A Breakfast Story, and a day in the life of Agahozo Shalom

Breakfast in the village is served at 7 am each morning. According to the schedule, that is. To have any hope of receiving your fresh bread rolls - baked in the wood burning oven - and your mug of steamy African tea with milk (no refrigerator in the village, but milk is delivered fresh each morning from nearby cows owned by one of our staff), you had better arrive early. On Monday, January 12, the first day of school, kids were so excited they couldn’t sleep and arrived at breakfast at 6:30am so as to be up the hill and ready for school half an hour before classes began. To my surprise, the early breakfast pattern hasn’t wavered, and neither has the kids’ excitement for school. And their passion for learning continues long after the doors to school close and the stream of kids flows downhill towards the village.

The village is a separate entity from the school, a part of the Yemin Orde (Israeli youth village that ASYV is modeled after) philosophy of creating distinct home and school environments. While the kids are busy learning biology, chemistry, physics, math, English, French, Kinyarwanda, history, and more, the informal education staff (myself included) are busy preparing and managing life in the village.

Moments after school ends the village transforms into a bustle of energy and action! First begin the after-school activities, and kids fill the volleyball court and football field. The Art and Music Center, where I teach art classes, can be heard from across the village, with sounds of drums from “itorero” class, guitar lessons, and songwriting. Sewing, basketball, traditional arts, modern dance, drawing, cooking, karate, athletics, and music theory are only some of the many electives kids can choose to participate in twice a week.

At five o’clock the doors to the Learning Center swing open and soon it is filled with kids eager to learn computers, read books in the library, and get help with their homework. It is common to find kids pouring over atlases and chemistry text books, not for school but just to satisfy their thirst for knowledge. I host open studio time in the Art Center three evenings a week, and kids are free to try their hand at papermaking, drawing, and jewelry making, or at keyboard, guitar, and recording in the music studio across the hall.

The busy daily schedule calls for wake up at 6 and bedtime at 10, though at least a few of these teenagers push themselves even harder. Take Angie* for example. Angie is eighteen years old and, like all the other Agahozo kids, is beginning a catch-up year before Senior 4, the equivalent to beginning American high school. She knows her cousin of the same age is preparing for university, but she hasn’t been quite as lucky. As an orphan, Angie has faced many difficulties that children with parents who can provide for them have not known. Orphans in Rwanda often face teasing from other children and are discouraged from attending school, and often much worse. They live with the memories of their families being killed, and the hardships of the years since. Many don’t make it to secondary school at all, but those who do have a fierce determination. As acceptance to Agahozo Shalom is measured by a combination of vulnerability and completing a certain level of schooling, the kids here are a self selecting group of incredibly motivated individuals.

“I know I have a great opportunity now,” Angie told me, “and I am going to get everything I can out of it.” For Angie that means waking up at 5am and going to sleep at 11pm, while using every moment in between to learn as much as she can.

And for me, it means getting out of bed if I want to catch the early breakfast!

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Art Update 2

The Art and Music Center, now in a temporary location until the permanent building is built, is a hub of color and sound. I teach two weekly art classes, and our first project was sketchbook making. The young artists personalized book covers with colorful materials and sewed pages to make unique books that they can use to hold the many drawings they will compose throughout the year. The kids pursued the project with diligence and precision, making sure to cut every piece of cardboard to exactly the right size and make every line straight. But not without a little rap music to keep us going, and the occasional hip hop dance move!

I hold open studio time in the Art Center from 5 to 9, three evenings a week. During this time kids are free to come and use whatever materials they like. We have made our first sheets of handmade paper using paper recycled at the village, a hand mixer, and a makeshift sieve. Self portraits are another common Art Center activity, and the kids love to use mirrors to draw themselves as realistically as possible.

In the Art Center I work together with the house mothers, parental figures who live with the children, and they bring expertise in traditional Rwandan crafts such as basket making and decorative beading. They are wonderful women, and I am excited not only to work with them and learn from them, but hopefully to paint their portraits as well.

A Water Story

From First weeks at Agahozo Shalom Have you ever noticed how much water it takes to flush a toilet? How about to wash the dishes? It wasn’t until I had to carry all of the water I wanted to use for the day in a bucket on my head that I realized just how precious water is. “Amazi,” Kinyarwanda for water, might be the most important word at Agahozo Shalom. Though running water is in the plans for the very near future, it has been a scarce luxury thus far. In case you should find yourself in a similar situation (perhaps water frequently stops running in University City, Manhattan, or Waltham) you may find the following very helpful, so feel free to take notes. One must join the line of kids at the water tower in the center of the village and attempt to make conversation using all of the Kinyarwanda you know, which limits my conversation to “good afternoon,” “do you want to dance,” and “I like cows,” (cows are a very important part of Rwandan culture and are featured in most songs, dances, poems, and friendly greetings). Then fill up a bucket and somehow manage to get it back to your house (I prefer to carry it on my head though I am always subject to much pointing and laughing- look at the “muzungo” (white person) carrying her bucket with water helplessly sloshing over the sides…). Now you can boil some for drinking (though we also bring drinking water from a nearby spring), you can shower with it by standing in the bucket and pouring it over your head with a cup (donated by Urban Outfitters!), and you can wash your clothes by scrubbing furiously with a bar of soap only to find that you have somehow created more stains than you have taken out. Be sure to save the leftover soapy water and pour it into the back of your toilet so that it can flush. Now will you think twice before leaving the faucet running while brushing your teeth tonight? Though water from the tap is scarce, water from the sky has been very plentiful. Most days start out enveloped in thick clouds of fog but are clear and sunny by the time activities begin at 8am. Nonetheless it is quite common for dark clouds to roll in unexpectedly and pour out rain furiously for a short 10 minutes during which no one dares step outside. The rain echoes loudly on the roofs and turns the red earth into soupy clay rivers. Moments after the rain the sun is back and the distant hills are clearer than ever before with green patchwork fields and glistening tin roofs visible for miles. The lack of running water might be surprising to you or me, but only 10 out of the 125 kids had running water back home, and even fewer had electricity. At Agahozo Shalom, they receive three plentiful meals a day (almost always rice and beans with the occasional pineapple treat), all the school supplies they need, and new clothes, not to mention the soon to open educational and extracurricular facilities. And they don’t take this opportunity for granted. The kids here are truly exceptional and have already blown me away with their musical and artistic talents and their thirst for knowledge. They know they have been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance at Agahozo, and they have big dreams for themselves. At a fantastic four hour New Years celebration organized by the kids, many shed tears of happiness as the clock struck twelve and a new year of promise dawned. From First weeks at Agahozo Shalom “Sometimes it was so hard, I never thought I would reach the year 2009,” one girl told me. “And now I am here, at this village. I feel like I can do anything. It is like a miracle.” I think we’ll live without the running water. :-)

Art Update 1

From First weeks at Agahozo Shalom

The past three weeks at Agahozo Shalom have been jam-packed with games, sports, art, and music- summer camp style. I have prepared daily art activities which I share with the eight counselors (one for each house of sixteen kids) at a daily meeting. The counselors lead the kids in these activities while I hop from house to house, admiring the kids’ creativity and giving pointers on using materials and developing ideas (an important part of ASYV philosophy is building capacity in the Rwandan counselors to lead and run the programs).

On “Environment Day”, the kids created earth sculptures out of natural materials such as soil, sand, rocks, and grass. One group made a gorilla, one of the most prized Rwandan animals, and another made a traditional Rwandan shield to show that in their new home they are always protected. They made collages about themselves, imaginary creatures out of beads, wire, and cupcake holders (donated by Martha Stewart!), newspapers about the village, and friendship mobiles to hang in their homes. They also began to sketch ideas for a large wall mural that they will paint this month.

This week marks the beginning of school and with it the opening of the Art and Music Center. In addition to teaching two weekly art classes after school, I will host open studio time in the art center three evenings a week for kids to draw, paint, sculpt, and create. Let the art making begin!

Welcome to Rwanda!

From First weeks at Agahozo Shalom

Muraho! Hello from Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) in Rwanda! On Tuesday afternoon I arrived safely in Rwanda from St. Louis via New York, London, and Nairobi.

About an hour out of Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, we turned off the main road and on to a bumpy dirt one that wound through the hills. Jean Bosco, ASYV's driver, drove Andrew, Benna, Sarah, and me (together the Americans of the village) past homes hidden behind leafy green trees and children playing. Our new home, Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, is more beautiful than I could have imagined. In the center of the village is a large dining hall, soon to be joined by the chapel and library (next in the construction plans). On the hill below are the homes- orange, green, and yellow buildings that will soon house the first class of 125 students. At the highest point of the village, symbolizing that one can always reach higher in learning, is the school. From every point there is a breathtaking view- hill after hill rolling into the horizon, with a shining lake in the center. Just like at Yemin Orde in Israel, at ASYV one can always see far, so that one can go far.

Counselors, house mothers, cooks, security guards, construction workers, landscapers, Israeli and American volunteers (there are seven of us), and many other staff are busy getting the village ready for the arrival of 125 children on Monday. My head is already overflowing with ideas for art projects to do with the kids, and I can't wait to get started. But even with the busy days, we have made time to enjoy freshly cooked meals of cassava, rice, beans, and vegetables. Our kitchen is made of a large store room of vegetables and a few outdoor fire pits, but the food is great. And these chefs certainly know the most about kosher cooking in this part of the world! They have made is quite easy for me to feel very comfortable here and are interested in learning more about why I practice religion the way I do, as many of them are very religious themselves.

Throughout the week, we have been busy with inspirational training sessions by Anne Heyman, founder of ASYV, and other staff leaders. I led one session on leadership, and in a discussion about role models I was shocked to hear personal accounts of the genocide that almost all of the counselors and house mothers experienced. Most notable and difficult to understand is the desire to forgive. It is something that I hope to continue to explore.

And of course, I cannot forget the Rwandan dancing. Dancing has always been my favorite way to integrate into a new culture and this is no exception. Last night I joined the Rwandan counselors in their traditional dancing- strong, graceful arm movements and steady rhythmic steps. The shining smiles on everyone's faces as we danced together to clapping, singing, and cheering, showed that we are a team, and together we are a part of something amazing. Every person here, whether Rwandan, Israeli, or American, has the sincere desire to create a place that will give Rwandan children hope, skills, strength, and a promising future. And in just a few days… it begins!

Buckets of paint, pieces of tile, pencils, glue, and brushes poured into Yemin Orde youth village over the past few months. For three months I have worked with Yemin Orde youth to transform the beautiful green campus into a canvas of color. My first project was a lively mosaic made of pieces of broken tile and mirror. A group of ten children from Ethiopia, Brazil, and China worked with me to develop the design for the mosaic which would represent some of the central values of Yemin Orde. Once the sketch was completed, all of the youth of the village voted on the location of the mosaic- near the dining hall. Next the work began! Children worked with me during their breaks from school to break tiles, glue them to the wall, and fill in the grout. The result was a beautiful work of art that represents the themes of Torah, unity, Israel, and working together. My next project was a large, colorful mural on one of the central walls of the village. I worked with a group of thirty twelfth grade boys from over five different countries to design, draw, and paint the mural. The experience brought the diverse group together and gave them tremendous pride, for their creation will remain a permanent part of the Yemin Orde landscape, and will continue to express the message of unity and cooperation for years to come! In just a few weeks I will bring her creativity to Yemin Orde Initiative’s newest project, the soon-to-open Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda! I will volunteer there for eight months, painting, teaching, and spreading all that she has learned at Yemin Orde. I will miss Yemin Orde, but I am glad to be spreading the message of Tikkun Olam, mending the world, in Rwanda, and making it more colorful along the way!

As the sun melted into the Mediterranean on Friday evening, the promise of something extraordinary floated in the air. Every Shabbat at Yemin Orde youth village is unique, but this weekend the village had the opportunity to host twelve Rwandan teachers who will soon open the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. After an intense day of training by the Yemin Orde Intiatives Educational Institute, the eleven teachers, along with two Ethiopian Yemin Orde graduates who will join them in Rwanda, prepared for their first ever Shabbat experience. They gathered at a lookout over the Mediterranean, and were joined by fifteen children of Yemin Orde who came from Ethiopia, Sudan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Two of the children were refugees from Darfur who had fled to Israel and studied at Yemin Orde. As the children and teachers talked and sang, smiled began to spread around the circle and the beginning of a bond was formed. The children understood that these Rwandan teachers were going to build something great and that they were a part of it, and the teachers understood that these children were examples of the success they hoped to achieve in their own country.

Perhaps coincidently, the words painted on the floor in the center of this multicultural circle read, “Ain Menatzchim B”Alimut,” “We cannot win with violence,” a central value of Yemin Orde and a message that the Rwandan teachers, each themselves survivors of the 1994 genocide, already embodied.

After singing and dancing in the synagogue, the teachers joined their new Yemin Orde friends for Shabbat dinner in the dining hall. During dinner, Wilton Ndayisenga, principle of the Agahozo Shalom school, addressed all three hundred children. “We are here to share our experiences with you,” he said in a booming voice, “we want to learn from you and learn with you. Together we are going to change the world.”

Later that evening, the children and teachers gathered for an activity. Language was not necessary for this cultural exchange, as each group of children taught a dance from their country. The Rwandan teachers stole the show as they led the children in clapping, singing, stomping, and twirling according to Rwandan tradition. “This is the dance one does before giving the woman you love a cow,” they explained. The kids couldn’t get enough and danced all the way back to their houses that night.

On Shabbat morning Ofer Yerushalmi, director of Yemin Orde, and the children led the Rwandan teachers on a dynamic tour of the village. In Yemin Orde, every building, tree, wall, and stone is an opportunity to teach a message of leadership, cultural pride, or tikkun olam. The teachers were especially impressed by the “godjo,” the traditional Ethiopian hut which reminded them of homes in Rwanda.

Shimon Solomon, Yemin Orde graduate who will be working at Agahozo Shalom for two years, addressed the children of the village during lunch and told of the impact Yemin Orde has had on his life. “Through the army, my first and second degrees, my work in the Ministry of Education, and my current job as director of an absorption center, Yemin Orde and Dr. Chiam Peri are my role models. And now I am going to take what I have learned here to orphans in Rwanda.” The children beamed. The village they called home was making a difference in the world. They were making a difference in the world.

As the weekend came to a close, Yemin Orde had the privilege of hosting Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and his wife Marion to celebrate the opening of a new children’s home. In a historical encounter, Mr. Wiesel, himself a child survivor of the Jewish genocide, imparted the wisdom of his experience to the Rwandan team.

The Rwandan teachers boarded the bus back to Jerusalem amid myriad hugs from the children and handshakes with Dr. Chiam Peri. “I learned from you not to only care about myself,” said Avraham, an Ethiopian student in the ninth grade who had spent the weekend with the Rwandan team. “Your actions speak louder than your words,” replied Deo, who will teach computer science at Agahozo Shalom, “What we have experienced here is the beginning of something great, it has struck a match.”

The flame will not only light up Agahozo Shalom, but it has made Yemin Orde brighter as well.