Kigali City School

Another awesome day in Rwanda! Today was our first day at Kigali City School, a private school which teaches ages 3 - 10 or 11. The school day doesn't start until 9:00am so we were able to sleep-in a little while which we all enjoyed. When we arrived, Cyrus Nkusi, the Headmaster at Kigali City School met us and led the group to his office. Here we talked about our schedule for the day - tours, time outside with the kids, lunch, more playing and discussing the sponsorship program. Things didn't go in quite that order, but we successfully made it through our agenda.

First, Cyrus took us to one of the younger classes. We introduced ourselves and Cyrus had the kids welcome us with songs. They were a few we didn't know but we were able to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with them. The teacher let the kids follow us outside where there was no shortage of hugs and high fives. One of the big hits with this younger crowd were races - first, just running, then skipping, then one-legged. Jumping jacks also turned out to be pretty entertaining.

Afterwards, we continued our tour of the school. We visited each of the primary grade classes where kids sang songs, asked us questions and showed us what they learned. In science class, we got to hear about the items necessary for germination and in social studies we learned about democracy. All of the kids were so smart and so eager to participate and show off their skills. Followed by this tour, we once again headed outside where we played games and interacted with the children. Among the things the kids really enjoyed wee playing with our hair and modeling for photographs. They particularly loved that you were able to show them the pictures we took immediately after. They would giggle as they saw themselves and their classmates show on the projector.

Between our visits and time outside, we were able to sit down with Cyrus to learn more about his vision for the sponsorship program. Of the 500 kids in the school, over 300 struggle with schools fees and around 98 are unable to pay. Many of these kids are part of homes with many children and sometimes only one or even no parents. It is Cyrus's dream to see these kids have the same opportunity as others through the generosity of sponsors. Sponsorship for these kids, as Cyrus explained, is relatively inexpensive. It is around $350 for a full year of tuition and another $50 for uniforms, books, etc. So for only $400, a child can get an amazing education at the number 1 primary school in the country. So, our group, excited by this opportunity to help brainstormed how to fund raise and create a system where people could contribute to any number of the projects the school would like to accomplish, including finding school fees for these students in need. We decided that the next step for the project would be to use our day off to visit the students who are prime candidates for sponsorship. Our visit would give us a change to meet the kids, get to know them, encourage them and be able to tell their stories and advocate for them when we return.

After lunch, we returned outside where the boys played a game of soccer with the kids and the girls danced, sang and colored. The kids were able to sing us Rihanna, Chris Brown and Lady Gaga. We must admit, most of the singing and dancing was done by the kids but we have made a promise to bring music and come prepared to sing and dance on our next visit to the entire school on July 8th.

The day wasn't over after our time at Kigali City School. We learned that the American Embassy was hosting an event for their citizens this afternoon for the 4th instead of during the holiday on Monday. It was changed so that the party could also be a farewell to Ambassador Stuart Symington who leaves his post in July. We drove to the American Embassy, which was in a beautiful part of town, enjoyed some barbeque and played games. Though it was just in passing, we were able to meet the Ambassador himself who was interested in hearing about the work we were doing while in Rwanda. He also offered some words of advice on how to continue our partnerships with organizations in Rwanda to make a real impact. We are hoping to return to the Embassy to meet with other officials and hear more about the U.S. role in Rwanda.

So tomorrow is another day at the orphanage where we'll continue our painting project. With so much space to cover, we decided to dedicate all of our time tomorrow to working on revamping the rooms. However, I'm sure when we hear the squeals and get bombarded by hugs, our plans might change.