Center for Champions

Monday morning we arrived in Rwamagana where I will be spending the next month working at Center for Champions. We’re staying at this awesome guesthouse called Avega where we all have our own rooms AND bathrooms. Best ever.

So here’s a little background on the center, it’s a little confusing so I’ll do my best to make everything clear. It is a school for vulnerable children and orphans (kids are considered orphans when they have only 1 parent) these kids are older and haven’t had the opportunity to go to school normally so they go to catch-up school. They do all 6 years of primary education in only 3 years. Some of these student board at the center, right now there are 80 boys and only 2 girls. After they finish catch-up school they take the exam to get into secondary school where some of the students continue boarding and go out in the community to secondary while others go to a vocational school in Kigali. Next the center rents out two of their buildings to separate primary and secondary schools. When all of the students are running around it’s hard to tell who’s who. The primary students have red pants and skirts, secondary have blue pants and skirts, and the catch-up students have light blue shirts. The center partners with the primary school on a lot of things so we get to spend a lot of time with those students too. It’s a great time.

So Monday afternoon we met Melissa who works at the center and she showed us around and went over what we would be doing for the next month. We can pretty much do whatever we want when it comes to activities with the students. I’m technically the “health advocate”, but all 4 of us (Mikaela, Ryan, Arley, and I) basically just work together on everything. Right now we’re going around to the catch-up classes and giving a workshop on dental health and how to brush your teeth. It’s been really fun. We have a lot of fun things planned to do with the kids, I’m really excited for this entire month. Tuesday morning we met Carrie who is the director at the center and the go to person for just about everything.

So what does a typical day at Center for Champions look like? Well I’ll tell you. The day starts bright and early at 7am in the office for staff prayers. Then after that us interns go to the art room with Carrie where we have a little Bible study. The next 2ish hours are spent doing organization stuff like planning activities. At 10 the kids have a break from class so we get to hang out with them for about half an hour. Then we get free time to read for our classes next month etc. Around 12 we go to lunch and after lunch we get to spend the rest of the day hanging out with the kids, playing sports, going to dance class, and doing other fun things. About 5ish our day comes to an end and we get to go home and relax. Tired, sweaty, and bruised from volleyballs and soccer balls.

There you have it, a typical day at the center. Of course I left out some things like Tuesday night Bible study and Wednesday afternoon prayers, but you get the gist. Every day at the center is an adventure and you never know what will happen next, but it’s exciting and fun and I’m so happy that I have the opportunity to get to know these kids.