Pretty much the best way to spend New Year's Eve

12/31/09 – Pretty much the best way to spend New Year's Eve


I had a stellar last-day-of-2009 today. It began this morning after Mass, when Martha, one of the students at the Sisters' school who comes to work for them during the day, said to me "Jacqui, I saw you dancing like this. (does the little arm motion that people often do during the thanksgiving song). I'll teach you to dance!" I replied with enthusiastic acceptance of this offer. Later that afternoon when she had finished her work around the yard, we went into the little parlor and she taught me the feet and arms for a really traditional Rwandan dance. And we sang this song that John has taught me part of and still needs to teach me the rest of. It was basically one of my dreams coming true – to dance a Rwandan dance, with a Rwandan friend, in Rwanda! I can't describe how happy I was.

Before this dancing, the Animators had a meeting with the Father's, and for some reason I was thinking of not going. I wanted to go greet all of them, but maybe I could just leave when they begin their business. I knew it would be long and all in Kinyarwanda, and I think I was assuming that the Animators were wondering why I even bother coming to these things since I don't understand anything. So when Sr. Charlotte said, "No, all of our meetings are always long and in Kinyarwanda! But your presence is very important." it really snapped me back into reality. Duh, of course there have been countless other meetings that I have attended and just sat patiently and prayed the rosary for the group. Why should this time be any different? And why am I so preoccupied with what I think others are thinking? Odds are #1 – I'm wrong about what they're thinking, and #2 – it doesn't matter what other people think. So I went. It started an hour late, typical, and I had a really nice and peaceful time praying for everybody. It actually was a great reflection for me. As I thanked God for each Animator, I remembered when I first met all of them, and I realized how well I know them now. It’s a beautiful thing.

Now, the real fun happened as we were all hanging out after this meeting. Sr. Charlotte was talking to one of the Fathers, so we were all just waiting outside. This is positively delightful…somehow we got to the topic of discussing birthdays. Edouard said he was born in 1990, and at first I thought this can't possibly be right because I thought he was older. But then I realized that actually this is a pretty reasonable date. This guy remembers everything, including the name of my hometown and the names of my family members. He always asks me "and how is Father Jessica?" I explained to him that my father's name is not Jessica, this is my sister.

He was very insulted that I thought that he made this mistake…it turns out that in Kinyarwanda when you refer to a person's parents, its polite to call them Father [child's name] or Mother [child's name]. But anyways, he knows that Jessica is my sister. So when I learned that he was born in 1990, I said "Ah, and Jessica was born 2 years later, in 1992." At that, Fabrice whips out his Rwandan ID card and shows me that he was also born in 1992. I totally did not believe this…I thought Fabrice was at least 19 years old, so I was really shocked. It turns out his birthday is exactly one week before Jess's. When I told him this, he said "Ah! I can marry her?" Everybody cracked up, me especially. I responded with "You want to marry my sister?

Sure, I guess you can." I told him that I will tell her about this conversation and that she will find it hilarious. He wants me to tell Jess that he is very strong and muscley, apparently, as he did not have the words to describe this, only manly bodybuilder-type guestures. Then I mentioned that she has a boyfriend, and he got all mad. He said "No, don't tell me that. Perhaps she will have to choose, and she will choose me!" This conversation snowballed into a discussion about dowry in the U.S., and if people give money or a cow (that's what they do here), and I could see that there was division in the group about who thinks the dowry is a good thing and who thinks its like you're paying for a wife. Stany joined the wife-quest and asked me if I had another sister, and upon hearing no, asked if I have a cousin that he can marry. Again hearing no, he asked me if I am going to become a Sister, and upon hearing no asked if I will find a husband in Rwanda. When I said no, Fabrice asked if I have a boyfriend or husband at home. He was very confused about how I can say that I'm not looking for a husband here, yet not have one waiting for me at home. It was seriously such a loud, laughter-filled, strange discussion. I closed it by saying "No, I did not come to Rwanda to find a husband, and I also did not come to Rwanda to find wives for all of you!"

Later that evening, I was relaxing in my room, just typing some emails and was already in my pj's. I guess I figured that New Year's Eve wasn't a very big deal here as it is at home, and I was pretty tired so I was content to just stay at home and go to bed soon. Well, around dinner time, Sr. Charlotte called me and said "Are you coming? We are at the Father's, we were all invited there." So I changed back into some clothes and went. It was a small gathering of the Fathers of Muhato, the Sisters, 2 Sisters of St. Bonaface and a few people who work for the parish. The really cool thing was that I realized how comfortable I felt being there. I really didn't know the Sisters of St. Bonaface or the other parish people that well, but I had seen them all before and had met most of them. I just felt so at home and was really enjoying the company of everyone there, along with the nice mix of Christmas and random English songs playing on the radio. So it was very nice to realize that I'm past the "guest" phase; now I'm here to stay :) We had a nice meal of some strange skewered meat that, honestly, did not taste good. I couldn't get past the fact that it was tied on the skewer with something that had to be cartilage or intestines or some other chewy part of the animal. But I ate it anyways. We also had igitoki and fries, and a plethora of wines and other drinks to choose from.

The best, best,  best part of my new year's eve came after the meal. One of the parish worker people brought in the electronic keyboard that the parish had recently purchased. He plays at Mass, all the songs from memory. I should actually mention that all the music is from memory. There are maybe one or two people in the choir who have a notebook with the lyrics, and they hold it up so other choir members can see. But the members of the congregation sing along without hymnals or anything, just their minds. Its awesome. So, this man says he will play for us. Without any hesitation whatsoever, Fr. Antoine says the fist song must be "Twese turi abawe," as this is the only song I know the words to. We all laughed, the others agreed, and he began to play. I sang with a huge smile on my face. I was overjoyed, and I freakin' love this song. Even moreso now that it has this fond memory attached to it. Then, the next song also happened to be one that I know almost all the words to! Even more, it was the one that Martha and I had sang and danced to earlier in the day! Now for this one, everybody stood up and danced. It was so cool – priests and nuns singing their hearts out, doing the traditional Rwandan steps and raising their arms in the air with elegant wrist action. And I most certainly joined in! The woman sitting next to me, one of the parish workers, gave me an approving nod. How providential it is that I would have a friend teach me to do this dance, and then be given the opportunity to do it again later as a thanksgiving for the year 2009! It was positively incredible. The rest of the songs I could not sing along to, but I clapped and danced occasionally. We had this holy dance party for probably an hour.

It was the best thing ever…people in Rwanda really have a beautiful ability to just let their happiness shine.

Noheli Y'Abana

12/28/09 – Noheli Y'Abana


Today was the big culminating event to close off Patronage: Noheli Y'Abana, or Kids' Christmas. This was a crazy, long, tiring, and awesome day. Now, this is the day that we have spent all of Patronage preparing for. All the songs and poems that we taught the children, all the zumba practice, everything was in order to display these things at the Christmas show. This event is open to everyone, but it is mainly for other children of the neighborhood who opted not to come to Patronage. It is meant to help them understand the Nativity in a kid-friendly presentation, and to just give them a rip roarin' fun time. Well, we got off to a slow start, as usual. The Patro kids were supposed to come at 9am to start decorating the place, get costumes set up, in general to get organized and stuff in order to prepare for Mass at 10:30, during which a group of the older kids would act out the Nativity (in Kinyarwanda) as the gospel reading. Mass actually started at like 11:15. Totally not surprised by this. When I came a bit before 9, Sr. Charlotte was frantically trying to direct the people in charge of setting up the sound equipment, and there were already a ton of kids. We were in the midst of sorting out the Patronage kids and distinguishing them from the "audience" kids. The kids who came to Patro received a special scarf/sash thing to wear, and they got a paper Christmas hat as a present. So there were probably about 400 kids out on the field, assembled in circles based on their age-groups

The animators were doing their best to call out names from the Patro attendance sheets to give them their scarves. There were way too few of us for this task, but with time and persistence we got it done. Soon thereafter we headed into the church for the kids' Mass. This was more chaos, as kids here tend to just get up and walk wherever and whenever they want. So the animators were trying to move them into rows, filling up the front of the church and keeping kids separated in their age-groups, but they were wandering everywhere to go sit in the back or by their friends in a different group. I used my sparse Kinyarwanda vocabulary to tell kids "come" and "let's go" to try to keep them in order. Plus, now that there are kids here who didn't come to Patronage, there are many children who have never seen me before, and I'm getting all kinds of "Muzungu! Muzungu!" like when I first arrived. It was ok, but quite a step-down from being habituated to having Patro kids call me by name. Finally Mass begins, with the choir dressed their best walking up from the back of the church with the priest and altar servers and a train of white-robed dancers preceding them.

There was a cluster of parents who came also, which I was really grateful for because their presence helped me stay focused. It really didn't feel like Mass at all because we were constantly shushing children or turning them around to face forward, so it was nice to have a steady group of people who actually came to worship. The kids did a great job acting during the gospel, although they weren't expecting to use a microphone, and I'm sure most of them had never spoken into one before. So they were probably pretty hard to understand. But the skit went very well .

It was a bit of a problem though when it came time for Communion. Some of the animators and a few of the adults had to go stand at the front and filter out all the kids who came up to receive that had not yet had First Holy Communion.  All in all, it seemed extremely long, but very Salesian. I love that about this order . . . there is a particular Salesian "feel" at events like this. They do such a good job of giving kids a fun and lively way of practicing their faith, with things such as Patronage bible camps and goofy Masses where there is acting and the homily is actually more of a fun quiz show.

Now, at the end of Mass a handful of people moved benches from the church to the lot outside where we would have the rest of our extravaganza. Meanwhile, the kids started getting up and wandering all over the place, so we had our work cut out for us sending them back to their places. A guy whom I don't know attempted a bit of animation with the whole group (now numbering about 700) by singing some songs, trying some call-and-response things, but it seemed to not be working. But he pressed on and held their attention loosely until we were done clearing benches. I was a small anchor for a group of young kids who were mesmerized by my whiteness. They sat by me during the whole mass and were really quite sweet. So I thought it best to stay seated…if I got up to try to help send kids back to their seats, surely this little crowd would get up and follow me, thus adding to the attempted exodus. A few older kids came as well and were eager to speak some English. This one boy asked me my name and then said, "Jacqueline, what do you like in your life?" Seriously, where do these kids learn such strange questions? I was trying to set the example of listening to the guy who was trying to animate us at the front of the church, so I told them hush hush, we'll talk later.

Soon we received the a-ok to send all the kids outside to proceed with the day's events. It was really a very cool showcase. The only issue I had with it was that all the performances were directed toward a very small "panel" of grown-ups. There were about 20 desks that we had pulled out from nearby classrooms where the Fathers from Muhato, Sr. Candide and Sr. Gisele, and some other people who work at the Church were seated. So basically all the dancing and stuff was for them, which I didn't really get. All the performers had their backs to the 700 children sitting in the benches. Inevitably, a bunch of them got up and walked over to the sides to where they could see better, so we again had to man the task of shepherding children back to their benches. But the performances themselves were very good. A few girls from Rubavu's Patronage performed a traditional Rwandan dance with as Honoline, one of the Animators, sang a song .

Likewise, Muhato's Patronage had a similar number (insert DSC00676).

All the different age-groups of Patronage came forward to do their poem or song or cheer for the audience.



We also had a bunch of games planned, but we only did one of them since we started late. This is great…one of the games that we did not do is pretty much a death trap. I can't believe this – we took a long piece of string, tied it between 2 trees, and hung smaller pieces of string from it, at the end of each one was tied a small gift, like a pencil or a piece of candy. The "game" a.k.a. death trap involved kids approaching the string of prizes, being blindfolded, given a pair of scissors, and allowed to freely chop in order to cut loose a prize. AH! Does this sound ridiculous to you?!?!? When Sr. Charlotte explained this to me, I flipped out and was like "We are blindfolding children and giving them scissors?! This is so dangerous! Don't you think they could accidentally cut each other or something?" Her response was that they won't be very close together, and we will not permit them to move around, just chop right in front of them. Good golly. I am relieved that this game did not take place. Many lives were saved today.

The one game we did play was a competition between one Muhato kid and one Rubavu kid, and everyone else watched and cheered them on. They each had their hands behind their back and a straw in their mouth, and they had to move beans from one big bowl into their own cup a short distance away.

 Muhato had the most beans after 1 minute, yaay! So that was cool. Sr. Candide gave an awesomely Salesian speech to the children too. I can't believe this woman is almost 70 years old…she really lives out the charism of the Salesians (they specialize in education and in working with the young). She spoke in French so Fabrice translated into Kinyarwanda for the kids, but she was so enthusiastic and animated that every eye was on her even though they couldn't really understand what she was saying. She is great (insert DSC00683).

Then the animators and I performed our 2 zumba songs, and the kids really got a kick out of that. Everybody was up out of their seats, crowding around to see. And some of the kids near the front were joining in. There was constant clapping and cheering. A truck that was driving by also stopped to watch. It was excellent.

After all the performances, all 700 kids received 2 pieces of bread, 2 pieces of hard candy, and a photo of the nativity scene. They were so appreciative, and they were all really hungry!

It was probably 2:30pm by this time, much later than we had planned. So they wolfed down their bread and candy. Then it was time for them to go home, and shooing them out of the lot was another big task. None of them wanted to leave! Eventually they did, and we were all very tired and very hungry. But we still had to clean off all the benches, put them back into the church, and have our "evaluation" meeting. Fortunately, there was a bunch of bread and candy stashed away for us, so we put some food in our bellies before beginning what ended up being a 1-hour meeting in Kinyarwanda to discuss the outcome of Patronage and offer suggestions for next year. I really didn't mind sitting through this meeting, as I've grown quite accustomed to sitting patiently and letting them do their business. I always pray a rosary for them during these meeting times, and I was really happy to just be around all the animators – the last time all of us were gathered in one place was during formation before Patronage began. And I don't know if all of us will be gathered together again like this!

I had such a fun time today – there were so many little things that made me overjoyed. Example – one little girl from Patronage followed me around everywhere. She was always holding my hand and/or playing with my arms. And I had a lot of funny snippets of conversations with various animators as we commented on different performances. Jean d'Amour told me he had a dream that he went to the U.S. "Oh Lord," he says with a solid African accent, "how can it be that I should to back to America with Jacqui?" I think he was making it up…he's hilarious. And during our clean-up, I took a lot of fun pictures with people. I've never been very good at this because I hate stopping life to make a pose; its much easier for me to just take a picture of something happening. But I got a picture with each animator, and many of them wanted other group shots, along with lots of the kids who refused to leave. We had lots of fun with that.

Its very true that people in poor countries love to have their picture taken because they very seldom have the opportunity to do so. But you've gotta be careful – after you take a picture they reach and grab for your camera like madmen! So be assertive, put the little wriststrap on, and let them know that you must be careful not to drop it or break it.

So now Patronage is finished…tear, sniff. And I have nothing planned for the next month! This is because the government suddenly decided that school will begin in February instead of January, in order to give teachers more time to learn English. That will change soon, as I will be starting up my classes again and probably helping teach teachers. But at least for the remainder of the holidays, I'm pretty free. Ibyiza. Cool.

Bon voyage Sr. Candide!

12/26/09 Bon voyage Sr. Candide!


Well, as mentioned above, Sr. Candide is moving to Ethiopia. The Sisters were again cooking up a storm for this big "adieu" feast, and I was helping clean rooms and bathrooms in order for 2 of the visiting Sisters to spend the night. What a big clash of happiness it was when they arrived! It is so true that members of a religious congregation are seriously members of one big family. They all got so excited when they came, there were hugs and kisses, and big boisterous greetings of glee. All of the Sisters in Kigali and Butare speak very good English, so we made our introductions very easily.

When Mass time was nearing, I was sent to wait at the gate for the Fathers to come. I ended up waiting for about a half an hour, which is not at all unusual. It was quite delightful, actually. During this time a group of about 7 kids latched onto the gate and were talking to me in Kinyarwanda, even after my repeated attempts to explain to them that I don't know what they're saying. They enjoyed practicing their "Good morning! How are you? What is your name?" with me, as this is really the extent of their English vocabulary. Then they started doing cartwheels and performing other little dances and gymnastic things. It was quite a show. But these poor dears were all barefoot, and their clothes were very torn and dirty. I was afraid they would hurt themselves doing all these flips, so I had to just say bye and pretend I was going inside to get them to stop doing acrobatics. Gotta love it.

I was happy to see Maria, the visiting German volunteer from Kigali, accompany the Fathers at our farewell Mass! It was nice to sit by her. The Fathers said Mass for us in French, complete with our English/Kinyarwanda/Swahili music choices. I loved praying with Sr. Rosaline (a hip, young Kenyan Sister) and Sr. Delphina (a sweet old lady from Italy), and others from the Kigali community who did not delay at all in clapping during the consecration or during certain songs, or in raising their arms to dance during the action de grace.

After Mass, we had a gigantic feast. This was more food than I have ever eaten in Rwanda. I guess it was probably comparable in size to a typical American Thanksgiving dinner.

There was ubugari, isombe with smoked fish, chiapati (a pita-like kind of fried bread, very good), fish, chicken, pork, peas and carrots, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, rice, beans, fancy drinks only used for special occasions (Fanta, other sodas, Amstel and Mützig – 2 types of beer, red and white wine (that comes in a box…I think that's the only kind of wine they have here)) and for dessert we had fresh pineapple, our usual basket of home-grown fruits only more and bigger (oranges, maracuja (passion fruit), mangoes, bananas, Japanese plums (my favorite), and papaya), and a nice cake that Sr. Gisele had made from scratch without measuring. The Sisters make all their baked goods completely from scratch, and without measuring. Its unbelievable how they just guess how much to put in, and boom, it turns out wonderful. I had not felt so full in months!

Afterwards, the Sisters had prepared a little speech and gift to give to Sr. Candide. Sr. Lumière from Kigali gave a beautiful speech in French thanking her for all that she has done throughout her 7 years in Rwanda – 6 of which were in Kigali, and just a month shy of 1 year in Gisenyi. She reminisced about how happy all the other Sisters were when Sr. Candide arrived, and she asked pardon on behalf of all the community for all the times when there was disagreement among the Sisters. To illustrate this, she quoted a Kinyarwanda proverb that says something like "When all the cows are in one enclosure, their horns hit each other." Sr. Candide was visibly moved, and gave a beautiful thank you speech as well. She also asked pardon for the times when she "was not always very sweet." I think this is beautiful – these Sisters are so humble and so human. They gave her a gift of a wooden statue of Our Lady of Kibeho, to remember Rwanda and Our Lady's presence here. Then, they all stood up and gathered at the front of the room to sing an English song they had prepared as a sending-forth. Feeling that I should be a quiet observer and not butt in, I quickly scuttled towards Joanne, who had backed away to take photos. But the Sisters all urged me to join and sing, telling me that I can just pick up on the melody, no problem. I felt very honored to be invited and very fortunate to be in such a loving, welcoming, and inclusive community.

We then took a nice leisurely stroll around our compound to show our visiting Sisters the school, and we walked over to the parish as well. After this, Sr. Charlotte and I realized that we still had not performed our secretly-planned Zumba show for them. We decided that it would be a nice surprise to do Chin Chin and Barb's Cumbia (the two songs that we do after every English class, the most popular ones). So after our promenade, we all went back to the house and passed around a box of chocolates, and Sr. Charlotte says, "While you are eating those, Jacqui and I will dance for you." And so we did. It was really fun – they are hilarious and were clapping with the beat or semi-joining in from their seats. Then it sort of turned into a talent showcase after that! Sr. Lumière did a stellar performance to some popular Kinyarwanda song that I really love and want to know who sings it and where I can get it. She was using a metal whisk as a microphone and was totally workin' it. Many of us laughed so hard we cried. Then Sr. Candide started poking fun at Sr. Gisele, who claims that she does not dance. Sr. Candide stood up and refuted this statement, and did a great impression of what Sr. Gisele apparently looks like while dancing. Well, Sr. Gisele decided that this was a very special occasion, and she would not withhold her dancing from us on this extraordinary day. So she went to get a cd of Mary songs, and started dancing a very traditional Rwandan dance for us. The choreography was something that many of the Sisters knew, so about 7 of them got up and joined in. Sr. Candide also went up there, not knowing the moves, but tried to learn on-the-spot, and was awesome. She inspired me to also go up there and learn. So I had a really fun time dancing around the dining room with nuns. There's a sentence I never thought I'd say…

After the talent showcase, we said goodbye to our guests. Two of them spent the night here, but the rest went home. I had such a great time with these ladies, seriously they are a hoot. And I will surely be seeing them again. I definitely want to come visit the community in Kigali. Thank God I still have 5 months! I was thinking about how sad it would be if I had to leave now…there are still so many things I want to do, and I'm really starting to feel like a part of the parish and part of the neighborhood. So I'm staying put! But I must not dilly dally…these 2 months have passed so quickly, and I'm sure the remaining months will go even faster!

Noël

12/24/09 – Noël


Christmas here is so beautiful.

The focus of this holiday is solely the birth of Christ. In a place where people don’t really have money to buy presents for all their friends and family or decorate their houses with lights and other extravagant things, you find the true meaning of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I think buying presents and decorating your house are wonderful things, and I’m grateful for the ability to do these things at home to celebrate. But there is a beautiful simplicity in the fact that for many people around here, the climax, the peak, the big moment of Christmas is going to Mass. There is no Santa Claus or other legend that makes kids all riled up the night before either. There are simply people with faith, hope, and love.

I was feeling a little blue on the 22nd and 23rd of December because the Christmas spirit that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside was not present. Usually this comes from hearing familiar carols on 99 WMYX as they repeat the same batch of songs for an entire month, or in baking cookies, or enjoying a hot cup of cocoa with a candy cane in it. But none of those things exist here. I actually sang Christmas carols to myself for several hours while I was cutting out letters to hang above the doors of the church. But all that changed when I saw why there wasn’t that familiar Christmas spirit: here the preparation for Christmas is “backwards.”

People do all their decorating on Christmas Eve. It is actually a big work day – work in the sense that you prepare for Christmas. All day long I could hear the choir rehearsing in the church (seriously, they sang for hours, crazy) the drummers were practicing, people were building the nativity scene at the front of the church, they were cleaning the church, and the kids were rehearsing their dances/skits that they perform during Mass.

I also partook in this day of Christmas prep, in that I spent probably 4 hours tracing letters and cutting them out and taping them onto banners for the church, and cutting out and coloring other letters to hang in our chapel. Joanne put up our little tree,

hung some garland and little wreaths in the dining room and stuck window stickies all around. It was positively delightful, and I was so happy to see such happy décor! Really, in comparison to how we decorate at home, it wasn’t much at all. But the mission lifestyle of going without luxuries has really made me appreciate things like window stickies and a bit of garland all the more.

So, we went to Mass in the morning as usual, but then we went again at 5pm for the Christmas Eve Mass! Twice in one day, wow! It was great. And the Christmas Eve Mass was fantastic. I was amazed by the nativity scene built by the altar – it is a huge hut made out of palm tree leaves and evergreen branches, completely decked out with strings of lights and a gigundo flashing star.

A few small wooden figurines were inside the hut to represent Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wisemen, and Baby Jesus. There were about 8 drummers standing outside the doors of the church – they would have been overpoweringly loud had they been inside. And lining the aisles of pews were children dressed in white robes and wearing white crowns. They sit at the ends of the pews and get up and dance at prescribed times. They are so well synchronized, and must have practiced like crazy! I was sitting close to one of these dancing kids who I recognized from Patronage – it was very nice to receive a friendly smile from her! The choir was also present in all its glory – everyone was well-dressed in their uniforms, and they sounded wonderful.

There was tons of joyful singing (extra songs today, more than usual) and after Communion the dancing kids did a small skit. Out from among the dancers there arose a few girls who wore paper wings and halos, wielding pieces of white string that they whirled around. They also had impeccable choreography, and they would flutter towards the back of the church and pick up shepherds and wisemen and lead them to the manger scene. The shepherd and wisemen waddled up to the front in the same fashion as the angels, with little quick steps that looked kind of funny but were in rhythm with the song the choir was singing. Then after the procession to the manger scene, we continued on with the “l’action de grace,” the thanksgiving song that always comes after Communion. I was very happy to be sitting next to Sr. Gisele, who danced with all her might :) So I felt very free to do the same, and I did.  And I was sitting behind Francine, one of my students, who also was dancing so freely in her pew. I’m very impressed by the way that many people here are not swayed by the opinions of others. If they’re thankful for something, they just thank God for it without wondering what they look like or who else might be looking at them. I want to leave behind a chunk of my mindset and take up more of theirs.

And amidst all this, half of the electricity went out, so we were actually sitting in darkness but the altar was illuminated. It was excellent. The only problem that I can report was that the drummers were completely dissonant with the choir. The choir sang beautiful songs, and the drummers were beating some really fantastic rhythms. But the two did not match at all. People were turning around to look at the drummers to see if they realized how bad it sounded. I guess they didn’t because they just kept on drumming. I learned to ignore the clash and just enjoyed the music nonetheless.

After Mass the drummers kept on playing, and many people gathered around to watch. Edouard came up behind me and partially covered my eyes as a “guess who” kind of thing, and I’m glad he only partially covered them because that’s extremely creepy when you are the only muzungu and its dark outside and all of a sudden there are hands in front of your face. But it was just Edouard. I wished him and Josaphat a merry Christmas with the traditional Rwandan “hug,” which is where you grab forearms and touch temple-to-temple three times, then shake hands. I also saw Dieu-Donné and John, whom I had a nice hilarious conversation with, and wished them well. Then Sr. Charlotte said Fr. Antoine was looking for me. I was so happy to be greeted by so many people after Mass, and to be asked for specifically! So I went to greet them and say Merry Christmas, and to meet Maria, another volunteer who was staying with the fathers for the weekend. She is from Germany, is my age, studied occupational therapy, and has been in Kigali for 5 months working with handicapped children. She will stay for the rest of the year. It was great to talk with her, we bonded right away.

The priests at Gisenyi Parish invited all the priests, Sisters, and Brothers in the area over to their house for a little gathering after all the Masses were finished. This was a fantastic way to spend Christmas Eve! They gave us a great meal, which we were not expecting – we were not told that there would be food. But indeed there was, and good food too…igitoki (unripe banana stew), rice and beans, ibijumba (sweet potatoes), some kind of strange-looking meat that I did not take because it looked like it still had organs and other parts in it…hm…fried potato wedges, cucumbers and tomatoes, and Fanta, beer, and wine. The four Italian volunteers who work with the parish were also there. I had a nice French conversation with one of them throughout our dinner. Then came the good part…each congregation was asked to prepare a small talent demonstration to illustrate their charism. There were probably 4 different orders of Sisters, one group of consecrated lay people, 2 sets of parish priests, and 2 orders of Brothers; in total there were probably about 25 people gathered together. So we all broke off into small groups to plan. The Salesian Sisters and I decided we would sing “O Come All Ye Faithful,” half of us singing every other line in English, half of us singing the other lines in French. Well, let me tell you, Rwandan religious communities are crazy! The other talent showcases were so funny…the first group of priests sang some strange Kinyarwanda song and then busted out the “Nyagasani tubabrire” (Lord have mercy), the Muhato priests sang a great English Christmas song whose name escapes me, one of the Italian volunteers played the flute, and my favorite was the consecrated lay women involved everyone in some kind of chanting in which each group repeats the name of a food in Kinyarwanda in a certain rhythm. These ladies were running around waving straws in the air to keep everybody on beat. It was sooo funny! Overall, I laughed so much, and had such a wonderful time talking to Helena (the Italian volunteer). It was a great night and I’m so glad I went!

Christmas Day was equally wonderful. I went to Mass again at 7am, and the same dancing kids, drummers, shepherds, wisemen, and choir were there. They work so hard – and they danced and sang for like 5 hours (2 Masses with about 45 minutes in between, with baptisms.) Afterward, the Sisters continued cooking up a storm for today’s feast. I helped here and there, mostly with washing dishes. We had a great breakfast of Panettoni, an Italian fruitcake-like thing. At 1pm we had our feast, which was huge and good, and I can't even remember what I ate (today is Dec. 29th as I write this…) But I do remember there was CHOCOLATE CAKE. Can you believe that?? With whipped cream topping. It was divine. I've definitely developed a deeper appreciation for the things that are semi-special at home (such as chocolate cake) because here they're not semi-special, but ultra-special. And even little things like the fact that we played a Christmas carol cd (it was a Polish children's choir. Lovely!) throughout most of the morning and afternoon. We never play music because electricity is expensive! So I really enjoyed these songs all the more because it was such a special treat. And our few decorations were more beautiful to me than any of the multitude of lights and inflatable snowmen and racing reindeer that you could find on a typical American lawn. Wonderful.

After our feast we all got to work again at decorating the house for tomorrow. You see, Sr. Candide (our mother superior) was transferred to a new community in Ethiopia. She is leaving a few days after Christmas, and we await a newly appointed superior, from where and when we do not know. Consequently, the other Salesian Sisters in Rwanda (there are 2 other communities, 6 other Sisters total) are coming for a bon voyage party for her. So, we were all in the library tracing letters for "Alleluia, il est né!" to adorn the hallways, cutting out stars, sticking glue-tack on them, and hanging them up. And, Sr. Iwona brought her guitar and serenaded us. Actually this was in order to plan for the farewell Mass that we will have with our guests tomorrow. But it was still great – everybody was singing their favorite Mass songs, and there was just a general atmosphere of cheer with all this music in the air. We decided that this will be a very multi-lingual Mass. I will do the first reading in English, the gospel along with the rest of the liturgy will be in French, a few songs will be in French, one will be in Swahili, and we will sing the 2 Kinyarwanda songs that I know the words to. Sweet Jesus.

When 7:30pm rolled around (our normal time for dinner) I was not at all hungry. But we all ate a little bit in order to truly welcome this feast. The really awesome thing about celebrating Christmas here, and with nuns (that probably has a lot to do with it), is that the celebration lasts the whole octave. Liturgically, the feast of Christmas lasts 8 days. So we begin feasting on Christmas day, and it continues! I like this better than at home, when all the radio stations stop playing their Christmas tunes after Christmas day :( Come on people, the party's just begun!

So, while I missed baking cookies with my family, eating my crazy uncle’s delicious Christmas Eve feast, hearing strange stories from Grandma, opening presents, and seeing reactions when people open my presents, I am so so so blessed to spend Christmas here in Rwanda.

Viewing Everything as a Gift to be Treasured.

12/23/09


This morning it began pouring and thundering at like 4am. We don't have thunderstorms too often, usually just a few small bouts of rain that maybe lasts 20 minutes or even less than this. Well, this thunderstorm lasted 5 hours! Sr. Gisele and Sr. Charlotte tried driving to Mass – now, to me this is absolutely ridiculous because the parish is seriously,  next door. I was so confused as to why we were getting in the car. But fortunately our guard did not come to open the gate so we just used our umbrellas and walked. Well there were only about 20 people at Mass this morning, quite contrary to the usual 200 that are present every day. And it was dark dark dark! Very cozy really. The electricity was coming and going, the lights kept flickering and the mic was working about half the time. This was really a problem because the rain pounding on the tin roof is a huge and awesome sound that fills the whole church. And there were some thunder boomies that made everyone jump because they sounded like they were right outside. So the lectors had to come down from the sanctuary to read in order for us to hear them. Father did not give a homily because we wouldn't have been able to hear him anyways. But people trickled in throughout Mass (as they always do…) and by the end there were maybe 40 people. But by the end of Mass the rain was still as hard as it was at the beginning, so Fr. Antoine brought the Blessed Sacrament out and we had adoration for at least the next hour. We left after about an hour, and then the rain had slowed a bit. But it was just such a cozy and prayerful morning because of this insane storm!

We also had our meeting with the Animators to flesh out the details of Noheli Y'Abana – the children's Christmas show we're doing on Monday. Honoline, one of the animators from Rubavu, brought a small box of the Rubavu kids' contribution to the poor. At this Christmas show the kids bring a little gift that they will put in the collection basket. The Rubavu gave a few handful of beans and a few bars of soap. I think this is so beautiful…these kids, especially the ones at Rubavu, are extremely poor. They really live in poverty, destitute poverty. And here they are giving what they can to help others in need. Its not much that they could give, but it sure is an incredible gesture and a beautiful lesson for all of us.

I have also been moved by the way these children appreciate what they have. At the end of Patronage, the kids received a small present. The Malaika (littlest ones) each received a pencil and two crayons. The Abapetro (middle ones) received a pencil and three crayons. The Abastrong (oldest) received a small box of 12 colored pencils. These children were so happy to receive these things, and they didn't complain that some received more than others or she got a blue crayon and I got yellow but I don't like yellow, etc. Or at least I don't think they did…they only speak Kinyarwanda so I have no idea what they were saying as we distributed these gifts. But Sr. Charlotte reported that they kids were very appreciative. They will use these things in school and will take extremely good care of them. We have also been making about 400 paper hats that say "Merry Christmas," "Joyeux Noël," or "Noheli Nziza" on them.

These will be given out at the Christmas show to every child who comes to see it. Again, another example of a very simple gift that means so much to a child who has so little. I am learning a lot about gratitude from the Rwandese; they are very good at viewing everything as a gift to be treasured.

Last English Class before Christmas

12/22/09

Today was our last English class (secondary level) before Christmas. So, I wanted to teach them vocab for the nativity, and to talk about traditions and things people do in Rwanda to celebrate Christmas. Likewise, I shared some American traditions. I introduced the word "snowman," with a demonstration of how you build one. Felicien asks, "Do you sell the snowman?" I bursted out laughing and said "No, no! There's no money involved, its just so people can walk by and look at it." Earlier he had asked if people give you money when you go caroling. I had to reinforce that these traditions are just for fun. In America, not everything has money attached to it. Man oh man.

During our after-class party I taught them a new zumba song, "Run the Show." Wasn't even planning on doing this one, but it came on next in the queue and they all apparently really liked the beginning beat because they all nodded and pointed to the radio and said "This one, this one!" So I taught the moves, and we did it and it was awesome. They liked this song a lot. I wish you could have seen Dieu-Donné's face…really you should see his face during any zumba song. He puts so much emotion into every move. Fantastic.

Well, it was already past 5pm, when we usually call it quits for the after-class party. So our song ended, Sr. Charlotte remarked that it was time to go, and I announced that everybody had to go home. Instantly, about 5 of the guys ran up to the boom box and pressed play to start the song again, all the while shaking their heads and saying "No no no. We do again!" Pretty much the entire class was like "Nope, absolutely not. We are doing this song again whether you want to or not." They just started it on their own, doing the best they could to remember the beginning moves of a song they had only learned 5 minutes ago. I couldn't let them have at it without solid direction, so I went back up there and led it again. It was stellar. I was very sweaty, but fortunately the Fathers couldn't come tonight so I didn't have another lesson right after. They really really liked this song, and I like it too :)

My Very Own Visitors!

12/20/09

Today I had two visitors come, and I welcomed them with true Rwandan style :) Pudee, a resident of Madison, WI who is from Rwanda, asked me to bring a few things with me for her brother, who lives in Kigali. I agreed, and I called her brother when I arrived to find out how I could get his stuff to him. He said he has a cousin named Gaudence who lives in Gisenyi, so I can just give the stuff to her. So I called Gaudence and her husband (whose name I could not really understand) came to meet me a few weeks ago. He said his wife also wanted to meet me, but she was unable to come that day. Well, they called me this weekend to say that they would both like to come to Muhato for a visit! I was very happy to have visitors, and I asked Sr. Candide if it would be ok for me to offer them a Fanta. It is custom that you always offer something, usually a Fanta, Sprite, Coke, or beer, and your guests must accept. She said yes. So they came this afternoon with baby Anna, who is 4 months old. She was adorable.

It would be very easy for me to label our meeting as awkward, but I think that by Rwandan standards, it really was not. In general, people here are quieter. There is not the constant pressure to fill an awkward silence with conversation. I have been a part of many group conversations in which a brief period of silence exists, and you just sit and smile and look content. If something to talk about comes to mind, you bring it up in conversation. If not, no worries.

Well, due to this cultural norm, and likely due to the language barrier (they spoke English, but had a hard time understanding me even if I spoke slowly), we had a fair amount of silence. But I thank God for the social medium of babies. You can always comment on how cute the baby is, how beautiful her eyes are, or any other thing about the baby. She really was a gem. We talked a bit about Gaudence's aunt back home in the States, about the proximity of Christmas, about Gaudence's studies (she is in school right now studying sociology), and about foods that I have especially enjoyed since I've been here. Her husband offered to bring me some of this little fish that is very common by them. Now, the one thing that I found peculiar is that they traveled a very long way to come see me, and they only stayed for like a half an hour. If I understood correctly, they caught a boat to cross a portion of Lake Kivu at 6am today. Then when they reached shore they drove (I think took a bus/taxi thing) into town, and then from town they walked here. That is insanely far! And with a baby?!

But Gaudence kept saying that she wanted to see the school. She asked if it is possible to find a teaching position here. I responded that I didn't know, that I am simply a volunteer here and the Sisters take care of the operation of the school.  I think I will be in contact with them again, especially if they really want to bring me little fish. But next time I want to make it clear that they don't have to come if the journey is too far or too taxing! And I want to further emphasize my detachment from the inner-workings of the school, lest they try to use me as leverage for sticking a foot in the door here. Well, after a brief visit, they left so they could catch their homeward-bound boat. It was a lovely meeting.

Something I just remembered about bus/taxi things:

Here is one of my laugh-so-hard-I-cried moments:  OK, so last Sunday I went with Amiral to the natural hot spring. Well, after walking around for a few hours, it was nearing time for me to get home. So we begin walking, but I know that we had a very far moto-taxi (public moped) ride here, so there is no way we can walk all the way back before dark. So I tell him this, and he says we will take a taxi. Um, right, ok. We'll take a taxi, sure. So we're coming up a hill, and at the top there is a large crowd of people who have gathered around a guy breakdancing in the street. There's music blaring, and people are clapping and cheering. Right across from this there is an empty taxi just sitting there. A "taxi" is a van-like vehicle, probably the size of a mini school bus. I see them all over town, but I always thought they were private vehicles that belonged to hotels or tour groups or something. But it makes sense that there would be public transit in this form as well. So, ok here's the good part. Amiral just walks right up to this taxi and gets in the driver's seat. I'm thinking to myself, "What the heck are we doing? Are you going to drive this thing? I don’t think so!" I follow him, and since I don't know what else to do I just get in next to him. Well upon entering the vehicle I realize that he has actually gotten in on the passenger side. The steering wheel is on the right side here. Good, you're not thinking of driving this thing. Good. And the front row of seats consists of the driver's seat, and a big seat that probably fits 3 more people. There is hideous puke green shag carpet lining the dashboard in a poor attempt at making the interior look nice. There is also a dashing retro-looking plaid design on the plastic that lines the doors, and the same plaid pattern found on the other seats, beneath the clear vinyl protective covering.

And I can't shut the door. I'm afraid I'm going to break the handle off. Somebody walking by stops to close it for me. So we're just sitting in the front row of this empty 1975 ugly van, there's no driver, and I have no clue if there will be a driver anytime soon, and there's breakdancing outside. What a scene. So I just lose it. I start cracking up uncontrollably, and Amiral also starts laughing as I try to explain why I find this so funny and he can't understand a word. Well, gradually a few other prospective travelers also get inside in order to wait for the driver.

Ok so now I see that this is normal, this is what you do. You see a taxi, you get in, and when it gets full the driver will see that he has business, so he comes to take you where you need to go. We wait for like 10 minutes, and I see that its really starting to get dark and I've got to get back to Muhato. A moto-taxi comes by and we flag him down. Problem solved.

I guess Amiral just waited for the driver or caught his own moto, I'm not sure. But I needed to get home so I went with this one. This is a very far trek – a 2,000 RWF ride, which is probably higher than normal because its almost dark and I'm a muzungu. But I just pay him and head home. The ride is probably around 25 minutes, but it was really a nice journey. But I found it weird that the driver stopped to say hi to a friend he noticed on the road. Do you normally make your passenger wait for you to finish your little chatsie? I consider this poor business. Nevertheless, I was grateful for the presence of this moto-taxi and his ability to get me home safely.

One other thing…yesterday I grabbed a small papaya for dessert, and much to my delight I found that it was no papaya, it was a mango! Grown right in the backyard. Mmmm.


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A Day of Many Highlights :)

12/18/09


Patronage today was utter chaos yet also extreme awesomeness. So at first we began with our usual songs and chants and other animation, but then all of us had to go help clean up the lot in front of the church.

Pretty much since I arrived here, there has been constant construction going on at Muhato. Now when I say construction, I do not mean orange barrels, cranes, guys in hard hats, or anything like that. No. Construction in Rwanda is a few guys, most of them barefoot, working in a lot filled with gravel, rocks, and bricks, and piles of different types of stone.

I've been told that all the stones and bricks are debris from houses that were once here, but when the diocese purchased the land these houses were knocked down. So the "construction" is mainly a debris removal team. They have 2 wheelbarrows, both of which are cracked and have holes in them and basically have the thickness of cardboard. The wheel really doesn't have a tire on it anymore, just a metal frame. They use large plastic water jugs that are cut in half, somewhat resembling paint trays, in addition to the wheelbarrows and their bare hands, to move the bricks and stones.

Well, Fr. Valens asked us to put the kids to work today because the work is coming along too slowly. It needs to be finished by Christmas so that the church grounds will look presentable. So, all 80 or so kids, 4 animators, and I all went to help move bricks. I could not believe this…these kids came to Patronage to sing, play, dance, and have fun, not carry bricks! This is basically forced child labor…unreal. But when I talked to Sr. Candide about this afterwards, she said this is normal, they are accustomed to it. Here in Rwanda, every Saturday the entire city does "umuganda," or public work. You go to a designated place, such as the parish you belong to, a stretch of road, or another public place, and clean it up.

People pull weeds, pick up trash, move bricks, and do any other kind of work. It is simply a part of their civic duty, so really the kids didn't complain at all since it is so commonplace for them to help with this. It was tiring though. The littlest ones would carry one brick, put it on their head, then begin the trek to the other side of the parish property, where we were laying the bricks in a nice pattern to make a kind of cobblestone walkway. Many of the little ones had to stop and readjust halfway across the trek. Some of the older kids were more efficient and came up with a nice system using the wheelbarrow. I was working with one of the older girls to fill up one of the paint tray things with bricks and we'd carry it either to the wheelbarrow or all the way to the cobblestone on the other side.

It was pretty difficult for both of us to carry a heavy tray of bricks, especially since I'm way taller than her, and the tray was made of flimsy plastic. So I got my hands nice and dirty today, and it actually felt kind of cool to be helping with this. To jump right in and immerse myself in the lifestyle of another culture is exactly what I came here for! Many passersby were stopping and staring, probably thinking "What on earth is that muzungu doing carrying bricks like one of us?" I felt very Rwandese :)

Also at Patronage, we had to finish folding about 200 paper hats. So the Abastrong (older kids) group and I went to the school to do this. Well after doing this for a while, Fabrice (the animator who was in charge of this project) leaves and I have no idea why. The girls start playing this hide-and-seek/tag game that I really didn't understand, but I went along with it. Everybody hides behind something, and you have to get back to the gazebo before the counter tags you. Or something like that. It was actually a ton of fun to run and hide with them and to see them get all quiet and sneaky, then get super excited and run as fast as they can to avoid being tagged.

Now, the only problem was that a few weeks ago Sr. Candide mentioned something about the need to affirm that our giant gazebo is not a playground. That is exactly what it had become. I really didn't see any problem with us running around and playing on the school property, but I was worried that Sr. Candide might not approve. My inability to voice this in comprehensible language to the kids kind of prevented me from saying anything. So I just played with them and I figured if anyone comes along, they can tell us to stop if it’s a problem. After about a half an hour of playing, Fabrice comes back and we finish up some more hats. I was sitting by one of the girls, helping her fold, and gradually a bunch more come over. I start singing "Row row row your boat," "The itsy bitsy spider," and "twinkle twinkle little star," all of which they know (whith some major pronunciation problems, however). It was so hilarious – everybody was laughing and singing along. . . I can't really describe why it was so funny, but I was having a ball. They then sang the Kinyarwanda version of "row row row your boat," and I picked up the word "sunika," which apparently means "merrily." I kept singing "sunika sunika sunika sunika" and they laaaaaughed! So we had an all-around great time singing songs.

Then they all were playing with my hair and petting my arms. None of them have arm hair, so they really really like to pet my arms. They were so touchy-feely today. It was quite a scene…here I am, sitting on a step, with about 20 girls crowded around me. Some are petting my hair and saying "beautiful hair!" and others are petting my arms, and others still have noticed that I have pierced ears, so they're grabbing my earlobes as well. It was very funny.

It was time to rejoin the rest of the Patronage groups, and all the girls were highly opposed to this. Fabrice translated their opposition for me, and apparently they all wanted to stay here and hang out with me! "Tugende," I learned, means "Let's go." So we went. On our way back to the big field, many of the girls busted out some zumba moves that they remembered from last time. I joined in the dancing. It was awesome. When we rejoined the other groups, the girls picked flowers and stuck them in their hair. They tried to stick some in my hair as well, but they wouldn't stay. So I motioned to tuck them under my headband, and when they succeeded they all started singing the Malaika song insanely loud (I have no idea why they sang this song…the malaika are the littlest kids, but for some reason they all just whipped it out)! I just laughed and proudly sported my new flowered-up doo.

At the very end of Patronage today, all but about 8 kids had gone home. The Animators and I were sticking around to evaluate the day and clean up. Well, apparently some workers in the garden by the big field where we have Patronage had stolen one of our soccer balls because the kids kept kicking it there where they were working. So Fabrice and Dieu-Donné went to go negotiate with them to retrieve it. Meanwhile, I sat down to sing and give high-fives to the remaining kids. Well, pretty soon these kids also busted out the zumba moves that they could recall, so we started dancing around in the field. We also decided to sneakily creep up on one of the kids' brothers, who was "sleeping" in the middle of the field. So we tiptoed over to him and shouted "boo!" He jumped up and laughed. Then we all just started singing Patronage songs and playing follow-the-leader and dancing. It was really really really wonderful. There were also quite a few passersby who were very amused by this sight. I felt much more comfortable to be silly and goofy with such a small group of kids, but still the knowledge of these people who were watching us hindered me a bit. Overall though, my ability to let loose and be a kid again has improved significantly since Patronage first began.

Plus, later today I had to run back to the house to get a key just before my secondary class was going to begin. On my way back to the school I see Jacqui and Neli “hiding” behind the wall. Jacqui is about 2 years old, and Neli is probably 4. Their mother works for the Sisters when school is not in session in order to pay for her tuition. Well, I have really become fond of these 2 little dears. Its kind of sad though…on the days when we don’t have Patronage, they just sit outside by the school while their mom works. They have nothing to do really, just play with each other, or fall asleep on the sidewalk. Sometimes Sr. Candide gives them a coloring book or something. But fortunately they can go have fun at Patro three days a week. So I see them all the time, more than the other Patro kids, because they’re always hanging around on our compound. And they’ve really become comfortable around me too, as evidenced by the following little drop of joy…so I’m walking briskly down the walkway to get to class and I see these two sneakily hiding underneath a windowsill, facing the wall, acting like they don’t see me. But as I get closer and closer, Neli jumps away from the wall, runs at me and hugs my legs! And I screamed because it actually scared me. I figured she’d jump out, but I wasn’t expecting a big leg-hug! It was lovely. And Jacqui, who usually just goes along with whatever her big sis does, giggled up a storm.

Then, later that evening as I was walking from our house to the school, I heard some little kids shout from waaaay across the street “Jacqueline! Jacqueline!” They were seriously so far away, but that didn’t stop them from shouting at the top of their lungs. I waved back with all my might :) Its awesome to have kids call you by your name instead of “muzungu” (“white”) which is what I got a lot of during the first few weeks here.
But now I’m Jacqueline, how amazing.

Shhhhhh!

12/17/09


Today after dinner we watched Romero, a movie about an archbishop in El Salvador who was martyred in 1980 during a time of severe persecution of the Church in El Salvador. We actually watched this movie during our VIDES training. So we finished supper and began doing the dishes, happily chatting as usual, but Sr. Candide says "Shhhh! En silence! Vite, vite!"

She wanted us to clean up in silence so we wouldn't talk, therefore it wouldn't take as long and we could start the movie asap. Well, upon Sr. Candide's incessant shushing, everybody was stifling back tons laughter, Sr. Candide included. It turned into a huge shush fest. Anytime anybody made a noise – coughing, letting out a tinge of laughter – they got shushed. We were all laughing so much, yet trying not to let it out. And there was lots of loving mocking of Sr. Candide, who enjoyed it very much and was also laughing a lot.

These nuns are crazy.

Goma People

12/16/09

Another exhausting day, a crazy one actually.

We were supposed to have a group of young people from Goma come to visit us at Patronage today. We were going to have a big fiesta with them – they apparently had all kinds of stuff planned, like dances, songs, poems to recite to us, even acrobatics. And we did our best to throw together a little welcome show for them, including some beautiful traditional Rwandan dancing, some of our usual Animation songs that we always do at the beginning of Patronage, and some zumba.

Well, our kids arrived at 8am and we began Patronage as usual, with the expectation that our guests would arrive around 9:30 as had been previously discussed. Then, Sr. Charlotte received a call at 9:30 saying that they were still on the Congo side of the border, and that they've had a bit of trouble getting across. So we wait, we wait some more, we do our best to entertain the kids. The girls were all dressed in their traditional costumes, ready to dance, and the other kids were all ready to sing.

But we had no one to perform for. So we just goofed around for like an hour, we set up chairs for our visitors, we did some zumba-ing which was pretty cool, but by about 10:30 some of the Animators were really pooping out and were not able to keep the kids occupied. I taught some kids "stuck in the mud," and some other smaller games formed here and there. Normally Patronage only goes till 11am, and it was 11:30am and we still had no guests. But our guests were still at the border, planning on coming.

So, Sr. Charlotte told the kids that they should go home and eat lunch, then come back at 1pm. Again, another example of something that would only happen in Africa. I'm still pretty surprised that the Goma people didn't just turn around and go home when they first ran into trouble crossing. But, time is fluid here, so coming late isn't a problem! Oh and by the way, in the midst of all this I lost our spare key to the school office. Part of our downtime was spent sending all the kids out into the field to look for it. It is still MIA as I type this. I'm pretty tired when we head in for lunch, and we have to go back out there in about an hour! Eeegads! But sure enough, a smaller group of kids was clinging to the gate at 1pm. And fortunately by this time our guests had all arrived. They had packed their own lunches, so they were eating. So, I volunteered to go play with the kiddos in the field until they finished their meal (None of the animators were back yet). There were only about 20 kids, so I figured we could just play follow the leader or something.

But then Fabrice met up with us and started our usual animation as more kids trickled in. Also, some of my secondary school English class-ers showed up, not knowing that we would not have class today due to the delayed start of our party (no one knew that we wouldn't have class today!) But I told them they should stay and partake in our zumba performance of Chin Chin, which we have practiced after each English class. They did :)
It was spectacular.

What a show these Goma peeps put on! First of all, let me say that they were all at least 18 years old. In my opinion, this party was kind of awkward because all our Gisenyi kids are kids – we've got little ones who are 3 years old, all the way up to maybe 12. So they had a hard time paying attention to some of the poems and stuff that these older Goma teenagers were performing for us. Also, the Goma people spoke French in all their acts. That was nice for me, but none of the Gisenyi kids could understand them. So John and Fabrice had to on-the-spot translate. They were awesome and didn't complain at all, they just stepped up to the task at hand. I also thought our kids were a bit too young to sit through such a long showcase!

The Goma people were really great at cheering us on when we were performing something, and they would clap and support us very well. But our kids haven't quite grasped this concept yet, so many times I felt like they were being a bad audience by not showing their enthusiasm. Plus, they would just talk a lot and run around when they're supposed to be sitting down enjoying the show.

But what a show it was! The Goma people did a traditional Congolese dance, complete with leopard-skin dresses and face paint.

 There was an Afro-hiphop group of guys who danced to some more modern/rapish yet very traditional sounding music. Their dancing was very "African" – (aka very pelvic) which is actually quite different from Rwandan dance, in which the wrists and arms are the focal point, as seen here in our girls' performance.

And there was another group of guys who did all kinds of gymnastics and unusual fight scenes and made human pyramids…crazy crazy crazy.

And they did a very weird "comedy" in which there was a guy wearing a skirt and a bikini top and a Santa Claus mask. I did not understand it at all.

As a whole group we danced around in a circle to a very popular song called "Give it to me some more," which I've heard and its got a really good beat. But the littlest kids were confused, and were mostly just walking in a circle.

I was asked to introduce myself to the Goma people, so I gave a brief intro in French and thanked them for their awesomeness. (p.s. – during our zumba performance a few of them got up and joined in. It rocked.)

After a few more closing remarks from Sr. Candide and some other Goma people, they left and we had to clean the place up and put the chairs away. They actually left a big mess from all their food . . . they brought large plastic pails with fish and rice, so there was grease and rice that needed to be swept up.

It was great, yet not properly age-matched, and pretty tiring. But I liked it.

 Today I did not have my lesson with the priests, and we are not going to Rubavu tomorrow at 5:40am.    Thank God.

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"Is that how you are washing your clothes? Oh my God."

12/15/09

So today I head out back to wash some clothes, and Sr. Charlotte is there doing the same. So I fill up a bucket with water and suds and begin washing my things.

“Is that how you are washing your clothes? Oh my God.” I hear come out of the mouth of Sr. Charlotte.

“No no no, you have to do it like this.” And she takes the shirt I was washing and demonstrates how to properly wash. It really didn’t look too different from what I was doing, or so I thought. So I said ok, I’ll try doing it a bit more like she's doing.

“No, did you see me doing that? No! Like this!”

And now I’ve bursted out laughing and am stifling all those prideful excuses that want to come out in order to defend my former way of handwashing my clothing. She’s the African and therefore the expert, so I figured I better let her show me the true way.

“You hold one hand still and the other works. Hold and work, hold and work, eh, eh? You cannot just rub it with your hands.” and she mocks my style of washing with an exaggerated way-too-gentle-to-remove-the-dirt hand motion.

Well after about a half an hour of working the pit stains out of one top, Sr. Charlotte let me finish the rest of my laundry. She pretty much washed this white shirt for me, and went and got some stain remover for this bleach spot that my Tide To Go pen left. It did not come out. I don’t think a bleach mark really can come out…sad day for white shirts.

Let me tell you, this was the most exhausting bout of laundry that I’ve ever done! Scrub, scrub, hold and work, hold and work, man oh man. But never have my clothes been so clean!

Also today, I did two new exciting things. I went to confession and I baked a cake! I was privileged to teach the Father's at Muhato how to say Mass in English, and I figured why not tack on another sacrament as well. That would be good for me too so that I am able to go to confession throughout my 7 months here. So, I taught Fr. Antoine the words in English, and he was so passionate about it. I think I've already written about this, but you should have seen this man recite the words "God, the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son…" he had his eyes closed and was saying it so prayerfully, with such conviction and determination to memorize these words, and to memorize them well. So today we did the "Good Rites," as Fr. Antoine called it. It was pretty great. He was much more solemn and silent than what I'm used to. Really he didn't even nod or give any kind of acknowledgement of anything I said, he just let me keep going and going till I was done listing my sins. I have to say, I prefer when the priest gives some acknowledgement. Its encouraging. But its ok, to each his own. I am not entirely sure he really understood all of what I said, but he didn't ask for clarification or repetition, so maybe he did. Then when he gave me some advice, it was again very serious and solemn, and quite long too! He stumbled with words here and there, and stumbled a bit in the words to the absolution, but God's cool with it :) So now my soul is clean and a priest in Rwanda has gotten a little more practice with his English skills. Life is good.

Now, at the same time as my confession, I had a cake in the oven. We had a ton of bananas – more than we could feasibly eat. When the Canadians were here, Lorraine had made a loaf of banana bread, and she gave me the recipe. So I offered to make banana bread with some of our surplus bananas. I was quite happy to do this, because I felt that I should contribute something since I am always eating our food but never really helping prepare it. It would be a really nice "thank you" to be able to make something for them for a change. But since this isn't really my kitchen, and since the resources here must be economized, and since I don't even know if we have things like baking soda, I never asked if I could. That is something I'm trying to be a bit more assertive about – asking instead of assuming. Really, assuming only makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me". So I'm glad that this opportunity was plopped right into my lap without me even having to do any labor to get it.

It turns out we do have flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking sugar. However, the sugar is "raw" sugar (brown crystals) and comes in a huge plastic tub, as does the flour, and the baking soda and powder were brought from Poland with Sr. Iwona. We have an electric hand-mixer, so really it was no different from baking at home. But this was the first time I have ever baked with Polish leavening agents and home-grown African bananas. I left it in the oven for 7 minutes longer than I had planned (on account of the longer-than-expected advice at the end of my confession), but it still tasted good. Not burnt. The Sisters all liked it very much and said I'll have to make it again. Yay!


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A Visit to Gisenyi Parish's Patronage

Today at Patronage we walked to Gisenyi Parish to visit their Patronage and engage in a friendly football match. We lined the kids up, wielded our Don Bosco banner and Muhato flag and made haste towards town.

 Really, we were going pretty fast, considering most Rwandans walk at a nice, easygoing, slow pace. But we were a group of about 60 people, and we had to keep the kids safely to the side of the road so the bikes and other pedestrians, and occasional cars and moto-taxis could get past us on these treacherous, rocky, pothole-y roads. The walk took about a half an hour, and we actually collected some extra kids along the way who decided to latch onto our train. One of them was a little girl whom I assumed was one of ours, so I said “let's go, ngwino (come)” and offered her my hand. So she held my hand the whole way. But partway there Sr. Charlotte started filtering out the kids who did not belong to Patronage, and it was then that I discovered that I had picked up a random street kid! But then she said that her sister was there at Patronage, so she was allowed to stay by association. Good, she was very sweet with a cute little smile. When we got there, we formed a big circle with Gisenyi Parish’s Patronage, and did our usual smattering of songs, dances, cheers, and chants, and I was proud to be able to sing a handful of them!

 I jumped and danced and clapped with more vigor today than usual, and it felt great. There was also another muzungu there, whom I met and exchanged numbers with in order to keep in touch! She was with Caritas, and is staying for the whole year with 3 others (all from Italy) and are about my age. So we’re gonna go get a drink one day. Well the football match was spectacular. Each team’s fans sit under a tree and do more cheers and chants during the whole match.

It really reminded me of Camp Randall…we were talking back and forth to the other team’s supporters, and whenever someone scores, the fans all run out on the field waving their arms and screaming for joy. It was great. And Muhato won! 5-2, a nice match. I don’t know how these kids do it…really, I’m amazed. We walk for a half an hour to come here, many of them probably didn’t have breakfast beforehand, then they play for an hour and a half in the hot sun (many players stayed in the entire game, no switching), and they are just wearing sandals or really cheap sneakers, some of them barefoot. Then, we have to walk all the way back to Muhato! Many of the kids had water bottles, fortunately. And when I say water bottles, I mean old plastic containers that look like they once held laundry detergent or vinegar or some other household cleaner. They fill them up at home, where they must fetch water from a public well/pump. They fill up these “bideau (sp?)” which are big 20L plastic containers that kind of resemble gasoline containers. So from the bideau they fill up their laundry detergent bottle, and off they go to play! I was really really exhausted, hungry, and thirsty when we got home. I can only imagine what those soccer players felt like. But boys will be boys, and I guess they’re used to it!

"What do you call a panga in English?" ''Um…a panga."

This is great. Last week in my secondary English class, we went through vocabulary that you find in a house. I drew a big map of a house on the board, and we filled it in with all kinds drawings of things you find inside (bed, table, plate, cup, spoon, etc.). Well, my first mistake was that I assumed that the kitchen should be part of the house. The whole class raised an uproar about how the kitchen must be separate from the house because of fire.

Ok, I said, so we'll re-draw the kitchen over here. Good. I asked for more items that are found in the kitchen, and someone says "fire." "Yes, good!" I say. I was expecting to hear this, since the Sisters have 2 cooking firepots outside where we heat water. But we also have a stove and oven, so I assumed the students would be familiar with these items too. Well, nobody suggested these. We just had a firepot ("trepot," evidently is the word in French…) We also included pots, pans, fork, knife, spoon, food, and other typical things.

Now, here's the good part. Jules, one of the more goofy and eager-to-participate guys, very hilarious, comes up to the board and starts drawing swords on the outside of our kitchen. Yes, things with handles and blades. He makes three of them, and fortunately after the first I realize what they are. Here in Rwanda (probably in most of Africa) all the gardening/landscaping is done by hand. You will not find a lawn mower, gas-powered nor the manual push-kind. The lawn is mowed by guys with machetes who spend hours in the sun whacking the grass with this long, curved blade. Then when they're done they rake up all the bits into big burlap sacks. It is really very inefficient and quite taxing on the laborer, but it does provide work for able-bodied individuals. We have several guys who work for us here on the compound who whack our lawn, and in doing so they are able to support their families. So it’s a good thing. So anyways, Jules draws three blades on the board, each with a different caliber of curvature. As he's drawing, I hear a murmur of agreement coming from the rest of the class, agreeing that they all want to know what these things are called in English.

"Do you say machète in English?" I hear.

"We say machet-EE." I respond, and I see an ocean of confused faces. So I write it on the board with emphasis on the "ee." That seemed to solve the problem.

Someone else asks "What do you call a panga in English?" Good golly…what is a panga? So I start pointing to the three blades that Jules drew in order to understand which image they're referring to. Apparently the longest one with the least amount of curve is the machete, and the one with a medium amount of curve is known as the panga.

"Ah yes, we also say panga." I say very confidently, not wanting to give away the fact that until now I had never heard of a panga. Its best to not let them know that we mow our lawns with highly efficient, very expensive equipment. Mentioning this would only have led to more questions, rightly so, because this is so foreign to them and they are curious. But I did not want to detract from the lesson, nor did I want to add to the already-existing perception of white people as very wealthy people.

They all kind of chuckled at my response to the panga question…I think they didn't believe me but whatev, I just went with it.

"What do you call that one?" They ask as I point to the third one, a very curved, short blade.

"A hook. Good, let's move on." They didn't really question my answer to this one, and I unfortunately did not learn the Kinyarwanda name for the "hook." Its probably not called a hook. My bad. Nonetheless, I find this lesson a delightful example of the kinds of things that just come at you as a missionary teacher in a Third World country.

You just have to put on your thinking cap and roll with it!

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