June 16, 2023
Friday
I had forgotten how meditative the sunsets in Rwanda can be.
Today was a day to take time to review what we had accomplished this first week of being at MGS. It was also a day of making new connections and re-visiting our objectives for this time. So the day was productive, busy; lots of talk and discussion. But as the day progressed and we took time to watch the students enjoying their club time and sports after classes ended, we saw the sun beginning to set and the sky becoming gentle and pastel. It seems as though the natural order of the day. Is reminding us that with all that goes on at a school in the course of a busy day, there is a deeper meaning to all that school activity. We need to remember to acknowledge that and let that deeper meaning guide us.
Joni is a natural networker. A Master Connector. A few weeks ago, she had contacted a publisher in Kigali to tell her of the project we hoped to work on when we arrived in Rwanda. The PEBL project is eager to capture the stories of what the Maker Space work has meant to the teachers and their students. What does it mean to play with ideas, to tinker with materials, to find challenges to address with new approaches.; to work in teams because (as the MGS Maker Space Motto declares: “None of us is as smart as all of us!” Now that we were in Nyamata, Joni arranged for Sister Laetitia and I to join a zoom call with Mutesi Gasana of Umbuto Publishing.
While we waited for Sister to finish an earlier meeting and join us in the zoom space, Joni and I had time to get acquainted with Ms. Gasana who likes to be called Tesi. Tesi told us that she had followed the story of the Maranyundo Girls School since hearing of the work of Senator Aloisea Inyumba when she was a young girl in Rwanda. In fact, she hopes some day to write a biography of the senator. She is familiar with Swanee Hunt’s book about Rwandan women and their role in rebuilding the nation. But she wants to update the story of Inyumba because her impact on so many women and men in contemporary Rwanda continues to shape the future of the country.
When Sister joined us, Tesi talked about the platform called Magic Thursdays which Ubuntu had developed during COVID that brought students together on zoom. In that space, teens met each Thursday to have a chance to talk about topics that were on their minds. Girls from Maranyundo, New Vision and other Bugasera schools participated. Tesi said she learned a great deal about how important it was to listen to the girls; how vital their perspectives. A video called Refugee is Not My Name was the result of the group hearing the story from a girl who had recently arrived from Burundi. (It reminded me a great deal of the novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon describing the experience of a student in the METCO program.)
As a result of this terrific conversation, Sister has invited Tesi and her staff to plan a writing and editing workshop for the Maranyundo Writers Club before school begins in September. Joni and I will continue with our writers as they write about something they have learned that continues to impact their “becoming” educated young women. (We continue to use that idea of becoming from Michelle Obama.) They will have those essays and perhaps other writing to use when they begin the editing workshop in September.
So at the end of the day, as the light mellowed and I watched Kaelen enjoy basketball with the MGS team, I thought about how I am always learning how the story of the Maranyundo Girls School continues to unfold for me. I continue to learn about the school and the influence it has on the educators and students who are here every day. I continue to learn about how the story impacts people across the area. After 15 years of coming to participate in its development, I sincerely believe that the story and impact of this place has only just begun.
P.S. The girls cajoled me into taking a few shots at the close of b’ball practice. After several awkward tries, they cheered as my ball (miraculously) went through the hoop!
And the sun disappeared in that pastel sky…
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