Sunday mornings

I haven’t really talked about the genocide very much in this blog, because I rarely think of it as a main topic to share when there are so many promising indications that people are moving forward, especially organizations like Maranyundo!

However, it is an event that has permanently and deeply changed the country. Nyamata, where Maranyundo Girls’ School is located, was affected particularly harshly. Even before the genocide began in April 1994, Nyamata had been willfully and extremely impoverished by the anti-Tutsi government at the time and Tutsis were sent to the region with the expectation that many would die from malnutrition or Malaria. It is now notorious as one of the most horrifying massacre sites of the genocide. Many people around Rwanda went to their local places of worship expecting safety. But on April 11, 1994, almost every man, woman and child of the 10,000 in the church’s vicinity were killed. Ten thousand. An incomprehensible number.

For pictures of the memorial and more information, including quite disturbing witness accounts:

http://bachersblog.com/nyamata-catholic-church-genocide-memorial/

http://www.genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw/index.php?title=Nyamata

http://www.orwelltoday.com/bugeserachurch.shtml

http://www.orwelltoday.com/rwandainkotanyisurvivors.shtml

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/index.php?i=15325&a=65869

It would seem the community would be unable to recover from such a devastating loss but you mustn’t underestimate the Rwandan spirit.  They now use the old building as a memorial site and just across the dirt road is a beautiful sanctuary still under construction. This building is a powerful symbol for Nyamata and Rwanda as a whole and the community is determined to finish it, despite the lack of funds.

Every Sunday morning, the girls who wish to go to mass, walk to the sanctuary.  There is a rotating choir, so sometimes MGS students even lead the music.  Because the building is still under construction, I get to admire the resourcefulness demonstrated here.

Bottles were used in the floor as fillers 

They started planning for this building 15 years ago and building continues sporadically as funds come in.  For example, when I first arrived the floor was not complete, but it is very expensive to use actual concrete flooring as a base, so they used fillers, such as rocks and bottles to take up space. You had to watch out for this sticking out of the floor as you walked. 

However, just last week we had mass outside because they were working on the floors!

While I was visiting on a recent Wednesday, parishioners were working on the windows and painting.  Those who have no money to give, will instead donate their labour and time. I am astounded by how dedicated people are in completing this building. 

Often even the Rwandans who visit the church are amazed because the area is very poor, even by Rwandan standards.  Many religious services around the country are still held outside since the genocide, but it is clearly a priority in the community.  Even those who have no money to give, give what they have.

Their most pressing need right now, according to Father Emmanuel, are more benches.  They have three masses, but they are so full that people are often sitting shoulder to shoulder with no room to move.  Each bench costs 17,000 rfw which converts to about $25.   I am working with my church in the US to create a collection for the Nyamata Church and have set up this gofundme account for them to deposit the money when they have the collection in a few weeks. If anyone from the Maranyundo Initiative could find it in their hearts to donate even a little, I can guarantee it would go very far and make a huge different to the spirit of the community.

If you wish to donate please click here

This sanctuary is a place for the entire community to rally around as they heal from the genocide.  As I try to integrate into this wonderful place, it has become important to me too.  They honor these victims, not by forgetting, but by living to their potential.

Technology at Maranyundo: Raspberry Pi and Rachel

Raspberry Pi with a RACHEL SD card plugged into a battery

Big changes are coming to Maranyundo!  This little device called the Raspberry Pi has been making waves all over the tech community for the last few years.  It is a credit card sized computer that only costs $35!  All you need is a monitor and keyboard and you are set to go. Maranyundo’s use won’t even require electricity or internet.  It was specifically designed by a nonprofit to be used in the education sector to teach students coding.

Soon enough techies in thedeveloping world started swooping in and making it work for their unique problems.  One such project is called RACHEL standing for Remote Areas Community Hotspots for Education and Learning.  This is a digital library sent through a network to any computer that tries to access the pi.  Here is an online version. It includes resources licensed under creative commons including textbooks developed by the state of California, Khan Academy videos and interactive exercises, much of Wikipedia, .books from Project Gutenburg and much more!

Maranyundo describes itself as a School of Excellence and part of this high standard is to use technology in teaching for the benefit of students.  This is not always so easy because of the unreliable internet and electricity.  But RACHEL-Pi requires no electricity, as it is battery powered (you can still use it on a battery powered laptop, which every teacher has) and supplies its own wireless network that computers connect to as if it were wifi. The Maranyundo Initiative Board visited the school last week and they brought the RACHEL-Pi donated by the Paraclete in Boston through Sister Ann who helped found the school.  She has established an organization called the PiBrary Collective to start distributing this technology throughout Rwanda at schools and health centers.  Lucky for us, Maranyundo was chosen as a test site for the pilot phase of the program!

Marcella presenting about the new technology

There was staff training a few days later.  Marcella and I expected only teachers to come, but Sister Juvenal was so supportive of the technology that she implored even the librarian and secretary to attend. It couldn’t have gone better.  The teachers all brought their computers to follow along with the demonstration.  They were very excited about the information they found and already planning how to use it.  They seemed most interested in the videos and exercises, but I think they will also find the general information bank helpful when the internet is not working.

Assisting staff with specific problems

I also have to point out that even with almost 20 computers connected to the network, the Pi was still faster than the usual internet!  It was really amazing.  

Exploring RACHEL independently!

 If any tech savvy people interested in Maranyundo have any suggestions on how to expand the available content on RACHEL or how to use the Raspberry pi or simply how to better incorporate technology at Maranyundo, I would love to speak with you!  Just use the contact form in the upper right corner of the page.

-Kristin

Brave Mandy

The senior twos are done with their stories that I had shared illustrations from a few weeks ago.  One of the students generously agreed to share her story:

BRAVE MANDY

Once upon a time, there lived a girl called Mandy. She lived in a very beautiful and magical village called Madrilia. Everyone in that village had a name that started with "M" like Marina, Marimar, and Mary. The village had plenty of fruits such as mangoes and melons. This village was a very colourful place. It was purple, pink, and green, yellow, red.

Mandy was the most beautiful girl in the whole village and she was the fastest runner in the village. Every morning, after she had made her bed, swept the floor, and prepared breakfast for her mother and herself, she would go out to the garden. Mandy would sing, dance, and watch the busy bees make honey.  Then she would return home for lunch.

One day, an ugly wizard from an ugly village came to Madrilia. When he arrived, he was amazed by the beautiful land and said, “Wow! This is even more beautiful than I was told. I must steal all these colours and take them to my village." The ugly wizard had an ugly and wicked idea so he went to his home village to get a sleeping potion and a magical net.

The next day, the wizard came back to Madrilia. That night, there was supposed to be a big party with plenty of food so when nobody was watching, the wizard put the sleeping potion in their food.

When it was time to eat, Mandy's mother asked Mandy, "Why are not eating?"

Mandy replied, "Because I ate a lot before the party.” Meanwhile, all the people had eaten the food and had fallen asleep. Even in the morning no one was awake except Mandy, who had not eaten the food.

As usual she woke up and went to the garden but there were no bees around to play or dance with because they had all fallen into a deep sleep. As she sat in the colourful garden, she did not see the ugly wizard.

The ugly wizard came with his magical net and said the magical words, “ALL COLOURS, COME TO ME!" and all the colours flew into his magical net but Mandy also flew in with the colours. She screamed but no one heard her; even the wizard did not hear her. The wizard reached his village and opened the magical net full of colours and ran around the village three times. His ugly village, full of witches and wizards, was now as beautiful as Madrilia had been. Mandy fell out of the net and hid in a tree.

When everyone woke up, they found that Madrilia had become an ugly village with no colours at all. All the people and bees went out to search for Mandy but could not find her.

Then the queen bee said, "Go and search every place you know until you find Mandy.” At last the bees found Mandy sitting in a tree alone.

One bee asked, "Mandy, why are you here and why is Madrilia colourless?”

Then Mandy said, “An ugly wizard stole our colours.”

Another bee asked, "Why don't you get the colours back?"

"But when?” asked Mandy.

“At night when everyone is asleep,” said the first bee. So at night, when everyone was asleep, Mandy went to the ugly wizard's hut and stole the magical net.

She went outside and whispered the magical words, “ALL COLOURS, COME TO ME!" and all the colours flew into the magical net. Mandy ran as fast as she had ever run, back to her village. She ran around her village three times and it became just as beautiful and colourful as before. Everyone sang, danced and was proud of Mandy. They said that they should have a party in Mandy's honor for saving the village.

And yes, Mandy, a small child, had saved her whole village.

-By Raina, senior two 2014

Maranyundo Students sing together

A few weeks ago, some students were spending their Friday evening singing to prepare for a religious service they would be attending and performing at the next day. Listen in!