It's Possible!

It doesn’t seem possible that we have only five days left with the students. We will have a graduation ceremony on Saturday afternoon. Each morning we start by checking in with each student about what was difficult and what they felt grateful for the day and night before. The majority no longer talk about what has been difficult (the first week they had to be encouraged to find gratitude), and list multiple blessings. One of the students today was grateful for all the changes he sees in himself and in the others since the beginning of the program, the major one being that they have hope and feel peaceful inside. Today the focus was on entrepreneurship. We did the “It’s Possible” exercise where they are to take a half-sheet of paper and make a hole big enough to step through with all their body. It is possible. This group found the solution faster than any other group Alisoun has done it for, including children and top corporate executives. I have my theories about why that is true: poverty and survival force being resourceful; and constant contact with the cycles of nature and moving around without street signs or house numbers make their spatial abilities well developed. My testing is showing much greater skill in visual-motor integration, visual and spatial memory and other right-brained functions as well.

Then two officers of the Equal Opportunity Bank in Kigali came to talk to us about savings accounts and microfinance. The students were so enthusiastic and engaged that they would not let them go. We had lunch an hour late. For all of you out there that think you are paying high interest, the interest is 1.5% per month. That equals over 36% per year. They do offer many services, including monthly tutoring sessions, personal contact with the cooperative group to help with planning, and they are making a loan to unproven people with no collateral. They do pay 4.5% interest on savings.

Tomorrow we focus on skills needed to be a team member and skills needed for an employer. The students are being formed into a remote group (those that live near the school on top of the mountain) and the Kigali group. There are six in each group. We will set up group savings plans, and one suggestion is that the remote group that has access to agriculture bring food to the Kigali group and the Kigali group bring money and “city” supplies to the remote group. We have two products for them to begin selling almost immediately, and have started prototypes of craft items they can market to the U.S. if we can get shipping worked out. Several of these students have no place to go after the program is over, and no reliable source of food. We will subsidize housing for a few months until they get their businesses going.

It hasn’t rained for two days, so the roads are dusty again, and our “chariot” had a gas leak with awful fumes, so I need to do tapping to get my body back to balance and get as much sleep as possible. Sorry, can't get a picture to upload tonight.