Amahoro (Peace)

Boy I met at the market

Woman at the market who helped pick out some dresses for me.

It’s cool driving through Rwanda and actually recognizing places, or walking down to the market and having kids remember me and come up running “Jenna!” I’ve started to feel extremely at home here. Last week there was a soccer tournament held at Agahozo village and all of the players from the other teams were invited to eat lunch with everyone in the dining hall. Even though they are Rwandan, when they came to Agahozo village I was hosting them; showing them where things were, serving them food, and making sure they ate enough and felt comfortable. I’ve really come to realize that this village really feels like home to me and part of the reason why is because of how warm and friendly everyone treated us when we first got here. The students were always showing us around, doing our dishes, inviting us over to their homes, approaching us with lots of questions, etc. The best part of the village is being able to walk around freely and talking to the students on the way and usually I’ll get invited into their house or they’ll ask for an English lesson. All of the kids I’ve gotten close with here have come up to me the last couple of days and said something like, “I will always remember you” or “There’s a place for you in my heart forever” and one told me today that “you have become my family and there’s always a place for you here at the village.” Their culture is so welcoming and affectionate and even when I walk outside the village, the dirt road (it’s more like a huge sidewalk because there are rarely cars that go by) is filled with people constantly waving, smiling and saying the little English they know- “Good morning” or “How are you.” 

          Today the whole village woke up at 5.30 AM to do the “muchaka” run (a tradition in Eastern Africa where they sing and clap as they run) up the hill to the school. Then, after breakfast, I went with my family to the farm for a couple of hours to hoe and weed in the hot sun. I’ve never hoed before and at first, all of the girls were laughing at my attempt to throw the hoe into the ground and pull out all the weeds and grass. The girls around helped show me the correct way to do it and were extremely shocked when I told them that most people in America don’t do this type of work and that there’s machines that do the job for you. “Here in Rwanda, we use our strength,” one of the girls proudly told me. After working in the fields for a while, my pants were covered with thorns and thistles and when I sat down for a break, 5 or 6 girls crowded around me picking them all off of me and rubbing off the dirt on my legs. They always treat each other like this; taking care of each other is so important to them and now that they feel I am part of the family, they’re always looking out for me. During our hard labor, the girls taught me a Rwandan song called “Amahoro” (which means Peace in Kiyar-wandan) and then I thought them a Hebrew song, “Lcha Dodi”. They asked me lots of questions about America like, “What is a Jewish church like?”, “Are their poor people in America?” “Is there farms?” and “Have you met usher or Beyonce?” We got into the discussion about poor people in America and I explained to them what soup kitchens and homeless shelters were. They were very impressed with the idea of a soup kitchen, and one of the girls said she wants to start one near her home outside the village once she finishes school and earns money. One of the core values of the village is “tikkun olam” or “repairing the world” and many of the kids have high hopes of helping people in their communities, especially orphans like them. These girls are the sweetest, most caring people I’ve ever met.