Last days here in Rwanda!

Can’t believe we’re leaving in just a few hours…!

    I’m very proud to say that we did not burn down Epiphanie’s kitchen and our cake for Patrick was edible. Baking with Epiphanie’s family couldn’t be more fun- Olivier, Flora, Eric, and Patrick are such sweet people, even though they probably think Jessica and I are insane. We were laughing constantly, making weird noises (she does the greatest crazy-frog voice, and I can kinda imitate a trumpet – together it’s pretty ridiculous), teasing each other… It was so much fun. The best moment came when we were all finished with our cake and we were so excited about it even though it looked like a pile of mud with some crumbs on top (I shaped a cracker into a “P” but nobody else could tell). Then we carried it into the dining room, and there on the table was the most beautiful white cake, decorated with icing and little candies and everything. Apparently Flora had baked it all by herself. Ours looked SO sad next to hers, it was depressing. But sugar is sugar, and we ate both anyway.
    The next day, Epiphanie took us for one more house visit in Butare. This time we went to a compound where 61 orphans are living together in a building with 16 beds. They have to sleep in shifts because there isn’t enough space. Even their living conditions were rough, they seemed like such normal people. They didn’t look dirty or malnourished, they were very well-spoken (a lot of them spoke English and/or French very fluidly), and generally seemed to be happy and optimistic. We thought a lot of their attitude probably came from the fact that they were living close together with people around their age so they could easily relate to and support each other. We asked some questions about their lives and what their hopes are for the future, and in turn they asked us some questions and we described life in America. I’m not sure how much got lost in translation though because we made a point to say that not everyone in America is white and everyone has descendents from other countries – and then later on, when some of the local kids started pointing and yelling “muzungos!” one of the guys from the orphan compound asked us what children in America say when they see people with dark skin. Sigh. We were like dude, the point is that Americans don’t have just one generic skin color, hair color, eye color, etc. You’ll find everything. I still remember when I was really young – before topics of race and ethnicity were taught in school – I thought that things like accents or skin color were just individual traits and didn’t have any importance beyond what color clothes looked better on different people (haha I’m not even kidding). If only everyone had that innocent mindset of a kindergarten kid – maybe without the fashion part though.
    After spending some time with the kids, getting a tour around their compound and the new houses that were being built down the street for them, we had lunch with Martha, Alice, and Epiphanie. It was great to be able to have one more meal with them in our favorite restaurant before we had to say goodbye to Martha and Alice, who have been such a huge help to us and we hope we’ll see them again at some point (maybe at one of their weddings…?!?)
We then went back to Epiphanie’s in Gitarama to pack up our stuff and drive to Kigali. It took a little longer than we planned because I had to sort through my stuff and decide what to leave behind, and the mayor of Nyaruguru stopped by for a visit, and we had a little private concert/dance party with the four kids. We taught them the “Soulja Boy” dance and our version of… hmm how do I explain this? Ok, so, there’s this commercial for fruit juice that I saw in France

where there are little pieces of fruit doing a dance to the juice gods to try to get juice to shoot out of the ground. They start slowly and then go faster and faster. It’s one of those things you just have to see (YouTube “pub oasis” if you really have time on your hands). Anyway so we decided to imitate the dance and they thought it was hilarious, so we re-enacted it a few times for their amusement. In exchange they sang us a few songs and did a traditional dance. At first Olivier was clapping along while the girls were dancing and then when they were finished he just broke out some moves and we were like, “whoa WHERE did that come from?!” It was so great.
    We said goodbye as dusk was setting in, checked into the Hotel Iris (same place we stayed at last weekend), and had dinner at the Indian restaurant we’re obsessed with.
    Now it’s just four hours before we’re scheduled to leave to go to the airport for our 7:50 pm flight to Brussels. From there I go to Dublin and then Boston, and Jessica will go to Frankfurt and Washington D.C. After being away for two months in six different countries where I met so many new people, it feels great to be going home where there will be familiar people, places, foods, and probably a lot more that I took for granted before.
    Thanks so much for reading my blog! I hope you enjoyed it and that it made sense even though I wrote most of this really quickly. Hopefully it gave you some insight into Rwandan culture and feel free to email me if you have questions.
    Gotta go grab lunch and pack up… if there’s more time before we leave, I’ll try to write some more. If not, next time I write will be from home in the States!!!