I Saw…

I saw this video for the first time today, and its such a perfect song for me to say goodbye to Rwanda.  Yes, after one full year, tomorrow I get on a bus and leave the Land of a Thousand Hills.  And as the song portrays, I have seen, felt, learnt, appreciated and loved so much in the past year.  I’m struggling to pinpoint my feelings and emotions of this goodbye.  The last year of my life has been one of immense joy, happiness, sorrow, frustration and humility.  If you have talked to me recently, you know that I am indeed happy to leave, happy to open the next chapter.  At the same time, it is always difficult to say goodbye; difficult to know that you will never see a person who you have loved ever again.  This place, these people and the last year will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.

I’ll save the rest of the sentiment for my journal.  Tomorrow   evening I get on a bus headed for Nairobi, where I will fly to meet a friend in Ethiopia, and then a friend in Tanzania, and hopefully I’ll continue to make friends and have new places to visit.  I have a backpack, a guidebook, a new pair of shoes and a terrible bout of wanderlust.  I hope Africa is as ready as I am.

Gatenga Olympics 2010

After both Chris and I received very generous donations and gifts from our friends and family at home, we decided that we needed a way to best use these things.  With the semester ending, I was brought back to the end of the school year at home to what was always my favorite day of the year – field day.

Chris and I spent an afternoon racking our brains and planning out games and events for our foyer boys.  Along with some friends at the center (and Chris’ brother, a first grade teacher) we organized a pretty fun day.  Maybe its because I have such fond memories of field day myself, but watching the boys enjoying themselves on our planned day will be one of my best memories of Rwanda.

We planned six events and had the boys split into six groups, but, as with everything here, we had to change the day, the time and   the number of events and teams.  So we were left with a soccer-juggling competition, basketball hot-shot, flag tag and Aerobe distance throw.  We also had a footrace and water balloon toss.

The boys had never seen an Aerobe before we handed it to them and asked them to compete with this foreign object.  While most didn’t really get the hang of it, the winners were throwing it past midfield on the soccer field.

This is our improvised flag tag game.  They are actually flag football belts, but they worked great for our improvised tag game.  Most contests ended with two boys dancing around each other in a circle going for the last flag on each others belt.Fidel is an actual FIFA referee, as well as a teacher here at our center.  He took his job of running the soccer juggle competition very seriously.  The winner juggled for 1 minute 36.45 seconds.  Exactly.When I was at Saber basketball camp in DeWitt in high school I never thought that the skills and games I was learning there would someday be useful in Africa, but I guess that’s how life works.  They caught on pretty quickly to the game and got very competitive.  I was the only one, however, to knock down the 15-point half-court shot.

The first annual Gatenga Banana Run was a huge success.  After we spent 15 minutes discussing the course, rules and procedures, we got under way.  Many still did not understand the “there and back” concept, and many more got tired and walked, but we had a couple good close finishes.

Put a Frisbee through the tire and win a piece of candy!

This was by far my favorite part of the day.  Again, after much explanation and discussion we got under way.  Having never seen or touched a water balloon makes it very difficult to throw and catch, but hilarious to watch!

THE BEN AND MEDDY ON THE RUN!!!

For all my vigilant, law-abiding friends on the other side of the Atlantic, I am sending you a plea on behalf of all Rwandans.  Deliever The Ben and Meddy back to us!

The solo-artist pop stars, who are the craze and all the rage in Rwanda recently went on a government-sponsored trip to Washington and mysteriously disappeared.  Rumors are circulated the two duo are trying to secure an international record deal and were searching in Boston before escaping to Canada.  Just to be safe, if they are still in the US, I need your help.

If you see either of these two uniform-looking men singing a song sounding something like “A karam ata” or something similar, please notify your local law enforcement agency.  They have likely not changed their appearance, as every Rwandan man has the same hair and dress style.  Furthermore, they can likely be heard saying some Kinyarwanda-English slang words awkwardly in public, such  as “Fresh” (pronounced Fresh-EE), “Power” (pronounced POW-A) and “V.I.P.” (prnounced Vee-Pee).

I have fond memories of both of these men, as I have sang along and danced at many events where they have performed.  I just know Rwanda won’t be the same without them.  Please, help us.

Article from the New Times:

http://newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14341&article=32059