Classroom Daze & Cuban Cigars

Well.... Classroom space and punctuality continue to be extremely frustrating. This morning (mind you classes are supposed to start at 7:00 am) my regularly allotted classroom was taken by the nurses again, apparently because they need it more! Roaming around looking for classrooms every morning so far has not been fun, but seems to be part of the routine. I could not find any classrooms so I had to go the Dept Head again and ask for help… He walked with me down the hallways looking for a room and we bumped into the nursing faculty. A very short, intense conversation ensued… I was an outside bystander in what sounded like – at least from the tone – a very uncomfortable conversation (they were talking in in Kinyarwandan) between the two of them. It was obvious, I lost my argument for a classroom... so I was told that, "hey this is Africa... we don’t keep time well and everything is always negotiable."  What does that mean, I said? My Department head said, she (i.e., nursing faculty) told me that perhaps the room will be available this afternoon. So I asked, what I do with the class and my class time until then? Answer - give them a reading assignment and go back to your desk and wait till the afternoon... WOW - this can get real frustrating very fast... but, hey... I am in Africa... one could get the impression very quickly if not careful that no one really seems to expect much. The frustrating thing is that I spent time a week in advance preparing an hour-by-hour time grid for the week’s course content. The intent of the time grid was to avoid this exact situation. I was told if I create such a time grid turn it in an advance my rooms can be scheduled accordingly… I did that, but it did not help. So here I am, sitting in my office writing a blog, when I’m scheduled to be teaching… But, there are no classrooms available right now. So wait I must… (and I am typing in MS Word, cuz the internet on campus is down ;-)

Interestingly, on our way back to our desks (me and my dept head) he commented to me that this type of thing is exactly why "Africa" (specifically Rwanda) will never develop beyond a “developing country”... I nodded in agreement and bit my tongue…. 

Sitting in my office now for 20 minutes… A Student just walked in and said he found an open classroom. Yipee! We have classroom and I’ve got a good 90 minutes left of the morning time block…

Well… I made them skip their tea break, but I was able to get a good 90 minutes of lecture in – even did some clinical practicum as well… I feel like a professor on speed… trying to get in as much as possible whenever I have time – cuz you never know if your schedule will be honored tomorrow or not. Every lecture feels like a “last meal.”


Homework trouble

Here’s an interesting little scenario. Last Monday I assigned the entire class a reading assignment of a systematic review from a physiotherapy Journal.  I checked with them on Monday that they received it – of course they all verified that it was in their inbox. I double checked with them on Tuesday afternoon before I dismissed them and reminded them that Wednesday (today) we were going to have in class discussion about the reading and to be prepared to discuss it! Of course at no time on Monday or Tuesday was there any resistance or any attempt to even communicate with me that it would be difficult or hard to access the reading. I showed up today - for our second time block  - (we had a class this time) prepared to discuss the reading and of course – you guessed it – no one was prepared to discuss the reading. With a little bit of inquiry I was told – by the students – that it is not possible for the students to get the article because the computer labs and or their emails were not working properly… They tried to pull one over on me! But I was prepared…  I had written five short essay questions based on the reading assignment. I simply handed out the questions and said you have one hour to answer them. I will be back after lunch I expect every answer to be completed. Well, I show up after lunch… And wouldn’t you know it they were sitting in the classroom with laptops, tablets, copies of reading, all out in front of them frantically answering questions. Of course, you should’ve heard the moan when I walked in the room as to how difficult these five questions were! I chuckled, laughed, maybe even bellowed a bit… Told them they were easy and that there five minutes to complete them.

Once they realized I was serious… I gave them a very stern “come to Jesus” talk about not lying to me and trying to take advantage of me just because I am a white man who doesn’t know anything.  It went well! Because of my BGSU ATEP students J I am experienced at giving “come to Jesus” talks to students!!! They were sufficiently scared and made nervous, but the proof will come Friday when they have to present their group projects!! (I’ll let you know how it goes)

BTW - In that five minutes I gave them to complete the assignment I went to the department heads office told him about the reading assignment debacle and he just chuckled and told me to hold their nose to the grindstone and if they will try to get away with everything that they can and that I should not give them an inch. But, he did say to me again – note this is the second time today – that “this is Africa” and it just takes time to get things done. Even if I give everyone an hour-by-hour time block schedule, a week in advance of when we are lecturing, when we’re doing clinicals, when we are doing readings, when we are doing class discussions, etc., etc., etc.… We still can’t function and operate smoothly, on time, or on schedule.

The beauty of all this… Is that I’m learning to be much more flexible and easy going… well, maybe not easy going… but I am having fun! It may not sound like it, based on my blogs, but this truly a great place!  AND my faculty colleagues are wonderful! Extremely talented, helpful, and intelligent and have many of the same frustrations with students that we have in the States.

and one more thing... we all (the whole dept.) got one pack if sticky notes and 3 pens today... I think that is the allotment for the semester and it was a big deal for the faculty to get these "gifts" from the institute. They were hand delivered to each of us one at a time by the Dept chair.  Makes you wonder about who really needs collective bargaining... I am glad American faculty are not so spoiled and that we have no sense of entitlement :-)

Gifts from the Dept. head, hand delivered with a smile!!

Lunch
On a much brighter side note I did find my way to the Serena Hotel today for lunch! What an oasis and paradise – I can’t believe I have not found this place sooner. It is literally just across the street from the Institute and it is a very nice hotel – very nice even by American standards! The only downside was at lunch cost $20… But the salad bar was amazing, cheese and wine bar even – and steak… Chicken and beef kebabs… All on the lunch buffet and I was able to eat it overlooking a very nice hotel swimming pool! And bonus of all bonuses – the hotel has a wine and cigar bar! They even have genuine, authentic, the real deal Cuban cigars… Of course they are $40 apiece, but hey, just knowing I can get a real Cuban cigar and enjoy it in a nice environment… means I don’t really need a classroom after all!

Angie and the Boys!

Homeschooling is not so understood here (in case you didnt know we are homeschooling the boys here in Rwanda). But ironically once they meet my boys they all want to homeschool too... I am busy teaching and consulting so Angie and the boys have taken to volunteer to teach English and reading 2 days a week at a local village school!  Thanks so much to Karen Campbell (Dr. Brian Campbell's wife - She is the better side - he is just the extra load she carries) who donated books to the cause! Thank you Karen!!! Here are some pics of their volunteer service.

Here is Jay with a local artist... that zebra is made of cow poop!

Angie loving on the school kids

Angie teaching the school kids about American educational-learning songs... like the ABC's

Nate reading to the children one of the books donated by Karen Campbell

Thanks Brian he sent me toilet paper in a bud light box... he must of drank all the bud light, cuz there was none in the box - Thanks Dr. C.  But the TP came in handy... he knows me well!

Nate, playing the guitar for the kids...

this is just a picture of a hopelessly cute kid.

Nate reading to his class...

More Rainforest pics



Here we are near the bottom of the rainforest... this was one of the only flat spots on the entire trek.



Here we are starting our 2nd day trek into the rainforest and to the water fall.

Scenes from the road

I started a new hobby, seeing how many different things I can see carried on top of people's heads. and I guess age does not matter... how about that little boy and girl with the bricks on their heads... WOW! or the guy walking with a bed on his head... I can assure that is local hardwood too (not light). and I missed the picture of a boy (maybe 14-15 yrs) carring a 20 foot (yep 20) tree trunk on his head... sorry, I know you dont believe it, but its true...

Rainforest trek

Teaching Part II
Today's teaching experience was a little rougher than last week. This is the first week where I am scheduled to teach for 40 hours. So I have been a little anxious about occupying 40 back to back hours of the students time. In theory I'm supposed to keep them occupied with one class module for eight hours a day five days a week. I was to begin lecture at 7:30 AM this morning. I did not know if I had a classroom or where it was until about 7:15 this morning. I went to the same classroom that I was assigned to last week, hoping that it was same, but when I got there it was full of students from a different class. I didn't know where to go psyching back to my office asked my department head what my classroom was and he said I have been assigned to the "skills lab" for my classes all week. Of course, I have no idea where the skills lab is located so I had to ask around to get pointed in the right direction. When I arrived to the class room home at the floor was completely flooded there were two maintenance workers in there was clear she squeegeeing the water out into the hallway… I also found that the "skills lab" is a room dedicated to the nursing students. The entire room was arranged and set up just like a hospital room with a bed, two chairs, IV hangers, the sliding curtain rooms, etc. There was no place for a lecture, no tables for students or chairs for them to sit at… I thought it might have them sit on the floor but it was flooded. All in all it was a disastrous start! I had to come back downstairs and form the department head that the room was flooded there were no tables no chairs no blackboard/chalkboard no place for me to even project my PowerPoint lecture notes… Was a little frustrated! My department had had no solution for me whatsoever other than find a way to make it work this is your classroom for this week. So… The workers had no intention of leaving until their job was done so I just tried to teach around them; I informed the students that they had 10 minutes to go find a chair from somewhere and bring it back. So within about 15 or 20 minutes everybody had a chair and about half the class had some sort of little stool or writing desk to sit at. So my 7:30 lecture began at about 8:30 or 8:45 (who's keeping track of time at this point). Workers were still working around us – incredibly distracting – on top of the fact that they were going to be sitting there for the next eight hours or so listening to me talk was just nothing short of discouraging. So… We got into a groove about 30 to 40 minutes into the lecture and we were clipping right along everybody was making do when someone just totally abruptly walked into the classroom and wondered what we were doing their. It is very clear that the schedule from the main administration building show that we were to have the skills lab… Well, I guess no one informed the nursing faculty. Around 915 or 930 nursing faculty came in and said that the skills lab belong to them and they needed the room for the rest of the day and that we would have to leave and find another classroom. So at this point I just laughed – she was in no joking mood – told the class we would have a few minute recess, I would find a new classroom and we would resume our lecture. Thankfully, I was able to find a new room. I only hope that we are able to have room tomorrow! Situations like this make it very difficult to take things seriously! But, I may do and it turned out just fine. During our first break, around 1030, I came down to my office to get a drink of water and check some email and found the hope physiotherapy department shut down and everybody gone. It was a ghost town – everybody's offices were locked tight and vacant! I had no idea where anybody was or what was going on… Not one to be surprised by much anymore, I just came to my office check and send some emails. I later did find out that the entire physiotherapy faculty was at a conference and that they neglected to tell me about it… My response to all of this – "Acuna Mattia" – no problem!

Here are the boys enjoying the robes and slippers in their own private luxury suite. It is some sort of national policy or law here in Rwanda that there is a limit to people per room – even families. Therefore all families are required at all times to you to get a sweet or at least two rooms – that's why it was so expensive for the room, not because we had the money to spend. The boys did however, the wonderful time!

Rainforest Trek
On another note… Me and the family had a wonderful time this past weekend at Nyungwe National Forest. In spite of the 5 Hour drive, on mountainous terrain, and a hairpin turn every 20 feet, we had a great time at the forest. This is Africa's only rain forest and canopy. It was truly an awesome experience! On Friday afternoon we walked on top of the canopy on this horrifyingly scary bridge! Much like the bridge in the Dr. Seuss movie Horton hears a who, where Horton had to imagine he was as light as a feather walking across this bridge that connected to mountains across a bottomless gorge. That was fun! We saw some amazing things! Friday evening we stayed at a five-star resort Lodge which was absolutely beautiful. Of course, it better have been beautiful because it was $875 per night… I won't say that it was worth the money, but it was certainly beautiful and they pampered us in every way! It was a much-needed break from our normal routine! On Saturday morning we took a trek into the rainforest. In this trek we went down to the basin of the rain forest, saw a beautiful waterfall, absolutely stunning and beautiful scenery – just like you would expect to see on any National Geographic show, and several species of very rare birds and a few monkeys. Friday's trek was about three hours that consisted of a 3000 foot elevation change. Saturday's trek was over four hours and was a 7000 foot elevation change – first down and then up. It was like something straight out of Jurassic Park! One of the most physically exhausting things I've ever done – fortunately, the scenery was so captivating that you hardly noticed how bad you are sweating, how thirsty you were, and how exhausted your limbs were. Of course Nathan and Jay didn't think it was hard at all – ohh to be young again! Once we were finished we headed back to the lines for a late afternoon swim in their beautiful infinity edge pool that overlooks the rain forest, some lunch, and a much-needed shower. Then back in the car for a nauseating 5 Hour drive home. All in all it was a great weekend!


here we are walking on top of the canopy on one of the most horrifying bridges I have ever had the privilege to stand on. This bridge was 95 meters long









here is a little break in the canopy… A nice view from beneath



here is an awesome view at the basin of the rainforest. Here's a picture of the top half of the waterfall

These two guys were hunting us on our trek!

It's hard to tell which is prettier… The rain forest… Or the hot babe on the left of the picture!

Of course on this picture it is very obvious that that stud in the middle is the best scenery.

Finally Teaching

Okay then… I started teaching Thursday! It went very well! But it was certainly a learning experience for me. As an introduction to this blog let me summarize the challenges: There were scheduling challenges, technology challenges, the obvious language barrier, and the distraction of me being white...

On the positive side – I found the students to be extremely engaged – but my department head informed me that was only because they were focusing on trying to understand my accent...

Here is me and the 2nd year class. Unlike USA a vast majority of the students are male. Only 3 females of 30ish in the 2nd year class.

The technology challenges revolved around having a projector available in my class during my class times. The module I am teaching is scheduled to meet for 50 contact hours (five credits). I was scheduled to have a classroom for 10 hours Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. Since no one could tell me when or if I would get additional classroom time for the remaining 40 hours (I’m sure I will – no one just knows when) I was advised by my department head to use those guaranteed 10 hours of classroom time for lecture and keep the other 40 open for times when I might not have classroom when I could assign labs, clinical-based assignments, etc. One thing I found out – after I have prepared 10 hours of lecture – was that projectors need to be reserved in advance for classroom times. Interestingly enough you never know when you’re going to have classroom time allotted so it is difficult to ask for projectors in advance. The trick I found out – is to just ask for and schedule a projector every day all the time and if you have the benefit of classroom time you simply pick it up as scheduled… if you do not have classroom time scheduled just don’t pick it up. Of course when you go to pick one up they are all already scheduled out to other faculty, and of course no one is willing to give you one until they are absolutely certain that whoever has one scheduled is not coming to get it…. [Not wanting to deal with that tricky situation ever again I paid a visit to Newegg.com and $500 later ordered my own projector hopefully it will be delivered soon]

After some finagling I was able to secure a projector for my class lectures. I have no idea on earth what I would’ve done without a projector for PowerPoint. They were totally expecting just to sit there in the classroom for four hours and listen to me talk – without the PowerPoint I don’t think they would’ve understood one word. Because many of my points were illustrated or spelled out on PowerPoint I think it helped them get a grasp of my accent much quicker. I am also coming to find out that the students are very comfortable and accustomed to lecture-based teaching and that anything other than that seems to be suspect and not real teaching – even the other faculty have a strong lecture-based bias.

Sorry for the blur... here are the 2nd year students doing a "lab" on proproiception and balance... most of them have never tried this before and it was like having recess for them, since they mostly sit and listen to lectures all day.

The scheduling was also an interesting situation to navigate. While I had my 10 hours allotted for the week (keep in mind that I am not sure when I will get classroom time again for this module) I lectured for four  continuous hours on Thursday and had six hours remaining on Friday. As was recommended to me I had planned to lecture all 10 hours – again as I don’t know when I will be able to have them in lecture again – but, I received an email Thursday night at 10 PM at the rector of the Institute would like all the KHI students to attend a debate at 1 PM on Friday. Therefore, my department head informed me at 10 PM Thursday evening that I was to let the students go at noon so they could have time to eat lunch before the debate. And that any loss of lecture time would be “no problem.” So, I just scrapped three hours of my lecture and hope that I cut out the information that they’ll never user won’t need…

Their expectation of education is certainly different from what the focus is in traditional Western- based universities! I would compare their educational system to highly concentrated clusters of seminars. For example, each class has objectives or learning content that must be delivered in the class. Instead of the class being taught by a single instructor the class is divided into a series of modules. And each module is then taught by a different instructor. In a traditional American university a course syllabus identifies specific objectives that the course should deliver. In Rwanda it appears that what we call “objectives” they call modules. So in essence a different instructor is brought in to teach the different course objectives. So my objective (or module) is to teach exercise therapy to the second year physiotherapy students in their physiotherapy techniques 1 class, and a different instructor comes in to teach them joint mobilizations, etc. When talking to the different members of the faculty as to what content I should focus on for “exercise therapy” there was absolutely zero consensus. Very frustrating! So I did what all experienced an expert faculty member’s do – and just winged it, and made stuff up as I went.

The feedback from the other faculty members after Thursday evening – was wonderful! Once the students got over the fact that I was Muzungu (white) things went very well! In fact, I was extremely impressed by the students! I am not ashamed or afraid to say they have raised my level of expectation for my students at BGSU– when I return – watch out! Perhaps, it is as my department head suggested and they were extra engaged because of the language barrier, regardless of the reason they work very hard to understand what I was saying and apply and integrate what I was saying into their treatment of patients. They actually stopped me and asked me to re-explain something if they didn’t understand me! (Perhaps that’s because getting out early is a different concept to them since are scheduled to sit there and listen for six hours anyways). What I was most impressed with was not their acquisition of the knowledge; rather it was the insightful questions and critical thinking. Again, it renewed my hope in the capacity of students (even sophomores, wink wink) to critically think and apply information to the jobs and tasks they do in their clinical rotations. I found that as second-year students they had a much deeper grasp of concepts that our students don’t seem to understand until their senior year. For example, eccentric, concentrate, and reciprocal inhibition was something that they were able to grasp and demonstrate correctly almost immediately.  After observing the students, faculty, and the institution for four weeks now… I truly believe that a large part of why the students seem to be “better” is because of their respect and admiration for their teachers and faculty. One thing I have noticed – as a huge difference – between the students in Rwanda and the students at the three other universities I have taught in America is the genuine respect for my expertise, experience, and knowledge. Perhaps that is because their access to information is significantly less and they depend in large part on their faculty for relevant information. Whereas, in America students can access information almost instantly via the Internet, libraries, etc.… And challenge and question what their instructors tell them based on what they read on Google or Wikipedia – wink, wink!

Anyway, my first 10 hours of teaching and proven to be very educational and insightful about my own skill set as well. I had to slow down considerably in my pace of talking, and language in a completely different way. The words I chose had to be simple and a significant part of my lecture was taught like we were playing a game of charades. I found the challenge to be exciting and I’m looking forward to getting another crack at lecturing and teaching next week.

KHI Students



Students start classes at 7:00 am until 5:00 pm, same class all day... Here they are hanging out in the "hallway" during a 30 minute tea break. Note the white lab coates - required attire for professioanl students. You cant see it here, but many of them are wearing neck ties as well...




tea break anyone?




Enjoying the tea break! The blue uniforms are special for the nursing students. You can always tell who the nursing students are beacuse they wear blue scrubs!