Meals and Gardens

The house-girl at the residence is named Terese. She is an enthusiastic cook who enjoys preparing traditional Rwandan food for us. She likes showing Pearl and me the garden that stretches the length of the back of the residence. She proudly explains the Kinyarwandan words for the fruits and vegetables as we walk among the raised beds.


If Pearl expresses an interest in one of the greens, chard or dodo, Terese smiles and it appears in some form on our dinner table.
The students work with the kitchen staff and Sr. Jacinta to take care of the garden. Pearl asked one of the girls who was watering the garden why it was important to have a garden at her school. She responded thoughtfully. “It is important to have a garden at school because we learn many things about the food we eat, how plants grow. We can help our people at home grow a garden. We learn many useful things in the garden.”

Pearl and I watched a group of girls working yesterday afternoon peeling potatoes. There must have been 20 or so; they were seated under the roof of the porch at the back of the kitchen on benches they had pulled out from the dining hall. They had wrapped a colorful swath of fabric around their uniform skirts and shirts; they chatted and sang as they worked.
Arranged this way, they were a colorful image of useful activity and purpose. Occasionally, one of the kitchen workers would come outside and just look to see their progress. But the activity appeared to me to be regulated by the girls themselves. They were careful, productive. Some were clearly more skilled than others, but they worked until they had a bucket full of potatoes to take to the faucet to wash. They repeated their routine over and over again. They were careful with the knives, with each other. They peeled enough potatoes to feed 180 girls for their evening meal.