July 4, 2009

July 4, 2009

I apologize for not writing recently! I’ve been getting pretty much zero sleep because we’ve been clubbing a lot and going out to eat a lot and…yeah. But today was Liberation Day! In other words, the day the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) overthrew the Hutu Power regime, and ended the genocide. It was a beautiful celebration—I took notes during, so allow me to dictate.

“So wow. This is incredible: sitting here next to Silas with ten other incredible US delegates with a special invitation from Rwandan president Paul Kagame for a VIP seat to the Liberation Day celebration.

It’s about twenty times bigger than our own Fourth of July celebration. We’re at the Amahoro Stadium with about 30,000 ecstatic Rwandese citizens and thousands more outside waiting to enter. It’s beautiful—I can’t understand much that is said, because it’s all in Kinyarwanda, but just hearing it spoken and with such fervour and excitement is incredibly gratifying. These people have so little, and yet they find things to be thankful for.

Just like in America, the Rwandans stand in thousands in the back of the stadium, in colourful clothing that spells out words. Their bodies spell out, ‘Kwibohora 15,’ which literally means, ‘Liberation 15.’ They were liberated 15 years ago today. The shirts are in the national colours of the flag, blue, yellow, and green, and a man revs up the crowd with a repeating exercise not unlike our own, “I say Yankees, you say suck! Yankees! Suck! Yankees! Suck!” except it’s joyful words and songs and everyone wins, not just one team. We’re all on the same team here: Team Liberation.

Next, the military band came out—amazing. Rose Richard shout out here!! There ended up being two incredible bands, one the military band and one the military police band.

[Again, I will add more here later]