The second term at Cyakabiri School ended well on Oct 28th. Students, parents, teachers and advisors were there for the presentation of reports.
Jan Brown, Education Coordinator, leading the march to honor the flag at the ceremony.
Parents, children and Felicitie, co-administrator at Urukundo Foundation at closing.
Our preschool is an adventure in learning for the students as well as the teachers. Progress is being made every day.
On November 3rd, one of our teachers, Louise, will leave for the US to gain experience in what is, for Rwanda, a different way of preparing children for the future. She will visit learning centers at North Hampton Community College, Lehigh Valley, another center at Penn State University State College, Pa. Christians interested in education for the teachers of Cyakabiri School from St Paul's UMC in State College were instrumental in making this happen.
We are supporting the education of 40 preschoolers now but that is not enough. We have no space to take new students in 2012 and the need is great and applications are many. Saying that there is no space is hard.
We are ready to build the second classroom but need partners willing to help.
This is where you can make a difference.
- Most of all we need people who care.
- We need to construct a second classroom. We own the land already and are prepared to build. $15,000USD would be enough to construct a classroom that would care for the beginning education of 40 more children.
- Equipment for the new class room will be needed: shelves, tables, benches, books, educational toys suitable for 3, 4,& 5 year olds (lego, building blocks, art supplies, sports equipment geared for preschool).
- T shirts sizes to fit kids sizes 4 to 8 would work well as a uniform for the school. We could write Cyakabiri School across the back.
- Sturdy play ground equipment for the same age groop is a special need.
A new adventure at Cyakabiri School - the turtle will be the school mascot.
This week a vendor came to our gate. What was he selling? You guessed it. It was a BOX TURTLE. Now what in the world would I want with a turtle?" I asked myself. How would a turtle fit on the farm? No - it would not! But where would it fit? Cyakabiri School is based on child development based on new experiences and certainly a turtle would be new. And so the turtle became a part of the school experience. I asked Vincent about the possibility of there being a turtle connection with African folklore handed down through generations.
Imagine my surprise when this story was brought to me:
One day the king of all the animals called all the animals together and asked, "Who is the fastest of all the animals in our land?"
The elephant stepped up and said. "No other animal can run as fast as I can". "I can run faster than you " came a voice from the crowd. All the animals laughed. They knew the turtle moved very slowly and carried a heavy shell on its back.
Does this story sound familiar? "The Tortoise and the Hare" has been a story in my life since I was a child, many many years ago and it was delightful for me to see in print the same story in Rwanda's Culture with the Elephant replacing the Rabbit.
"I am a slow animal but I have won the race," said the Turtle.
The lesson remains the same.
Set your goal and stay the course. Slow and steady wins the race.
Urukundo University is our goal and it looks far away but we are moving in the direction and staying the course. The race starts first with the preschool, in process, Slowly but moving forward a primary, more slowly a secondary school. This race goes up a mountain and slowly slowly we will build a University.
