Children Are Teachers Too

I woke up at 5:30 this morning without too much difficulty. I got ready to go to the girls’ home at 6:00. I helped dress the two small girls, Aline and Natete. They are absolutely adorable and showed me a couple of the dances that they had learned at school. Both girls are very comical and decided that they would teach me Kinyarwanda, so they decided to point at everything in the room and make me repeat the word in Kinyarwanda. It will help me with my vocabulary, so I am very grateful for my two little teachers!

We then all ate breakfast, which consisted of porridge. The porridge brought back memories of my childhood as well. It is as though everything that I encounter here is somehow related to my past, and I am really glad about that.

One of the helpers, Mama Betty, and I walked Aline and Natete to school, and again, while on the way, they made sure to point out everything that we saw and make me repeat the word in Kinyarwanda. They are just too cute!

After dropping off the two girls, I went to see Claudine for our daily walk, and she seemed to enjoy it. When I think about how old she is (three), it is really scary. She can barely hold her head up, she can almost sit up by herself, but she can't even eat hard food. It really breaks my heart to hear her story and how she came to Urukundo. When Claudine's mother realized that Claudine was blind, she gave her to her mother, but the grandmother didn't want her either, so she didn't feed her, and put her on the side of the road, to die. Eventually, someone found her and she ended up at Urukundo.

After my hour with Claudine, I taught Taekwondo for an hour, then the kids taught me some Kinyarwanda and made me write out the words in a notebook. At the pace I am going, and with the help of Aline and Natete, I should be fluent by the end of the summer!

For lunch, we had Ubugari (cassava flour and water made into a sort of paste) with beans and meat sauce. It was absolutely delicious, especially since I have not had it since I was adopted. It tasted better than I remembered. Gosh it is good to be back!! I ate with my hands, as all the other kids were doing, and I realized that a lot of things are really never forgotten, just put aside for the right time. To top it off, we had passion fruit for desert.