June 10th blog: All You Need is Love

Last day of teacher training. The lesson was learning how to implement drama based education into the classroom. History of Rwanda was our group's topic. We continued with the routine of starting with warmups, which everyone loved. When looking at the specifics, Kabide looked at precolonialism in Rwanda as our focus area. We split our big group into smaller groups, using our story building knowledge to make stories that exemplified kingdoms, culture, and economic activities. Thrilled and relieved, the groups lefy there thinkibg hats at home and just did. For the kingdoms group, one was the king, wearing a party hat as a crown. These teachers soaked up our lesson like a sponge. After lunch, we looked at colonial Rwanda to build a machine and make an abstract museum as part of our curriculum. Paparazzi ambush took place after the lesson. In Rwanda, some might refer to me as a mizungu.  This means white person or tourist in kinyerwandan. In this training, I did not feel like a mizungu.  I felt like a human being, a teacher surrounded by other passionate teachers. This experience was so rewarding. It's incredible that the training was only 2 days. From there, we joined the kids of Urakundo for a bubble date, which included playing football (soccer) and Chinese checkers.  We joined them for dinner again, where I made many new friends like Benita, Jenny, and John.  One of the highlights of the night was when the delegation put on a production for the kids. Completely improvised, our group closed the night with a production of Jack and the Bean Stalk,  which they loved so much we had to do it twice.  I played the mom and the kids imitated my actions before I wished them good night.  To sum up today, I am using a classic to depict the day, All you need is love by the Beatles.  This trip has opened my heart, my eyes, and my soul to this miraculous country and the people of Rwanda. There is a misconception about the continent of Africa. Many even refer to it as a country still. The truth is that you can't have one general view of 56 countries that happen to make up one continent.  It's just illogical. In the wise words of the Beatles, there's nothing you can do that can't be done, nothing you can make that can't be made, no one you can save that can't be saved. You can learn how to play the game, it's easy. Really, all you need is love. Urakundo means love in kinyerwandan.  All we need is Urakundo and a lot of it. This song probably capsulates my experience in this magnificent country. However, I still have another week here, so we will find out.