my job duties across these 7 months

Throughout my 7 months in Gisenyi, I did a bunch of different jobs.  The most important quality of a volunteer at a Salesian school, I've found, is FLEXIBILITY!  You've got to be ready for anything, at any time, for any length of time.  Here's a synopsis of my job duties throughout my mission experience:

1) Patronage Kids camp counselor – dance, sing, clap, run around, make goofy faces at kids. Pretty much that was all I could do since I didn’t know the language!

2) Teaching English to the local teens during Patronage – super fun atmosphere, but not without teaching difficulties. Playing crazy acting games to learn adverbs, zumbaing after every class, getting bombarded with questions about America and about the meanings of random words that the students found in books.

3) Teaching one of my best friends, Fr. Antoine. By the end of the 7 months, we had our lesson down to a science – 6 parts: 1) opening prayer in English 2) “sharing,” as Fr. Antoine called it, basically just talking about the day 3) reading tomorrow’s Mass readings 4) “sharing” aka discussing the readings, or me happily listening to Fr. Antoine get caught up in his passion, which is God 5) Singing a song or two in English, we learned several 6) closing prayer, sometimes also singing the Veni Creator in Latin.

4) Making tea for the teachers during their training before the academic year began. I also taught English to a small group of more advanced teachers, which sometimes involved a few “English marathons,” in which Sr. Gisele couldn’t be there so I ended up teaching English the entire day.

5) On-the-spot subbing, my most difficult job. Actually I was a somewhat scheduled sub as well, since a few teachers did know the days they’d be gone. But many also were simply unable to make it on an given day, due to any number of reasons. So, I would have to go teach English or give the original teachers notes for an unspecified length of time. Not easy, but builds patience and obedience. A lot.

6) Exam secretary – removing staples, counting and coallating, proctoring exams and trying to prevent cheating, although it was still shockingly rampant.

7) Library organizer – putting a number to each book, then having to re-do it all because I realized I had the system all wrong. Whoops.

8) Zumba teacher – every Tuesday at 11am at school! Plus with other groups of kids at the parish occasionally. My favorite part :)

9) Art director – making posters for the church’s feast days, making banners for the school’s celebrations, decorating the school and convent for celebrations. I liked this job…who doesn’t like to step aside from their original job because there’s coloring that needs doing?

10) Giving a few “Good Mornings,” the inspirational note given by one of the Sisters or teachers each morning to the students.

11) Still doing a bit of occasional subbing by the end of my service, but it was not nearly as frequent or as difficult as earlier.

12) Visiting other parts of Rwanda, making friends, being a visitor, yet living like a resident of Gisenyi!