5-2-2016 Gashonga school.
Today we went to see our friends Bertha and Ephrem. They are
both pastors with two churches to run. We were driven out to Gashonga which is
on the road to Bugarama and is a new parish which extends to the border of DRC
on one side and the parishes of Cyato and Bugarama. It has a population of
80,000 and covers 4 sectors. At present they meet in a small room by the roadside.
There was a very lively nursery school underway with lovely paintings and diagrams
on the walls. The children all had colouring books. The children were between
3-6yrs the teacher was the wife of the catechist. We then went on a little way
along the road and up a short side road to the church which was under
construction. The people were doing all the labouring work themselves. They had
cleared the site, dug clay for the bricks and fired the bricks with the wood and
stumps they had dug out of the site. We
had helped them by helping them with the purchase of the plot of land and
providing some money for cements and the iron work. This is
an area were there can be quite bad earthquakes and severe storms and wind. So
they build with a firm cement foundation then reinforced concrete pillars and
two ring beams running around the building. Once they have completed the walls then a
church in America has promised them money to construct the roof which is the
most expensive part. The site was a hive of activity with most of the labour
being done by two chain gangs of mainly women one moving soil and stones to
level the floor and one passing loads of cement from the mixing area up to the
people laying the bricks. They continued to work through the heat of the midday
Equatorial sun with no food or water. Then they were all gathered together for the
usual little speeches and I gave a brief word from the parable of the wise and
foolish builders, and we were presented with a beautiful picture painted on
cloth.
We then went back to the room we were originally in and we
were given bread avocado and a boiled egg. We were then introduced to the women’s
co-operative group which was singing away in the main room. They
were a lovely group of young mothers all with small
babies they gathered together to learn child care and
household management. They also ran a small savings club where they all
contributed 500 Rwandan francs (about 50 English pence), every month, which for
them is a difficult sum to put away each month.
So Mary greeted them and said a prayer for them all.
Bertha introducing the visitors and praying for them praying for all the workers
Nursery school at Gashonga
Building the church
One of the window arches being constructed
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| Bertha and Ephrem's family with Mary their adopted Grandma |
Our happy time Bertha and Ephrem's house
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