Sister Masters Rwanda

Roach Infested Bus

In just one short week, my sister and I took more busses than I'm sure she has taken in the last year.  One of which was infested by, yep you guessed it, ROACHES!  This is the very last thing we needed as I am slowly getting over a terrible phobia of bugs and my sis is just as bad as I used to be.  Here we were on this 3 hour bus ride, with several HUGE bags full of candy and snacks that I'm sure the little roaches were having a celebration over.  Lucky for us, nothing jumped out of the bags when we made it to our final destination, but the ride certainly wasn't the most pleasant of bus rides.  And to add icing to the cake, just before the bus took off, a little roach crawled up onto the window directly to my left.  There just happened to be a man standing there trying to sell a pair of shoes to me and my sis.  I took his standing there with the shoes as a sign--I was supposed to take one of the shoes from him to get rid of the roach.  And so I did!  I quickly snatched a shoe and rubbed it across the window, attempting to fling the roach outside.  Instead of going flying, the roach ended up smushing between the window and the shoe.  The man looked at me like, Give me money for the shoe!  And I looked right back at him like, I am NOT paying for this!  Lucky for me (again) there was another man walking by selling newspapers.  He took note of my little dilemma and handed me a newspaper to wipe off the shoe (thank you God).  So I wiped off the shoe and handed it back to the shoe man.  He gave me an I'm-not-happy-about-this look and slowly walked away.    

Sister's Rwandan Name 

One of the two days that my sister was in the village, we hung out at my job for a bit.  While we were in the office watching music videos with one of my coworkers, we ended up talking about Rwandan names and my sister said that she wanted one.  My coworker immediately responded, "Mbabazi."  My sister lit up and asked, "What does it mean?"  I had no idea what it meant, but I do know of a girl who owns the village bar and her name is Mbabazi.  So immediately after she asked her question, I asked my own, "Like the girl at the bar?"  My coworker laughed hysterically at my question and responded, "NO! Not like her! hahaha!"  I asked why he was laughing and he said to me,

"The men in the village say muryoherwe to her."  At this point, I joined in on his hysterical  laughter and then he asked my sister, "Do you know 'muryoherwe'?"  She shook her head and he responded, "It means she tastes good! hahaha!"  At that point she joined in on the laughter.  I couldn't believe he had just told us that!

Eventually my coworker told us that the name Mbabazi means forgiveness.  It's funny he thought so quick to name her that...it's a perfect fit!

Umunyarwandakazi

The above means "Rwandan girl" and my sister definitely earned this title, as it was awarded to her by my coworkers.  Every day since she's left, they ask me, "How is Natasha?"  and then add on, "Ni umunyarwandakazi." (She is a Rwandan girl).  Everyone absolutely loved her and I couldn't see her time here going any other way.  She managed to speak a few phrases in Kinyarwanda; my favorite being "amakuru?"  When someone says "amakuru," the response should be "ni meza."  Amakuru means "how are you?" or "what's the news" and ni meza means "I am good" or "its good."  Well when someone would say amakuru to my sis, she would smile bashfully and respond, "amakuru?"  I cracked up every time!  Responding to "amakuru" with "amakuru" is like someone asking nicely in the states, "How are you?" and you responding with a slight attitude, "How are YOU?"

Aside from mastering the language, my sis managed to master the bus system too.  I'm still not 100% with the bus system here so on the last day, my sister actually ended up finding the bus that we needed to get back to our hotel; and when we got on, she had her money in her hand and ready to go...just like the Rwandans do.  (It's taboo to go rummaging through a big stash of money with a bunch of eyes all around so most people have just the amount they'll need in a readily accessible location).

The last of her mastery came when we were looking for a taxi to take to the airport for her flight back to America.  Instead of me going up to the driver and bargaining in Kinyarwanda, she led the way toward the taxi, asked him how much and upon hearing the price said, "No.  All I have is 5,000."  He declined and gave another, lower price.  Her response, "No.  I am leaving Rwanda today and all I have left is 5,000.  I need to get rid of it and its all I have."  I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  The man sighed and agreed, "Okay, but I leave you just outside the airport."  I couldn't believe my ears.  My sister managed to get a taxi for a price that I probably wouldn't have been able to get and I actually speak the local language!  By the time she left, I couldn't tell who the visitor was...her or me!

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea