stories of the land 2015: An Intro to the Rwandan Perspective, by Gabby

Stella and Gabby

Today was filled with multiple introductions to the Rwandan perspective. We started our day with a visit to the St. Ignace High School in Kigali where we were able to have one on one conversations with the students. I spoke to a girl my age named Stella who lives in Kigali and her insight about the country gave me the first piece to my Rwandan perspective puzzle. When discussing our homes, she told me that she and 8 other members in her family live in their current house, which they have had for about 4 years and although she complains about the frogs and snakes that scare her around her home, she is proud to call it home. I was very surprised that we had very similar situations in our family life despite our different backgrounds, which is a result of the rapid developments of the country. What showed in our conversations that there is not much difference between the youth of the different continents. After we talked, we danced to both African and American music. Here, too, we found it very easy to be together--laughing and teaching one another dances. This experience opened up my mind of the rest of the day when we visited the Nyamirambo Women's Center, where we saw the opportunities of women that community provides for them. The center serves a neighborhood of women by providing literacy and job training (for example, the women sew children's clothes). Their work was so beautiful and one-of-a-kind, but I was especially glad to see that the way the community created opportunities for companionship and capacity building. Later in the day, we discussed a reading that had a very pessimistic view of the Rwandan government. Our group had a very interesting conversation about it and concluded we need to "hold the tensions" of Rwanda in order to honor the multiplicity of voices. The final activity of the day was a movie screening of "Intore" (link to trailer below)--a movie that showed how traditional music and dance helped to unite post-genocide Rwanda. After compiling all of my experiences today and reflecting on them, I am proud of the country that Rwanda has become after only 20 years of rebuilding, but I am now aware of the country's imperfections. We started our day with dance and ended our day with a movie about how dance unites--we felt that first-hand. Today was an amazing day filled with powerful, varied perspectives that I will take into account as I complete my Rwandan puzzle!