Umuganda and President, Kagame

This past week I have confronted many different obstacles that I never thought I would have to deal with in Rwanda. As this experience in Rwanda has challenged me in my ability to adapt and adjust to circumstances that I have never had to deal with in the past. However, with challenges comes great opportunities.

Even though this past week has been tough as I reflect on the last couple of days I have accomplished a lot. Like this past weekend, the Rwanda Ambassador Corps groups participated in Umuganda which happens once a month in Rwanda on a Saturday. The whole country shuts down between the hours of 9 am-noon during this time the entire country of Rwanda comes together to create a more clean and beautiful country for everyone to live in.

The Rwandan squad participated in this event in Kigali, Rwanda which is the capital of the country. During this time, we started off the day at 7:30 am to walk to our location! When we arrived, we got straight to work. I started off with

farming (which is my favorite activity). Once we finished this all of us walked what seemed like forever to join an assembly line of moving dirt. This was even more challenging than the farming as it required me to go fast and be very aware of when the next bag was going to be handed to me. I was working alongside people from Kigali and even the RPF which is the Rwandan government. Lastly, the next activity was helping the women pick weeds this was the easiest activity out of all of them.

As we were finishing up Umuganda all of us were talking, and a young lady approached us asking what we were doing in Rwanda we explained that all of us are interning, then we had no idea that Stephanie worked for the president of Rwanda and yes the PRESIDENT. After this the President Kagame

came to Umuganda to dig and plant a tree himself! We got to see the president up close, and all of us were freaking out as this was so unexpected! However, once we thought he was leaving, we waited on the road for our guide to come. As we were waiting for the President Kagame walked by and asked us “How are you doing” all of us were shocked because the PRESIDENT just talked to us! Then he asked us to come with him. So of course, we did as the President of Rwanda asked!

All of us then started to follow the president down a long road to a new location. We had no idea where we were going. While we were walking something that impacted my love for this country. The security officer pointed out a plastic water bottle in the near distance. A young man jumped over the bushes to grab the trash and bring it back to the president. At that moment in time, I thought to myself this is what it means to be a part of a community.

We walked for about 15 minutes, and then we arrived at a location where the president was going to do a speech for the community. We started walking towards the crowd. However, Stephanie (the president right-hand person) stopped us and asked us to join the president in the VIP tent!

What happened next was even more surprising the President Kagame spoke about us in his speech. He said that he was happy that Americans came to Rwanda to intern for us because they love our country so much and even participated in our community event Umuganda. All of this was on national television click here for the video. I am wearing a Lynn University blue t-shirt.

Also, not only was I on national television for the speech but when I was farming earlier that day that was even on TV too! Not only was this being shown all over Rwanda but also Tanzania. It was crazy and the day was not even over! Later that night all of us went to Guma guma which is like American Idol, and again we were on TV! The next day when I went to

the market people recognized me from TV!

Even though this last week has challenged me emotionally with circumstances that I never thought I would have to deal with at such a young age. I started to realize that all of this is a learning experience that I can bring back to my University and the United States. Thus, positive stories such as meeting the president, being on national television and feeling a part of a community outweighs the difficult times.