A much anticipated
Sunday brought boys to the Maranyundo Girls School campus. To mark the first
Sunday service in the new chapel, the Benebikira sisters invited the boys chorus from a school in Kigali to
sing and invited a priest from their faculty to officiate at the Mass. After
the service, the boys and girls had lunch together and then gathered in the
common space to socialize for the afternoon. The boys had brought music with
which to entertain the Maranyundo students. There was quite a bit of excitement
with lots of singing and dancing, laughter and clapping.
Two aspects of the
visit stay with me and teach me to understand more deeply both the culture of
the school and the cultural shifts that are happening in Rwanda. First, it is
well noted by visiting teachers from the US that at gatherings here at the
school, the girls are expected to be responsible leaders. I remember when Pearl
Emmons and I were invited to a Saturday evening entertainment when Pearl was first
visiting the school, We noted that as the skits and music unfolded there were
no adults in the space. If the event were held at a middle or high school in
the US, there would have been a phalanx of assistant principals, chaperones and
safety officers on the scene. The girls at MGS are expected to be mindful of
their peers and respectful of occasions when they are together to study, eat,
learn and have fun. I am always so impressed how they maintain control of
gatherings with care and consideration.
The second aspect I
was thinking about was a major theme in the UN Conference in Kigali that Jane
and I attended on Friday. One panel spoke about the fact that traditionally,
male and female relationships have been seen as having a sexual nature. The conference
wanted young people to know that there are many other relationships that males
and females can have together. There are friendships; they can work as
collaborators, as team members , as intellectual equals working in industry and
research to develop solutions to current problems. I thought the visit by the
chorus of the local boys school was an occasion for learning to be together as
equals. And some flirting. And lots of singing and dancing.
After all, there is
so much to learn about one another as we learn about the world and try to make
meaning of how all our academic endeavors help us to understand one another. I would guess that there was a great deal of learning and reflecting on that learning at MGS on this radiant Sunday afternoon when the boys from Kigali came to sing!
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