fulfilling dreams

Christophe continues to amaze. He comes from a remote village in the southwest part of Rwanda.  A few years ago, he got a job as a cleaner for the CASIEF apartment. At that time, he spoke only Kinyarwanda, so we had to use sign language to communicate. Despite the communication barrier, his dedication was obvious. He kept the apartment in spotless condition, washed laundry and ran errands. One of the volunteers generously paid tuition for Christophe to attend university. At first it was a significant struggle, because of language issues, but Christophe learned quickly. The "Ds" and "Fs" progressed quickly to "As".  His graduation last year was a major achievement; no one in his family has ever attended university.

Now Christophe's English is excellent. We spoke for a couple of hours today about life, goals and the state of humanity. Christophe works hard, saves money and supports his family back in the village. He still cleans the apartment but he also runs a little business selling clothing at the market. He has a small plot of land on the outskirts of Kigali (purchased with help from another generous volunteer).  His dream is to build a house to share with the bright young lady he hopes (plans) to marry.  She is also a university graduate, which makes Christophe enormously proud.

Christophe with Michelle last year