Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
What else is on the list?
Morning papers
Lunch at Neal's Yard
Church on Sunday if time permits
Highgate cemetary
Tea at Harrods or Fortnums
Find a vegan ploughman's lunch
Buying tea at Fortnums
double decker bus tour?
chips in a cone
Brighton?
A stroll on the Strand
Westminster Cathedral
Lunch at Neal's Yard
Church on Sunday if time permits
Highgate cemetary
Tea at Harrods or Fortnums
Find a vegan ploughman's lunch
Buying tea at Fortnums
double decker bus tour?
chips in a cone
Brighton?
A stroll on the Strand
Westminster Cathedral
Things to Look Forward to in London
I was sitting in my chair reading the paper, when suddenly I was struck by a memory of me in England in 1980, when I travelled there on my own. I was in Brighton, sitting in a beach chair that I had rented, and I had the urge for some fish and chips. I asked the chair rental chap to hold the chair for me (I had paid for an hour's worth of sitting and wasn't keen on losing my chair!) and I went to a fish and chips kiosk that was in one of the arches under the road. I ordered a fish and chips and it came rolled in a huge cone made of fake newspaper. I carried it back to my chair and ate it. The cone was blisteringly hot and I sprinkled lots of salt and vinegar onto the fish and chips. My order came with a little fork, but I used my fingers until it was time to eat the fish.
I remember it was a sunny day, but it was cold; I was wearing jeans, a shirt and sweater and a denim jacket.
I don’t eat fish anymore, but I do love chips. I will make a point of ordering some chips and eating them outdoors in a chair. If we get a chance to dash down to Brighton, that will be even better, but that is unlikely, considering we have a growing list of things to do in London. I will post the list shortly.
I remember it was a sunny day, but it was cold; I was wearing jeans, a shirt and sweater and a denim jacket.
I don’t eat fish anymore, but I do love chips. I will make a point of ordering some chips and eating them outdoors in a chair. If we get a chance to dash down to Brighton, that will be even better, but that is unlikely, considering we have a growing list of things to do in London. I will post the list shortly.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Soccer Equipment
Our trip organizer, Rich Hitchens, asked us to see if we could rustle up some soccer uniforms to take to Rwanda to give to the children there. Rwanda is a poor, but soccer crazy country, and used uniforms from Canada are like a dream come true for the children there.
I sent emails to four soccer clubs in Scarborough about three or four weeks ago, and until today, had not heard back from any of them. I assumed it was because their email wasn’t checked much in the off season, so I really didn’t expect to hear from them until about May, if at all.
This evening I received an email from Michelle Cole Kennedy who is with the Scarborough Blizzard football club. She told me she has some uniforms for me to take. What fantastic news! How kind of the Blizzard to donate uniforms to these kids.
When I give the uniforms to the children I will take lots of pictures that I can post and send back to Michelle so that she can show them to the Blizzard, so that they can see how happy they have made a group of children, a half a world away.
Thank you Scarborough Blizzard.
I sent emails to four soccer clubs in Scarborough about three or four weeks ago, and until today, had not heard back from any of them. I assumed it was because their email wasn’t checked much in the off season, so I really didn’t expect to hear from them until about May, if at all.
This evening I received an email from Michelle Cole Kennedy who is with the Scarborough Blizzard football club. She told me she has some uniforms for me to take. What fantastic news! How kind of the Blizzard to donate uniforms to these kids.
When I give the uniforms to the children I will take lots of pictures that I can post and send back to Michelle so that she can show them to the Blizzard, so that they can see how happy they have made a group of children, a half a world away.
Thank you Scarborough Blizzard.
What to wear
One of the things that I notice in almost all discussions about Rwanda is that the people there have really clean clothes despite the red dust/dirt that is everywhere. Ex-pats and tourists, however, remark that they leave their guest houses or hotels all clean to start the day, and within ten or fifteen minutes, have smudges of this red dirt on their clothes. I don’t know what the local peoples’ secret is to keeping their clothes clean
I tend to favour navy blue pants and white polo shirts for travel. Red dirt and white shirts are not a good mix. Our trip leader says that the nuns who run our guest house do a great job at getting clothes clean. The laundry service is a way for them to make a little extra money. He says the sisters can get the clothes clean, but shoes take a real beating from the red dirt, and the nuns don’t launder shoes. Somehow dark clothes don’t seem to be a logical choice when traveling to the middle of Africa. I think light clothes are called for, but the red dirt poses a challenge.
Plus, I have read in a few places that the colour blue frightens animals in the savannah and in the jungle, and both are places we will be going. The last thing I want to do is scare animals, especially if that fear makes them aggressive. I may be looking at buying some linen (at exorbitant prices here: $25/meter for 100% linen at fabricland!) and making some black pants to wear.
I tend to favour navy blue pants and white polo shirts for travel. Red dirt and white shirts are not a good mix. Our trip leader says that the nuns who run our guest house do a great job at getting clothes clean. The laundry service is a way for them to make a little extra money. He says the sisters can get the clothes clean, but shoes take a real beating from the red dirt, and the nuns don’t launder shoes. Somehow dark clothes don’t seem to be a logical choice when traveling to the middle of Africa. I think light clothes are called for, but the red dirt poses a challenge.
Plus, I have read in a few places that the colour blue frightens animals in the savannah and in the jungle, and both are places we will be going. The last thing I want to do is scare animals, especially if that fear makes them aggressive. I may be looking at buying some linen (at exorbitant prices here: $25/meter for 100% linen at fabricland!) and making some black pants to wear.
Amakuru ki? Nimeza cyane.
(How’s it going? It’s going very well.)
A few weeks ago I found a really interesting blog written by a young woman working for an NGO in Rwanda. She had posted a small, but useful, I felt, phrasebook and dictionary of Rwandan words. There were about 15 or so pages. Her blog had many followers and I was reading through some of the comments when I noticed that one of the contributors had listed the name of a company that published a Kinyarwanda dictionary, but that they were selling the dictionary and not giving it away for free. There are a number of Kinyarwanda dictionaries on the net for free, that encourage people to print and share their pages. Just on a hunch I thought I would check out this dictionary, so I went to the website the commenter had mentioned, to take a peek.
The website was called Speak Rwanda, and it did, indeed, have a pocket sized dictionary, but it was not yet ready for sale. What it also had, however, was downloadable language lessons and flash cards for use in learning Kinyarwanda. I thought about it for a moment, and then I figured, what the heck, and I bought the basic language lessons package, and the flash cards. They also have a set of advanced language lessons that will be ready a little later this spring. The lessons and flash cards came as downloads, arrived within seconds, and I uploaded the lessons onto itunes and from there onto my ipod. I can listen to the lessons as I drive to work, or go for my daily walks. The lessons came with a set of companion materials so that I can read what I am speaking, and write some answers down from time to time. I printed the companion materials and put them in my Learning Kinyarwanda binder, in which I also have the blogger’s little dictionary and some other Kinyarwanda materials. I read these papers every day.
My verdict on the lessons? They are worth every cent of the $24.99 I paid for them. I could read dictionaries and phrases for ages, even phrases with phonetically-written pronunciation guides, but without hearing the words spoken, I would never really know how to speak properly, and more importantly, never know what the language sounded like when it was being spoken to me.
I have been listening to Lesson One: Greetings, on my way to work every morning this week, and I think I have a basic grip on greeting people. The title of this blog entry comes from the first lesson. “Amakuru ki?” means “How’s it going?” and “Nimeza cyane” means “It’s going well.” You would never guess the pronunciation from looking at the words. These words are pronounced “Amakooroochee” and “Neemayzachahnee”.
I wanted to be able to use a few words when I arrived, to show respect to the Rwandans I encountered on the trip. I understand that most people will speak English or French so I am ok there, but undoubtedly we will meet people who do not, or for whom English and French are second languages. It is for those people that I am learning to speak a few words in Kinyarwanda.
The lessons include Greetings, Numbers (from 1 to 20), Speaking with Children, Food, Getting Around, Church, Emotions, Shopping, Going on Safari, and Emergencies. It includes two songs as well. One song is a counting song to help with memorizing numbers, and the other is a church song. Both have catchy African beats and the music is good. I am impressed with this product, and if their next set of language lessons and dictionary comes out in time for me to purchase before I go, I will definitely buy them both. Until then, however my only dictionary will be a homemade one: I have downloaded the free dictionary, as I said, and then I photocopied it with two pages on one page, side by side, and I will be cutting and pasting them into a 5 x 7 coil bound book to take with me. It will be time consuming and a little bulky, but will be a good project for me. It will take time, but then, if I am working on that, I won’t be eating.
I have to say that learning the numbers from one to ten was harder than I expected. Strangely enough, I had no problem with one to six (except the word for one, which is rimwe, and which seems to be unpronounceable for me, but I can do a passable facsimile of what the teacher is saying), and nine and ten, but for reasons that I can’t quite understand, I remember the word for seven only intermittently, and the word for eight just about never. The good thing is that I recognize them when I see them in print.
The other good thing about reading these phrase books that I have downloaded for free, and learning these lessons, is that I now recognize certain words when I see them. This will come in handy when looking at menus that are not written in English or French or looking at signs etc.
So, as the teacher says at the end of Lesson One: I am well on my way.
A few weeks ago I found a really interesting blog written by a young woman working for an NGO in Rwanda. She had posted a small, but useful, I felt, phrasebook and dictionary of Rwandan words. There were about 15 or so pages. Her blog had many followers and I was reading through some of the comments when I noticed that one of the contributors had listed the name of a company that published a Kinyarwanda dictionary, but that they were selling the dictionary and not giving it away for free. There are a number of Kinyarwanda dictionaries on the net for free, that encourage people to print and share their pages. Just on a hunch I thought I would check out this dictionary, so I went to the website the commenter had mentioned, to take a peek.
The website was called Speak Rwanda, and it did, indeed, have a pocket sized dictionary, but it was not yet ready for sale. What it also had, however, was downloadable language lessons and flash cards for use in learning Kinyarwanda. I thought about it for a moment, and then I figured, what the heck, and I bought the basic language lessons package, and the flash cards. They also have a set of advanced language lessons that will be ready a little later this spring. The lessons and flash cards came as downloads, arrived within seconds, and I uploaded the lessons onto itunes and from there onto my ipod. I can listen to the lessons as I drive to work, or go for my daily walks. The lessons came with a set of companion materials so that I can read what I am speaking, and write some answers down from time to time. I printed the companion materials and put them in my Learning Kinyarwanda binder, in which I also have the blogger’s little dictionary and some other Kinyarwanda materials. I read these papers every day.
My verdict on the lessons? They are worth every cent of the $24.99 I paid for them. I could read dictionaries and phrases for ages, even phrases with phonetically-written pronunciation guides, but without hearing the words spoken, I would never really know how to speak properly, and more importantly, never know what the language sounded like when it was being spoken to me.
I have been listening to Lesson One: Greetings, on my way to work every morning this week, and I think I have a basic grip on greeting people. The title of this blog entry comes from the first lesson. “Amakuru ki?” means “How’s it going?” and “Nimeza cyane” means “It’s going well.” You would never guess the pronunciation from looking at the words. These words are pronounced “Amakooroochee” and “Neemayzachahnee”.
I wanted to be able to use a few words when I arrived, to show respect to the Rwandans I encountered on the trip. I understand that most people will speak English or French so I am ok there, but undoubtedly we will meet people who do not, or for whom English and French are second languages. It is for those people that I am learning to speak a few words in Kinyarwanda.
The lessons include Greetings, Numbers (from 1 to 20), Speaking with Children, Food, Getting Around, Church, Emotions, Shopping, Going on Safari, and Emergencies. It includes two songs as well. One song is a counting song to help with memorizing numbers, and the other is a church song. Both have catchy African beats and the music is good. I am impressed with this product, and if their next set of language lessons and dictionary comes out in time for me to purchase before I go, I will definitely buy them both. Until then, however my only dictionary will be a homemade one: I have downloaded the free dictionary, as I said, and then I photocopied it with two pages on one page, side by side, and I will be cutting and pasting them into a 5 x 7 coil bound book to take with me. It will be time consuming and a little bulky, but will be a good project for me. It will take time, but then, if I am working on that, I won’t be eating.
I have to say that learning the numbers from one to ten was harder than I expected. Strangely enough, I had no problem with one to six (except the word for one, which is rimwe, and which seems to be unpronounceable for me, but I can do a passable facsimile of what the teacher is saying), and nine and ten, but for reasons that I can’t quite understand, I remember the word for seven only intermittently, and the word for eight just about never. The good thing is that I recognize them when I see them in print.
The other good thing about reading these phrase books that I have downloaded for free, and learning these lessons, is that I now recognize certain words when I see them. This will come in handy when looking at menus that are not written in English or French or looking at signs etc.
So, as the teacher says at the end of Lesson One: I am well on my way.
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