Visitors

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Playground

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The play ground is getting used a lot.  It serves 3 groups of kids, our children, the school children and children from the community. It is such a blessing.
The kids still need a sliding board of sorts and some kind of merry-go-round.

Volunteer Bella from California looking out for Diane. Swings can be a hazard to your health but fun.

Visitors

Visitors from several states spent a couple hours at Urukundo. One of the most interesting people traveling with them was William Mwizerwa.
William and his family live in Tennessee, USA. He is Rwandese and originally from Gitarama, Muhanga District. 
William is serving in mission. He is Director of www.legacymissionvillage.org in the US. You might want to check his web site.
Their visit was too short. They were great fun and their time with the kids was priceless.

Juliet our staff secretary, John Paul and many time visitor Talia from Bloomsburg, Pa are puzzle fans. This is an important pass time now in mama's house.
Spending time at Hope House with the children is great fun for visitors and a big help to Mama Arlene.
Suzanne Sklaney worked the puzzle Noah's Ark with Claude and Agide.
Larissa Sinclair is learning to build blocks and knock them down. Our baby Diane and big sister Sarah are the teachers. Sarah is 4 years old a great teacher.
Kaboss is an independent thinker and loves this double sided puzzle. Talia is there to assist.
Talia now has a namesake in Rwanda.  Baby Talia is the daughter of Oswald our full time driver since 2009. She is as beautiful as the young lady she was named for.

 

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State College Team

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The team from State College were busy the weeks they were at Urukundo. Projects included working in the preschool and primary school classrooms, continuing sister school partnerships and teacher trainings. Pen pal letters were shared with teens, art was taught to women in the English classes, kitchen gardens received a much needed facelift, soap and hygiene products were purchased and delivered to 400 university students and orders were made for sewing projects to be sold in the US.

Carol Falke, Carol Baney, Linda Schimmel

Visitors

Yes we do get visitors from Rwanda. These are transplants like me from the US.
Dad Lance, Mom Jen, Grace, Adam and Miles came to help with acoustics in our school rooms. The panels are colorful and muffle the sound somewhat. We love the improvement. Pictures later if I remember!
We are hoping for a closer relationship with this family in the future.
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Project: Basketball Court Renewal

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This team of 16 students, a team leader and advisor visited Urukundo In March. Their goal was to refinish the basketball court. It was in need of redoing. The basketball court is used hard by the Urukundo Learning Center, the Community and our Urukundo Kids for exercise, basketball,  volleyball and other play activities. It is an asset to our Village.
Our guys started the demolition in preparation for the team's visit.
Although the project was not completed the team worked very hard. Time was not enough to complete everything. Added financing is needed for cement to finish the work.
While they were here they visited Akagere National game Park, The Genocide Memorial and The Campus of Carnagie Mellon - Rwanda. It was our pleasure to have these wonderful young people even though the time was short.

The team worked hard and did a very good job.

About 2/3 of the playing field is finished. We need to get it finished ASAP. It is not useable as it stands now.

We thank CMU for the wonderful gift of work on the field and the time they spent with our children.
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Communication with the Kids

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It is awesome how much jow a simple birthday card can bring. This beautiful card came to Claude from his support person in the US.  He is one happy little boy.
The kids show our visitor Clare and her niece Jessica from England how to build with Legos. The Legos remain the favorite play time activity for the kids.
Jessica.
Some of the Legos the kids have decided to keep built.  Well, for now anyway.
Amy, our volunteer at the school, brought her sister Ann to see where she was working during her holiday from another school in Rwanda.  We so appreciate Ann and her willingness to give up her holiday to help out at Urukundo Learning Center.
Kirsten our volunteer nurse from the Netherlands.
Kirsten is a such hit with the kids. So much better than this more aged person! She is learning much about medicine in Rwanda and will visit the Medical Center below our compound to get a first hand experience in Rwanda Government Health Care.

Visitors for August

Team from State College, PA.

Greg, Kevin, Dan

Pastor Lee, Dave

Robin, Kira and team leader Carol

Some of the challenges they helped with while they were here. The teen's head of household benefitted. Remera 5 boys get some help. Dan & Kevin carry water from a long distance to mix cement for the floor in the house of the boys.

Greg setting bricks in home of the boys.
Finished floor. Job well done!