Saturday, September 3, 2011

Mr. Chips


This might look like a Coca-Cola stan but it is a restaurant that is called Mr. Chips.

It is the closest thing to McDonald's you can find here in Rwanda! And believe it or not the burgers and fries (known as chips here) are really good!

One of my favorite places to go :)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Awareness

We had a workshop for all of the teacher assistants. They are the teachers that work closely with the children that have special needs.

I opened up the workshop by doing a simulation on what it feels like to have autism. All the teachers had to do was write one sentence...while wearing blue tinted goggles, using their non-dominant hand, with a red pen, on a line that was rounded and slanted up, with music in the background, with someone running all around the room, with someone talking in their ear about nonsense and pointing at their paper...but all they had to do was listen to what I was saying and write it down.

The teachers could no believe that is what these students were going through all the time.

Autism: a life long developmental disability which alters the development of language, sensory and social.

The teachers quickly understood that these students were not asking the way they were because they were being disobedient or lazy but because they have a disability.

Yeah these students might have special needs but, they are people...kids...created by God, in His perfect way....they were made special...just like you....and me.

If you want to see the world through they eyes of a child with autism click here
(scroll down to the video).

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Day Off

This is when you just say 'you know when you live in Rwanda when....'

Our teaching calendar said we had school tomorrow.

That is until the government came on the radio and declared it a national holiday due to the fact that it is a muslim holiday.

So we went to all the classroom and told the students not to come to school tomorrow. As you can imagine the kids were very distraught but I think they will be ok :)

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Big 5


One of my students turned 5 today!

Her teacher assistant and I went to her birthday party. It was fun.