The hills are alive with the sound of music

 

I step out of the gate of the De La Salle teacher training college in Byumba. We are doing a training course on learning through play in pre-school. Today and tomorrow, we focus on emergent numeracy for pre-schoolers and on how you can approach that in a playful way or, more importantly, how you can use children's play to help them develop mathematical concepts. It has been a busy day, but above all, we have had a lot of fun. Like when I sent the teacher trainers armed with their mobile phones out, on a geometric figure and pattern hunt.

Byumba is situated on a hill in the mountainous district of Gicumbi. In the centre of that hill is the Catholic Church. A gigantic building that seems to have been built to illustrate what we were doing today during the training. The stained-glass windows consist of geometric shapes in different colours. But what attracts me most of all is the music that flows out through the opened side door. Choral singing. I slip inside and sit down on one of the wooden benches to listen. In the front, a group of young people are singing. They are probably practising for tomorrow, Sunday.

At the De La Salle teacher training college, we also heard a boys' and girls' choir in different parts of the campus. This hill looks like a music centre. There is singing everywhere. The church where I am sitting now is just one of the many Catholic institutions: a monastery, a teacher training college, two school communities, a kindergarten. We stay in the guesthouse of the diocese, a bit further down, on the same hilltop. It is very basic there, but clean. There is reasonably hot water for showering and enough blankets to keep me warm at night. That is needed, as it can get very cold here. The fantastic view makes up for that. Gee, those missionaries sure knew where they pitched their tents. This morning, I could see the volcanoes on the horizon and, below me, a valley full of clouds. Now the clouds have cleared and the green terraces full of corn, beans and peas are shining in the warm glow of the evening sun. It will be dark soon now. Time to put on an extra jumper.