Togetherness

From Griff!

Today the early morning sun woke the group up at six in the morning. After an amazing night spent with the locals, filled with dancing, singing, and laughter. That night we exchanged songs with the locals, that included a screaming rendition of the "Little Einsteins" theme song, Location by Khalid, and Let me Love you by Mario. For dinner we ate casava bread, white rice, potatoes, and red beans. Once we were all filled up, we split up into three separate groups to experience sleep in a rural Rwandan house. We were greeted warmly, and our hosts were full of excitement as we walked up. They provided each group with adequate sleeping mats and blankets. In the morning, while eating breakfast, our guide Jean-Pierre provided a run down of Rwandan hip hop and rap. Once we had finished breakfasts, my group took a short walk to meet up with another group.

After an hour and a half or so of driving by beautiful trees and rolling hills, we stopped at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda: Ethnographic Museum. There, we were able to experience and get a hold on pre-colonial Rwanda. It was incredible to see the technology and art that the Rwandan people had developed in the pre-colonial times. After an additional thirty minutes in a bus filled with singing and sleeping, we stopped in a university town for lunch--Butare. While we ate, hundreds of Rwandan school children walked past us en route to a stadium for a talk about abstaining from drugs and alcohol. Once lunch concluded we continued our journey to the mountain town Nyungwe. An hour into the second leg we made an emergency bathroom break stop (thanks, Shields!). There we played some soccer with the bus driver Zuberi, and ate some snacks. Thirty minutes from there, we stopped at a gorgeous cliff, overlooking thousands of trees and rolling hills. Our hotel is placed at the top of a hill so that one can view a large expanse of trees and wildlife. We ended the day with class, led by Will, in which we talked about the issues of human rights both worldwide and in the case of the genocide. In addition we discussed how countries vet their decisions to intervene or to not intervene.

I found that the sense of community and togetherness really expanded as we were stuck on a bus for five hours with each other. Forced to engage in conversation, we sang many songs and told funny stories. Being able to talk to each other without boundaries, dance, and sing without shame, has ultimately brought the group much closer as a unit.