Off to camp we go...

On Monday, July 28, 2014 our team headed to the camp location in Janja where we will spend two weeks: one week training teachers and one week running the technology camp for girls.  Half of the team rode the bus from Kigali to Musanze and then took a car the last hour to Janja. The other half rode in a jam-packed LandCruiser from Kigali to Janja.

The LandCruiser contained all our bags, half the robotics equipment, and various supplies (soap, toilet paper, etc…for 60 girls, 12 teachers, and about a dozen other staff for over a week) in addition to four team members.  Each of us held bags and/or boxes on our laps and between our feet.  We braced ourselves and boxes for the many bumps on the unpaved roads lest someone incur a concussion from shifting cargo. 

Anna is packed tight with the bags

We arrived at G.S. Janja and began preparations for the week of Training the Teachers.  We were met by one of the school’s three cows.

One of the three G. S. Janja cows

The school hosting the camp is one of Rwanda’s top boarding schools housing over 700 senior-level students when school is in session.  Senior-level in Rwanda equates to U.S. middle school and high school.  It’s a Catholic school in the Diocese of Ruhengeri with a noble motto, “Ora, Disce et Labora” which means, “Pray, learn, work.”

Playground close to the camp entrance

We have been enthusiastically welcomed and supported by school officials, Fr. Alphonse, Sr. Maria Therese and John Bosco.  They all expressed their emphatic support for educating and empowering girls.  They are thrilled to have us here as is the Rwandan Government.  We hear that the Minister of Youth and ICT will visit the camp.

After arriving Monday, we decorated the camp and prepared materials for the teachers who began arriving on Tuesday, July 29^th.

Camp organizers enjoyed a first dinner at G. S. Janja: fried sweet potato, dodo, tomato sauce, Akabanga, and blood tomatoes.  (A variation on a theme.)

Camp organizers first dinner at G. S. Janja