Kigali International Community School

Before I left for Rwanda, I emailed the KICS to see if I could meet with the principal, you know, while I was in the "neighborhood". He emailed me back saying, "That would be great, especially in light of our need for an art teacher for next year"!!! So, about the 3rd day I was in Kigali, I went over to the school and was amazed by the atmosphere. It was not really like the other parts of the city. It seriously looked like a building from the US in a neighborhood from the US. The streets were paved, which is a rarity throughout the city, and they were brick buildings, which is not seen anywhere else. And besides that, everyone who teaches in this school is either from the US, Canada, or GB. It was like a tiny taste of home while being across the world in a foreign place.

I had a casual interview with the headmaster of the school and he showed me around and looked at my portfolio and asked me real good questions like, "why are you here?" We only had a limited time to meet on that day, so he asked for me to come back the next day. I did, and we had a more formal interview that day. I exchanged email addresses with a teacher there from the US to ask her questions about what it's like to teach there and live in the city of Kigali.


When I got back from Rwanda, I was so excited about the possibility of teaching at KICS as an art teacher K-5 and some art electives for the Secondary students, grades 6-12. As time went on, and I didn't hear back from them, I became more and more anxious about this not working out as I thought it would. I still have not heard if I have the job... but it is still a possibility since they have just now started contacting my references.

I would appreciate prayers concerning whether or not God would have me teach in Rwanda for the next two years of my life. I have mixed feelings about it because I have other tentative opportunities here in Indiana. Prayers would be so good!

The reason I went on this mission trip!

I don't know about you, but I long for adventure. When I hear stories about people, whether they were walking with Jesus as his disciples, or they are living today as missionaries, I catch myself being jealous of their active faith. I so badly want to be God's feet and his hands, and I want him to activate the gifts he's given me!

About 2 years ago, our YoungLife leadership team had a guest speaker from Rwanda, named Jean Baptiste and he told us of his experience with the massive genocide and he spoke about this school they were building, KCS, as a way to use what they learned from the grief they witnessed, and reach that many more people for Christ! I remember being so moved by the extreme measures this man was willing to go in order to build up more committed followers of Jesus. He invited us leaders to join him in the mission and come to Rwanda to help build the school! I was so on fire about this and right away started praying about whether or not God would have me go to Rwanda for a 2 week mission trip.

After a few weeks, I got the drift that my parents weren't that excited for me to go to Africa, especially to a country that had experienced a genocide a decade ago, so I dropped it..... until I started thinking and praying about what God had in store for my future after this year.

Around October, I re-evaluated my passions, my desires, and my gifts. My passion is to do youth ministry. I love hanging out with kids with the intention of showing them who Jesus is. I am gifted with relating to teens and can befriend them at the snap of a finger. God has gifted me in these ways; I can't take credit. I love to goof around and make a fool of myself, which I'm sure is helpful when trying to make friends with teenagers :) I also want a chance to experience teaching as a tool to minister to kids. While student teaching, I struggled with the balance between wanting to be kids' friend, and having to be their teacher, who has to discipline them and such. I would like to become a teacher who doesn't have to say Jesus' name in order to point kids toward him! In addition to those, I have the gift of singleness. It's not always seen in a positive light, but even Paul gloated about his gift of singleness! I am 23 with no real job, no real attachments, and a heart for the lost. My hope is that God would put all my passions, gifts, and desires together to match his perfect plan for my life.

In turn, I started thinking about going abroad, but I didn't just want to teach english anywhere... I don't even know how I would teach english! It's been 5 years since I've had an english class, and my slang is getting redonculous. So I started praying about where God would have me go. Not too long after that, the passion from 2 years before about going to Rwanda raced back into my heart. I started looking for opportunities to teach in Rwanda,and could only find a couple schools online. Go figure, they don't post their openings online like the US does. I found KICS and KCS and was able to read all about their schools and even was able to print out the applications. While doing this, I think I was still not in full consciousness about what I was applying for. I argued with God for awhile about him having me maybe go to Rwanda. It was an exciting idea, but the reality was scary.

So when I emailed David Dodrill to see if he could answer my questions about what it was like in Rwanda, you can imagine my surprise when his response was, "Well I'm going there in a month, Wanna come?" I was terrified. In my mind, I might have said, "Oh no! I thought I was just fantasizing about this adventure! Now I REALLY have to consider it!" I didn't have long before I had to tell him, "I'm in!"

The Genocide Memorial

A few of us went to the Memorial that is dedicated to honor those killed in the genocide and inform people about all the gruesome details of how it happened. Walking through a maze with pictures, personal stories, and video clips all portraying the evil of the mass killing that happened in this seemingly peaceful place years ago seemed so unreal. I can't wrap my mind around what it would have been like to live through such trama, to watch so many people you love get murdered in front of your eyes, and to fear for your life constantly years at a time. I learned that through the colonization of the "Rwandan" tribe, the differences between 2 tribes once united to be one was brought to focus, in which one tribe was favored above the other. This favoritism caused great jealousy and resentment among the other tribe and ultimately caused an uprising. Just proof that bitterness left unchecked leads to a hardened heart! The genocide lasted years, but the biggest outbreak happened over 100 days, killing 800,000 people. About 1 million people were killed overall. The memorial honored the dead by hanging photographs of people's family members that were killed which filled two full rooms. This does not include entire families that were wiped out completely. My heart broke hearing stories about how childern were targeted to try to wipe out their tribe, and also how children on the other hand were trained to be the ones killing their neighborhood friends. Outside the Memorial Building were the mass graves holding hundreds of bodies in each. Experiencing the genocide through this Memorial made me really question how the Rwandan people can worship God so freely having experienced such evil in their world. How would I respond to losing family and friends in such a violent and cruel way? How would I respond to seeing my homeland be ruled and destroyed by men trained to hate me? I am inspired by their contentment in the Lord and His will for His people. I have a hard time being content in general and I have never experienced trials such as these.

Rwandan Church Service

Sunday morning, we all ventured to a local church in Kigali. Kenya-Rwanda is the first language amongst Rwandans and that is what was spoken throughout the service, with a little English here and there specifically so that our group could understand what was being said. Although I didn't understand the words that were being spoken or sung, I was amazed at the enthusiasm and joy that was expressed with every motion, word, or song. Right when we walked in, before the service started, a large group of people were up front dancing and singing to the top of their lungs. My first thought was, "This is authentic worship". Nobody was looking around to see if they were being watched. Nobody seemed to be bothered by the stare from eyes of 15 white people in awe of their absolute freedom in worshiping our Father. They use their bodies in worship as well as their mouths. The service was made up of 5-6 different choirs, and one long sermon. We had translators sitting next to us during the sermon, which was helpful, but it started getting long when the heat started pouring on the tin roof and causing me to sweat! No air conditioning starts to make a difference during 3 hour church services while sitting in plastic chairs! Praise God for such joyful brothers and sisters in Rwanda, who would never complain about the heat or the length of the service!

First Impression

When we got into Kigali, the airport was small, yet refined. I honestly thought there wouldn't even be a building, just a garage type shelter for the planes and people to stay dry. There was a nice big coffee cafe right at the entrance with some tasty ice cream. It was 3am when we arrived, and we were escorted to our hotel, which was a bunch of small one-room cottages next to each other lined with greenery. I was in a room by myself, since I mentioned earlier, I was the only female in a group of 15. Builders Without Borders is made up of men with some or lots of building experience, so I was definitely the odd ball in the group! My room was way nicer than I expected with a King sized bed and a tv set that only played one channel. My shower had no curtain, but I had running water! The first night, I was frightened, I must say. I kept the tv on to drown out the silence and shed some light, and prayed and prayed because I was in a foreign place and didn't even really know what was around me. Mostly, I was scared of animals being able to creep through the inch gap under the door into my room! But all I ever saw were these tiny lizards about the size of my pinky crawling on the walls. They were more cute than scary. I slept with a mosquito net draped over my bed to ease my fear of small insects.

The first morning there, with only 4 hours of sleep, we all went out to the work cite to start the building of the high school! Kigali Christian School is funded by Youth For Christ and is made for local kids to attend and is led by an American family, but all the teachers are Rwandan. So, we worked super hard the first day, and my main and only job was to hammer screws into the floorboards, but without kneepads, it becomes tiring! There were several Rwandan gentlemen helping build and learning methods of construction that made for putting buildings up quickly and efficiently. I saw the mission of BWB as inspiring because not only were they helping out this school tremendously, but they were also teaching which stands for a longer lasting gift.

How the journey began

It has been 2 months since my journey across the globe to Kigali, Rwanda. Reflecting back on the trip, it seems like a far away dream, all of which I experienced fear, excitement, joy, sorrow, and peace. I still can't believe the way that God provided this opportunity in impecable timing, I might add. Within one month, I prayed about the possibility of teaching in Rwanda, inquired about it to Dave Dodrill, who has been to Rwanda a few times before, found out about a mission trip heading over there, bought a passport with high hopes of going on the trip, prayed for God to provide a means for me to go, sent the word out about the opportunity awaiting me in Rwanda to all my closest friends and relatives, saw God provide the exact amount of money for me to be able to afford going, and got on a plane for 2 days of traveling to the beloved country, Rwanda! It was such a whirlwind, but God proved, once again, His faithfulness to me through the whole process.

Expectations

Let's talk about what it was like in Rwanda :) Here is kind of what I expected. We will talk about what it was REALLY like in a bit. I expected to see people dressed in african wraps and sandals living in something close to grass huts, going to the well for water. I expected to see guards in high profile places with big guns. I expected to see dirt roads with huge ruts and grass hills and valleys covering the land. I expected to be a minority there and for people to stare and be curious of me, especially since I was the only girl on the entire mission trip team :) I expected to encounter many snakes, spiders, and mosquitos! I expected to only be able to communicate with a few English speakers. I expected to melt and burn in the heat and sun since the country is basically on the equator. I expected devastated families from the genocide 15 years ago. I expected to still see the remnants from that disaster. I expected tension.