School Lunch, week 1!

One of the virtues of volunteering at the school is that I get to relive school lunch for two weeks! Seriously, though, it is a great avenue into local Rwandese cooking.

The first dish came from the lunch for the engagement party. As such, it had some celebrated favorites. It was headlined by the meat brochettes, skewered and grilled. Accompanying the main event were a variety of side dishes, including a carrot salad, fresh onion, tomato, and pepper salad, a variant of coleslaw, and irish potatoes. And for dessert, a small banana. A great introduction - the irish potatoes had a lovely sauce on them and I'm always game for grilled meat.

The second day at school brought another lunch. This one consisted of a kidney bean, tomato, and onion stew, boiled potatoes, and cooked pasta. The pasta and potatoes were very straight forward - providing the daily dose of starch but little else. The stew, however, was scrumptious, with the flavors of the ingredients combining with unknown spices to be instantly eatable.

The third day brought another special treat: sombe. Sombe is a dish made from the leaves of the cassava plant. It is a brilliant green color, it looks much like the indian dish saag. However the flavor is much herbier, with the specific herb hard to put one's finger on. Methi, perhaps? I dunno, but with the hot chutney provided, this was delicious. The kidney bean stew and rice were great complements - though I could've done just with the sombe!

Clearly beats the pink slime and chocolate milk of American school lunches. I can't wait to see what next week will bring!

Intro to the Akilah Institute for Women

I mentioned that this trip would have a bit of a different flavor from the last. On this one, I've luckily stumbled into an opportunity to do some volunteering. The organization I'll be visiting is the Akilah Institute for Women (akilahinstitute.org), a college that trains women to be leaders in the tourism and hospitality sector in Rwanda. It is about three years old, and about to graduate its first class this coming August.

The school itself is a sight to behold, perched on a hillside in the neighborhood of Kibagabaga, a 20 minute drive from the center of Kigali. One main complex contains the three classrooms and teacher and administrative offices. The classrooms are painted Blue, Yellow, and Green - the three colors of the Rwandan flag. Students stay with their cohort, and likewise are the Blue, Yellow, or Green group.

S had met the founder last year at the Kennedy School when she gave a talk. Immediately S was interested, and converted that interest into a two week visit to provide some assistance on the development of the school's leadership curriculum. I have the good fortune to tag along. In addition, I'll be running some Math and IT workshops to help the students improve their skills in those areas.

I was greeted at the school with this awesome poster advertising my services. I adopted the name fully, and am known as Joseph among the students. It is much easier to say, especially for French speakers! After connecting with C, the Math / IT teacher, I learned the areas of focus are ratios and proportions, percentages, and interest rates. Should be a great two weeks of teaching and tutoring - and along the way getting to meet some pretty inspiring women!

We arrived on a unique day. That afternoon, the school was celebrating the engagement of the two co-founders, D and E. The students had prepared a Rwandese lunch (more on that in a separate post!) and a talent show to celebrate the work the founders had done on behalf of the school. The couple was dressed in local garb, then seated at a banquet table, where a variety of dances, songs, and skits were performed. Very cool!