Fund raising

My trip to Rwanda with Signpost International is fully paid for, but when we are there we will be undertaking a number of projects which themselves need funding. See the Rwanda Update post for details of the projects I will be doing. I hadn't realised I was meant to be fund raising until recently and now have very little time to organise anything before I go at the end of January. Please please please post ideas of what I might do sponsored event wise that I can use to raise money! It needs to be mildly challenging, but not ridiculous considering the time constraints.

All Quiet On The Western Front

Another update on my reading list. I have added All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque to it since I realised it had been missed off the first edition. I have now read the book and so can remove it again. An absolutely remarkable book, and refreshing to read about the First World War from the point of view of the Germans after studying so much history from a British perspective.

I remember quite well an assembly that our head teacher gave to us once about the First World War in which he got the whole year to stand up and then class by class got us to sit down again until there were only a few left standing at the front. His point was that the soldiers in the trenches were not decimated as is so often said, decimated means ten percent of. The soldiers in the trenches were killed in much greater percentages than 10 in 100. Reading All Quiet On The Western Front brought that home to me once again.

I have also been reading up about Rwanda today and searching for blogs of other people working out there. I came across an interesting blog at www.ianwk.blogspot.com through www.rwanda-aid.org. I think I will start to brush up on my French before I go to Dundee to start my training with Signpost International too, despite working in France for Spring Harvest Holidays for 2 summers my French language skills are no further on than when I stopped studying it at year 9!

On another book note, I have also read C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed so now my reading list stands thus, all of which I have started:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Life Together
Alister McGrath - Theology The Basics
Bill Hybels - Too Busy Not To Pray
Nick Spencer - Asylum and Immigration - A Christian Perspective
Alistair Redfern - Being Anglican

Rwanda update

I have finally received some details about my adventure to Rwanda!

The main project for the team will be to create a community centre. Signpost international already own the building, Hope House, and this is also where the team will be based and where the office is. Our job will be to make the centre function for the community. We will be creating a community cafe with space for other micro enterprises - an internet cafe, a jam making business and a craft shop.

Another project is a water project providing a water tank to collect rain water so that the villagers won't have to walk several miles each day to collect water.

It transpires that I will be doing a fair amount of teaching in the local school as well. They intend on using the skills I have developed at St. Martin's! Curiously this is the part I am least sure about, though purely because I worry that I will not know whether the children are learning any English which will be of any use! I am going to have to read up on TEFL, learning a second language is far different from learning to read and write in a first language. I am sure that all that I learnt on placement in Germany from teaching English and observing English lessons will come in useful!

Learning about Rwanda

I have been learning about Rwanda this evening. There is so much to take in about the history and the reasons leading up to the genocide of 1994. I have found the government's website particularly useful in its information, though endeavour to read around a bit more to get a fuller picture.

Other useful websites include:
BBC - an overview of the country
CBC - canadian news site