RWANDA — To be here in Africa is a dream realized. As a child, I heard missionaries at church speak of their experiences. Fascinated, I thought, “Someday I will go there.” This week, my someday happened.
The Urukundo Home and Urukundo Learning Center in the Muhunga District of Rwanda is Arlene Brown’s effort of love. At first, Brown, originally from Williamsport, started collecting children from the streets and they lived in her home. Over 10 years, with the help of church and community groups from the U.S. and other countries, “Mama Arlene” established a home for vulnerable children and a school.
Watching the children from the home and the community walking to school gives me a rush of excitement. These children want to come to school! The opening exercises with the teachers are outdoors and include singing, prayers and the national anthem of Rwanda.
There are 54 children needing a safe haven who live at the home. The youngest are loved and cared for by the staff, older students are away at a boarding school for secondary education, and six are attending university. These young people are fortunate, as most of Rwandans are educated only through sixth-grade.
Total enrollment of the Urukundo School is more than 400. It has grown as word has spread and more community residents have signed up their kids. Payment is on a sliding scale, with some scholarships donated.
As I walk into the school gates, there are always two or three kids hanging on my arms, rattling off questions faster than I can answer.
‘Why did you come?’
I explain that I wanted to see their country and learn about them.
‘Oh, yes, before you die,’ said one little boy.
All the kids give hugs and want to know everything about all the ‘muzungu,’ or “white people.”
Our team includes Carol Falke, of State College, who is on the American board of Hope Made Real, the charity behind the home and school, Kim Hershberger, Barb Stapleton and myself. Each of us brings a different set of skills to Rwanda. Falke was in development, Hershberger taught for many years at Radio Park, Stapleton is a retired librarian and I was a nurse anesthetist.
One of my jobs has been to organize and check medications in compound’s clinic. It is where the children come with sore throats, coughs or a scraped knee. Today, I will go to a pharmacy with the young man who staffs the clinic to buy supplies from donated funds that were given to me for the school. The items I purchase will mostly be the over-the-counter things that would be in our medicine cabinets at home.
I had the privilege to visit the birthing center to interview its midwife. I was accompanied by Anitha, a high school graduate from the home, and Olive, an assistant to the director of Urukundo Home. We presented a gift to a new mother that included a receiving blanket, knitted hat and sweater, diapers and outfits for the new little girl. All the items were made by hand and donated by groups of knitters and sewers from Centre County.
Everyone at the home is praying that running water will return soon. There is water for cooking from the water tank, but water in all the housing has stopped.
Everyone copes well with this minor discomfort. Apparently, when there is a shortage, the water company shuts it off to the community. We have had rain, and as this is the beginning of the rainy season, we have hope. In the meantime, we get our drinking water from a distilled supply and keep bottles with us.
As I climb the hills each morning to walk with the kids to school, I am still amazed that I am actually in Africa. It has been an amazing experience to date, and I have five more days to absorb all that I can of Rwandan culture.
