I am a cow...and it was meant in a nice way??

A some of the students working on a group assignment.

Another group of students.   I had to split the students into 3 rooms for the group assignment so they would have enough room.  Both groups above are working on writing out a plan for what they will teach the people in their community about tuberculosis.  Once they understood what I wanted them to do, they did a great job!

 

Yesterday I was called a cow ----

Yesterday I was visiting with one of local teachers at the University.  He mentioned that he had recently returned from Korea where he obtained his masters degree.  Knowing that he also spoke French and Kirundi, the local languages here, and was talking to me in English, I asked him how many languages he spoke.  He responded with 5,  I laughed and said, “oh, I only speak one.” He then laughed and said, “oh, you are a cow.”  The other person in the room and I both stopped for a minute, not sure whether to laugh or what.  Then he continued on, “we call people that only speak one language a cow, because cow’s can only say, ‘moo, moo’.”  He continued on to say, that this was not an insult, and in fact, cows are very highly thought of here.   Later while visiting with some of the other missionaries on campus, we all had a good laugh about the fact that I am a cow!   I am trying to not be a cow.  I have learned a few words in French, Kirundi and Swahili! 

The mosquitoes here are huge and there are so many of them!  If I go outside at night for even just 5 minutes, I am sure to get 5 bites.  It gets dark here very early, I get out of class at 530pm, and I have less than an hour of daylight before I need to be shut inside away from the mosquitoes!  I am so thankful to have the mosquito net to sleep under at night!  There was one hanging here, when I got here, but it sure felt great to put up the new one I brought with me, knowing it was fresh and clean! (Thanks Nicole!!)

My class is continuing to go well.  I think they understand more of what I am saying, and they are getting used to my teaching style.  They are not used to doing group work, and every time they get in a group to do something they assume they are going to get points for it.  They are very driven my points here.  They operate under the Belgian system of schooling, which is very strict…they take attendance at every class, and if you are absent for more than 25% of the classes, then you fail the course.  There is a lot of fear in the students about failing.  You can tell that their experiences with teachers who work with them to succeed has been limited.  I am enjoying working with them and learning along side of them.    Many of the students have very good questions, and we are learning together how to adapt some of the things that would be common in the U.S., to what they have available here.   I was teaching yesterday about patients with respiratory problems, and when we were talking about patients who have a hard time breathing if they lie flat on their backs, I said it would be important to make sure they can sit up some in bed.  One student asked, how will we do that?  So, we talked together about what they could do…and came up with asking the family to bring pillows or blankets from home to put underneath the mattress to raise it up some.  Here in Burundi, as with many of the countries here, the family must provide these types of things for the patients; pillows, blankets, and they also must feed the patient, and take care of most of their daily needs.  I explained to them that in the U.S.  our beds are electric and we can lift them up to the height we need.  This made them all laugh, and they asked if people had beds like that even in their homes!   The students have been a lot of fun to work with, and I am really enjoying being a part of their education journey.

Next week I will be going to the upcountry for a week, to the Kibuye hospital.  I am really looking forward to getting out of the city.  In the city, I am stuck on campus most of the time, because it is not safe to just go wander around by yourself.  The campus is not that big, so I am looking forward to having some more space to be in and see a different part of the country.  I think it is a several hour car ride on very poor bump roads.