Welcome to Rwanda
- Aug 26, 2018
- 2 min read
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.
Comments