Basa

Today I pay tribute to a friend who I may have just seen for the last time.

Part of the deal of visiting a country halfway around the world is the potential to make strong friendships with people you will never see again. My age, my responsibilities in America to work and family, and the fact that I don’t have unlimited resources all make a return trip to Rwanda unlikely for me. Extended visits like this one make the parting all the more difficult, as time allows the relationships to grow deeper.

Those familiar with the work of the Abana Foundation and readers of my previous posts will recognize the name “Basa.” I would wager that anyone who has had the privilege of visiting the Children’s Academy in the last seven years would readily agree that she is an extraordinary woman. Hers is an amazing and also heartbreaking story.

IN THIS PICTURE: Basa loves the children and the children love her!

If I were a writer, I would want to tell a story about two people born in the late 60’s–one in Rwanda and the other in America. The narrative would follow the two protagonists through their respective lives, subtly comparing and contrasting the events that transpired in their countries. Of course their lives would cross and there would have to be some conflict to make the story interesting–all the elements of plot we learned in Sophomore English. Though for me, the contrasting experiences are interesting enough.

Basa was born in the early 70’s not too far from Kibeho. In the 80’s, Mary appeared in Kibeho to at least three students (not too much older than Basa!) over a span of seven years. In 1994, she lost her only brother during the genocide that claimed the lives of almost one million Rwandans. She was somehow able to flee the country into Uganda with her husband and first-born son (she would have two more sons in Uganda). At some point her husband became ill and died (I haven’t had the courage to ask for details). For the last seven years, she has been coming to Kibeho to teach at the Children’s Academy during the school year and going back to Uganda during breaks (her sons are adults now).

Unfortunately for me and for the kids of the Children’s Academy, there are some personal things in Uganda that have caused her to make the difficult decision to stay there for at least this next school year. She will support the work of the Abana Foundation and will support the teacher who is replacing her, but from the next country over. She has been here for the past three weeks to help me and to help the transition to the new teacher (Grace). Though I wish she would stay, I understand that she needs to do this for herself and her family. And so we said good-bye.

PICTURE ABOVE: The Children’s Academy’s faculty. L to R is Grace (new teacher) Basa, and likely you recognize the guy on the right.

Despite what seems to me to have been an incredibly difficult life, Basa is always smiling. She always has a ready laugh and a clever comment. I never understand what she is saying when she interacts with other Rwandans, but her interactions almost always elicit a smile or a laugh from the other person.

Basa has a teacher’s heart (teachers will know what I mean). She works hard and sacrifices much because she cares about her students and wants so badly to see them succeed. In America, success in school has some relationship with opportunities in life; here, success in school is the deal-breaker. A good education divides the farmer who lives entirely off the land from the person who can have a more comfortable life and provide for his or her family.

Teachers at my old school in Lincoln certainly have kids with rough backgrounds, difficult family life, and/or material need. They have kids who have mental health struggles or miss school for protracted amounts of time because of dysfunction in the home or physical illness or perhaps refusal to attend. Basa has all of these same things. What seems a little different is that at my old school the teacher generally had other resources available to assist the student–school counselors, social workers, mental health providers, local charities, advocacy centers. Basa has to serve all of these roles and so much more.

It has been a particular blessing for me in the first three weeks of my trip (today is the three week anniversary of my landing in Rwanda!) to have a front-row seat to her interactions with students. School hasn’t even begun here (first day of school is September 8 in Rwanda) and yet she has helped me conduct interviews with 40 secondary students and she has met one-on-one with close to 40 more primary students during the last two weeks. Just two days ago we visited three homes and a local high school. I posted earlier about a call she received from a mother whose husband came home drunk and she had locked herself in her house. Just yesterday she received another call from a mother who is going to court today to divorce her husband. She has handled every moment with grace, faith, and compassion.

Thank you, Basa, for all you have done for the Children’s Academy these past seven years. You have blessed these children, their families, and those of us who have had the good fortune to know you personally. You will be missed. May God bless you and your family, and may we soon see your beautiful smile back in Kibeho!

God bless us all.