Yvette 16 months later
After my first ever visit to Rwanda in June, 2010 the big thrust of communication with friends back home was about Yvette. But for those who might not have heard the story, let me roll back the tape.
January, 2010 WOMEN of PURPOSE (with a different name) was introduced in my sister’s home in Columbus, Mississippi. Her “passionate friends” heard the story of Addy, Mary, Joyce, Eveness, and Lilian. After these ladies heard the stories, they asked what they could do. I had just gotten an email from Addy introducing me to her friend, Yvette. I had copies of that email and passed it around that cold winter night. Within weeks the majority of the funds needed to send Yvette to nursing school had been raised. The only problem, however, was that we were a bit premature in our estimation of how long it would take her to get ACCEPTED into nursing school.
That June, she still hadn’t gotten accepted but was very hopeful by then that it would happen. But meeting her was a huge step in beginning a work in Rwanda that today 16 months later seems quite healthy and full of hope. There are now eleven EAFC current students studying in Rwanda today when only 16 months ago Addy was our only one.)
At THAT TIME Yvette was still primarily a French and Kenyawandan speaker. Thus communication with her came through friends like Addy being willing to do the necessary translations.
Because EAFC has worked almost exclusively in the past in countries that used English as their business language, this step into a country where English wasn’t as common created another learning curve for us.
Now, October 29, 2011 I got to hug Yvette again, introduce her to Sarah and try to explain the amazement I felt as I encountered a very confident young woman, studying nursing who did in fact speak with us in English, the only language we know. (Yes, patience as people kindly translate for us is a small price to pay for our failures to know any language, a skill many, many in Africa master.)
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