After 3 years of calling Rwanda my home, I can confirm
that Rwanda is indeed the Land of 1000 Hills as it says on a popular Rwandan tea brand. It is also the land of variety, beauty and peace. What a fantastic and awesome country, and seemingly undiscovered by so many! Since arriving in Rwanda I have developed a love for coffee and lakes, as there are plenty of both of these. These past 3 years have been a time of renewal, growth and strengthening after my time in Dodoma. It has been an incredible experience to be part of the early stages of the life of Virunga Valley Academy (VVA), a place where heaven meets earth. When I joined VVA in 2018, the school was hosted in a house and the building of the school that we are now in had just started.
Musanze is the city where VVA is located, and where I call home. Its in the Northern Province of Rwanda, also known as Ruhengeri. Ruhengeri is also the name of the Volcanic mountain range that surrounds Musanze and straddles both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This mountain range is the home of the endangered mountain gorillas. Recently, Nyiragongo a volcano in the DRC that borders Rwanda erupted. Although we are around 65km/40mi from the volcano, for 2 weeks we felt the earth shake with tremors in Musanze. Many people were evacuated as the lava flowed towards the city of Goma. The tremors were very few when I left Rwanda for summer break 2 weeks ago.
The world has been shaken these last 12 months with Covid19 and nothing has been normal. My experience of the pandemic has up until now been from my home in Rwanda. I watched the world unravel from my veranda with my two dogs and an amazing intern from Switzerland, back in March 2020. She had just arrived for 3 months and ended up quarantined with me a few days into her trip. Rwanda closed down as soon as news of the pandemic started, borders closed and foreigners scrambled for flights to their home nations. The pandemic also greatly affected our community when we were in lock down with many people facing starvation in Musanze and across the country. VVA was able to raise funds during this time, in collaboration with many people in Rwanda and also across the world, to purchase rice and other basic necessities which were distributed to the most needy.
Schools closed and our team started planning for remote learning. As most of our students do not have computers at home, teachers put together packets of work which contained two weeks worth of resources. Parents then sent daily photos of the students work via whats app and teachers graded and responded via whats-app. This was a very new experience for me and extremely exhausting for all involved. Many students, and parents struggled, however we all did our best considering the circumstances. VVA was very blessed in that we were able to reopen in person, in October 2020. There were a lot of changes we had to implement to make sure school was safe, such as social distancing, separate lunches for classes, handwashing stations, masks and not to mention we were understaffed this year. This meant that as well as art, I also taught Science and Social Studies this year. Science was very challenging, however that is how we grow, through challenges and it was a privilege to be with my students daily and to grow together. In the midst of all this however, we have all been praising God for his faithfulness in keeping us safe and keeping us all learning together.
I also got a new dog called Maple this year, and she is great friends with Ned. My rabbits however, Flocki and Ragnor are despised by Ned, as he daily drools over them, dreaming of what they would taste like. I am also very blessed to have had some small pockets of time when restrictions eased where I was able to enjoy Rwandas natural beauty in its hills, mountains and lakes.
November 2018
It is now a little over 2 months into my stay in Rwanda and Musanze is starting to feel like home. It has been a joy getting to know students and staff at VVA and there have been some very special conversations in the classroom. At VVA students and staff are learning about Habits of Mind. Every two weeks students focus on a different habit of mind which is blended into lessons and learning. It has been exciting to see how the students are embracing and interacting with these Habits of Mind. In one of the art lessons recently (ages 8-9yrs) the students have been painting the different days of creation and one child asked if he could put the stars and moon into his painting, however his painting was for the first day of creation where God created light and dark and the moon and stars were not yet created. When I explained this he asked - how can there be light and day without the sun, moon and stars? So I asked the class to see if they could work how this might be possible. I asked them, 'Where did the light come from?' We looked back at Genesis 1: 3 'And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.' Then suddenly another student exclaimed 'It came from God's mouth!' and we all sat there in awe.
One of the highlights since joining VVA was the planting of a community garden at the new school site (which is still under construction). Students, parents and staff came together to prepare the land and plant the seeds. It was very special to join together as one, collecting and moving volcanic stones out of the way, the children finding earth worms and learning that they actually help enrich the soil with oxygen. There was a tangible presence of God with us that morning as the land was reclaimed.
Another highlight was the hospital visit that students make once a month to a children's ward. Students collaboratively collect items for gift packets such as soap, food, drink and fruit. Classes take it in turns to visit the wards and hand them out to sick children. The students then prayed for the children on the wards. It was very moving to see the students mobilized and praying so confidently.
Ned is a very social dog and he loves to be around people and other dogs. During the first few weeks of my time in Musanze, I went searching for a doggy friend that he could visit. Eventually I stumbled across a very cute puppy named 'Doggy' at Inshuti Arts Center. The arts center is not far from where I live and is a very peaceful place. They have an art gallery where local artists make and sell both traditional and contemporary works of art. Ned and I visit whenever we can, so he can have a doggy play date with the puppy.
Updated: Jan 31, 2021
September, 2018
I arrived in Rwanda 3 weeks ago after a very long journey from the UK. I took a long route here as I went via Dodoma Tanzania, to collect my belongings and of course to collect my handsome dog 'Ned'. My university friend of 15+ years joined me for the long move across the globe which in total took 4 days of 11hrs+ travel each day. Ned had not traveled before in a car for more than 20mins so I was not sure how he would handle 10-12hrs in the car for 2 days solid.. But he did really well.
Muszanze, which is located in the Virunga Valley mountain range in North West Rwanda is very beautiful! The last 3hrs drive from the capital Kigali is all up hill along the winding mountain roads, which overlook spectacular valleys and endless hills. The road just seemed to go on and on and on and some of the heavy laden trucks looked like they could just start to roll backwards at any moment. Rwanda is known as the land of 1000 hills and truly it is! Musanze is lush, green, wet and stunningly beautiful. It is the home of the mountain gorillas and gorilla trekking hot spot. Musanze city is small in comparison to the the Virunga Mountains which can be seen in every direction. The road to my house is made of cobbled volcanic stone and there is a river bed that when not filled with water, you can see where lava once flowed.
School started for teachers with a week of training where we learnt about the vision and mission of Virunga Valley Academy (VVA), which is to be a place where the Kingdom of God dwells and is poured out into the wider community as blessing. Currently the school is being held in a rented house and it has grown so fast that the rooms are already at their limit number wise. Which is why the timing of the new school build is perfect. We got to visit the new site which we are due to move into in October and it is truly wonderful. At the center of the Primary School site is a library built out of volcanic stone in the shape of a castle!This coming weekend students, parents and staff are heading to the site to start a community garden. In this garden food will be grown that students can take home and hand out to people in their community. At VVA this year I am teaching Grade 6, Homeroom as well as History, Art and English Grammar. I am also teaching all classes from Kindergarten upwards, Art.
Thank you to all those who have made it possible for me to teach here at VVA. It's so amazing and exciting to be part of the transformational work that God is doing through the school in the lives of the children and in the community.