Rene Ruhigita came to the US in the spring of 2019. 

His family flew from Burundi, Africa, to Ethiopia, and from there to Alabama and then Washington D.C., before coming to Lancaster.

The move “wasn’t a surprise,” Rene said. “I’ve been a refugee all my life, and I knew that I’m going to be leaving the country, but we just didn’t know which country we would be going to.”

Rene’s dad was originally from Democratic Republic of the Congo, but moved to Burundi to find work, where he met Rene’s mom. The two moved back to DRC after getting married but then were forced to return to Burundi because of war. 

“It was hard to live in that country,” said Rene. “Because it’s hard to find food, and a lot of supplies. So, yeah, we did survive, and I’m glad we’re here.”

Even now, the differences between Burundi and America are striking to Rene. 

“Yesterday, me and my brother, we were just thinking about how we have a PS5, how we have our own little living room for only boys, and then how we play games whenever we want, and the electricity doesn’t go off,” Rene said. “But back in my country, you’ll be watching a movie and the electricity – the whole city doesn’t have any electricity for about three to four hours, and then you get electricity back.”

Another difference: “Most of the time almost all kids in my city, in the morning, what they woke up doing, brush their teeth,” said Rene. “You just gonna see almost everybody in the road just brushing their teeth in the road.”

Rene spent a lot of time in Burundi playing. And sometimes, doing things he maybe shouldn’t have been. “I was a rule breaker,” he said, laughing. 

He would go with friends to the nearby Lake Tanganyika, and swim and play in it, even though his parents didn’t allow it. He also had some troubles at school. 

“I didn’t speak Kirundi very well, I sounded like an outsider,” Rene said.” In the public school, they didn’t like that. And they kind of keep bullying me. I was one of the kids that didn’t like getting bullied. …So I was in the first grade and one kid from second grade, he attacked me during break and I was so mad. I was like I’m not gonna let you bully me and then I took the stone and threw the stone at him, but the bad thing was, the stone didn’t hit the kid, the stone hit one of the teachers.” 

“The teacher was so mad at me and he was like, ‘why did you throw the stone at me? That’s disrespectful. Go bring your parents with you,’ and I was like no way, if I bring my dad here he’s gonna beat me up, so I don’t wanna call my dad here.”

Rene didn’t go to school for almost a whole semester because he was afraid that his parents would find out about the incident with the teacher. 

Now, at McCaskey, he rarely misses a day. 

“Every time when I miss school, every time when I stay home because I’m sick, it makes me feel like I’m missing something in my life,” Rene said.

Rene is the kind of person who can make anyone laugh. He always has something to say, a question to ask or a comment to add. So it’s hard to imagine that once, Rene barely spoke to anyone at McCaskey. 

He started here as a 9th grader in 2019, the Fall after his family arrived in Lancaster. 

“First, I did like school, and because of lunch, I was like wow!” Rene said. “American school is so good! It’s free! You don’t have to do anything, you just go to school even though you don’t go outside, you just stay in one building all day, but you have sports inside, you have gym, so it’s kinda cool.”

“But because I didn’t speak English, you don’t have friends, you just do whatever your teacher is telling you. It’s kinda like a robot. If you don’t give it command, it doesn’t know what to do – it just stays in one place.”

Rene started to get involved in more activities at McCaskey in 10th grade. He had to drop one of his three periods of English Language courses, but he was able to take intro to computer science, something he had been passionate about while in Burundi. In 11th grade, he joined the percussion section of the McCaskey marching band and started working at Best Buy, and just this school year he added TV Show pre/post-production onto his schedule.  

One of Rene’s passions is to help people with technology, and he plans to attend Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology next year, to major in IT. 

“I feel like I am belonging here,” said Rene. “Just because I didn’t come here early, that is why my accent is different, but yeah, I feel like I am belonging, I belong here.”