Professor Returning to Rwanda to Pay on Debt
A Commentary
James Cummings

For the second year in a row, retired chemistry professor Albert Schlueter is spending a few weeks in Rwanda teaching English and chemistry at a high school level boarding school.

And he says the Rwanda he is coming to know seems to have made an
Almost miraculous comeback from a 1994 genocide in which Hutu extremists rose up and killed about 500,000 of their Tutsi countrymen.

About 300 Rwandan refugees live in Dayton, and they tend to be extremely critical of current conditions and government officials in Rwanda. Schlueter, though, said he believes the refugees give a biased picture of the country.

President Paul Kagame has gone to great lengths to make sure everyone is a Rwandan, not a Hutu or a Tutsi,² Schlueter said. ³They¹ve created a genocide museum, and everywhere you go you see signs saying Never forget.
They¹re not just remembering the genocide in Rwanda; they¹re talking about genocides throughout history.

I believe this is a country that’s going in the right direction. If I didn¹t feel that way, I wouldn¹t be going back.

Yellow Springs resident Schlueter, 66, taught chemistry at Central State University for 30 years before retiring. His first stint in Africa came in 1983 when he received a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Liberia for a year.

He said Central State had a working relationship with a school in Ghana, and he returned to Africa as a visiting teacher from Central State four times between 1988 and 1994. Schlueter said he met a nun from Rwanda in 2005, and she told him Rwandan schools were eager to host foreign teachers who could pass along their language and professional skills.

Violette Uwamutara, a manager of educational programs at the Rwandan Embassy in Washington, D.C., said Rwanda has a severe teacher shortage. Many died during the genocide; many others took refuge outside the country, she said.

Uwamutara said many of Rwanda¹s teachers come from other countries across Africa, but teachers from anywhere are welcome. Like any developing country, we appreciate the knowledge American professionals can bring, she said.

Schlueter said he was impressed last year by the warmth of the Rwandan people and by the evidence he saw of stability and security. He said he felt as safe in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, as in a large city in America.

This past weekend, Dr. Schlueter got together with Dale Allen, a
Biology professor from Canada, to prepare for his second trip to Rwanda. The two men packed 600 pounds of books, laboratory glassware and equipment including five donated microscopes to take with them on their Monday flight to Africa.

Schlueter said he¹ll spend five or six weeks teaching at Ecole des
Sciences (School of the Sciences) in Byimana, Rwanda, the same school he taught in last year. The secondary school has about 830 students. Schlueter said he believes the world owes Rwanda a debt because the world failed to stop the genocide in 1994. He said he¹s happy for the chance to pay on that debt.

I think I can be more productive this year now that I know better what they need from me, he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com