issues with the horrible rain - yuck! - it was a really successful session and the improvements in the staff's English were so obvious. Our main aim with the AEE staff was to improve their confidence and public speaking ability - we feel that this session was a great demonstration of that!

We were split into two teams, who had to argue for and against on a variety of topics!

Picture of the Day 03/09/2014

We have been giving English lessons to the teachers at the EPR school - today we talked them through personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and demonstrative pronouns!

Sam and Claire talking through the sheets

AEE Staff Capacity Building

Since arriving at AEE we have been giving the staff English lessons on a Friday morning. From the very beginning it was clear that they had very good English knowledge; what they lacked in was confidence and the ability to talk for an extended period of time.

As a team we decided that the best way to tackle this was to work with the staff on a one-to-one basis. Within which we would focus upon discussions, debates and public speaking. In order to help the staff to improve their ability to sustain an argument and a line of reasoning.

Vicky teaching Madame D

The staff responded really well to this method of teaching, and really seemed to enjoy the sessions that we spent with them.

Innocent - "I appreciate your methodology."

Faustin - "I like the English conversation methodology"

Aimable - "I'm very interested in your teaching methodology."

This was so encouraging for us as well all really enjoyed teaching the staff. We got into some really meaty debates and had so much fun listening to each side of the argument. Some of our most successful debates were...

• Smacking as a discipline should be banned
• A women's role is at home/ the husband should bring in most of the money in the family
• Homosexual couples should be able to adopt

A selection of our debate topics

The improvements in the staffs English communication skills were amazing and such a blessing to be a part of. After one lesson they held their weekly meeting in English. Where as they had previously relied on our team leader for translation. Also it is clear that their confidence levels have improved dramatically and they are no longer worried or embarrassed about making mistakes.

Aimable - "I have improved dramatically"

Innocent - "I can see improvement"

Madame D - "Discussion is my focus - it has helped us to be open"

The staff also asked us to help hem with their computer skills. To do this we created a number of step-by-step guides to popular computer programmes such as MS WORD, EXEL and POWERPOINT and gave a copy to each of the staff members.

Our step-by-step guides made by Rachel, Vicky and Claire

We have a wonderful time teaching the staff and felt like it really helped us to forge our relationships with them.

"You have done many many things for us!!" - Madame D

Picture of the Day 21/08/2014

At the catch-up school today, we ran basic English lessons where we taught the children about animals, everyday objects and parts of the body!

Posters used for the English lessons created by Claire and Henry!!

Picture of the Day 11/08/2014

Today we had our weekly meeting with the AEE staff, it was the second time it has been conducted in English!

The staff thanked us for our English lessons and said that they were making real progress -  which they wanted to demonstrate by holding the meeting in English.