Dal and David's First Once-in-a-Lifetime Adventure: Last Day of School

It’s hard to believe that our stint in Africa is complete. We arrived in Rwanda with a lot of ambition and a bit of trepidation and hoped to learn about this side of the world and about our ability to handle the challenges here. We depart feeling that we accomplished more than we imagined…but we both feel a bit guilty that we’re now off to vacation for 3 months while so many people that we’ve met in the last 6 weeks couldn’t even afford the $100 fee to apply for a Rwandan passport. As Ron Burgundy would say, we’re in a glass case of emotion.

To overcome these pangs of guilt, we’ve committed to looking for short-term volunteer opportunities in Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam, 3 of the poorest countries in the world. Robyn, a wonderful volunteer we met in Rwanda told us about an organization she volunteered with in Cambodia. If anyone else has recommendations, we’d love to hear them.

It’s very difficult to quantify the difference we made in Rwanda. We didn’t have visions of changing the world as we are only 2 people and there are so many things to be done. A couple of weeks ago, we realized our goal really should be to create as many small sustainable differences as possible. As Cathy says, the goat program isn’t a hand-out but rather a hand-up. It provides an immediate emotional boost to a family, but ultimately it’s their responsibility to take it and make the financial impact long-lasting.

On our last day at the school, the regional executive secretary came to do a presentation of the 20 care packages that Dal and I along with Robyn and Liz had funded to 20 deserving families. As Cathy and Teste had invited Intore dancers to perform that day, there were a lot of neighbours on the grounds meaning the crowd was at least 300 people. He gave a fantastic speech to the crowd that crystallized what I love about the Rwandan attitude. His main points were

1) Thanking us and our friends who have donated these important care packages without evening knowing any of these families personally

2) These families are immensely grateful for these gifts from God..and they now had two main responsibilities:

a. Use the help wisely…don’t squander

b. Help others in your community who also have very little. You have been given something out of love…and you must show love to those around you who need it

After the speech, we hugged each family and exchanged greetings and then there were off on their merry way. One of the women took the speech to heart to the extent that she half-jokingly invited Cathy to dinner that night to share the meat.

Once the dancers and families left, the kids then did their daily 'goodbye' routine which consists of sitting in a massive circle and the teachers would lead them through songs. Dal and I went around the circle and high-fived each of the kids. The kids serenaded us with all the songs we had taught them, including "WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU", "ARE YOU SLEEPING, ARE YOU SLEEPING", "A WAVIN FLAG" but the hardest one to hear was "NAH NAH NAH, HEH HEH HEH, GOOOOODBYE". (I've written these in all caps because the kids literally bellow the songs). Dal and I stood in the middle of the circle and simply took it all in. At one point, Dal was about to break down into tears but then we saw one kid shove another kid to the ground which returned laughter and balance to our world.

Here are some photos from our last day at school.