Walk in the community

This has been another great day.  I walked to school with Emmanuel and again were joined by a couple of children along the way.   I spent some time in class with Patience teaching the number 4 and helping the children write it.  Most of them are very good and get the concept right away.  I spent some time in the baby class, singing and helping them with colouring.

After their snack, we went for a walk and they really enjoyed this.  They held hands and we sang songs.  They are such sweet children.  Cathy gave out some clothes for the children today as well as tended to some infections.  She also gave some medicine and advice to a young mother with three month old twins.  Many people come to her for these type of medical issues.

Cathy, Teste, Wendy and myself went for a walk in the community to give some items to  a mother who recently lost her husband.  She has two young children.  Cathy and Teste are helping her financially to finish her little house.  It is part of the work they are doing here – not only teaching the children but helping the community grow and develop.  It is about giving a “hand-up” not a “hand-out” and that works anywhere in the world.  Cathy is helping those who are working hard and helping themselves and their families.  Along the way to the house, we saw children in a primary school, people working, children playing, mother’s doing their chores and going about their daily routine.  Today, I did not have a camera and I was glad as I just wanted to absorb the natural and ordinary beauty of this place.  Everyone has a smile and a greeting.   It turned out that the mother was not home so we will return another day.

Home for a lunch and a short rest and then back to school for English class with adults.  Emmanuel and I are teaching the class today.  Today we are teaching questions, what, where, when, why and how.  It was so much fun.  They are so great and so want to learn English.  They are interested in my life but I am much more interested in their lives.  A couple of the girls said they did not have parents and that was hard to hear.  I am not sure if they had been killed in the Genocide or not – one does not ask about this. 

I have done more reading about the Genocide since being here – it is hard to read about and impossible to imagine that it happened on these very streets that I am walking on daily.  There are some signs that say “Genocide never again” at schools and it is a reminder of the strength and determination of these people.

Tomorrow, Cathy, Wendy and I are taking the bus to Kigali to see the Memorial’s, have lunch and get Wendy’s visa sorted out.  I am very much looking forward to this as it was dark when I came to Musanze from Kigali, and I did not get to see the wonderful scenery.  Do you think I should bring her home??