Ben:
Greetings
to our family and friends from Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village! I am Ben, a
recently graduated senior from Philadelphia. We arrived late last night, after
spending nearly 20 hours traveling from Boston, to Amsterdam, and finally to
Kigali. Today has been a wonderful
whirlwind widening our horizons of the Village. Many of us awoke at the crack
of dawn, 6am, to get breakfast with the students. Later in the morning, we met
Rachel, the JDC fellow in charge of visitors.
She gave us a tour of the village.
There is the living area, with the students’ houses — named after famous
people such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, King David, and Albert
Einstein. Upon arrival to ASYV, each
student is assigned a house with 15 other members of their grades, they live
with them for their whole time at ASYV, and with their house mama. We also saw
the dining hall, the farm, the Mango Tree, the Science Center, and myriad other
buildings before finally making our way to a school. Amazingly, this was all
before noon! After a short break, we met with JC, the director of ASYV. He told
us about his educational background, and how he found his way to the Village.
It was lovely speaking with him, as he has a wealth of knowledge about Rwanda,
ASYV, and he happily answered all of our questions.
Miriam:
Hello Internet followers! My name is
Miriam and I am a rising sophomore at Tufts. I’m from outside Washington, D.C.
and most likely majoring in International Relations. We arrived to ASYV after
dark last night, and so this morning when we woke up was our first time seeing
the village in the light. All my impressions and generalizations of Africa
being dry and barren were shattered the instant I stepped outside. The village
is located on top of a hill and you can see lush, green hills stretching on for
miles, broken up only by scattered lakes and the patchwork of thin red lines
that signify roads or plots of farmland. Paired with the slight mist rising off
the trees and the blooming flowers all around it was one of the most beautiful
views I have ever seen.
The
thing that struck me the most as we flew in to the airport in Kigali was the
incredible darkness – unlike most plane landings, there were almost no lights
shining up as we approached the ground and now it was easy to see why. The
hills are thick and green but the surrounding villages are sparse and spread
out. Plus with the unreliability of electricity it’s unsurprising that I didn’t
realize we had landed until we were already on the ground. The upside to all
the darkness however is an incredible view of the stars and despite being
horribly sleep-deprived and jetlagged, I managed to appreciate the view for a
few minutes.
Tomorrow
we will be visiting the capital, Kigali, for the first time during the day and
I’m very excited to see how that looks as well and to experience the rest of
the trip!!
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