This week has been amazing. Really amazing. The books have made their way to one library and there is a schedule and English classes were filing in, books were being read, pages flipped and smiles wide. I don't have the energy (or mental capacity) at the moment to truly do it justice so I will update this big little project on the weekend. Suffice it to say, I feel I'm making a difference!
So...two and a half days at Bare to work on the library. I hadn't even seen Jeremy in all that time so Wednesday afternoon we met for lunch. It was after a particularly hard moto ride. The dry season is upon us and so what used to be muddy roads are no potholed, dusty stretches of dirt that - when coupled with Patrick's lack of suspension and my heavy back, mean that my spine will never be the same again. My knees are aching, my back hurts and I wonder if things were this painful last season, when I arrived, or if 31 is the magic age at which moto riding becomes a chore rather than a pleasure. But I digress....
We met for lunch at St. Joseph's and noticed that there were like six mzungus there. What? Six? In Kibungo? That we don't know? We were both concerned that they hadn't given us their credentials. They couldn't possibly be here without getting passed the screening committee, could they? Well, a normal day I would have gone to say 'hello' but my bones were still vibrating from the ride, so I didn't. I'll say "hi" another day. I'm sure I'll see them again. They aren't hard to miss.
Today I called Ladislas to arrange to visit his school again. When he answered he answered with "Kamasira!!" (my Rwandan name, which I've since had translated again and it does not mean friend who is first visiting but rather, the person who was born second in the family). I wanted to get out the school during one of their English Clubs. They are committed to making this their own and part of the school culture and I can't help but feel so proud. The format today was a debate: "Urban life is better than village life." Arguments were convincing on both sides. I did have to admit that as a mzungu in Rwanda, urban life is much better. In villages we are stared at, followed and have little privacy. In the end the village life supporters won and by a large majority. I left so happy that here was a school that took one of my ideas and made it their own. This is what it's all about. Ladislas even got ahold of my camera and snapped a few good pictures of his students, which I'll post soon.
The moto rides, besides being jarring and dusty and bone rattling, have been just as beautiful and with Patrick at the helm, just as interesting as ever. Our conversations are more and more enjoyable. And if it's not a conversation with me he's having, it's one with someone on the other end of the cell phone he's talking into as we're rolling along. Seriously Patrick! Now, someone once convinced me that when one hand is on a cell phone, a driver can't accelerate so it's not that dangerous. However, it is also possible that if one had is on the cell phone, one hand is NOT on the brake. I don't know much about bikes but surely hands should be near the....uh...hand brake. No? But we made it home okay every day (Patrick saw rain clouds coming today and drove like a bat out of hell to get me to my door not 30seconds before the first drop fell). One conversation about his daughter, Pamela, though, left me feeling sad.
Me: "Patrick, my job will finish soon."
Patrick: "Anna. You go back to Canada?"
Me: "Yes Patrick. My job here is finished."
Patrick: "Anna. You go to Canada and you take Pamela." (Pamela is his daughter)
Me: "What?"
Patrick: "You take Pamela with you."
Me: "No, Patrick. Why?"
Patrick: "You take Pamela with you. There are good schools in Canada. Canada is good."
Me: "I can't take Pamela, Patrick. Her home is in Rwanda.:
Patrick: "You take Pamela with you."
That broke my heart. How serious he was, remains to be seen but the fact that it crossed his mind is, I'm sure, a foreign concept to all of us.
Tonight, Rebecca came over for dinner. She's here for six months to do some teaching through a church. She is living with a family and so has been eating Rwandan food (see post below) for two months and was just so thrilled to eat something other than rice, beans and bananas. It's so rewarding to feed someone who hasn't had a good meal in months. She was so grateful!
This weekend is the Kigali Peace Marathon which I will proudly support, from the bleachers at the Amahoro Stadium. Running is a silly, silly sport. I once heard the best reaction from a friend who, after her husband said he ran home from work replied, "Why? Were you being chased?" That to me is the only reason to run. But...it's for a good cause and Rob is even coming in from Uganda. The last time I saw him was on my Skwid course when he was skwidding off to Kampala directly from Ottawa. It will be a VSO fest but I could use it.
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