Carter’s YAGM Year in Rwanda Newsletter

November, 2018.

Welcome to my bimonthly newsletter! The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you up to up to date with my comings and goings throughout the year. Unlike my blog, this newsletter is a requirement of the YAGM Program and, as such, will be (should be) regularly posted during the beginning of every other month. Happy reading!

I have been in Rwanda for over 11 weeks now and am just now beginning to slip into a general routine. While my days certainly don’t have the same structure as they do in the United States (ie wake up, work/study, go home, go to sleep), what semblance to a routine I have been able to form is comforting and has helped me to better settle into the village lifestyle. During the weekdays, a typical day begins at 7. I sleep underneath a mosquito net, which is (unsurprisingly) cocoon-like and adds to the comfort of bed and the unwillingness to wake up in the morning. Having (begrudgingly) woken up, I typically eat a quick breakfast of tea with milk and bread with my host family and head off for school at 8.

The Lutheran church’s weekday programming has over 100 children aged 2-6 separated into three classes: baby class, middle class and top class. I typically begin with teaching my favorite class, baby class. For those of you who know me from Lutheridge or St. John’s Weekday Church School, it should not surprise you that my favorite class is made up of 2 and 3 year olds. I have always had a serious connection with the “terrible tots” (2-3 year olds), and we have an absolute blast learning nursery songs, camp songs, the alphabet and numbers (in both English and Kinyarwanda). Depending on the day, there are around 30 members of baby class and, despite speaking little/no Kinyarwanda, often feel like these students are some of my best friends in the village! After 45 minutes of teaching baby class, I head to middle class, which typically has somewhere around 45 students. Middle class

Eric, Gakuru, and Valentine. Baby class loves to take pictures!

provides an interesting challenge because, despite only being a few months older than baby class, their curriculum is more focused on learning actual subjects, rather than playing games and singing songs. I still teach some songs and English words to middle class, but most of my time there is spent watching and supporting the teachers.

After middle class, the students “go for break” which is (of course) their favorite part of preschool. The kids romp, run, and cause general chaos around the school yard while the teachers take a brief break. I love break time because it gives me the chance to join in on the students’ chaos by playing football (soccer), tag, and whatever other game the students can think of! I wish break was longer (I wish break could last the whole day, if we’re being honest), but, sadly, it only lasts 15 minutes and then it’s back to school.

Next I teach top class, which is only has 10 students because top class makes up a bit of a fluid age group when

parents can either choose to send their kids to preschool (for a half-day) or to primary school (for a full-day) – it seems most parents opt for the latter. Top class is the class in which I feel I am able to make the biggest impact on the children because our English lessons cover nouns, verbs, and sentences (rather than just songs and ABC’s).

School ends at 11 AM, after which I stay and help the parish’s evangelist, Jean Claude, with his English by reading from my Bible. Evangelists make up a crucial part of the Lutheran Church in Rwanda’s everyday life and worship life. Because of the high cost of attending seminary in neighboring countries (there is no Lutheran Seminary in Rwanda) and the rapid expansion of Lutheranism in the country, there are not enough pastors for each congregation to have a pastor. Because of this, each congregation calls an evangelist from the community to service the duties of a pastor to the individual congregation. While most evangelists (that I have encountered) have graduated from secondary school, their formal education in biblical studies is often very limited, however, their desire to learn more is great. Jean Claude is an excellent servant to the congregation and his desire to

2

Break time in the schoolyard.

Jean Claude with yours truly. Big soft smile guys!

learn more about God and God’s people is evident in every conversation I have with him.

After my time with Jean Claude, I go home and eat lunch (rice, beans, and bananas). Following lunch, I have about 5 hours of free time which I use for rest, playing/learning the guitar, and exploring the village. Often I find myself bored and looking for something to do, which typically leads to me going to the schoolyard and kicking the football around. As is often the case when I go anywhere in the village, it only takes 5 minutes for a mob of kids to surround me and want to play football (more on this dynamic in blogs to come). The games can be intense, perhaps too intense for somebody who is coming back from an ACL tear (#TheRecovery), but are an absolutely fantastic way of connecting with the local children.

Because the equatorial sun sets at 6 PM every day of the year and Rwanda (particularly Rukira) is prone to electrical outages, my final class of the day (which starts at 6:30) often happens by the glow of my phone’s flashlight. This is

an informal class for three teenagers from the choir (Romeo, Roger, and Janvier) who want to learn English after school. Although the students already know/understand English, they are lacking in confidence or exposure to the language so the class is spent having informal conversation. Over time this has devolved from being an actual class into a hangout time where we play guitar, watch movies, and bro-out. After my nighttime class, I return home to eat dinner (rice, beans, and bananas) which is typically served around 8:30 and its bed by 10.

While this is fairly representative of how my days go in Rwanda, the country isn’t on as regimented a schedule as we are used to in the United States, therefore it by no means covers everything I do. Oftentimes I wake up to find that there is no school at all today, and instead we are going to take a 3 hour bus trip to Kigali, or walk 5 miles in the rain to visit friends, or head to the fields to harvest bananas. There are unexpected twists, turns, and spins which throw my daily routine on its head confuse or disorient me. Rwanda has taught me that it is possible to simultaneously feel lost and found at the

3

Harold (my host brother), Fabrice, Erique, and Cristiano enjoying some rare rainy-season sunlight.

One of my favorite ‘baby class’ students, Watese!

same time because even though I may not feel familiar with customs or culture, in everything I do I am accompanied by the community – both here and at home. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses; thank you for being part of the cloud.

4