UMass Boston Alumni Magazine - Fall/Winter 2008-2009 - (Page 16)

(dorm mother) with whom she had become close was suddenly gone. Crushed, Geyer wanted to find out where she was from Sr. Felicity, the school principal, but Sr. Felicity’s manner signaled the need to tread carefully. The principal never revealed the animatrice’s whereabouts, but Geyer did learn for the first time of her anguish at having lost her entire family (nine members) in the genocide. Sr. Felicity eventually disclosed that the woman left because she felt unworthy after failing her certification exam. This was the first of many reminders that Rwandans are not only a proud people but also protective of their genocide stories. BoWiNG To SERENDiPiTY Her work at the Maranyundo School finished, Geyer toured Rwanda with Dewing and Bro. Straton. Large class sizes, lack of textbooks, and ancient computers at School of the Sciences fueled her wish to help. After a hair-raising trip in Bro. Straton’s van down a steep mountain road with failed brakes (owing their survival to his grace under pressure), she added a van to the list. Back home in Boston, Geyer contemplated the magnitude of her promise and thought: “now what?” Then serendipity took over. Through a convoluted chain of coincidences and snafus, she and John McPhee wound up as impromptu guest speakers at a Cohasset, Massachusetts, book club meeting discussing Left to Tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculée Ilibagiza. Among those present was Michelle Cayer. “I do lot of fundraising, and was looking for something that would touch people directly,” explains Cayer. “As Mrs. Geyer was talking to us, she was glowing. Something literally came over me, and I said: this is it.” Geyer, Cayer, and McPhee now await Bro. Straton’s detailed list of needs and costs as they strategize their fundraising (for more information, write carolgeyer@yahoo,com). Geyer “has great energy,” says McPhee. “She also has great spirituality, and the belief that things will happen if you just get out there, begin to do it, and put the pieces together.” With a rosy Boston sunset as backdrop, Geyer sips her wine and reflects on a faraway journey that began with an educator’s mission and ended with a lesson: “You cannot destroy the human spirit, but it takes all of us responding to the need. To meet the Rwandans is to meet hope face to face. And hope is healing.” That insight, she says, has shifted and transformed her whole inner landscape. As distant as Rwanda seems, her passion remains strong because of certain indelible images in her mind’s eye: “The girls, the sisters, Brother’s generosity and needs—and those three boys on the road.” Leslie Limon is a freelance writer who specializes in higher education. Schoolgirls in uniform. graders free education and board through support from the Rwandan government and Sr. Ann’s Maranyundo Initiative. It was this involvement that led Geyer to Rwanda for five weeks last February and March as a volunteer consultant to the Maranyundo School board. This was a leap she never expected to make; though she has traveled all over the world, she admits Rwanda—indeed, Africa—was never on her radar screen. To prepare for her trip she read voraciously about this lush “land of a thousand hills” and its brutal past. But pre-departure jitters didn’t really set in until unrest erupted in neighboring Kenya. She worked to conquer her fears through prayer and conversation with friends like fellow Paulist Center parishioner John McPhee, who had been to Rwanda. The jitters dissipated once Geyer settled within the secure school compound and began, in her words, “to enter the rhythm of the experience.” At 6:00 a.m. she would wake up to Rwandan voices filling the air with song. During the day she would watch the back-and-forth rhythm of village women entering the compound with bricks on their heads, handing them to a cadre of prisoners building a wall, then going back for more. As she helped the sisters and students prepare for the newly opened school’s dedication ceremony, and interviewed the girls to assess their English ability, their joy and charm captured her heart. “If ever there was a place to teach!” she marvels. “We’re talking about girls who never saw water come out of a shower, never had a uniform, and could not have gone on to school were it not for this school. And they beg you—beg you—to teach them.” Quiet listening and watching let Geyer tune in to body language and learn about Rwandan culture. Those lessons could be painful. One day she learned that the Rwandan animatrice 16 n UMass Boston

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of UMass Boston Alumni Magazine - Fall/Winter 2008-2009

UMass Boston Alumni Magazine - Fall/Winter 2008-2009 Contents UNews Oh, the Places They've Gone! "One of Those Rare Leaders" Acknowledging History, Renewing a Commonwealth Heart and Mind Indelible Images About Alumni Investing in UMass Boston A Generous Friend Alumni Calendar

UMass Boston Alumni Magazine - Fall/Winter 2008-2009

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