I stepped out of the Kigali airport at seven in the morning local time. I had been traveling for 30 hours at this point, and the gentle Rwandan breeze greeted me as a panacea to the sleep-deprivation that naturally comes with that much travel. With each breath and intake of my surroundings, the nerves of moving half-way across the world from where I had lived for the first 22 years of my life began to disappear. Before arriving in Kigali, I had never been to Africa, or even flown across the Atlantic Ocean, but when I first stumbled upon Shooting Touch through social media, I was instantly drawn to the organization and the country. As a Division 1 athlete, I had experienced first-hand the transformational power of sport and understood the force that sport can be for bringing communities together and building confidence. I was further inspired by their mission to create healthier communities through health education, partnerships with local organizations, and providing health insurance to their beneficiaries. With these feelings of inspiration, I embarked into uncharted territories, spending eight months in a foreign country with people I didn’t know.
My first day in Rwanda gave me a taste of the peaceful pace of the weekend, but this relaxation and recovery would not last long. The following week was long, informative and borderline exhausting, as I had to start a new job in a foreign country where I did not speak the language. Luckily, I was not alone. I was greeted by two Shooting Touch veterans, Chloe and Sam, who served as perfect guides to start the transition into my new way of life for the next eight months. I was also joined by another fellow, who was embarking on the same adventure as me. During that first week, we took care of the logistics of moving to a new country – getting a new SIM card, phone number and data plan, and spending an early morning at immigration applying for a visa. We also went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which gave me the space to learn and understand the history of Rwanda in a different way, as well as pay my respects to those who had lost their lives.
As I was beginning to prepare for life in a new country, I also was trying to fully understand the organization that I would be working for and my responsibilities as a Health Operations Fellow. The Shooting Touch Rwanda team sat around and had discussions about our values, professional expectations and what we each wanted to achieve with our work. The energy was palpable, with the whole staff committed to making an impact on the organization and our participants. With that under my belt, I felt confident that I was ready to go to my first basketball practice. We spent an evening in Bugesera, a district in the Eastern Province of Rwanda that hosts the two newest Shooting Touch courts. At the newest court in Rilima, I was immediately greeted by tons of children who were hanging around the court as their mothers practiced and learned basketball. I used my limited Kinyarwanda with these kids, asking them how they were, introducing myself, and asking their name. The language barrier dissipated into nothing, as I read the familiar physical cues of the children and was quickly able to determine if they wanted to play a game of keep-away with the basketball or use me as a climbing toy.
Our second stop was at a court in Mayange, where I caught the end of their final practice of the night, with their U-19 boys’ group. Seeing this second location, I soon realized that each of the Shooting Touch courts would likely bring their own energy. The next day we would travel to the court in Nyamirama and the following, one in Rwinkwavu. The energy at both of these courts, where Shooting Touch has been operating for a much longer time, simply can’t be put into words. After the women’s practice at Nyamirama, community members and participants greeted me with hugs and welcomes, and with each introduction, relinquishing the nerves that come with being the new person to join a well-defined community. Each hello reaffirmed the power of sport to build and unite a community. Throughout the afternoon, I began to see how different players engaged with the game – some were there to win and others were there to learn and grow. This subtle distinction across and within different age groups reaffirmed a different core component of the Shooting Touch mission: sport is for everyone. At the Rwinkwavu court, I began to understand what community looked like for them – women took turns helping to care for a crying child, so that no one had to miss out on a drill.
This week marks only the beginning of my time with Shooting Touch, and while I feel that I have learned so much in such a short time, I also know that there is much more to learn. I am excited to visit Shooting Touch’s two other courts, in Kayonza and Rukara, and learn how basketball brings these communities together. I am impassioned to begin to learn from these communities and try to continue to help use the power of sport to create healthier and happier people.
About the Author
Laine Garber is the 2023 Shooting Touch Rwanda (STR) Manager of Health Operations Fellow. She graduated from Yale in December 2022, where she was a member of the varsity field hockey team, and is excited to travel to Africa for the first time and support Shooting Touch with their health operations.