Precious Moments II

More precious moments...

You Are the Limousine of Cars

Four months after all of the jokes from my sister about my "Africa wardrobe," I have finally come to the conclusion that she was absolutely WRONG!  My coworkers seem to love every outfit I put on and they swear up and down I bought all of these clothes here in Rwanda--there's just no way America has all of these wonderful prints and styles.  It's looking like mission Saver's was a success (shout out to my mom)!! lol

One day, one of my coworkers went so far as to say, "Keza, wambaye neza (dressed nicely)...do you know limousine??"  After I confirmed that he was talking about the fancy, long, black car, I responded, "Murakoze (thank you)...yes, I know limousine."  Then he proceeded to ask, "In America, limousines are very nice??"  Again, I said yes and he said, "Well then, you are the limousine of cars."  I responded with a bashful, "Thank you" and proceeded to have a limousine day of days.  (:

Welcome Back!

After being away from my village for a very long and much needed weekend, I never would have imagined I could be so missed.  When you leave the village, everyone and their mama seems to find out so when I came back and walked into work on Monday morning, I felt like I was the favorite little cousin who had left for weeks.  I walked into the morning staff meeting to "Keza!!!! Welcome back!!!" and a million hugs, high fives, and burning cheeks from smiling so hard.  It gets harder and harder for me to ask myself, what am I doing here? when I have all of this waiting for me at work every day.  When I see all of their smiling faces, I know exactly what I'm doing here.  If in these two years all I did was make them smile, my mission will still have been accomplished.  All I want to do is make a difference, and with them I think it's safe to say I already have.

Rwandan Mama's

Before I came here, one of the main pieces of advice that I had gotten from many Returned Peace Corps Volunteers was to make sure I get in good with the Mama's in the village, since they are the people who will always have your back and serve as your protection when and if you ever need it.  I definitely made sure to heed this advice and I'm glad I did.  A few weeks ago, I was on my way back to my village from Kigali and was sitting next to a mama on the bus.  It had started getting dark and she was asking me how I was going to find a moto to get home so late.  There just happened to be a man on the bus from my village who I knew and he told her that he would gladly take me home.  This man is good friends with one of my coworkers and I have been around him several times before so I figured a ride home with him would have been much safer than finding a moto taxi and having a complete stranger drive me home.  So I agreed and then the mama on the bus and I exchanged numbers so that I could text her when I made it home safely.  No sooner than I got off the bus, this woman text me in all caps:

"PLEASE BE SERIOUS WITH THAT MAN.  DO YOU KNOW HIM WELL? I PREFER YOU TAKE A TAXI MOTO BECAUSE OF HE HAVE NOT PERMI."

I really, truly appreciated her concern.  This certainly isn't something you would find in America...not from a complete stranger anyway.  I sent her a message back assuring her that the man was okay and that I would text her when I got home.  As you can see since a few weeks have passed, I made it home safely...and as soon as I got home, I sent the mama a confirmation text saying thank you and that I made it home.  Her response was, "Thank you too and have a good dream mwana wanjye (my child)."

Keza...Good Child

I met the sweetest lady a few weeks ago and she sat and talked with me for a while helping me practice my Kinyarwanda.  I feel like the more Kinyarwanda I speak, the better I will know it and so whenever I find someone who is exceptionally talkative, I take advantage of the opportunity and begin to practice saying just about every Kinyarwanda word I know.  At the end of my conversation with this lady, she said to me in Kinyarwanda, "You are a very good child.  Very, very good child."  And then she added on something else that I couldn't quite understand.  One of my coworkers who was sitting nearby saw the question mark on my face and told me (In English), "She said that if she has a daughter, she will call her Keza.  Because you are very good."  You can imagine the kind of day I had after hearing that.  This lady wants to name her daughter after me!  And even if she doesn't actually do it, it still warmed my heart to hear it (:

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea