Visitors

Visitors

Seems the most difficult thing for our visitors to do is to leave the children. Real attachments take place.
Abigail who said she never cries was in tears as she left the kids and Urukundo with the promise that she would be back.  The kids want to know when.
They are doing the exercises and Gymnastics and using the hula hoops as she taught them. 
It is so funny seeing them doing hand stands against the walls  and cartwheels in the garden.  In Rwanda "the garden" is the lawn not a place where we plant and grow seeds.

Visitors from Austria at the preschool 
Otto Fischer and his team spent an overnight at Urukundo following their trip to the source of the Nile. 
The men find the seats at the school a bit small for long legs.
Otto is a yearly visitor to Urukundo. Many of you will remember he is the Veterinarian who operated on Daisy's eye several years ago.  We look forward to his visit each year about this time. 
Otto's new camera takes great pictures.
Secondary Students and teacher from Green Hills Academy paid Urukundo Village and Learning Center a visit  in October. We were sorry our secondary kids were not at home to exchange ideas with this group.
They were most welcome.
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Teachers

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Our need for educators to come and work with our teachers on best practices in teaching continues. Our schools are in session when your's are closed for the summer. A trip to Rwanda would be an excellent vacation, well spent helping others! Whatever your talent or ability, it can be used at Urukundo Home and Learning Center.
EXAMPLE
Abigail from New Zealand & Australia is spending a month teaching Gymnastics and acrobatics with a circus flavor. The kids love it. Abigail is here for a month. The kids call her Aby-girl.
Abby and Sarah.
Abby and Kinella.
Abby and Luki.
What a delight it was to have Joanna and Pacifique visit Urukundo Village.
Joanna is from California and lives in Rwanda. Her business here is called "Comprehensive Language Services."
She lives in Kigali but now is connected to Urukundo by love.
Pacifique is a young man with a future. He is a Rwandese author having written 3 books in Kinyarwandan.  He was raised in JAM Orphanage and is devoting his life to letting other orphans know they can build a future with motivation and a goal. He is a very interesting person. His time with us was spent sharing his time with the kids and reading to them.  Pacifique is not only an author he is an excellent reader.

You met Kyle from Texas last month (photo in September newsletter) He is teaching 2 Adult English classes a day. One for beginners and one for more advanced students.  Others have come to work on the farm and in construction. There is no end to the volunteer work you can do if you love children and want to help.
These young women are Nursing students from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
They are classmates of Meredith Lu. Meredith spent 2 years at Urukundo through Peace Corps and returned to the US to follow a career in Nursing at JHU. She asked the girls to visit David her sponsored child at Urukundo.
David just turned 6 and will be in Primary one 2014. Meredith: he is waiting for you to come home to Urukundo.  The girls were here for a short time but played with the children and wandered the grounds of Urukundo Village.  The kids had a great time with them while they were here.
Thank you Meredith.
Catherine Willman, Shannon Heuklom,  Heather Holloway.

Visitors of the Month

Kyle Jerro is here on his fourth visit in two years. Kyle is working on his PHD from  University of Texas in Austin. Kyle says he is home when he at Urukundo. He truly is a member of the Urukundo family. He will be with us until after Christmas when he will return to Texas to finish his education.  Kyle is a Linguist and while here he is teaching the Mamas a class in English. He is a hero to the kids. First question from the kids when they come to play is "Where is Kyle?
Short term visitors
Melanie Kiendl and Judith Kampe visited Urukundo.
Both young women are medical students from Germany. Their visit was short but such a pleasure.
(left) Judy      (right) Melanie
Mama Francois & kids pose for pictures with Melanie & Judy.  Kids love to have pictures taken.
Mama joined the group.
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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.