AEE Kigali

We had a wonderful meal tonight, courtesy of AEE, to celebrate our time here. It was so much fun and I will cherish the memories of this meal, especially the hilarious photos we took! We owe a huge thank-you to AEE for giving so much support, friendship, skills and encouragement throughout this placement as well as showing us their amazing work. They truly are an inspiration.

This is Aemiritha. She is part of the Rwanda Women’s Network. They are AEE beneficiaries, funded by US Aid. The people involved are vulnerable, genocide survivors, most of them have AIDs. AEE supports them and children who are orphans of the genocide or HIV. Before AEE helped they were in a bad place, they want to continue to improve, some of them are now landlords. Their vision is to expand, they want to become independent of AEE, to be able to fund their children themselves.

This week Highlights of the week will be a tad different. Each of the team have written their own highlights and how they feel about the placement so far as it is the last week. Thank you to everyone who has been following our journey, it has been a pleasure to share it with you!

Sarah:

I think my highlight for this week has to be EPR School. I truly love working with those children, they fill me with such joy! It is also a great excuse to be a child again, when I am playing stuck in the mud I feel about 10 years old and it is just the best feeling. While it can sometimes be difficult, working with children with disabilities, it is most certainly worth it. They are just the same as other children; I have learned to see past their disability and into the person behind it. They all have such diverse, wonderful characters and I must admit I will miss them so much.

It feels so odd to be one week away from going home. To think that this time next week I will be in the UK seems mad! At the moment I am feeling content about the placement. There are some things I regret and some things I wish I could do differently but all that has happened has shaped me into a much more patient, thankful and hopefully a better person. It has been difficult but it has been worth it, I have made seven wonderful new friends and I have experienced something so far out of my comfort zone. I am proud of myself and the personal space team, I can confidently say we flew together and it was glorious (although there were a few storms, but smooth seas never made a skilled sailor).

Helena:

My highlight this week was going to Peter’s school, the students work so hard. I’m amazed that in a few weeks we’ve gone from basic greetings to adverbs and past tense (their abilities were quite varied to begin with though). This week there was a young girl (7 years old) called Harriet there, she is so intelligent and brave, she wrote on the board and understands concepts others 10 years older struggle with. Her patience when sitting in a classroom for four hours is incredible. Teaching here has been great, a real challenge for me as I generally don’t enjoy working with young people or public speaking. I’ve learnt a lot about the English language, many things that I “just knew” make more sense to me now, I know the terms for different tenses and how grammar works.

The thought of the future ahead is a little scary at the moment, looking at job vacancies and flats has been daunting but being here has given me skills to deal with the challenges to come. I’m going to miss this country, placement and team. We’ve had some wonderful experiences; there’s been amazing dancing and singing, yummy food and beautiful views. There have been difficulties too but we’ve got through them all as a team. I’m not sure exactly how being here has changed me yet but I have felt content within myself, something I hope will continue.

David:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou.  It’s been a once in life opportunity for me to meet people of different calibres and diversities , our differences has been our strength, surely one stone cannot support a cooking pot but together Personal Space Team we’ve done many things in the lives of people both visibly and invisibly. You made people feel better and your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

Roger:

My highlight of this week was teaching at peter’s school, I was impressed by the young girl(7 years old) called Harriet, for her she is studying English with them but  in her holidays, she is brilliant comparing to others . Teaching the rest of other students also has been a great thing.

During this past  week , I also I enjoyed the last Friday party that we had as a team, we had some snacks, drinks, and we danced different good songs just to say good bye to each other on the last Friday as a team.

James:

My highlight this week was teaching at Peter’s school, which is always a great experience. We were starting the past tense today, a very difficult topic for many students. The lesson is just over 3 hours so we usually break it up into different mini-topics, with different team members taking responsibility to prepare and present each one. The students’ enthusiasm is fantastic and, although they are not perfect yet, there is certainly real progress being made.

I can’t believe how near the end of the placement is, it has flown by so fast. The amazing experiences I’ve had whilst here, as well as the people I’ve met along the way, have undoubtedly changed me as a person, and my perception of the world around us.

Priscilla:

My highlight of the week was preparing the land/ gardening for some beneficiaries of AEE. It was pouring down with rain and it took quite a while to reach the destination but it was fun being with the team and gaining another blister haha. It’s not work for the faint hearted so I was reminded of my respect for people who regularly do that.

The team party was also a highlight, dancing the night away and overdosing on Fanta was definitely fun. The memories are endless and I’m very grateful for this experience. We’ve met great people and sharpened ourselves as individuals, which is priceless.

Alex:

My highlight of the week was English teaching at Peter’s school. The students there are so courageous to learn English than any other class I have ever attended. The things I liked the most is a young girl called Harriet. She is 7 years old but she is so brave and intelligent that she sometimes corrects questions other 10 years old have failed to correct. What is more, she stands in class until the lunch without being annoyed or making the noise.

Another week highlight was the party. Everyone has enjoyed the way he can and what brought the zest to the party was dancing. You can’t imagine people dance until they sweet! The house was full with joy.

We had a “blast party” today which was really fun, We danced (well I tapped my foot to the music which is practically the same thing) and ate lots of yummy food! It was nice to have team time as we only have 1 week left here! Time is flying, also apologies for all the late posts, we have had internet issues this week so updating the blog has been difficult!

We went back to Rusororo on Thursday. We cleared grass for a pathway around the perimeter of the building and dug small trenches to plant flowers in.

This week AEE staff tried to get us involved in their projects, Simeon has one in Mageragere, it is a cow and goat project and they were giving cows and goats to the beneficiaries. It was a great experience, try to spot David (The Cowmaster) in the picture 😛

On Tuesday we went to Rosoro to help with a self-help group. We were weeding and hoeing, it was not the most exciting work but it was good nonetheless.

A highlight of our time in this placement was climbing Mount Kigali today. It was challenging but worth it for the experience, the views and the mad team time!

We even made up a song:

Chillin’ in the mountain

Chillin’ in the forest

Chillin’ in the sky

Roasting our pumpkins day and night

Stop it!

*Dubstep* Waaaahhahoohaa…

Office work was a blast yesterday, look at how happy we are 😉 But on a more serious note office work may not be the most exciting but you learn to appreciate it and more importantly the staff appreciate it even more.