Senior Lydia King knows what it’s like to be a second grader in Rwanda. She lived it herself, one decade ago. Now, while finishing out her last year of high school at East, she has returned to her old elementary school to help the current students with their reading.
King grew up around Musanze, a town in the northern part of the country, where her parents worked in a local hospital and where she attended elementary school. Afterwards, she left the town to study elsewhere in Kenya and Rwanda before eventually moving to Chapel Hill in tenth grade. At the end of April, as more people were becoming vaccinated, she was able to travel across the world back to the school in Musanze.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., King interns with first and second graders, working on reading comprehension. Because of the six-hour time zone difference, for the rest of the day she takes the final classes of her high school career on Google Meet, until 10 p.m.
“I remember so much of what it was like to be in second grade, and now it’s like, I don’t feel that much older than them,” King said. “But, I do the little ‘professor walk,’ like I’ll ask a question and then I’ll walk across the room, waiting for people to answer. That feels so cool.”
King has fond memories of being a little girl in the same situation as her current students.
“In the mornings we would have porridge altogether,” King said. “It was just the best way to start the day because you’d all have porridge in the morning together, and then you would have school. And we got out early.”
One of King’s kindergarten teachers works at the same school (left( King is at now.
“She was there, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ you knew me when I was five. And now I’m interning here,” King said. “I remember when she had her tiny child, and then her child came up to me at the school and I completely didn’t recognize her. She’s now in fourth grade. My mind was completely blown.”
The trip back to her hometown, as a graduating senior planning to attend Emory University in the fall, was also a sudden coming-of-age experience for King.
“I watched ‘Lady Bird’ on the plane. At the end she goes to college, and I was like, wow, this is so applicable to the moment,” King said. “The child is leaving the nest. I was in the plane crying.”
King says the elementary school students have welcomed her arrival. One second-grader drew a card for her.
“I was so touched. I entered her class and she was like, ‘I have a card for you.’ It says, ‘You are so good.’ And then it says, ‘You are the best teacher. We are glad you are in our school, you are my best friend,’” King said. “I’ve known her for two days. This is my third day.”
Photos courtesy of Lydia King
