Kayonza Modern School in Kayonza, Rwanda

(Courtesy of Penny Ensley)

Host School

Kayonza Modern School is about 4 kilometers from the town of Kayonza and is located in the Eastern Province, about an hour and fifteen minutes east of Kigali.  It is near Akagera National Park and Paul Farmer’s well known Rwinkwavu Hospital. There isn’t that much in the town itself (a sign as you approach Kayonza’s roundabout says it all:  there’s two petrol stations, and then it’s Uganda to the North/left and Tanzania to the South/right) but there are a few food markets, restaurants, one hotel, and various small clothing shops.

As for school, there are nearly 700 students, both boys and girls, all boarding at Kayonza Modern.  There is a library over-flowing with books, (we’re working on that currently), and a staff room with a television and wireless internet capabilities.  There is a computer room that houses about 8 working computers with internet access.

Teaching Assignment

I'm the English teacher for senior 1 (grade 7), and the senior 4 (grade 10), which are both mixed with Anglophone and Francophone students.  In addition, I am the English teacher for the senior 5 (grade 11) and senior 6 (grade 12) purely francophone sections, which is a challenge.  I also share duties with a fellow WorldTeach volunteer in helping to reorganize the school’s library and in training the school’s French-speaking teachers in English to better prepare them for the complete English-Only change-over in the upcoming years.  For now, nationally, it’s just the Maths and Sciences that are English-Only instruction at secondary schools, with the exception of the senior 1 (grade 7) and senior 4 (grade 11) students having the difficult task of managing ALL of their subjects entirely in English.  Thus, the grades in those two levels are very low, across the board at the end of the first term.

Living Arrangement

I share a three-bedroom house with a fellow volunteer that has a sitting room and a bathroom, with a shower.  The house is fully furnished for us and even had pillows on our beds.  The gated property itself has both an avocado and an orange tree.  We share the costs for a house helper who prepares dinner for us Monday through Friday and she also does our laundry for us each week.  The school purchased bicycles for us to use as transport to school each day but since we are approximately 5 kilometers away and hills in both directions, it’s not always easy to do our mini-Tour de France each morning, especially in a skirt or when it is sunny and warm by 7am!  There is local transport however:  a moto-taxi costs 300RWF (about 50 cents) to get to school and flagging down a minibus taxi in the evenings is easily done and it’s a flat 200RWF (about 30 cents) back to town.  I should say that the views, no matter the transport, both to and from school, are spectacular.

For any money/banking and “postal” issues, it’s 300RWF (about 50 cents) by minibus taxi to the nearest, larger town called Rwamagana.  Kayonza Modern’s post office box is located there where friends and family can send letters and much obliged care packages.

Language

The languages spoken here are primarily Kinyarwanda and Swahili, or a mix of the two, along with French, though that’s mainly at school.   Since I’ve been coming to Rwanda for the past three years, I have learned basic Kinyarwanda and am studying Swahili when I’m not lesson planning or marking class exercises.  I tend to leave the French to my fellow WorldTeach volunteer, though it is helpful to have the numbers down for shopping purposes or telling time. There is some English spoken in town, with much of the younger generation trying out their “Hello’s” and “How are You’s?” whenever they can.

Also, our headmaster and nearly all of our teachers, have spent time in Uganda, so they speak English very well and are committed to engaging the students in English whenever possible.

Greatest Challenges

So far, my greatest challenge has been classroom management, since my classes are very large – senior 4 (grade 10), for example, is a 75 student class.  Another challenge I have is getting the community, as well as the students at school, to stop looking at me as though I am a painting.  It would be nice if the calls of “Muzungu Muzungu (white person)!” and “Give me money!” settled down too.  Perhaps they will by mid-Term 2!

Also, not everything goes according to Plan A around here, (or as you would like it or believe that it should go), but really, as long as you have an open mind and learn to laugh when Plan A collapses (and have Plans B, C and D handy), everything else will fall into place.

Greatest Rewards

The absolutely adorable and highly determined children I spend my days with are my greatest rewards.  Moving to an all-English curriculum is not easy and the students are working very hard. 

Also, working with such a hard-working headmaster and his inspirational, dedicated teachers are other definite pluses.  Our headmaster, Steven, works tirelessly.

I must admit that playing with the children in our neighbor after school is another day-maker for me.  On those days when Plans A, B and even C aren’t all that I’d hoped they’d be, there is nothing like a conversation with the neighborhood girls on my street or a water-bottle football game with the local boys to lighten my mood and make me feel like more of a member of this close-knit community.