Gasabo is a sprawling district covering urban schools within minutes from the Wellspring training centre and rural schools located nearly two hours away.  There are few direct routes from point A to B.  Instead both paved and dirt roads wind through the green hills, taking a leisurely path to their destination, providing travel experiences ranging from the merely bumpy to the nearly impossible.  Direction sheets include instructions like “branch right after the main road and continue until you see the Post Office.”

For the next two years, up to 40 schools in this district will receive frequent visits from Wellspring’s teacher trainers, as we seek to walk alongside them, change hearts and minds, and significantly improve their quality of education.  In one of our training rooms sits a detailed map of the district with sticky notes indicating each school location:  names like GS Rubingo, GS Rwanyanza, EP Cyuga, EP Jali, EP Gatsata, EP Rutunga, GS Kabyga, GS Kimironko, EP Kibagabaga, EP Nyacyonga, and GS Jabana.  Each school is a place with the potential to transform hundreds and even thousands of lives.  What a privilege to engage with them in their important and challenging mission.

38 schools, 76 leaders, over 280 teacher applications (with more on the way), over 45 visits to schools and sectors....we have definitely started 2011 and our Phase II with momentum!  The past few weeks the accelerator has been on as we start the process of delivery of the 'School Development Programme' to the entire district of Gasabo.

The parenting trainers have visited each school and sector to meet and build relationships with sector, village, cell, school and parenting leaders. They have been tenacious as they have travelled the roads and lanes discovering the new schools and participants. Intrepid explorers out to discover what the far reaches of Gasabo district have to offer! They have done a great job of initiating relationships and building awareness in these areas as we prepare to train and deliver parenting support to these communities. The foundation they have been laying is crucial to the success of our work in these communities.

                                                                 

Meanwhile the Quality Education Trainers have been busy connecting with Head Teachers and Deputies as we called them to the 'Introduction Day’ and began the process of collecting teacher application forms. Our 'Introduction Day’ with leader representatives from each school started the SDP 2011 with passion and momentum. Trainers were busy; building relationships with our new partners, registering and clarifying information about the schools and their locations, collecting application forms, and beginning the training and equipping.

It was exciting to have our new leaders share and learn with us. Discussions about responsibilities and leadership in schools were engaging and motivating. Playing games and doing different activities to promote discussion on trust and instructional leadership helped to engage our leaders and put some smiles on their faces! Leading a blind colleague made for much fun and laughter!

We are now in the process of selecting the 'multiplier’ teachers who will receive intensive training so that as February approaches we can begin meetings and baseline assessments for each of them. With over 280 applications sat on my desk it certainly feels like we have LIFT OFF!

The movie, Inception, was a huge blockbuster this past summer. In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio and his team of dream invaders attempt to plant a new thought into a man’s head by entering his dreams and planting seeds so deep into his subconscious to have him believe that the notion was entirely his own. I won’t wreck the movie for you by telling you whether the endeavour is successful, but the movie does conjure up questions of whether anyone really does have an original thought these days.

“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel.” How many times do we use this phrase, and how many times have I used it myself? If you have been living on another planet for the last couple of decades, the phrase essentially implies that one shouldn’t waste time creating something from scratch if someone else has already done that legwork. In the language of organizational development and learning, we often refer to this as sharing of best practice. By sharing with others that which has already proven to be effective and successful, we hopefully can replicate the success in a different setting.

Even so, wouldn’t it be nice if someone came up to you and said, “Actually, I did reinvent the wheel, and I made it better. Well, it’s not exactly a wheel anymore, but I’m fairly confident it’s an invention that’s going to change the world!”

“It was like a wedding ceremony,” says Wellars Nkwaya, as he and Jeanne Tuyisenge, our Parenting Trainers, recall a recent celebration with a couple from rural Ruhanga. Emmanuel and wife Annonciata were commemorating a new beginning in their marriage. In reality, it was the beginning of a new journey together but the end of another long journey to get to this point.

Emmanuel and Annonciata have been married for nearly twenty years, and to describe their marriage as a rocky one would be a huge understatement. Back in 1994, their future looked rosy. Already the proud parents of a three year-old son, they looked forward to having a large family together. Owning a productive piece of land with livestock, fruits and vegetables, they were optimistic about their economic outlook too. Then came the genocide. As the country fell apart, so too did everything in their marriage.

Parenting Trainer Wellars poses with Emmanuel, Annonciata, their four youngest children, and two family friends

If you could see what we see... you would witness a new picture developing through the many wooden framed classroom windows here in Rwanda. The new picture is one in which a new kind of lesson is developing. As trainers complete the final observations for the WSDP Quality Education core modules new sights are beginning to emerge in Rwandan classrooms.

If you could see what we see... you would see children using their own self made teaching aids and more actively sharing as a result. You would see smiles on their faces as they receive points for good behaviour instead of beatings and class applause for hard work. You would see children chatting and presenting, not because of disturbance or boredom, but in effective group work activities. You would see lively children learning inside and outside their classrooms.

Children using flowers to learn their colours in English

If you could see what we see... you would witness the gradual fading away of the lessons where the teacher is stood lecturing while bored, hot and tired children sit staring blankly. Those lessons which were all we saw two years ago are beginning to fade and a new picture of a new kind of education is emerging. In this new picture a gradual lesson transformation is taking place. Some of them have their own ‘homemade’ cones and they are measuring the slant or height of their cone and sharing it with a friend. Others are using stones to make letters as they form new Kinyarwanda sound blends. Yet others are using their home drawn animal pictures to discuss the similarities and differences of their different animals in groups. Others are using the bright flowers they picked on their way to school to learn their colours. Some others are making words or sentences in pairs or groups to enhance their learning in English and Kinyarwanda.

If you could see what we see... you would begin to smile too.