Education in Rwanda

I am in a writing/ reflective/sentimental mood so I will just keep going! I wanted to post a quick note for all of my Passage Charter School (PCS) supporters/students/co-workers. We have visited many schools over the past couple weeks and every time I walk into a class room I am reminded of our little PCS high school and all of the remarkable accomplishments that are achieved by us all. The resilience to overcome past obstacles and the desire to learn that I see amongst the youth here in Rwanda is wonderful reminder of the same qualities that I see at PCS. In other words, being her has once again reminded me what extraordinary rock stars the students of PCS are! I want to try now and paint a picture of education in Rwanda. Some of the schools that I have visited are nice, meaning they have an actual school building, a few chalk-board, and desks for most students; these schools did not have enough bathrooms, no electricity or windows, and they were severely overcrowded. Other schools are in an even more dismal situation. Last week we visited a school in a refugee camp. Most of the students there had grown up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There parents had fled to the Congo to escape the violence in Rwanda, but when the violence then spread into the Congo, they fled back into Rwanda. The camp was an attempt to help the refugees, but Rwanda is very limited in what it can offer. When I walked into the school here in the refugee camp, I was faced with children who had no shoes, ragged cloths, and runny noses. Yet, they presented us with beautiful singing, dancing, and a creative play on reconciliation after the genocide. They refused to let life take away their song and spirit!