Chinelo Nwosu
Education 3 -- Bugesera District, Eastern Province
The
first 3 months of my Peace Corps journey began in a small village, Taba, in the
District of Kamonyi, in the Southern Province of Rwanda. Taba is where I went through
training which included hours of language(Kinyarwanda), sessions of tech
training for teaching the Rwandan Education system, Cross Culture and Health
sessions just to name a few. While this
time was filled with exciting new experiences it was also had its occasional
stresses. Just when those stresses were beginning to peak we were given the opportunity
to put our training to the test. We were allowed to teach the children of the
surrounding villages. This was to give
us practical training, it also helped with our confidence in the classroom. For
some, like myself, this was my first time teaching in a classroom setting so I
was extremely excited to be paired up with Zack one of our training groups very
experienced teachers.
One day we decided to teach
Fact and Opinion, our theme for the week was opposites.
“Good
Morning class, today we are going to discuss
fact and opinion”, Zack said very loudly. After all the student repeated
“Fact and Opinion” in a low mutter, they took out their notebooks and prepared
to take notes on the subject. After giving definitions of both fact and
opinion, Zack gave examples. “Rwanda is in eastern Africa.” It is a beautiful
day today.” “I think Fanta Citro is better than Fanta Orange.” After every
example Zack took a poll from the students whether the statement was a fact or
an opinion. He also allowed the student to give their own examples, but before
he turned it over to the students there was one last example “Men are stronger
than women”. Right after those words left his mouth the class roared with students
yelling “Fact. Teacher, FACT!” Even though taking a poll was not really needed
because we knew how the majority felt, we still took a poll. While majority of
the class felt that the aforementioned statement was a fact there were two
students who quietly insisted that this statement was an opinion. As the
student laughed at the two, Zack broke the news to them, “Men are stronger than
Women is….. and opinion.” The class began to disagree yelling “Not. Teacher,
NOT! ” “You lie me.”
After
getting the students to calm down, Zack explained to them why it was an
opinion. They did not believe him. So we decided as a team to introduce them to
the wonders of….. Arm Wrestling! We showed them a demo. As Zack and I sat on either
side of the desk as we quietly argued about whether or not he was going to let me win
to prove the point. I won in both cases. To drive the point home we decided
that I should have a REAL arm wrestle with one of the boys in class. The
biggest kid (I believe he was in his late teens) in class chooses to arm wrestle with me. By this
time students were excited to see the outcome. The student and I took our seats
and Zack prepared our hands in the correct position. Anticipation was building.
I was hoping that I actually won so I wouldn’t look like a fool. I felt like I was
on an afterschool special, I, in that moment was an example for women everywhere
or at least that’s how I felt. Just as Zack let our hand the Dean of Discipline (a
female) walks in and beings to cheer me on.
After
about a minute, it was over. I was the winner. The females were so excited,
including the Dean of Discipline. As my right arm throbbed, I took immense
pleasure in changing the way that not only the males viewed females but also
how the females viewed themselves.
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