I have to confess I am a bit of a cycling
fan, and the last few days, since getting back to UK, have included keeping up
to date with the Tour de France. Last year Bradley Wiggins became the first
Brit to ever win the Tour and this year, on its 100th anniversary,
it was by another Brit, Chris Froome.
Chris was born in Kenya, to British
parents, and last year rode a fabulous race sacrificing his own chances to win
on many occasion in order to ensure that Wiggo, who was the team leader, got
the glory. So I was delighted to see Chris get the rightful honour this year,
and stand on the winner’s podium wearing the coveted yellow jersey.
In honour of this achievement, I want to
briefly share two stories that each have an inspiring undercurrent to them –
one a cycling story, and one a Kenyan story.
The cycling story is about Team Rwanda
Cycling. Having just spent a week in Rwanda, I have seen how much the legacy of
the genocide lives on in the country, even though everyone is making a lot of
effort to try and put it behind them and move forwards as s united country.
Team Rwanda is part of that effort.
According to it’s Facebook page, it
describes its mission thus: Team Rwanda Cycling searches for
talent to empower, enable and to inspire not just individuals but families,
communities and a nation through cycling. With both Hutus and Tutsis on the
team, all of whom are old enough to have survived the genocide, they exemplify
people coming together in a common cause, and putting forgiveness and
reconciliation into practice.
One of those people is Adrien Niyonshuti
who was 7yrs old at the time of the genocide. From a Tutsi family, his story of
surviving the horrors of attacks by the Interahamwe, in which over 40 members
of his family were massacred and the family home burnt to the ground, is a
harrowing one. Like so many testimonies of the genocide survivors, it leaves me
marveling that these people have been able to even get up and live again, let
alone live in such positive and productive ways.
But that is precisely what Adrien and other
cyclists on the Team Rwanda Cycling team are doing – they are getting up,
living again, cycling shoulder to shoulder with those who before the genocide
would have been from the ‘other tribe’, supporting each other as they endure
the uphills and cruise the downhills, and demonstrating in a very real and
tangible way one of the hardest of all human requirements – forgiveness and
reconciliation.
To read more about this remarkable team, go
to their website: http://teamrwandacycling.org/team
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| Team Rwanda Cyling
The other story – the Kenyan one – is about
a teacher called Teacher Lillian who I met in May this year when I took a team
out to Spurgeons Academy in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
Spurgeons Academy is one of CRED’s overseas
partners, and is a non-profit, independent school in Kibera that provides
top-quality education to some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in
Kibera.
The teachers are very dedicated, working at
the school on lower pay than they could get in other schools, but with the
knowledge that they are really making a difference in the lives of the
children. I’ll tell you more about the
school another time, as it is a remarkable place, but for now let me show how
dedicated the teachers are through the story of Teacher Lillian.
Teacher Lillian (pictured below with one of her students, Irine) started working at
Spurgeons in October 2012. Before that she was working at another private
school in Nairobi, but that school was one that rich people sent their children
to. Teacher Lillian chose to leave that school for Spurgeons, because, in her
words she wanted ‘work with children who wanted to learn, rather than children
who thought the world revolved around them’. She took a considerable cut in
pay, and each day travels between 30 and 60 minutes each way on the bus to
reach school.
All very commendable, but what struck me
most was the fact that each day she brings in 2 packed lunches – 1 is for her,
and 1 is for a child in her class. Whilst the other children all get their
lunchtime meal from the school feeding programme, each lunchtime she will sit
and share lunch with one of the children in her class – a different child each
day – giving them a special treat, and taking the time to get to know them. By
the time the year is out she will have shared lunch with each child twice.
A beautiful example of someone who is
dedicated to her calling in life, going beyond the call of duty, and living out
her faith by sharing with those who don’t have so much.
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