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            Shannon Lawson, assistant professor of English and Humanities, and students from her special topics course, African Literature, traveled to Rwanda this summer for 10 days as part of the summer session class.
            A Yahoo group was set up before the trip for the students to discuss literature, culture, music and food before the trip.
            The group traveled to several villages in the Kigali area. They visited the Kigali Institute for Education and interacted with staff and students. In Nyamirambo, they went to a women’s cooperative where single mothers could learn business skills, such as technical training, hairdressing, tailoring or English, among other things, to help them get a better job. Lawson and the students learned to cook some of the traditional dishes and they all got a traditional braid in their hair at the cooperative.
            Two of the tour stops were specifically designed so that students could meet with the English faculty and literature students at KIE, a university in Kigali and with high school literature teachers at Sonrise, a high school with a strong American influence.
            At the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, the group saw the atrocities that occurred through Rwanda during the genocide. The museum also had information on other genocides that occurred in the world outside of Rwanda.
            “It showed us that these events are in no way central to the African continent or Rwandan people,” said student Jed Bailey.
            At the Millennium Village Project in Bugesera, at a village feast, the group saw testimonies of both a Tutsi woman who lost her entire family in the genocide and a Hutu man, who was an active combatant. It was a revelation to Bailey that these individuals now live together as neighbors.
            “As a result of this trip, I have gained a deeper respect for other cultures through my growing appreciation for Rwandan culture,” Bailey said. “I have established tremendous friendships that would have once been implausible given my lack of motivation to explore far outside of my native region.”
            Bailey wants to teach English for a year or two in Rwanda.
            The country is extremely clean, Lawson said, and every month, by law, everyone has to go out and clean up the streets.
            “People are also encouraged to plant flowers around their homes,” she said. “The trip showed students a culture rich in tradition while developing into an Anglophone nation.”
            Shawnee State students had an opportunity to see the traditional dancing by children and they were invited to join the adults dancing in the Batwa community. They watched traditional basket weaving in Bugesera and went on a boat excursion to learn about coffee growing on Lake Kivu.
            “With its red dusty hills and lush, green scenery, it’s easy to forget how the red dirt was once red from blood,” said student Aaron Carter. “Only through a personal visit to Rwanda can one understand and appreciate the efforts made toward healing, growing and developing. And only through a personal visit to Rwanda can the myths of the backward, savage, primitive African be broken.”

CUTLINE:
Shawnee State University students and faculty traveled to Rwanda as part of a special topics course for summer session, “African Literature.” In the photo, they are resting at the Gisozi Genocide Memorial in Kigali with local guides. The memorial is the burial site for 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide. In front are Shima Christia, local guide, left, and student Aaron Carter. Seated, from left, are Jed Bailey, Ann Marie Short, Elsie Shabazz, Rebecca Cox, Florence Kabanyana, local guide, Shannon Lawson, Xiaodan Huang and Kimberly Crawford.