I.don't.want.to.talk.to.you.

After a long day of Kinyarwanda class, me and Caitie decided to go for a walk.  As we were walking along saying our mwiriwe's to all of the people we passed, we stumbled upon a pile of huge rocks and boulders.  We decided to sit down and as we were chit-chatting away minding our own business, a couple kids came along.  Without thinking twice, the kids looked us dead in our eyes, reached out a hand with the palm facing up, and said, "bombo."  I sighed as I looked down at my bag and realized that the candy I thought I had hidden so well was showing through the mesh part of my backpack.  Of course I'm terrible at saying no so I gave the kids one "bombo" each, and without saying thank you, they ran off happily.  The next thing I knew, there were about 10 kids standing off to the side of us and whispering and chuckling.  Me and Caitie were laughing hysterically at a story I was telling her, and although the eves-dropping kids couldn't understand, they were laughing just as hard.  We found it funny that they were laughing so we laughed harder...and then the kids proceeded to laugh even harder.  Once all of the laughter ceased, one of the kids asked in English, "What time is it?" I said, "4:05."  And then the kid asked again...and again...and only seconds later, again!  So I let out a frustrated, "4:05!"  and the kids started laughing again and saying a whole bunch of randomness in Kinyarwanda that we couldn't understand.  Me and Caitie got the idea that the kids were being malicious and saying things that they were certain we wouldn't understand, so we (childishly, might I add) stooped to their level and played along.  The next kid who spoke directed his statement at Caitie and her response was

"I.dont.want.to.talk.to.you."  As this was totally unexpected, I cracked up laughing and of course the kids broke into laughter too...if only they could understand what she had said.  Or maybe they were laughing because they did understand...and knew that they were getting on our nerves.

After a while the kids had left for about 10 minutes and then came back again.  Just when me and Caitie thought all the fun was over and the kids had finally decided to leave us alone, one of them came toward us, lifted a rock under the pile that we were sitting on, and made a very panicked face while gasping at the same time.  Since the area in which we live is said to have many snakes, Caitie and I panicked, jumped off of the rocks, and ran for it!  As soon as we stopped and turned around to see what the kid was panicking about, all of the kids broke into laughter.  They were quite amused by their ability to scare the 'Americans;' it turned out that there was actually nothing under the rock.

The lesson learned in all of this?? Never stoop to a Rwandan kid's level...in Rwanda, they will always win.

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea