Village progress
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The Village Times: Volume 2, Issue 1
Click here to read the latest newsletter!
Articles include:
“Women’s Corner”
“The Birds”
“Are they looking at the stars? Or becoming stars?”
and
Artists’ Corner
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The Village has Come to Life
June 22, 2009
By Tina Wyatt, Project CoordinatorI arrived on Friday, June 19th. I came this time for the inauguration of the village; which takes place on June 23rd.
The last time I was here was in December 2008, when the first class of kids came into the village. I am completely amazed at the changes that have taken place in 6 months at the village. It has completely come to life.
The community center is complete with a beautiful mural and a dining hall that will seat 800 people. There are beautifully painted garbage containers all around the village. Green grass is growing everywhere. There is a full farm with rows of banana, mango, orange, grapefruit, avocado and clementine trees. There are rows of cucumbers, zuccini, beans, pineapple, tomatoes, casava and cabbage. There is a cow shed with 4 pregnant dairy cows and two chicken coups. Amazing. Kids singing. There are 4 guest/graduate houses almost complete. There is a huge sports field complete with a football (soccer) field, two basketball/volleyball courts with shaded seating.. the village has come to life. The kids have embraced their new home and have taken ownership of keeping it neat and clean and have involved themselves in all that is offered.
Last night at dinner, I handed out our agahozo-shalom rubber bracelets to the kids.. actually they were swarming me to get them. They all could not wait to have them. I asked each one of them what their name was, where they were from and what they wanted to be. I heard doctor. When i asked what type of doctor, the common answer was “medicine”; but upon talking about it more, they wanted to be dentist, eye and alot of general doctors. There were politicians working in the ministry. There were 2 girls that said they wanted to be president. I told them they both couldn’t be president at the same time. They said one would be president of Rwanda and the other would be president of the US! Look out President Obama. Another girl told me she wanted to be a pirate! I said NO NO NO! You don’t really want to be a pirate! One of the boys corrected me and said she wanted to be a PILOT!
They love to talk about the future and want to know all about us, the visitors.
The village has come to life.
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Thoughts from ASYV Founder on Recent Trip to Rwanda
May 26, 2008
As I think of you all, literally a world away, I wonder if you have any inkling as to the impact of your contributions to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. I wish you could have been with me today, not only to see what I have seen, but to meet the people I have met so you could truly understand the scope of the impact we are having here in Rwanda.
On our way to the village, we stopped to meet with a couple individuals to update them on the current status of the project. The most exciting part about both these meeting was that comments were made in how ASYV would be a place to learn, a laboratory if you will, and that it is hoped there will be 10 more like this village in a few years. This has always been our vision: to create excellence in education, both formal and informal, to bring new knowledge in the areas of agriculture, forestation and IT, and to make ASYV a place where others can come and learn about any and all of these areas. While transforming the lives of so many children at ASYV, we have the ability to impact the lives of so many, many more.
The highlight of my day…and undoubtedly the highlight of this trip…was our visit to the ASYV site. When we arrived at the site which, on this beautiful sunny warm Rwandan day was so extraordinarily beautiful – to say you could see far doesn’t begin to convey the feeling of being able to see lakes, hills and mountains unfolding without end. Standing on the top of our village hill, you truly feel that the world is at your feet.
As you drive into the village grounds – through our gate house (no gate yet, but the buildings are there) you arrive at a central area where they have started construction on the dining hall. At some point this central area will also have a library and a spiritual center, all carved into the hillside with beautiful gardens terraced around them. Our architect and contractor were on site already, waiting to give us the tour. Justifiably proud, they walked us through one of the 32 children’s houses which now ring the hill on the left side of the property. The roofs have started to go onto these houses, and all the materials for completing their construction are on site, with the exception of some interior doors which should be there soon. On the center level of the property is the site of the two-story dining hall being built into the hillside, and then on the hill on the right side of the property is the site of the school. I grew up in South Africa and attended a high school which was across the street and overlooking one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I didn’t think there was any view that could possibly be better. Today I discovered you can see three, not two lakes from our site; words simply cannot do justice to what I felt as I looked out on this incredible view, encompassing the miracle that is our village growing before our very eyes below us.
Do you have any idea how big a foundation footprint for a 500 student school is? It really has to be seen to be believed. The walls are beginning to go up on one side of the school; I have no doubt that when I return in July it will be done. The pace at which our builders are working is amazing, and I give them so much credit.
We concluded our visit to the village by holding a very emotional tree planting ceremony. Alain, our Country Director, was master of ceremonies. He started by giving a lovely speech and then I planted a tree on the road from the gatehouse after you have entered the village. Will Recant, Assistant Executive Vice President – JDC, then planted a tree on behalf of the JDC, our architect, builder, the Mayor of Rwamagana, a representative from the Governor’s office. Next a visitor planted a tree on behalf of all who have made donations to the project. Then another JDC member planted a tree on behalf of all those who work on the project and a representative of the ministry of education planted a tree, lastly some of the local children planted a tree…each time with Alain saying something moving and profound. The end result is 18 trees lining the entrance to the village….little baby ones at the moment but what a wonderful way to mark the growth of this project. I can’t wait to come back in July and see how “my” tree is doing; and to show it to my family on their next trip
When we returned to the bus that was to take us back to Kigali I asked our first time visitors from the government and ministry of education what they thought of the project. Their simple response was “its amazing…I don’t know what to say….”. I am pleased to report that Alain says this is a common reaction from first time visitors to the ASYV site, particularly Rwandans. They have never seen anything like it before. This makes me so happy; and it should make those of you who know you have played a part in bringing about this smile too. Know that your efforts are truly appreciated by the people of Rwanda. It sounds so trite, but nevertheless it is true: you are helping to make this world we live in a better place.