Thursday, October 27, 2011

From Rob: Sunday - Showtime!


Upon first meeting the kids here, it quickly becomes apparent how intelligent and personable they are. It wasn't until Sunday, however, that I realized how artistically talented many of them are.

The kids finished their final exams for the term last Friday, but do not leave for their two month break until the following Friday. In the interim, one of the things they do is put together a talent show featuring singing, dancing, acting, painting, and other vehicles showcasing their considerable artistic abilities.

As the show began, I was not sure what to expect, but I was totally unprepared to be "wowed" the way I was. Throughout the show, there was this constant sense of pride, hope, and joy. The music was uplifting, the dancing mesmerizing, the acting touching, and whole experience almost overwhelming.

Several people mentioned that each show keeps getting better and better. If that's the case, those attending future performances are in for a real treat.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

From Paige: Saturday, Day 1 of Leadership Training


Today was the first of three leadership training days, where we reviewed Agahozo Shalom's Mission, Core Values and the their pillars. It was an entire day of 17 people sitting together in a room about the size of a small conference room and it was really productive. Some of my favorites from the discussion are: (Note: the ASYV website would be the best place for the actual mission, etc.)

• Agahozo Shalom is to restore the rhythm of life.
• Getting kids from a hopeless situation into a hopeful situation.
• Providing a platform for a child to start having a dream, to start believing in a dream, to work towards living their dream.

One of the other things I realized is this is not a school - it is a community. A place where kids who have never had someone to call Mother now have a mother, where kids who didn't know when or if they were going to eat now get three meals a day, where kids who were prime targets for the evils of the world now had a safe place where people cared about them. And in addition, there is a school here.

Everyone is really engaged in what they are doing here, you need that in a village raising orphans.

We also had an opportunity to see a Tikkun Olam ceremony. The students have to do Tikkun Olam - "repairing the world", via social action, community service, social justice, - and they get to pick the project. These kids chose to build a house for an old woman nearby. Every time I heard them call her Old Woman I thought "How rude. Couldn't they have even learned her name? They are building a house for her, for goodness sakes!" ;) I realized that there must be a cultural reason so I asked someone - I am told it is not appropriate to call a married woman by her name (I think this only applies to women above a certain age but I am not sure) and calling her Old Woman is a complement, a sign of respect.

The government mandated that all thatched roof houses will be torn down, but they are not giving people new houses, they must rebuild their own. The problem with that is not everyone can afford to build a new house. This old woman was living in a thatched house, she is sick and has no money. Every 6 months or so she has to beg people to come and fix her roof because it is raining on her. Today they gave her the keys and she was able to move into her new home. These kids worked over a period of 2 months, at 3 hours a week and were able to do an amazing thing, they used their time to have an incredible impact on someone's life. This is part of what the village is about - healing yourself, and doing good for your community. It is an amazing thing that these kids did.


The above picture shows the old woman’s old house on the left and the new house that the Agahozo Shalom kids built on the right.


This is the old woman saying thank you for her house and behind her are the kids who helped build the house.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

From Mike: so much has changed in two years

[Editor's note: Mike first visited the ASYV in June 2009. Here he recounts the changes he's seen since that first trip.]

Upon entering Kigali there are new construction projects and repaired neighborhoods throughout the city as well as newly installed traffic lights that look like they were probably designed in Darien. The Rwandan government seems to be doing something right with their economic plan (7% GDP growth in 2011). One constant is the kindness clearly apparent in the Rwandan people. Rwanda has the ability to immediately displace you from your life and psyche, more unique and genuine a place than anywhere I’ve been.

An hour outside of Kigali, Agahozo-Shalom has experienced a similar transformation. As you enter via a new road (created in one week) and gate into the village, the increase of activity is astonishing. Three times as many impacted kids now call the village home, living among twice the number of buildings and a fully developed farm with accompanying cattle pen and chicken egg operation. The crispness of the green landscape, orange clay and endless hills in the distance is not even close to fairly represented in any picture or video. I had forgotten how ridiculous it is. But as soon as you take your first stroll around the village, the most striking thing is the feeling you get from the kids. Totally happy, normal kids hanging out outside, pumped about finals being over. They have arrived each January the last three years in groups of 125 from the streets and rural ghettos of an already poor country. Many exhibiting legitimate Post Traumatic Stress symptoms (28% of all Rwandans have experienced enough trauma to clinically be considered for PTSD post-genocide) but all in desperate need of the restoration and hope that ASYV strives to create.

We have spent much of our time this week working with the village leadership on re-organizing and improving in order to adapt to the increased challenges created by the new breadth of the operation. The ASYV now operates as a fully functional, independent entity (LN’s share of village revenue has dropped to ~10%). A staff of over 100 join the 375 kids (500 in December) to form a formidable organization in just the few years it has existed. Meetings this week with potential revenue generating partners in IT and Agriculture show what a force this has become in Rwanda. It is impressive to see. A school, home, and community all in one…..and all completed on schedule. As such, integrating a new board of directors, meeting new financial responsibilities and managing egos have become considerations. One thing remains abundantly clear though…the existence of a single mission by all involved to ensure each kid can maximize his potential and that every decision is made in the best interest of these kids.

And every day, you are blindsided by just how worth it this project is. Running at 6am with all 375 kids in their weekly Muchaka-Muchaka jog, chatting with kids you haven’t seen in two years who are so psyched you may possibly remember them all the way in America but are also concerned as to why you think supporting Libya is really sound, watching a group of 10 students walk 2 miles on the day after finals to finish building a new house for an elderly woman being kicked out of her mud hut…..only because it’s the right thing to do. Because they live the credo of repairing and enhancing their own self via helping others. Their daily caring for eachother, their shared rising from a difficult place, their ability to recognize the pain they still endure through singing, theater and painting is as touching as it gets. The performances and songs usually center around the loss of their parents and their continual attempts to make them proud. Their athletic satisfaction from a defensive rebound, taking someone to the hole, a monstrous volleyball spike or clever football touch all are done with this pride.

Next year is the final year for the first class before they head out to the real world. Maybe half will make it to a university (Rwandan average for high school grads is ~5%), so the key component being added to the curriculum next year is professional-related skills. Again, maximizing the potential of each kid is highest goal.

It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to articulate the impact the ASYV has had on these kids. You have to see and experience it to really get it. I truly would suggest it. It puts a lot of the other stuff into perspective.

Monday, October 24, 2011

From Paige: Day 1 in Rwanda

While it is only 72 hours since my plane took off from Newark, I feel like I have already experienced so much more than that time span could fill. There is so much I can write about but I will just pick a few special ones so I can post this before the internet connection drops.

On Friday, we woke up and had breakfast together before heading to the Kigali Memorial Centre. The museum was an incredible place. It walks you through the story of Rwanda, from early in time, before the fighting began, and through time from European colonization, the genocide and to today. As you would expect, it was an incredibly emotional experience. I know the story (as best as one who did not experience it can know) but it still stuns me as to how long the planning was in place, how the government started planning for the 1994 genocide around 30 years earlier and they moved forward with their evil to make it a horrible reality. In addition to the “story walk” there are two rooms that are distinct – there is the room you walk through that talks through many of the other genocides that have occurred in the world and you can see the similar behaviors leading up to the event, and in all cases, nothing or at least nothing significant enough, was done to stop things before they occurred. Another room was one I could barely stay in. There were pictures of children that had died in the genocide and each plaque with their picture also had personal information like their favorite food, their best friend and how they died.
This plaque is outside:

And these are mass graves for the many many people who died in the Kigali area:

Later in the day we headed to the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, as Anne put it the morning was to remind us of why we are doing what we are doing. It was an amazing, important experience. At the village we got a tour of the grounds – the farm with a wonderful assortment of fruits as well as some animals. The land is absolutely gorgeous and it is incredible what has been done there in only 5 years. Below is a picture of one of the views, not even the nicest one except this one has Rob doing a pose for the picture and the one below that is some of the housing.



We ended our day with Village Time. Once a week, the entire village gets together in the dining hall for an event that is managed by kids. They have various groups come up to discuss what they are doing, they might show a presentation someone created or celebrate people’s birthday’s (they do birthday celebrations once a month like we do at Liquidnet – except they call all the birthday celebrants up to the front and sing to them). It was so much fun to be a part of that. It is amazing (yes, that is my word of the trip) how many of these kids did not know how to speak English and are now comfortable getting up in front of a room of 350+ people and mc the night. It is impressive and incredibly inspiring. (the picture below definitely does not do it justice)

From Rob: Morning #1 at the ASYV


Shortly after arriving at the village Friday afternoon, it was brought to our attention that we had an opportunity to take part in a village tradition the next morning called Muchaka Muchaka. Every Saturday morning at 6am, all of the students run around the campus in large groups while clapping their hands and singing songs. Mike, Paige and I decided to wake up at 5:45 and give it a go.

Seeing the sun come up over that incredibly beautiful hillside and cutting through the morning mist was in itself worth getting up that early for. The run itself was not very fast, but when you factored in the steady climb up the twisty dirt path, as well as the high altitude (over 1500 meters), it made for a pretty challenging run. Once at the top of the campus, the kids stopped in front of the school, did stretching exercises, and sang more songs. One of the students told us that the term Muchaka Muchaka was Swahili for "running". Later, a director added that the tradition came from a Rwandan military training exercise. All we know is that it was an incredible experience that none of us will soon forget.