May in Rwanda

May is a beautiful month in Rwanda.

In the morning at Urukundo, the sun is shining, birds are singing and there is no sign of rain.
We are blessed. After the torrential rainstorms and mud floods, this is a welcome relief.

When clouds come down

I share with you one of my favorite sights in Rwanda and what on occasion I can see from the top of my mountain. Remember Rwanda is the land of many mountains of many different sizes; some are considered hills.

Here in Rwanda we have small and large volcanoes.They are beautiful but when active dangerous. Most are not active.

The volcanos reach high into the sky. Usually you cannot see their tops as the cloud cover hides them from view. There are four in this area of Ruhengeri. Two are visible from our school on a clear day.

Small and large close together. Top not visible on tall one.

When the tops are visible, they are a beautiful sight to behold.

There are occasions when the cloud cover is so intense that it covers not only the volcano but it comes down to the top of our mountain.

My home is close to the top of a high mountain, so clouds move in on us at times. That was the case one morning in May. Looking out my door, I could not see beyond my hand. The cloud was like a huge blanket. Everything waits for the clouds to lift.

I love the differences in Rwanda and like sharing them with you.

The Coronavirus and Urukundo

Our timetable for recovery has been a slow but steady one. Rwanda took steps very early in February to detect anyone coming into the country carrying this nasty virus. In March, the airport closed for all but a few flights coming in and going out. Kyle Jerro, an advisor to the board of Hope Made Real International, and Carol Falke,the board president, were able to catch two of the last flights out.

Kyle to the UK.

And Carol to the USA

On March 21, Urukundo went into lockdown with our university kids and Claude in secondary school coming home. All seven are still home waiting for the travel ban to be lifted. That is scheduled to happen June 1.

We remained in total lockdown until the middle of April when handing baby layettes out the gate for newborns became possible. But still in isolation.

May 1 was the first date for partial opening. At this time, travel was opened but only inside each province. Distancing is to be maintained, and masks must be worn in public.

Our sewing school made masks and distributed them in the compound and to neighbors

Our teacher Theresa models a mask.

No public transportation. Motos and bicycles could be used for transportation of merchandise but not people.

May 16 brought another change. We could now deliver baby gifts to the mamas at the birthing center, observing the center’s rules of conduct. Needed employees were allowed to come back to work. The daycare, church and school remained closed.

I remained in isolation until May 10. It was my delight to be able to walk the compound and on the road in front of my home, wearing a mask.

School calendar changes

Thanks to our generous donors, Urukundo has survived with all employees intact and is waiting for the government to give a back-to-work ruling. We will continue using only one gate, washing hands before entering and wearing face masks in public.

Even after the ban on large gatherings is lifted, schools will not open until September 2020.

The Ministry of Education has been trying for some time to change the school year from January to November to September to June. They have decided it would be the opportune time to do this because of losing the school year.

Our kindergarten will be the only class moving up. All other classes will remain as they are. We will not have a graduation ceremony in 2020. The sewing center and Primary 1 through Primary 6 will repeat the 2020 year. It will now be the 2020-21 year. This means our first grade will double in size and our preschool will accept new students if the space is available.

What does this mean to me? Well, we will need more classrooms for Primary 1 and following that, more teachers. We were able to build two classrooms with gifts and donations that came during January and before the virus disrupted our cash flow. It will be necessary to build two more classrooms now because of the government change.

It is pushing us to move ahead of schedule and change our priorities. We had planned to renovate our kitchen from cooking with wood to propane gas in 2021. That would mean gutting the kitchen and bringing in gas cookers. That will have to wait. Wood has become a problem. We know continuing to down trees is part of the problem with mud flooding. Africa needs to allow its jungles to return to improve the environment.

Mama and Baby Project

In April’s newsletter, I was sad and I wrote: “We are not allowed to visit the babies at the birthing center at this time. So sad. Giving birth does not stop because of a virus.”

I am pleased to say that has changed. Late in April, a request came asking if we could somehow care for our newborns and their mamas.

We still were not allowed to visit the hospital, but the new mamas or a nurse came to the gate and we passed out the bag with essentials for the new baby and mama.

It is gratifying to know this service is appreciated and needed. Thanks, donors.

Layette contents

ChicoBags filled with goodies. These bags are ready and waiting. Babies and their mamas do need the service we provide.

The good news is -- and we thank God -- that as soon as some restrictions were lifted May 1, the Mama and Baby Project was up and running. We can now deliver the gift to the birthing center. Photos speak louder than words.

Mama, baby and gift bag.

This is Baby No. 14, born on the 14th day of May. It's a boy.

We were privileged to give layettes to precious twins. A boy and a girl.

Supplies for the community

Knowing the plight of many of our neighbors, the Urukundo Worship Center provided supplies for neighborhood families to have food essentials.

Rice, flour, beans and cooking oil were distributed by Urukundo Worship and its fellowship.
The congregation and its leaders hope that what little what we can do will make a difference in the lives of so many.

Hand soap also was included as washing hands is an important part of protecting against the coronavirus.

Supplies were placed in paper bags (called envelopes in Rwanda).

Paper bags were then put into cloth bags, making the supplies easy to carry.

Those who received the help were grateful and thanked God. Taking photos can be a problem, so we share just a few.

The large bags are a gift from ChicoBag. We thank them for their faithfulness in donating large and smaller bags to the Mama and Baby Project and the Urukundo Foundation.

Sunflower

So disappointing! This is what the heavy rains and flooding did to our sunflower crop.
The flooding washed all the seeds to the wall, and it looks like a sunflower jungle. Our plan for planting vegetables could not work. Guess we will try again next planting season because we now have put in ditches around the garden to protect the plantings. For this season, we chalk it up to “live and learn.”

Look closely. There is one little sunflower.

Baby faces

My favorite thing.

Josiane

Thinking I needed something to brighten my day, one of my staff brought me a photo of his baby girl being happy. She is sure a cutie.

Here are some more Urukundo family babies.

Bright

Anna

Edith

Urukundo babies are beautiful and mostly happy. Love them all.

Pleasant surprise

Now that gatherings of up to 10 people are permitted, Ismeal, our dental assistant, came to show off his beautiful daughter, Audrey. This was also the first time I met his wife, Ange. She is a lovely young lady. Great for me to have visitors again.

Divine’s dream

In case you have forgotten, Divine Uwonkunda has not given up her dream and her goal to be a pilot. I found this book in our Urukundo library, and it made me remember this girl and her ambition. If you want more information, please feel free to contact me. arlene@hopemadereal.org

Let's make it happen. Another Hope Made Real.
Photo dedicated to Divine and her dream.

New employee

Introducing the newest member of the Urukundo family:

Her name is Anitha Inyange. Anitha and her husband have a six-month baby boy and live in Muhanga. It is necessary we have a certified teacher with a diploma in early childhood education as the manager for our daycare. At present with the daycare closed because of the coronavirus, Anitha is working with Soso and Claudine, helping them to stay prepared for the school opening in September.

More classrooms

In an earlier newsletter, I shared the need for bricks to build two classrooms. The response was awesome. Thank you to all who helped to purchase bricks. Funds came in to buy not only the needed bricks but also to complete building the two classrooms.

Work began at once. Although the classrooms were not expected to be finished soon, the donations for building the classrooms were more than enough for bricks, and we went ahead and finished the two classrooms. Never dreaming the coronavirus would happen and funding would be a bit scarce.The mandated shutdown took place March 21, but the sector allowed Urukundo to finish building using only two workers from the community on the site at a time. Keeping social distancing.

It took until the end of April to finish the project.

Two new classrooms finished and ready for the start of school. The computer lab now will have a home base. The second room is to reduce the number of children per classroom. We try to keep the number in a classroom to no more than 30 children.

Thank you all for the gifts that made this possible.

Donors help with classrooms

It is my great pleasure to thank and honor our donors who made it possible for us to maintain salaries for our teachers and other staff not working, care for our university students, and provide basics for the entire campus. Internal income stopped when the stay-at-home directive became a reality. Thanks to so many of you, we have in reserve funding enough to cover expenses until September. Those funds are secure. Any additional funds will be used for unexpected expenses and construction of the two additional classrooms needed for the influx of first-graders this fall.

When work began on the two completed classrooms, enough land was cleared and leveled to make room for four. The foundations were finished in January. The third phase for the two classrooms needed for the first-graders was started on May 1. Building will continue only as funds become available. We have until September to complete this project to be ready for so many first-graders. Two more classrooms are needed now because of the government requirement for kindergartners to move to first grade and the first-graders to remain in first-grade.

Out and about

After being released from isolation, my first venture out was to visit the school and the project in progress. I was pleased at what I saw happening. It is good to know life goes on at Urukundo even if I am in isolation.

I was amazed at how liberating just the ability to walk to the school was. Such an adventure!
I take time to rest beneath a tree near the library. Still going strong, just a bit slower,