10,000 Lakes for a Thousand Hills : Classrooms and Labs!

Classrooms and labs, loud boiling test tubes, sing to the Lord a new song!

Athlete and band, loud cheering people, sing to the Lord a new song!

He has done marvelous things. I, too, will praise Him with a new song!

- "Earth and All Stars" by St. Olaf Cantorei

In the mornings, as the evening’s fog lifts itself from the hills, the streets of Rwamagana are filled with hundreds of children once again. Uniform clad and notebooks in hand, they chat excitedly with their friends and shout “Good morning! How are you?” as I pass. But who am I looking for? I’m looking for the ones in the crisp white shirts, sharp khaki pants, and green neckties. They are mine. And I am theirs. Rwamagana Lutheran School feels as it should once again. The dormitories are full and campus is no longer quiet.

After a three month holiday, last Monday marked the start of the new school year across Rwanda. And excuse my cheesiness as I allude to the rather situationally appropriate hymn above, but we are most certainly “singing a new song” this year at Rwamagana Lutheran School. Our song this year will include labs and loud boiling test tubes, many new students, and our first class of graduating seniors. The notes of this year’s song started falling in place long before our first day of school. When I arrived last September, the construction of our school’s laboratory was well underway. Slowly, it began looking more and more lab-like as it acquired black boards, desks, sinks, and a fume hood. Then all of our new science equipment arrived; it was like Christmas morning for a scientist. We got calorimeters and galvanometers and periscopes and resistors. We got beakers and flasks and test tubes and burners. As the school’s laboratory assistant, my time had come. I got to work labeling, sorting, and inventorying. I arranged the furniture and then rearranged it again, trying to get the perfect scientific feng shui.

Once everything was just so, our visitors arrived. (And by this, I mean we were actually still frantically trying to get everything in place and our visitors graciously chipped in to help with our last minute dusting, sweeping, and scrubbing.) These American visitors had made the journey to Rwamagana for the dedication of our newest buildings, including the laboratory, a cafeteria, and a dormitory. Among these guests of honor were both the donors of our laboratory building and all of our science equipment. Community members and students returned to campus to celebrate the dedication.

I knew it was going to be a memorable day marking the beginning of something exciting at our school but when the day came it struck me as something deeper than that. The morning was filled with worship, prayer, and speeches. Choirs and a traditional dance troupe performed. When the donors spoke, telling of their connection to the school and their hopes for its future, I was taken with emotion in a way that I hadn't expected. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for these gifts that our school had been given.

As the school year begins and I work with the science teachers to create a more hands-on science curriculum, I hope to get more kids hooked on science. But as much as I would love to uncover some untapped affinity for genetics or stoichiometry or anatomy, the reality of this lab means so much more than preparing future doctors or engineers. This lab and the equipment that fills it tell our students that we believe in them. It sends the message that they are worth it and that they can be whatever they want to be, whether that is a physicist or novelist. And that’s a song worth singing.