Thursday, June 22
Today was the last day in the classrooms for most of us. Connie, Bunmi, and Janet will be staying at Kayonza for an extra week. And, interestingly enough, we were out at Kayonza today. Five members of our group gave advice to post S6 students (post HS students) about applying to colleges and preparing resumes for work. The primary teachers observed in primary classrooms. The other middle school age teacher got to visit with her sponsored child. I visited two classes. The first was a class that I had never heard of until this trip: General Papers. In General Papers, the class discusses topics of general interest and they are supposed to bring in all their knowledge to discuss these topics. 
Today, the class’s topic was “corruption.” The teacher first asked for examples of African countries that were corrupt. Then, he asked for examples around the world. When one of the students mentioned America, there was a hush in the room. When the teacher looked at me, I nodded. I grew up in Chicago. I know of other areas. Then, he split the class of 50 into groups to discuss different forms of corruption, and I got to participate with one of the groups. I tried to make sure they didn’t keep depending on me for answers: they kept a good discussion going. Then, since we didn’t get everything covered, I agreed to talk about the remaining examples. The students in the group before ours did a great job and there wasn’t much I could add. 
Then, after tea break, and I love the way Rwandans fix tea with a heavy dose of ginger, I went back to a class on business and entrepreneurship, with the same teacher. They dealt with common business practices; common in the US, but perhaps not so common here yet. I continue to be impressed with these students, as well as the teachers, who are carrying on some great conversations in a language that may be their third language. As the students were getting ready to take notes, I saw that it was time to go back to the bus to head back to Kigali. Ok, so it was the time I was told. I waited there for a long time, took a few bird pictures, interacted with the people at the school, and…did I mention “waited?” They didn’t have a chance to tell me the schedule change. So I missed out on more observation time, but I enjoyed trying to communicate with the kids and the staff. 
On our way back to Kigali, we heard Bunmi’s and John Africa’s stories. I continue to be amazed at the way God brought all of us from such different backgrounds together this week…although Bunmi and I had many points of intersection in our stories. After that, we stopped at “Threads” to pick up our clothes. They were made by the students of the sewing school Africa New Life runs. While some in our team had clothes that needed alterations, ours fit very well. No, we won’t show the pics of our clothes until we get home. 
After dinner tonight we heard Amy’s story. Again, the background and the story of each person that is part of our team is amazing. God brought us all together for this trip and our gifts and skills complement each other on the “business” side. At the same time, there is a wonderful level of caring and support for each person. We not only are able to tell teachers here how to teach and show the love of Jesus while we’re here, we demonstrate it each and every day.