Blended learning: Cooking and online lectures in the kitchen

The news of the first COVID-19 case in Rwanda hit me on 14 March 2020. At first, I imagined that the coronavirus would be around only for a short while. However, on the morning of 15 March, at school, we were advised to go home for safety reasons. This is when I realised this was a serious issue.

I sat down to digest the information and decide what I should do next. The only option was to go home. So, I packed a few pieces of clothing and personal belongings, hoping we would be able to come back after two weeks, as recommended by the government.

My journey to a new life and some drastic change started that very night. I had different challenges throughout the quarantine period: internet issues, technical issues and balancing academics with household chores.

Internet issues

I was excited to reach home and reconnect with my family. But soon I realised that, academically speaking, I had no future if I stayed at home. This was due to internet issues.

At Kepler, where I studied, I had access to the fastest unlimited internet for my academic work but things changed at home. The internet connection was weak and slowed me down. Yet I had to keep up with my studies. I first had to request free Wi-Fi from people who also had resorted to working from home.

This was a temporary solution and slowed everybody down. I struggled to find a better way to deal with the internet issue until I switched to another telecommunication company that served me better.

Laptop troubles

As the lockdown continued, more challenges came up. I started having technical issues. My laptop was not working well. I had been used to having direct access to a technical team at Kepler. At home I had to figure everything out. My laptop needed some formatting and I didn’t know how to do it. The laptop screen malfunctioned. That was when I got stuck.

My academic work ground to a standstill. Eventually, after a month, I figured out the solution was to borrow a laptop from a person at home, which was really frustrating. Everyone at home was using their laptops and the only time I could access the laptop was late at night. This affected my daily schedule.

I would spend the whole day attending to other responsibilities and then working on my academic projects late into the night. This meant that I hardly rested. I was fatigued and lacked concentration in the days that followed. The situation changed after some businesses started to reopen. I took my laptop to be repaired and was able to resume my normal routine.

Household chores

Just like any other African girl child, I have the responsibility of taking on chores in the house. But balancing academics and household chores is quite challenging. Sometimes classes go on until the evening and attendance is a must, yet we have home responsibilities to consider.

At times, I took my laptop with me to the kitchen to cook while, at the same time, attending online classes. I was risking damage to my laptop, not understanding what I was being taught and cooking inedible food.

This was a challenge I could not overcome up to June, when regional borders opened for us to get a house-help who was supposed to come from a different region.

Before the arrival of the house-help, I would miss some deadlines for most class assignments and it affected my grades.

The coronavirus affected everyone in different ways. However, change is a fact of life and we have to deal with it.

I learned that flexibility is paramount in life. Life is full of unpredictable things and this means that we have to train our minds to be able to adapt and to be creative in whatever situation we find ourselves in. George Bernard Shaw said: “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

A changing mind affects the decisions and reactions of whatever we do, thus we should train it accordingly.

The pandemic is still with us. We should be kind in everything we do and keep safe.

Sharon Mbabazi is a second-year student at Kepler Kigali, a programme offered in collaboration with the Southern New Hampshire University in the United States. She is doing a bachelor degree in communication with a focus on business. Home is in the Kanombe-Kicukiro district of Rwanda.