It is a wonderful thing to assure oneself of one’s own progress all the time. By that I don’t mean narcissistically looking at oneself in a mirror, or accumulating material wealth. Not at all! When I talk about progress I mean the spiritual and educational well-being that our youngest parishioners and our school’s students are constantly acquiring. And the happiness that I feel for them is because of their ability to pass on the acquired knowledge to others. Confirmation of this is their latest effort – three new school classrooms in the neighboring village of Musengo (500 meters from the friary).

The classrooms were built by our very own students from CFJ Padri Vjeko Vocational Centre, and by doing so, they’ve demonstrated their knowledge and skills to their parents and fellow villagers. It took them several months to erect the rooms in accordance with all the learned building techniques – from burning bricks and mortaring, to masonry and carpentry – on the friars’ land (which is still awaiting resolution of its legal status). And they didn’t ask anything in return for their work…not even a bigger meal! They say it is their gift to the community in which they were raised.

However, with these new classrooms, we have also created a bigger ‘problem’ for ourselves. You see more and more of the children only want to go to our school! After all, the skills of our students are very well known throughout Rwanda, and it’s not a minor thing that they are in position to, quite often - like the job they’ve done on these classrooms – publicly demonstrate their work and boast in front of their families and friends.

Congratulation to our students on a job well done!

Translated by: fra Branimir Mlakić
Edited by: Valerie K. Ken