Muraho! Namaste! Hello!

 

I am Laurien (Lauren) Nyiribakwe, born in Rwanda, the country of a thousand hills.

I went to elementary school at 7 years old in 1988. Going to school was the first life experiment I faced in my life! At such a tender age, I had to travel from Rusayo to Remera not by bus but on foot, from remote valleys to highland hills, a journey of roughly one hour on foot! There was not transportation at the time as there is now. Kizito my elder brother knew the way better. The very first day he accompanied me to school. After climbing three mountains, I was exhausted, started walking on my knees! Seized by compassion, he carried me on his shoulders!

At Remera-Ruhondo (Rwanda) where I did my primary school, each pupil had to carry his or her small blackboard and a piece of chalk to write down the lessons.  All the lessons including Writing and Counting, Kinyarwanda Alphabets and Reading texts, Songs, Gymnastics, Arts, Personal Hygiene, and Geography, History, were taught by one teacher. Each pupil was to put on school uniform: blue dresses for females and Kaki for males. Pupils were to arrive at school from 8 a.m. and go back home at 16:30 p.m. Most of our classes were built of mud-bricks and covered by tiles. The teachers had to write on the blackboard. We, as pupils had to record what the teachers were saying or note them down on our blackboards. We had to do exercises on the same blackboard and erase them out when filled with notes.

I started my high school in 1995. My family helped me to get a dozen of notebooks and some pens so that I may write down what the professor was teaching me. At this time, we had various subjects to learn. The professor would teach two at least two or three lessons. It was not like in the primary school where we had one teacher for all the subjects. It was quite a challenge to grasp Biology, Chemistry, English, French, Algebra, Economy, and History. These subjects were not taught in my native language, they were taught in French. The classes were more sophisticated but I managed to get through them.! I had to attend class at least 8 hours per day, from Monday to Friday.

At the time only few elite in the Rwandan capital city, Kigali, could have access to TV. Internet Mass and social media were quasi inexistent. Some schools and offices had cable phones and Fax and Printing machines.

National or international information could be read on some printed newspapers or on the national radio. Thus, my actual French and English accent is partially influenced by listening to Radio Rwanda.

Getting into my graduate studies in 2002, I was drawn to study Environmental-Health Sciences at the University of Rwanda. I got to know some courses such as Environmental pollution, Public health, Water and Sanitation among others. These courses were good at learning, yet best at applying them on the ground. The critical gap was the lack laboratories which could better help students to apply in the society what was being taught.

In 2006, I entered in the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). On the way of my formation, I have been introduced to different disciplines such as Spirituality, Philosophy and Theology, and currently sent to San Francisco, just around the Silicon Valley, the hub of technologies. With the later studies, I’m benefiting a great deal in learning and in communicating some of my ideas. As a new student, I’m drawn to know and use better educational technologies such as Canvas, Power Point, YouTube, and other communicational and instructional designs tools. I’m persuaded that there are today plenty of means used on our computers and internet connections but which are not efficiently known and used. I discovered Canvas when I was studying at Boston College. Canvas helped me to interacting with my classmates and submit my homework at a due time. While virtual technologies have their own limitations, they can be helpful in facilitating crowds of people worldwide, especially in the underprivileged societies such refugee camps and underprivileged societies. There is a great need in learning and integrating it into conventional education. It is my hope that I could gain and give more by learning and utilizing digital and educational technologies, the pride of Silicon Valley.

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