Urukundo Foundation & Sewing Center pays tribute: awards and celebrations

In loving memory of Tom Nunnally, our benefactor and the thinker, who envisioned a school for sewing at Urukundo Learning Center.

Each year in Tom’s memory, Forest Hills Rotary in Pittsburgh, PA awards a sewing machine to the most outstanding student the class, to help that person start up his or her own business.

Tom’s wife Carolyn also chose to present each graduate with a kit of basic tools needed to work as a sewer. Tom’s Legacy at Urukundo will live on.

Displaying the award: Theresa, Head of the Sewing School along with teacher Redemptus Nderendebe, the tailoring teacher Desire Uwimana, and Laurien Sebomana, honored guest from Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

This year’s award went to Teddy Uwurukundo and is presented to him by Madam Valerie Mukamutare, the Executive Secretary of the District, and by Redemptus Nderendebe, a teacher at the Sewing Center.

The manager of the sewing project presents certificates.

The certificates and sewing starter kits were such precious gifts.

Special awards given to outstanding Primary and Preschool students.

The parent of the year award was presented to Celestin Ndayiziga. This award was given to the parent who was most active and helpful to the teachers and in the Learning Center.

Special guests were interns from GO ED. The girls lived and volunteered at Urukundo for a month.

Jean Marie, Juliette, Olive, Theresa & Erneste join graduates for photo.

Remembrance photo. Next year we will have risers. Our Primary 6 kids are as tall as the students in the Sewing Center so only the hats of those students are visible. Live and Learn.

Happy Face of a special girl. She has been #1 in her class since Kindergarten. Congratulations Delice Nishimwe.

I hope you have enjoyed the photos of the graduation as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.

Thank you.

Mama Arlene

Personal News

I am a great-great-gram. She is the first.

She is a cutie.

Name: Raelyn

Great-grandfather is my oldest son Ted.

If you recall from past history, I am mother of five, grandmother of 17, great-gram of 26 and now great-great-gram of one.

How blessed can one woman be?

Staff Graduates

Irene Dushimimana, headmaster at Urukundo Learning Center, received his master’s degree in education.

It is not easy to work full-time at the Learning Center and go to university on weekends, but that is what he did. His reward is graduation and a Master’s in education. We are the winner for we have an outstanding headmaster at Urukundo Foundation.

Oliver Kansiime, chief dental hygienist at Urukundo Dental Clinic, received her bachelor’s degree in business management.
Hard work, perseverance and dedication have been the key to reaching her goal. Congratulations, Oliver. We are so very proud of you.

Wonderful Wedding

Weddings in Rwanda are fun -- especially if they are on our basketball court. Short walk to get there. Francois, who is one of Urukundo’s mamas in the boys’ house, invited our volunteers and mama to her daughter’s wedding. Tents were rented and erected, music played, ceremony took place and delicious food was served to the guests.

Sarah, myself and Anna dressed to the nines and attended the wedding.

The bride was beautiful. The groom handsome.
The colorful decorations were breathtaking.

The day was fun.

Welcome home, brother

After 18 months in Seattle, Washington, USA, John Paul was finally coming home. His plane was due in Kigali at 3:10 pm. Wonderful. No, not so wonderful. John Paul’s homecoming had a few problems.

His flight from Seattle to Doha, Qatar, was delayed six hours, causing him to miss the flight from Doha to Kigali. Time was made up, and he was just two hours late getting to Kigali. So he still could be home in time for devotions with the kids and a photo. But that didn’t happen. There was an accident on the road from Kigali to home, and traffic was stopped for hours.

The kids waited until after 8:30 p.m.; then it was off to bed. JP arrived after 10 p.m. with only Mom to say welcome and no photo. We still needed a photo with him home and the kids loving him. The children are so happy he is home to stay. Big brothers are precious here at the Urukundo Home.

Birthdays!

Our university students came home in July to celebrate the birthdays of their sister Anitha, also a university student, and all of the children with birthdays in the previous three months and the next three months. Hey, that is how you do birthdays when you have 52 kids.
From left, Lilliane, Divine and Esperance.
Visitors Naomi Brooks from Melbourne, Australia, and Charlotte Earl from England joined staff member Olive and university students Divine and Esperance in a balloon fest. So delightful!

Time for cake

Mistakes are edible.
We ordered a cake from a shop in Kigali. The cake was delicious.

However, the writing on the cake had a mistake. It should have said, “New Family
Meredith, Alex & David.” Instead, it said,  “New Family Marydith, David.” Alex didn’t make it to the top of the cake.

We did not have time to do the icing over, so there were no changes.The ice cream was melting. Sorry, Alex. We love you -- Mama, kids and especially David.

Meredith Lu first came to Rwanda more than eight years ago with the Peace Corps and has been David’s sponsor since he was a baby. She since has graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. The newcomer to the family is Alex Nachis. Meredith and Alex visited Urukundo in 2017 so he could meet David. The cake celebrated their wedding on June 16, 2018.

Ice cream, cake and Fanta
Baby Jenny licked the bowl clean.

Adult English classes

So proud of Urukundo staff and volunteer Amy Dove!  Here’s the first adult English as a second language class -- with certificates to prove it.

Pastor Yves, Amy, Delphine (home manager), Olive (children and family advocate),

Juliette (human resources), Chantal (day care supervisor), Ismail (dental receptionist) and Libby (manager for cleaners). Good job; well done all. Thank you, Amy.

Xavier (driver), Chantal (cleaner), Florida (cleaner), Amy,  Adelphine (mama), Francoise (mama), Libereta (cleaner), Clarisse (day care) and Josephine (day care).

We thank Amy Dove, Sewing Center students and Sewing Center teachers (Therese, Redumptus and Desire) for their participation in English class and finishing the first module of 30 hours in their curriculum.

Lovely explanation

The wedding of Betty, who is the main caregiver in the boys’ house, and Etienne was lovely. Weddings in Rwanda are interesting.

Everything is rented: the wedding gown, bridesmaids’ clothes, groom’s clothes, groomsmen's suits, decorations, tents for guests. Just everything, but it keeps the cost down, and the wedding can be lovely.

All of the invited guests contribute what little money they have before the wedding to help the bride and groom rent what they need. Depending on the generosity of friends and family, even the very poor can have a simple but pretty wedding.

It makes a lot of sense to me, especially in a country where jobs are scarce and money hard to come by.

It is amazing how friends and families support each other in Rwanda. Would that it were the same in the USA and other countries. The cost of a nice wedding in the USA would support a family in Rwanda for several years. The bride’s gown alone would more than pay for a whole wedding here.

When you accept an invitation to a wedding, you give a gift to help with the cost. Neat idea, and it works.