A Bunch of Things I've Been Wanting to Document:

3/2/10

A light rain is a daily occurrence.  To a large extent, people just deal with it.  They still walk in the rain, they continue working outside, they put on their pagnes (wraps of fabric that actually aren't at all waterproof, but it keeps the rain mostly off your normal clothes), and those who have umbrellas whip them out.  But, when it rains heavily, that's another story. 

 Heavy rain, which happens maybe once a week, is evidently a valid excuse for coming late to school/work.  Everything stops and waits for the rain to settle down.  One morning, it had rained like crazy the whole night and it was still raining pretty hard at 7:20am when school started.  Well, at 7:20am we had about 20 students and zero teachers.  We basically hung out and waited until more people came to begin classes.  Finally the day began as usual by around 9am, when the rain was less heavy.  There is no tardiness recorded, no unexcused absences, no repercussions for faculty members who don't show up when it rains.  Its just kind of accepted.  Hm.

I did have a really fun time though playing volleyball in the rain later that day.  This was more of a light rain, the kind that doesn't shut down all business operations.  We were planning on having practice for the TTC matches, but it ended up being anybody who doesn't care to get wet, come on out and play.  So I went and had a great time getting wet and hitting a volleyball around with some of the coupe couture girls whom I didn't know at all because I never teach in coupe couture.  It was a very awesome way to build some rapport.  Its always a good thing to get to know your students outside the classroom!

I love people like Sr. Rose who share what's on their mind pretty freely and easily.  One day last week, she was distraught about Pascaline's dilemma.   Pascaline is a girl who knows the Sisters at Rugunga, and had the misfortune of losing both of her parents in the same year a few years back.  I think both were sick.  Because of her relationship with the Sisters, they've agreed to help her out.  She is the oldest one out of her siblings, and needed work in order to provide for them.  So she cooks and cleans for us while we are teaching at school.  She really does a lot for us, and she works a long day, from about 7:15am till 5pm, Monday through Friday, and a half day on Saturday.  

Well, she presented to Sr. Rose her problem: her sister recently got sick and is now at the hospital.  She needs her paycheck now in order to go visit her and put food on the table.  She said that last night they did not eat.  Sr. Gisele is the person she needed to talk to about this because she's the superior, but she was in Nairobi for a conference.  So Sr. Rose made an executive decision and decided to give her the cash she needed.  There was even more complexity in this, something about how Pascaline had previously asked to receive several months' worth of pay all at one time in order to pay for some kind of expenses.  So now this month she only received 12,000 rwf.  That's about $60.  For one month.  

So Sr. Rose was re-telling this to me, about how it was heavy on her heart because it is technically not in her power to give this money to her; the superior needs to approve it.  But she said she needed to listen to her conscience.  This continued into a discussion about how the poverty here is unlike anything I've ever seen.  She pointed out to me Patience's house, right across the street.  Patience and her 2 little ones, Neli and Jacqui, whom I love, live in a cinder-block house about the size of my bedroom back home.  The roof is made of old, rusty, tin slabs that other people have thrown away.  There's a bright yellow curtain over the door.  Sr. Rose told me all about how many houses here have roof problems, and when it rains you need to just put a couple cups on the floor to catch the drops and find a new place to stand. 

She said that it is important for us, the outsiders who come in and build schools and other institutions, to set high standards.  That is the reason why we built a nice school, keep it very clean, and make the landscape really decorative and pretty.  She said that whatever standard the people see in these places, they will always be living below that standard.  But it inspires the people to keep their homes clean and tidy, like they see every day at school or wherever.  

So it is very important to set an example of dignity and cleanliness, both in the appearance of our environment and in our own physical appearance.  

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