Rwanda

No, it's not a typo and yes I said Rwanda. Allow me to explain... I just listened to a presentation about a man who started a project called The Anne Frank Project. It is a movement helping countries recover who have been involved with genocide. In Rwanda in 1994, 1 million people were murdered usually by a machete within 100 days. That's 10,000 people each and every day. The man who started this is actually my theatre professor. His main goal is to correlate that theatre is a universal language and that theatre can help people express their pain, accept their situation and move forward to their future. He showed us videos of the kids who became orphans during this genocide and how they all live in churches throughout the towns. The new president has helped them get access to education up until 9th grade. When I was in Spain last summer, I heard about Semester at Sea and became completely set on attending this program. I feel like this lecture that I heard tonight is my new passion. I don't necessarily want to uproot my life and live in Rwanda, but I just feel like I want to get involved in any way possible. As of right now, I want to attend the annual Anne Frank project at my professor's university in Buffalo, New York. I am going to have breakfast with my professor and his wife tomorrow morning just to debrief all of these emotions that I am dealing with right now. I have always said that for my future classroom I want to have a sister classroom in another country. It would be such an amazing opportunity to teach my students about another culture as well as provide resources to the classrooms in countries such as Rwanda. I am not sure what God is preparing my heart for, but I feel like it's something big and I can't wait to see what is waiting for me in the upcoming chapters in my life.

 

Oh! And we just passed through the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. We are currently right in the center of the Strait and Sicily is on my left and the boot of Italy is on my right. The sun just set and the lights of the city are literally glistening in the night sky. I just sat up on the deck with Amanda and Randy and we just took in the moment. (Oh and we saw dolphins!) It has been such an amazing night.