Teaching... No Problem!

classes start Monday and students are starting to show up on campus. The place is becoming quite crowded. I understand that they have 6000 students here at the Kigali health Institute and they cram all 6000 into two academic buildings each about the size of Eppler Center. Having the entire Eppler complex would be a dream for them (there are other administrative buildings but no classes are held there). Because of the space constraints there is a tremendous shortage on classrooms. Each course (what they call modules) has limited classroom time and classroom locations change week to week, often with only one or two days advance notice. For example, I am teaching a 50 contact hour exercise physiology module, but of my 50 contact hours I only get a classroom for 20 of those hours. The other 30 hours I am responsible to find my own space to conduct course requirements. It is certainly been quite a learning experience. And because of the classroom scenario the planning that is required to teach these courses has taken on a whole other level. In addition to classrooms changing each week, the days the classrooms are available and the hours they are available changes as well. So for example the 20 classroom hours that I do get a classroom for, I won’t be sure of the day or times it is available to me until the week of. So I am in a constant state of flux. I may have a lab planned for Monday at 1 o’clock, but I may find out Monday morning that my classroom time for the week has been scheduled from 1 to 5 PM, so I will have to move my lab to a different time because classroom time is a premium. And if I’m not in my classroom within 15 to 20 minutes of the start time I am told that other faculty parole the hallways looking for empty classrooms and will pounce on it. Apparently there is a first-come first-served basis on classrooms and if you are not in yours at the allotted time you lose! Imagine being an administrator or department head in a situation like this! I can tell already this is going to be fun!

Here is my multimedia screen in the classroom... cutting edge technology. I am going "old School" Literally. My presentation skills should improve dramatically. I wonder how much more my students at BGSU will learn when I come back and refuse to use powerpoint and make them actually write down everything I teach... hmmm?

Another interesting thing I learned about the physical therapists here in Rwanda is that there are many who do not like it and had no intention of being in that profession. Apparently the way their higher education system works here is once you declare a major and begin a course of study in a particular discipline or field you can’t change it. For example, in talking to one of my new colleagues today, I learned that in high school he was very proficient at and loved physics and wanted to be an engineer. When he entered into University the advisor/registrar mistook his inquiry about physics for Physio and signed him up for physiotherapy… Forever dooming him to be a physical therapist. A profession which he admitted to me he didn’t particularly care for or like – although he is a brilliant physiotherapists and works very hard! I asked him why he did not change majors once he realized the mistake and apparently it was too late for him. I found it interesting that once you start a course of study you have to stick with that course of study. And the way their loans and grants system works here even if he wanted to change his profession in graduate school he would not be able to. Learning that spoke volumes to me about why and how things are some of the way they are… I wonder how much better he would be, and the Institute would be, etc. if he was passionate about what he did.

Here is a picture of our teaching lab space!! Yes, that is a diathermy in the back corner... so all you BGSU students who have never seen one... get a good look.

This is one of the famous all day faculty meetings... yes, my fat self was sitting in a students chair with the little folding desk poking my belly all day...
working on the projector is Manu (the Dept Head), I believe he is typing in details on a syllabus for Gerard (behind him) cuz the keyboard is in french. I think we are arguing over what the bullet points should look like... and in the foreground is Maurice, one of the more vocal faculty members... All three are great guys and awesome professionals!!! I am better for having met them already!

Had a close encounter with a Moto taxi yesterday… I was walking down the road on my lunch break to get some cash out of the local ATM machine and one of the little Moto taxis nearly ran me over from behind. Was pretty scary, if he actually would’ve hit me it would of been a big mess. Probably in more ways than one! But, thanks to my catlike reflexes, and tremendous muscle memory, and many of your prayers, I was able to employ evasive maneuvers and got out of harms way just in time. Taxi scene caused a little bit of a commotion on the road – it really was almost a tragic accident – but we all recovered and walked away friends. Thank the Lord!

Till next time – Acuna Mattia.