Phir Corrins? Well, it's PhiL CoLLins

February 10, 2011

Thursdays are probably my favorite days in the Village. While it was certainly nice to be out and exploring yesterday, I loved going to the school today and seeing all my students. First, I had English with Aimable, who, as per usual, was skipping, dancing around, screaming “God bless you! Jesus loves you!” every time someone raised their hand with the right answer. After working on pronunciation (he told them he wants all of them to sound like Errana – that would be me – when they “speak the Engrish!”) he instructed me to teach a song. Now, he had asked me this about ten minutes before and I was at a loss. It had to be school-appropriate, easy enough to write out on the blackboard, and have a beat they could follow. I had left my iPod on shuffle last night before falling asleep and apparently I had conked out to “Strangers Like Me” by Phil Collins (yes, I have the Tarzan soundtrack). The chorus is easy enough to master and it’s not too fast, so I wrote it out on the board and they followed my very out of tune singing. However, they loved it. They wrote down all the lyrics I had on the board and asked to learn the rest of the song. The only major problem? They really couldn’t say “Phil Collins” – I think his name has too many l’s in it (since there is no “l” sound in Kinyarwanda this is a big pronunciation problem for them in English).

After English was French with Vincent (who came right on time today – I was shocked!) The kids are working on past and compound tenses, so he handed out a story for them to read and fill in the missing verbs in past tense. Most of them were very stuck when it came to choosing between auxiliary verbs “être” and “avoir.” I gave them the same mnemonic list my high school teachers had us memorize, DR. and MRS. VANDERTRAMP. Each letter stands for a different verb conjugated irregularly in the past with “être;” all others take “avoir.” This made things easier, and then I taught them the French accent “dance” to remember the five accents (aigu, grave, circumflex, trema, cedilla) used in French writing. They all got up and did it with me, and repeated the song all the way from class to the lunch room, complete with the hand motions; Vincent gave me a hug for teaching them this (I had never even seen him smile before today).

At lunch, I was, as always, pulled in twenty different directions, “Sit next to me!” “No sit with me!” I finally found Cadette and sat with her. She remembered to ask me for a photo of my family; I promised her that before I leave I will show her a picture. She’s clearly set on it and doesn’t plan on letting me forget. We were warned by village staff at the beginning of our trip that making promises to these kids are true commitments; they have suffered abandonment and empty dreams their entire lives, so when we say we will be somewhere or do something, we have to be there or do it.

Well, as promised, I went to the mango tree (the center of the village, under which Anne Heyman purchased the land for the village from 96 previous owners in 2007. All roads in the village lead to or from the mango tree) to tutor Brigitte in math. This turned into math translated into French, and then English, also translated into French. Brigitte’s English is quite weak; she’s new to the village and clearly only began learning English when she arrived here. Her French, however, is excellent, so we did complex fractions and decimals in French, followed by translating her English reading (which happened to be Michael Jackson's biography... how do I explain his court appearances?) into French. We made vocabulary lists (in French and English) and decided to meet again next week to work on her written English. Brigitte’s work ethic and persistence are amazing; she really wants to learn and to succeed, and to become a teacher. Before leaving to go back to her house (the sun was setting and it was getting too dark to study) she gave me a huge hug and said, “Thank you for helping to improve my English. You are so nice and I love you!” I almost melted.

It’s a little after 7 PM now and I’m about to indulge in a can of tuna and some crackers for dinner. Tomorrow I teach chemistry in the morning and then we are walking to Rubona, the town just outside the village, to visit the open air fruit and vegetable market, find some goat skewers and perhaps buy some printed fabric to make headbands. More soon!

Love and thanks for reading,
Elana