Lunch and Dinner with CMU Students!

Just in case you haven't figure out what people do in Rwanda...

I will give you two clues:  people and food!  

Yes, much of our time and others is spent entertaining and/or 

being with people and of course, eating with them.  

These are the last three groups of CMU students that we had 

lunch with. I must say from the first group to now the growth and 

expectation level of what is required to complete this degree 

is much more understood by all the students.  They are working 

very hard!  The sacrifices they are making are many but they

see the future securely ahead of them!  

Josephine, Bonaventure, Sildio and Jean Paul 

 Talking about where each student came from and 
how they heard about CMU. 

 Everyone has a great story to tell....

Josephine's sister---who is in Texas--encouraged her to apply.
She remained on Josephine's case until she did!

 OK,   someone grabbed the camera! 

 This group had 2 girls in it, Vanessa and Merab.

And this is Phizer and Alain.  Everyone enjoys the
food at this hotel and everyone thinks we should keep having
lunches together!   

This is one of those "everyone is engaged" pictures!
I like it.  I guess i forgot to take more pictures with this foursome..
Please forgive me!  We had a great discussion with this group. too.

One thing is certainly true, whether the students are from the city
or the country they have all come to CMU/Rwanda
knowing that it will be something completely different than
they have ever experienced!  And that is a good thing...
but a very challenging thing, as well. 

 Jean Pierre (the class leader) and
Clement Robert, who prefers to be called Robert.

 Fiacre and Esther are ready  for lunch.  The strawberry juice was
quite tasty.  We all had one--since this was our last lunch outing.

We had a lively discussion
with this group, too!

The other element that is strong
among the students is their
belief system.  Many of them are strong believers and have great faith!  I'm happy about that because I know when they run out of their own energy they will be able to call on someone greater than themselves for strength and assurance.

Jean Pierre picked up the camera and started shooting.

 

And he got this shot of Bruce.  He liked it so much that
I had to include it here.  Just wish I could remember what
Bruce was saying.

Just last weekend a special guest came to talk about Bio-Mass and
its future here in Rwanda as well as Uganda where they are working now.
Prior to that time the students had a pizza dinner!
Just a few shots from that time together.  

OK  --here we have the real CMU student..
working while the party is going on....????

 Everyone had left the room to go to the talk and
 this little guy sat down next to me.
I guess he wanted to be a student at CMU, too!

 Some of the students had never seen a praying mantis before
but others were quite familiar.  I took him into the lecture room
but he just flew up into the ceiling.

 Michel is introducing Rory.  Rory is from the States but is working
in Uganda on the topic of the slide below. He and another
fellow from India are working together to make this a
reality for people in need of electricity.  

Rory in action.  I hope this is how he spells his name.

 These are the 2 companies!

These slides speak for themselves. Well, this says that
only 13% of the people in Rwanda have access to
electricity.
 

Can't give away all the information but moving this
kind of technology into Rwanda would be a great gift.

What you are looking at in the last picture is how they make
charcoal here in Rwanda.
The biomass process works similarly to this process
to create energy that in turn produces electricity.

Look for it in a developing country near you!

So... that about wraps up the CMU page.
I missed Susan's baby shower (one of the admin staff) that was held today,
due to a time change.  I'm so sorry i missed it.. Guess we'll just
have to have another one!!!

Have a great weekend!
love,
margie
p.s.  If i have anyone's name wrong, please let me know so i can
correct my mistakes.