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The Rwanda School Project

Starting ‘Something Different’

By KELLY JASPER

Northern Augusta Journal (Harrisonburg, Va.)

April 25, 2006

HARRISONBURG ─ Robin Strickler was al­ways picked last in gym class.

She’s not jaded.

Her natural un-athleticism ─ which is, for the record, up for debate considering Strickler’s depart for a 60-mile trek yesterday morning ─ is only a small bump in the road.

This summer, she’ll also tackle a new language (Kinyarwanda, to be exact) and a move 7,000 miles around the world.

She’s not worried.

It’s worth it, says Stickler, 45, a substitute teacher living in Harrisonburg.

Each step of her 60-mile walk this week will bring her one step closer to Rwanda - figuratively at least. Each dollar raised in her travels will aid her goal of starting a socially responsible school ─ ­in Rwanda, her new home in just a few months.

The Journey Ahead

The Rwanda School Project, as Strickler’s dream has come to be known, demands $250,000. It’s not much compared to the multi-million dollar facilities that schools in the United States build.

All in all, the school will be small, ·about 400 stu­dents. Strickler plans to start with three staffers and 40 students, teaching both boys and girls in English.

This week, she hopes to raise several thousand dollars toward that total.

“It’s $250,000 for the whole shebang,” she said. ”That’s peanuts compared to what an American school would cost.”

Strickler left from Muhlenberg Lutheran Church, off U.S. 33 east in Harrisonburg, Monday at 9 a.m.

The church, Strickler said, has always been behind her project.

“They have probably been my staunchest supporter,” she said. “For me, it’s a way to feel connected to the Lutheran church and connected to my faith.”

This week, Strickler will travel north to New Market, then to Mount Jackson. Her four-day walk will lead her to Edinburg, Strasburg and Winchester, traveling between seven and a half miles to 15 miles each day. She’ll spend the night with churches along the way.

For a few miles at a time, volunteers will walk beside Strickler.

”They’ve offered a lot of help do­ing two to four mile stretches with me,” she said.

Strickler was never a walker.

She says training for this week’s journey was a months-long process.

Travelers along U.S. 11 in Wey­ers Cave and Mount Crawford have seen Strickler walking by, usually a water bottle or granola bar in hand and a fluorescent sign pinned to her back. It advertised the school project ─ “anything to get people’s attention,” she said.

In Japan, Strickler walked a little bit. She taught English at a university in the country for seven years, only returning to the United States two years ago. Since, she’s filled in at schools in Harrisonburg while preparing for the Rwandan school.

“I’ve always taught in some way, almost always working with students,” she said.

Strickler once worked for a YMCA and got her start in teaching as a music instructor in Ohio. (She plays piano, but says you wouldn’t know it anymore. “I never practice,” Strickler said.) She spent another 11 years in after-school daycare programs.

So how did she wind up wrapped up in Rwanda?

That, too, is a journey of its own.

Moving Forward

Five years ago, Strickler’s parents attended a church that sponsored a refugee from Rwanda.

He was one of thousands who fled a genocide that killed more than 800,000 people in just 90 days in the spring of 1994. The central African country has worked to rebuild, with most refugees returning to Rwanda.

Bent on helping the refugee, the church needed a translator.

They called on John Rutsindintwarane, a student in Eastern Mennonite University’s Conflict Trans­formation Program. His first language is Swahili.

Rutsindintwarane, now 40, is a Lutheran pastor from Rwanda. He is now the general secretary of the Lutheran Church of Rwanda.

It so happens that Strickler was home from Japan.

“We talked and over the next week or so John kept coming back to translate,” Strickler said. “One thing led to another.”

They married in August 2003.

“We had to pick a. place between Rwanda and Japan,” she said. California it was.

Strickler never took Rutsindintwarane’s name.

“In Rwanda,” she explained, “there is no such thing as a family name. Every person is born with a Christian or Mus­lim name and a Rwandan name. I’m still Robin Strickler. He’s still John Rutsindintwarane.”

He moved back to Rwanda in January, where he works with local congrega­tions to rebuild communities.

Rutsindintwarane’s own family fled Rwanda about 1959. After attending seminary in Kenya, he worked in Tan­zania during the genocide.

“The Lutheran churches were helping rescue people who made it across the river,” Strickler said. “John was there as these thousands of refugees were com­ing into the camps.”

They didn’t talk about all of it at first.

“When we met he was beginning to deal but he was still pretty trauma­tized,” Strickler said. “Looking back is just too painful. The only way is to look forward.”

Together, they did. Strickler began to rethink her life’s plan.

“I was planning on staying in Asia. I wasn’t thinking about Africa at all. I had a nice comfy job. I had lots of vacation time, a nice salary.

“It was pretty clear to me John was doing important humanitarian work,” Strickler said. “It was a question of, ‘Do I want to go and participate in that or do I just want to be his friend?’ ”

She’ll move to Rwanda in July.

A New Look At Learning

Until then, she’s campaigning for the school, which will be built somewhere between Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, and Kibungo in the southeastern part of the country.

With her background in teaching, starting a school was just the right fit, Strickler said.

“We were talking about needs for Rwanda and what we could do,” she said. “They need AIDS and HIV educa­tion and nutrition needs. And I said all those things are good but somebody else should go do that. I know nothing about

that.

“That’s when I learned that there is also a need for secondary education. That’s what I do. I said I could do that. I probably had no idea what I was talking about,” Strickler said with a laugh.

She set out constructing a very elabo­rate plan, examining teaching methods and curriculum for the new school.

“I had all these ideas but couldn’t sort them out,” she said. “I told them to a woman in Ohio and she said tome that it sounded like expeditionary learning.”

The teaching style emphasizes sus­tainability and responsibility. It was a relief for Strickler.

“I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said.

Strickler would like to maintain the school for at least five to 10 years before considering offshoots, like adult learning classes, seminary and boarding options, she said.

Each would focus on the expeditionary style, which would emphasize small groups built upon strong student and staff relationships.

The cross disciplinary method focuses on physical health habits as well as academic skills, social skills, problem solv­ing, on diversity (cultural, religious and economic, she says) and community service.

“Maybe the word cutting edge is too strong of a word,” she said. “But it’s “something different, a necessary step in “developing thinkers, great thinkers. To me it makes eminent sense.”

It’s a good fit for a culture like Rwan­da’s, she said, although more than 100 schools in the United States also use the system.

“I was like ‘yeah, that’s it, that’s it. It’s a perfect match,’ ” she said. “I really started getting excited.”

She hopes the school can help kids who can’t pay.

“I think it’s important to be economically mixed,” she said. “We believe sec­ondary education is important regard­less who it’s for.”

The school needs a variety of materials to get off the ground. Anything, Stick­le said, could be helpful, including computers, textbooks, pencils, solar panels, Internet technology or frequent-flyer miles. To donate materials or for infor­mation on ·sending a tax deductible donation, call Muhlenberg Lutheran Church in Harrisonburg at 434-3496 or log onto www.rwandaschoolproject.org.