Sunsets and Children

Two of my favorite things about Rwanda have to be the sunsets and the children. On good days, the sunsets are so beautiful and the children so adorable I can hardly believe it.

A few days ago, I went to my host family’s house, and, not surprisingly, my host parents weren’t there at the time I was supposed to come. So, I spent an hour or so in the front yard, playing with my two host brothers and some other umudugudu (village/neighborhood) kids – some of them were friends of my host brothers, but I think some of them just stopped because they were intrigued by the muzungu! I had a chance to use a lot of Kinyarwanda, which was great, and the kids loved showing off their English. The most impressive was one 12-year-old girl who stopped by and told me her name and age, where she was coming from, where she was going, where she lives, and what she studies in school. The Rwandan government changed the official language from French to English last year, but the peoples’ actual transition to English is happening buhoro buhoro (slowly slowly). Regardless, kids are always very excited to shout, “Good morning!” (often in the afternoon), “How are you?” and, “I’m fine!” (responding, “I’m good” doesn’t seem to mean anything here) to any muzungus who pass by.

As we hung out in the front yard, chatting in English and Kinyarwanda, tossing around a rubber tennis ball (the “Kinyarwanda” word for which is evidently tennis), and waving “Mwiriwe!” to people who passed by on foot or bike, I noticed the incredible view from the front of my host family’s house. They live on a hillside overlooking a valley full of banana trees, and all you can see past that are more hills in the distance. Since I was there around 6pm, the sun started to go down, and the site of the sunset as a backdrop to the valley and the hills behind it was breathtaking.

It’s the everyday experiences, the small accomplishments, the random interactions, and the simple joys that make you truly happy to be here.

Sunset view from our house in Nyanza: