I Have a Girl at this School

 

(Joni and I were reflecting on our experiences at Family Visiting Day and Joni reported on meeting a gentleman. He approached her in front of the STEM building as they were watching the Maker Space team demonstrating their robotics display. He introduced himself.  Then he said, “I have a girl at this school” and he smiled with great pride. I replied, “Joni, I think that will be the title of my book when I write down all that I have learned from the Maranyundo Girls School in Nyamata Rwanda; I Have a Girl at this School.)

 

Even though jet lag is still very much with us, we were able to accomplish a great deal on this busy Monday. This morning the 3 of us had a very productive meeting with Sister Laetitia who helped us plan a schedule for the week.  It will be a busy time fitting in the schedule for the writers into their pre-school exam week. But Sister is eager that the S-6 students who are writing the graduation magazine and the S-5 students who will be writing next year’s graduation magazine have opportunities to practice writing and sharing experiences that shape their learning and preparing to be leaders of the 21t century.

 

Tufts University was well represented on the campus this morning. Jean Pascal Cyusa Shyaka and Noella Akuzwe are 2 rising sophomores majoring in Engineering at Tufts. They are both Rwandans who have been working at the CEEO this year supporting Djamila in her role as Coordinator of the LEGO PEBL grant in Rwanda. They were able to travel home for part of the summer and have an internship to assist the teachers we trained in December to continue to develop their Maker Spaces. They will also help to prepare for the demonstration of all the schools that will be held here on the MGS campus on June 24. They have been such a terrific addition to the project. They are helping the teachers become confident using Arduino. They are advising students on their ideas for their projects. They are developing activities that club members can try. Best of all, however, they are each having such fun working with Djamila, seeing how creative and productive students can be with the Maker Space as a learning space for trying out new ideas and problem solving. They are enjoying discovering all the ways they can support the Rwandan teachers who are trying to use making as a pedagogy with their students. In turn, Noella and Pascal are enjoying all the learning they are doing as mentors to these teachers. A wonderful match!

 

The part of this busy day which I enjoyed most was welcoming students to the Writing Project! Joni, Kaelen and I met our students in the STEM building and began a project to encourage the girls to see themselves as authors of their own stories. Building on the themes we introduced to the Reading Club last December, we began describing the theme of the work with Michelle Obama’s idea of story.

“Even when it is not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real that you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.”

We also re-visited E. O. Wilson’s essay, The Power of Story, in which he describes story as a way to teach science and its power in our world.

“We all live by narrative, every day and every minute of our lives. Narrative is the human way of working through a chaotic and unforgiving world.”

That sentiment seemed especially fitting for the girls as they prepared for their end of year exams! We gave half the students Wilson’s essay to read together; the other half read Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors by Rudine Sims Bishop. Both essays can be read  as a way to enter the task of an author.

 

Joni and I always enjoy teaching together. But for this kick-off of our writing project, it was Kaelen’s sharing her essay on what she learned from her service work at Malden Catholic that really inspired the MGS students. Kaelen shared an essay she had written to fulfill an assignment for her Theology class. She described how her knee injury and subsequent surgery meant she could not participate in sports this year. But she did have the opportunity to work with 6 and 8 year old boys in an introduction to lacrosse program. Her essay describes all she learned from that experience, as well as how it brought certain passage from the Gospels to life for her. Joni and I had asked Kaelen to share her essay as a way to introduce the MGS girls to an awareness of how the experiences we have every day shape the stories of who we are becoming and how once we write those experiences down we can share them with others…to learn from, to reflect upon.

 

Now I know I am Kaelen’s grandmother…so of course I was incredibly proud of her sharing her essay with a group of students she was meeting for the first time. But not only did she share her writing with poise and pride, but at the end of the session the girls wanted copies of her essay! Wow. As I have reflected on Kaelen’s teaching moment, I realize it as a terrific example of what both Bishop and Wilson want us to consider about story. (And Michelle, of course!)  The MGS girls identifies with Kaelen’s experience; it mirrored some of their own emotions about service, about an unexpected set back with something they care about (sports), about meeting a school assignment. She offered them a window into her own learning and school life. They wanted to know more and join the journey of that narrative. Kaelen’s year of reclaiming her knee and mentoring novice lacrosse payers is a story of resilience and “becoming” that captured so much of what we wanted the girls to realize about the “Power of Story.” Way to go Kaelen!

 

So our project has begun. The conversations the students had connecting the essays we read and the ideas they had about writing were terrific. As I contemplated the story of this day, I kept coming back to Noella, Pascal, and Kaelen. What is it about this school, about this place that encourages us to try new things, to grow, to find new ways each of us can contribute to one another? To learn from one another.  It’s  time for bed, so I may be getting a bit sappy but this place is like a garden where the seeds scattered really can flourish. Joni remarked how thoughtful, respectful, engaged all the students were in our first session. The MGS motto comes to life once again in the classroom. The students will begin to write their own stories now and we cannot wait to see what we can all learn from them. 

 

And now I also feel, "I have a  girl at this school."

 

Linda V Beardsley

 

Family Visiting Day, Mass and Happy Birthday Sister Laetitia!

 

Sunday – June 11 2023

 

Sleep is always welcome after long distance travels, especially across time zones. We arrived in Kigali on Saturday evening, emerging from the crowded space into that soft velvety darkness that I always experience when arriving in Rwanda. After warm greetings by sister Janviere, we loaded our considerable luggage into the van and made our way (through pretty Boston expressway type traffic!) to Maranyundo. Sister Laetitia and her colleagues met us with grace and a delicious supper. So sleep came easily for us all.

 

I awoke at 7 this morning and could not wait to get outside to see the campus in the early morning light. Standing on the patio of the Guest Residence, the scenes before me seemed both familiar in a wonderful way and at the same time. I saw details that I felt like I was seeing for the very first time. I love watching the gardeners carefully tending to the plants around the walk ways and the buildings. These plants look so exotic to me. Some with their long velvety leaves. Some with amazing, strange blossoms. The only plants that look familiar to me are the geraniums on the residence patio. Yet even those have such vibrant colors compared to the East Coast plantings I am used to tending!

 

After breakfast, Sister told us that there would be a Mass on campus today in the all purpose meeting space.  Kaelen, Joni and I walked over to the Hall with several students. It was delightful to hear Kaelen having conversations with the MGS Leadership girls. As the Mass unfolded, I was thinking about how I experience Mass at home as such a solemn occasion. Here, in the lovely, soaring space, Mass seemed so joyful. The magnificent voices of the MGS chorus, the clapping and swaying to the music at the consecration, the gratitude to Mother Mary, patron of the Benebikira Order, expressed in the final song gave me a sense that this liturgy is indeed a celebration of gratitude and hope…experienced among all these young women who are so passionate about their schooling and grateful for their opportunities here.

 

That gratitude was delightfully expressed as Mass ended and we stayed in the Hall. It was Sister Laetitia’s birthday! Students surprised her with a cake (compete with sparkler candle) flowers and song. It is clear that as Headmistress, she is beloved and respected by her students.  It is a delight to see and there are many lessons to take away from the relationship that Sister has with her student body. So much has been written in education circles about the importance of school leadership and how that leadership impacts every aspect of life in a school. Yet with all that research in the US, we still experience a “crisis in leadership” in many school districts. We seem to be challenged to find the right balance between leadership that is strong in control and setting standards and leadership that is shared, responsive to student and family needs, able to both shape and be shaped by the relationships that are at the heart of effective education. Clearly, Sister Laetitia is a school leader who understands the nuances of that balance. She keeps the motto of MGS---Respect, Responsibility, Leadership---at the center of all she does and how what she does sets the example for her students, for all the school. Happy Birthday, Sister Laetitia; you are a blessing to the school!

 

Today is also Family Visiting Day! Families arrived at 2:00. There are number of demonstrations and activities for the girls and their families. It is a delight to see how the campus as been transformed. Chairs are brought from classrooms out to the campus and placed in small groups to give families a chance to sit outside and visit with their students. In the front of the STEM building, students ae demonstrating the work of the Maker Space Tinker Team and the award they won from robotics. They are also sharing their “recipe” (a chemistry experiment) for MGS liquid soap for the hands. It has a terrific fruity smell! There are other collections of art work and tinkering from the space.  This monthly Family Visiting Day is another example of how schools can create community and connection among students and families from different place and backgrounds. Education, particularly as it plays out in each of our schools, can build bridges. I am sre each of us can remember friends who accompanied us through our school experiences. Some of those friendships may be with us throughout our lives beyond our schooling. The family groupings and student “teams” that are the hallmark of this lovely day should remind us all that schooling is at the heart of our growing up, of our experience of community. As so many of you have heard me say, my favorite education quote ifs from Debbie Meier. “School is where we learn how public life is lived.” May this day remind us that public life includes a chance for families and educators to come together as partners in raising our youth who will shape our future.

 

Linda V. Beardsley

 

Getting Ready to Travel

 

 

Packing and getting organized to travel on a trip to Maranyundo  Girls School always seems to have so many details to attend to. For some reason(s), packing and organizing for this trip seems especially intense. I guess it is because Joni and I are preparing to launch a writing project with the students. We have been planning our workshops, revising our lessons and gathering materials for several weeks.

 

I guess it is also because on this trip we will be accompanied by my grand-daughter Kaelen who will be experiencing this part of the African  continent for the first time. I will be introducing her to the school that has been such an important addition to my career in education. I want her to see all the wonderful aspects of the school that keep me coming back year after year. I also want to learn from her impressions;  to learn what she sees, looking at this school for the first time.

 

I have just re-read the last blog post I wrote in December while waiting fir the flight to leave for Boston from the Amsterdam airport. I was reflecting on how leaving MGS is a process, not a singular event. It reminded me that preparing and leaving to go to MGS is also a process. It also is a process full of possibilities and new opportunities to learn from the students and educators at MGS, to think about the ways that school is thoughtfully preparing students to respect one another, be responsible young people and look to developing their leadership skills for this still young century.

 

Last night, to calm my racing mind and be free from packing lists for a moment, I read this piece from John O’Donohue, a Blessing for the Traveler:

 

When you travel, you find yourself

Alone in a different way,

More attentive now

To the self you bring along,

Your more subtle eye watching

You abroad; and how what meets you

Touches the part of the heart

That lies low at home.

 

O’Donohue reminds me that as important as the planning and packing for travel must be, a traveler must also be aware that new, unplanned adventure can await and I must always be willing to look for those new ideas and possibilities that a trip to a Rwandan school may teach me.

 

But first, I must finish the packing!

 

Linda V Beardsley

 

December 15 and 16, 2022                                    

Leaving is a Process; Not an Event

Leaving Maranyundo Girls School is always a process for me. And this trip is no different. In some ways I had a “dry run” because Joni was preparing to leave for Kenya and her early morning flight on Thursday. A driver drove us along with Sister and I remembered the security check, the efficient markings that led us to the ramp that leads to the next security check and the passenger gates. It was wonderful to have Joni join me in this trip. She is already looking forward to the next trip…the sisters are also!

Returning to campus, I prepared for the tasks I wanted accomplish before my own ride to the airport on Friday. Sister Laetitia asked me to review her ideas for college counseling. I planned a meeting with the Dean. I planned to visit the Maker Space a few times to see the progress girls were making in the next competition they were entering. I planned a meeting with Sister Juvenal.

But planning is always only one aspect of leaving MGS. There are the unexpected and delightful spur of the moment stuff that heightens the pleasure of being there and setting determination that I will return soon.

As I was finishing my comments of Sister’s ideas for a new college counselor and focus on campus, she came into the residence where I was working and we had a chance to have a conversation about how she views the importance of college counseling. Each time I had the opportunity talk with Sister, I came away impressed with how strong her commitment is to knowing each girl at the school and helping each student and her family plan for life beyond MGS. We both realize that the graduates of MGS are an exceptional resource to add their stories of their experiences after MGS and how telling these stories can benefit the current students. Like Leslie, the former Prefect of the Maker Space, the dedication and affection the graduates have for MGS seems t me t be the most powerful asset available to inspire students to continue their education in places are truly a good fit for their talents and dreams.

Likewise, my meeting with the Dean was a time of terrific “teacher talk;” I reminded him that the last time I was at MGS in 2019, he had just joined the faculty. We then had a thoughtful conversation about how he has come to respect the students, the good study habits and fine friendships. We also talked about E. O. Wilson’s article that I had given the Reading Club. He agreed with me that stories are a critical way teachers can interest students in STEM.  He also told me he has come to really appreciate the Maker Space. He was having challenges figuring out how to teach a lesson on electric circuits and Clementine helped him find resources for the lesson in the Maker Space. He is fan!

After visiting the girls in the Maker Space who were building a robot for the next phase of the energy competition, I was sending some emails in the STEM building. Teacher Agnes was marking exams and when she saw me, she hurried over to greet me. I always look forward to seeing Agnes. She is one of the teachers who began with the school and she is always so positive and thoughtful about her craft. She talked with me about how over the years she has seen many changes and progress at the school. But for her, the changes are terrific, but what she appreciates is the central belief that each girl is capable of wonderful achievements. That Respect, Responsibility and Leadership are possible for each girl.

These are just some of the connections I made in the process of leaving MGS that convince me to return very soon. But a highlight of my final hours in Rwanda is my conversation with Sister Juvenal. In many ways, she brought my trip this time a full circle. For all the new and “pilot” projects represented by the PEBL work, teacher trainings, visit to a School of Excellence site in Kigali, speaking with Sister Juvenal reminds me of the foundational tenets that Sister Ann and Aloisia Ayumba declared at the founding of the school. Those tenets are expressed by the school motto. For Sister Juvenal that motto reflects a way of being that is grounded in the respect and love the Benebikira Order show each student in their schools. They allow each student to grow as effective community members. They know that the greatest joy in receiving an education is to be able to share the knowledge and skills we gain with one another. In community.

 As I was writing this post sitting in Amsterdam Airport waiting for Delta Flight 259 to leave for Boston, I reread the posts I had written on my last trip to Rwanda in March 2019, before the pandemic interrupted my travel. After visiting several classrooms, I reflected on how much my observations of MGS reminded me of Debbi Meier’s piece called Community and the real lessons we learn from our schooling. I wrote:

It is one of the aspects of schooling that I believe we always must remember. Schools and the classrooms in which we encounter not only ideas and lessons about the stuff of the world, but also about who we are and how our ideas and questions are valued. Bringing girls together from many different districts of Rwanda and many different backgrounds is a special opportunity for the girls to learn about themselves and one another. Their teachers are very aware of the fact that these girls will play a role in the future of Rwanda.

This is a lesson I always re-learn and remember when I am at Maranyundo. The classrooms in which we educate our youth are powerful places in the lives of both teachers and their students. AS Debbie Meir reminds us, “School is where we learn how public life is lived.” And we all have a stake in how schools and classrooms shape our nations, our futures, our globe.

It's time to report to the Gate. It is time once again to reflect on all I have learned from this lovely school in Nyamata, Rwanda. And, hopefully, to plan for a return trip very soon.

Amahoro.                                            

Linda V Beardsley

 

December 14, 2022

 

Wednesday

 

The Power of Reading and Story at Maranyundo

 

Wednesday morning was beautiful. The sunshine presented all the campus…landscaping, buildings, tiled walkways…in all the vibrant colors and textures that make this campus such a beautiful context in which to teach and learn. Even in the throes of the exam period, there is a comfortable feel to the place as the girls walk together in comfortable groups heading to their exam rooms or sit along the wall of the STEM building reflecting on their exam preparation and checking off the exams that are done. The very essence of the place seems to be breathing deeply.

 

Today Sister Laetitia arranged for Joni and me to meet with the students in the Reading Club  who did not have an afternoon exam. Sister said several girls have been reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I had given them an article by E. O. Wilson called The Power of Story. It is a short piece that I give my students to read in the Role of Story class I teach at Tufts University. Wilson recounts his lifelong fascination with ants that inspired his career as a biologist and his teaching at Harvard University for over 4 decades. He believes in the power of story to teach us all to understand science, mathematics, the study of life. Story can bridge what he sees as the false gap that has been created between the sciences and the humanities. If the STEM subjects were taught using more stories, more narratives, we could all remember facts and begin to see our own lives reflected in the work of scientists.

 

Since developing the Role of Story course (based on the original course taught by my former colleague Dr. Martha Tucker) I have been using material from the text Shaped by Stories, by the late Marshall Gregory. Gregory believed our natural penchant to seek out and create narrative to make meaning of the world is how we develop our ethical sense of the world. It is at the heart of how we learn and what we learn. “We live in stories and stories live in us,” he wrote. Joni and I took that sentence as the theme of our meeting with the MGS Reading Club.

 

After introducing themselves, we began by showing them a copy of the Becoming text I had borrowed from the MGS library. It was well worn! How many students had been choosing that book. Immersing themselves in Micelle Obama’s story: of her childhood, of her early education, of her time at Princeton, of her work as a lawyer. And then the story of meeting her future husband and a relationship of love and respect that brought them to live in the White House as first family of the United States. We asked the girls what story of Michelle Obama’s life now lives in them as they pursue their own personal story of Becoming here at Maranyundo School? The girls were pleased to share their ideas.

As they recalled the passages of the book that were meaningful for them…her humble beginnings, her experiences in school, her choice to attend Princeton, her commitment to her family even as a busy lawyer and later as first lady…it was clear that these students are becoming skilled, insightful readers. We talked about how each of us are always becoming…and how the becoming that is central to Obama’s life reflects the motto of MGS: Respect, Responsibility and Leadership. The central tenets the students are learning here are the same qualities that Michelle Obama has learned and keeps learning that give her hope, joy, and a commitment for a better future for all of us.

 Nadine in the Administration building helped me set up a slide to project. It was a slide of the portrait of E. O. Wilson that I saw in the National Portrait Gallery in 2018. For me he projects the idea of a kind, wise mentor. The branch that he is holding so carefully reveals a number of ants crawling along its length. Joni and I each read our favorite paragraphs from the article. The girls could follow along with their own copies as we read. We read passages like:

We all live by narrative, every day and every minute of our lives. Narrative is the human way of working through a chaotic and unforgiving world.

And this:

Because science, told as a story, can intrigue and inform the non-scientiflc minds among us, it has the potential to bridge the two cultures into which civilization is split--the sciences and the humanities. For educators, stories are an ex- citing way to draw young minds into the scientific culture.

We urged the girls to continue their interest in stories and reading all literature even as they learned the STEM subjects, to seek the stories of scientists and mathematicians who have made so many important contributions to our understanding of the way the world works. We showed them that there are copies of E. O. Wilson’s writings in the MGS Library!

Finally, we asked the girls to tell us what themes or topics they would like to continue exploring in their reading group. They immediately offered a variety of topics: women’s empowerment, mental health issues among young people, climate change, artistic expression of story, recipes, writing stories and different forms of public speaking. It is clear from the breadth of their interests and the enthusiasm with which they read and “live in stories” of others, even as they live to make their own story of becoming educated young women here at MGS, a strong Reading Culture is a vital part of the experience of Maranyundo Girls School.

Happy Reading Everyone!                                                                

Linda V. Beardsley

 

 

 

December 13, 2022 

Tuesday                                               

 

Maker Space Materials Have Arrived!

 

Today was a day for examining and sorting the material that the PEBL participants will receive to start to develop their Maker Spaces in their own school sites. Djamila, Joni and I literally rolled up our sleeves and began the process of recording the materials that had arrived and what is yet to be delivered.

 

The materials have been delivered to MGS for storage and sorting. Materials will be divided equally among the schools that have sent participants to the PEBL Trainings. After the new term begins in January, Sister Laetitia, Djamila and Robert will visit each school site, deliver the materials, and acknowledge the terrific work the teachers have already done by participating in the trainings. They will express how pleased they are that they have begun to plan for a Maker Space in their school. It will be a chance to see how far they have been able to go with the planning steps they developed at the end of their work in December 10. The encouragement of the PEBL Trainers and Sister Laetitia as a Head of School will be a reminder that there is going to be support throughout the term as they follow their planning scheme and develop their engineering spaces and Maker Space ideas.

 

At the close of the April PEBL Training, Djamila asked the teachers to make lists of the materials they felt would be needed to use Novel Engineering and making as part of their curriculum. Djamila honored their lists, and refined some of the list while she was at Tufts in October visiting Maker Spaces with which the CEEO has been working.. She ordered the materials when she returned to Rwanda and they are beginning to arrive. It’s exciting for her to see the shipments. It was good for me to see what the teachers will be receiving that they can continue teaching and learning in Novel Engineering and Arduino.

 

 As I  was unwrapping boxes, sorting stuff and reporting each category to Djamila for her inventory, I was reminded of the terrific examples of student work in the Maker Space that we saw Monday in Kigali. Djamila is certain that the ambitious, creative teachers who have been working with the PEBL philosophy will do “great things in each of their schools. I will end this blog post with some photos of the first Primary School Maker Space tat teachers from the April PEBL training have developed. It is evidence that all that stuff we sorted and counted and recounted and recorded on a spreadsheet will be put to good use when they arrive in school in the New Year to enhance student learning!

Linda  V. Beardsley

 

December 12, 2022                                                        

 

A Full Day...Full of Many Things...

 

When Joni and I were planning for this Rwanda trip, we knew that we would be working with the teachers from the PEBL Project on December 9 and 10. Joni asked me, “What will be doing the other days? What should I prepare for?” I answered with what I have learned over the years about coming to Rwanda and the Maranyundo Girls School. “Well, I am not really sure, but each day will be full; the sisters will make sure we have meaningful experiences that will teach us a great deal about the history of the country, rebuilding an education system to educate young people, and the promise of a strong future emerging from a dark colonial past.”

 

December 12 was a day to experience all of those elements. Sister Laetitia and Sister Juvenal were our guides.

 

Visiting Notre Dame de Auges Nursery and Primary School:

 

We drove from MGS to Kigali in the Nyamata-to-Kigali rush hour traffic, which has increased substantially in the past few years. People are moving to Nyamata to live in lovely new homes that are commuting distance from Kigali. Suburbs are growing. We met Sister Juvenal at her residence in Kigali, next door to one of the Benebikira Nursery and Primary schools, Notre Dame de Auges. Notre Dame is an impressive set of buildings that serves 800 students. We began our visit with the Director who has been Head of School for 1 year. We first talked with her about what we would be seeing: 3 early childhood classrooms; the primary school students on break (it is exam time); the Maker Space that 2 teachers who attended the PEBL teacher training have begun.

 

The Nursery Classrooms were delightful. The students are clearly enjoying being together in colorful, cozy rooms. Children showed us their paper structures, their keyboard and microphone for music,(the child who held the microphone the song leader!). Other students were working with stickers, having a porridge and milk break, marching to a version of If You’re Happy and You Know It,  keeping the beat with a lovely drum. When we were summoned to leave the first classroom to visit the next, the children wanted to write their names in a lovely note book that Joni carries. She left the book for them to write their names. When we completed our tour, Sister Juvenal stopped back to the classroom to retrieve Joni’s book. Joni opened the book and the page she discovered is a wonderful gift. Each child had written their name, carefully guided by the lined page, leaving a signature to remind Joni and each of us of the energy and joy we witnessed in their being together. “I am here” each signature seemed to declare. “Remember that you were here, too.” Indeed we will!

The Maker Space at Notre Dame was a delight. The teachers and the Headmistress are proud to have started an engineering Club and  sharing ideas and strategies of Novel engineering with their students. 

After a leisurely Ladies Luncheon at Chez Lando (so many memories!) we were on our way to the Genocide Memorial. That experience begins with a delightful surprise. In 1994, in the days immediately following the cessation of killing, a three year old boy wandered to the place where Sister Juvenal and other sisters were gathering lost children. The sisters established their place as an orphanage while they tried to find homes for the children. This three year old boy, along with others, was not able to be placed. So an orphanage was established so the Sisters could care for these children. That tiny boy is now a leader among the docents at the Genocide Memorial. Jean St Croix hailed us as our driver drove into the crowded parking area, signaling that a special parking place had been reserved  for us. Being from Boston, I appreciated having a connection to find preferred parking!

 

It was so sweet to see how Jean called Sister Juvenal “Mum.” The affection he showed towards her and Sister Laetitia was lovely. The affection and pride Sister Juvenal felt was very special. Jean ushered us into the Memorial and accompanied us through the English guided tour.

 

At this point, I cannot find the words to express what the experience of the Memorial means to visitors to the Memorial. Each of us responds in our own way. But those ways are not the same as the way Rwandans respond to this site. As Jean explained to us, “Many people see this place as a museum. For us it is a Memorial. For us it is a place where our people are buried. Many come to visit their families here.”

 

Personally, this was my 4^th visit to the Memorial; each time I see something different, I feel something deeply. To visit the Memorial with Joni, who is Jewish, the comparisons to the Holocaust were particularly troubling, considering the mantra of “Never Again” and the work of Raphael Lemkin. The room which acknowledges the genocides that have transpired across the globe force us to reckon with the cruelty humans are capable of perpetrating with power to destroy. We all lingered over the photos and explanations in the Children’s Room of the awful deaths suffered by the youngest victims. I tried to hold on tightly to the image of those joyful children in the Nursery School we had visited just hours ago. But the contrast seemed like a deep cavern I could not escape.

 

At the end of the tour, Jean brought us to the café and we sat together with cool drinks, each quietly processing their own experience of what we had just seen and heard. It was a remarkable intimacy made even more profound by knowing Jean’s history with Sister Juvenal and her congregation. Jean introduced us to 2 of is “bosses” (proudly introducing his “Mum” to them. They each told Mum what a special young man she had brought them!) One of his “bosses,” Jeff, is Director of Education Programs at the Memorial. He spoke to us of how the outreach to other countries, schools and NGOs is so critical for the mission of the museum. “We must never tolerate violence, become immune to injustice anywhere. These are the first steps to genocide.” I thought how gun violence is becoming so familiar in our reports of mass shootings in the US. The commitment to educate the world to decry such acts is clear in the Memorial’s work.

 

After finishing our drinks and conversation, Jean gave each of us a rose to take to the gardens where 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsies are buried. ( about one forth of the total victims.) The Sisters sang prayers, blessings for the dead; thanksgiving for their lives. We each laid our rose on a sarcophagus. Then we strolled through the beautiful gardens that surround the innocent victims of this unspeakable tragedy.

 

 

Going Home

 

The ride back to Maranyundo was quiet. The day was so busy, so full of joy at seeing the children and accomplishments of the Notre Dame school. The day was so full of sadness, confronting the unspeakable cruelty that people are capable of perpetrating on one another. By the time we arrived back at the school, I felt that my own being was full of hope as demonstrated by the work of the Sister Laetitia and her staff and faculty at this beautiful school. The school motto, the promise of what students will learn here… Respect Responsibility and Leadership… brings hope to this nation in its on-going process of healing. And as I thought about the day as I turned out my light, I thought again of those words I wrote when I first came to MGS.

 

The more I take in this place, this school, the more I am learning why it is that the people in Rwanda are hoping that education will allow their nation to heal and develop a new voice in the world community. I am not naïve to the fact that politics and the wretched history of Colonialism and suffering that is part of the legacy the West has left this nation will shape some of the tone and cadence of this voice. But here at the Maranyundo School, among the girls eager to learn, among the teachers eager to teach, among the sisters dedicated to serve, one can feel a strong possibility that the voice will be a woman’s voice, resonating with song and delight, but very strong, complex, ageless and deep.

 

 

Linda V. Beardsley