iheartrwanda

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

birthday weekend

Per Caitlin's request, a comment on my birthday. I usually don't really celebrate birthdays so I decided to do more this year and we had a birthday weekend.

On Friday night, we went to the American Club for the buffet/movie. We didn't realize that you needed to be an American AND a member to get in but the president of the club let us be his guests for the evening. The buffet had some American style food and we all ate way too much, especially considering that the movie was "Hannibal Rising" which is filled with too much gore to watch it on a full stomach. Probably not the best weekend to go to the Club but it was an experience and I even got to meet some Marines.

On Saturday, we went to Gasabo, my village. We took motorbikes from town, the whole 40 km, which was great. It also got us there by 9, which is when my translator told us to be there. She didn't show up until 10:15, which meant the village kids had an entire hour to stare at us. They were relatively nice, especially to Ian when I wasn't there. It seems the attention grows significantly when I'm around. I did get 4 interviews done for my research and could even use my Kinyarwanda to explain to Leocadie, the president of the orphan community, how Ian wanted his surveys distributed. It wasn't pretty but she got the idea. After that, we came back and went to the pool (our obligatory weekend activity) and to the Soucy's for dinner (the Baptist couple who has adopted us). They even had birthday cake for me.

By 8:30 on Sunday we were on a bus to Butare. It was a 2.5 hour ride on the hilly roads. We went to see Jessie, one of my Rwandan sisters who was sent to boarding school. We wanted to take her out but she's not allowed to leave and we weren't even allowed to bring her any food. It's like a prison. They don't even give her tea or bread for breakfast, only sorghum porridge. So, I snuck her chocolate in a purse I gave her and we bought her soda and samosa's from the school store. We travelled 4.5 hours for a 1.5 hour visit. But, Jessie loved it so it was worth it. That night, the guest house made me dinner. No birthday cake but they did make the grilled bananas with passion fruit glaze that I love.

The birthday continued on Monday when the workers at Solace suprised me with cake and tea. I thought they had all forgotten so it was nice to get a suprise. Ian also took me on our first real date since getting to Rwanda. We went to Chez Lando, the same restaurant I went to for my 21st birthday, which I also celebrated in Rwanda in 2002. They have great goat kebabs and fried plantains. And that is my birthday weekend.

Today is July 4, a huge holiday here, so no work. It was the day the RPF took Kigali during the genocide, marking the beginning of the end for the killers. They used to celebrate July 1, since that was independence from Belgium, but since the previous administration turned it into an opportunity to suppress Tutsis even more, it's no longer a national holiday. On the 1st they filled the newspaper with articles on why it's not appropriate to celebrate but today there are bbq's, soccer games and fireworks. We're going to try to go to a Mexican restaurant that has beach volleyball and swimming. Nothing like celebrating the 4th with fajitas.

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