Hero Day

Today was supposed to be moving day! I was awoken at 7:30 AM by my headmaster telephoning me. “Hello Jane, I am outside” he said. I threw on clothes and walked outside to greet Jean. But, it turned out that today was not moving day. Jean explained that they were fixing the house up for me and adding a toilet. Then, he pointed next door! “That is your house” he said. Quel Suprise! It is literally next door. Like, the smaller house in the same walled compound. I can hear them moving out as I type this.  Yay for me! I think Sue is a bit worried that my Gang and I won’t be going further but I am happy. It has electricity and water (haha, theoretically). So, moving day will be sometime in the next week (?) but if worse comes to worse, I can just drag my stuff over myself. Although today was not moving day, it was Hero Day.

Hero Day is a national holiday in Rwanda. There is no work or school and in the morning, each “sector” holds its own small ceremony. I could not take my camera to the ceremony because it would have been far too disruptive so instead of a few pictures I will try to describe the experience in a few thousand words.  This will be good practice for the novel I am writing in March.

This morning when I walked up the small dirt path leading from my house to the larger dirt road that leads to town, there were a few people gathered in the field across the road. They had erected a small cabana from a large red tarp and 4 wood poles. Underneath the tarp were benches. At 9AM the benches were occupied by some small children. By 10AM when the proceedings commenced, the benches were filled with the Heroes and honored guests. I grabbed the smallest member of my gang (Alieze) and sat in the grass with her in my lap. Promptly, a man in a blue button down came over and shook my hand and then pulled me up to stand. Then, he walked me over to the cabana and sat me down on a bench in a shady spot. Ah, the life of a muzungu.

The ceremony began with a priest in a bright white button down, black slacks and gleaming white shoes. All the speaking was in Kinderwanda so I basically had no idea what was going on the entire time and thus know very little about the substance of Hero Day. I could figure out when we were praying because the speech was punctuated by “Amen. ”

After the first speech, four tween and teen age girls came out dancing. They were dressed in T-shirts with various bright African cloth wrapped around their waists. Again, the t-shirts were cast off’s from American closets. One girl had an ancient navy blue t-shirt several sizes too big with “NAVY PIER” written across the front. Another had a red shirt with “Kids in Motion 2006” The girls swiveled their hips and extended their arms along to the beat of 2 drums. Their heads, neck and arms all worked in concert with each-other while the dancers stamped their feet and whirled their hips in semi Hula like style.

After another speech and a song sung by everyone it was time for another dance. This time, 4 tween boys came out holding spears (Olivier-Gang member was one). They were wearing white t-shirts and blue cloth wrapped around their waists, but you could see their pants underneath. On top of the blue cloth was a fringed, cheetah print wrap. The warrior dance has a heavier beat than the ladies dance. Everyone clapped along, three short claps, pause and one long hard clap..repeat. The warriors threw their shoulders and heads to one side and then let the rest of their bodies follow. 

There were also several solo songs and members of the audience got up and sang alone to crowd while everyone listened or clapped along.  Around 11 AM, I was shocked to see gang members Edison and Olivier standing before the crowd. They sang a traditional song (everyone seemed to know it) in a call and response style. I was so proud. Olivier had changed his usual dirty red/pink puma shirt for a bright orange t-shirt and Edison has a mini suit jacket over his plaid shirt.

The star of the show however was the elder warrior.  He was tall and thin, with dark skin and his hair shorn down to just a millimeter of gray hair.  He wore a white button down with blue pen peaking out of the pocket and a short tie. The short tie is very popular here, they are one and half times wider than a normal US tie and come to just below the breast bone. This man had one white bed sheet wrapped around his waist and another over his shoulder sari-style. He held a long white spear and a small blue and white shield. No matter what the song or dance was, he moved. He wiggled and jumped and shouted with a huge smile on his face.  He moved around the crowd engaging children, encouraging ladies to dance and letting out little yelps of pleasure.

After we all listened to Paul Kagame’s speech on the radio, the finale was one big group dance. Everyone stood up and clapped and swayed. There was music from the radio and drumming as well. Then one of the M.C.’s came and grabbed me from under the cabana and brought me out into the open to dance. I was immediately swarmed by children who wanted to hold my hands and dance so I wouldn’t have felt that awkward except for my outfit. I was wearing a pink straw hat, sunglasses, a long black spaghetti strap dress, and Converse All Star sneakers with socks. Super Muzungu! To make my tourist look complete, I was wearing my waist bag. Not a fanny pack.. a waist bag. My friend Angela gave it to me before I left and it is extremely useful when I just need keys, cell and 1000 RWF. But, today combined with the beach hat and sneakers I just felt like a suburban housewife dancing with the street performers in the NYC subway.  To be honest, I probably would have stuck out anyway so at least I was shading my delicate face from the sun.

After it was over, the people dispersed and my gang started to walk me home. I had the ingenious idea that I would get one of the older boys to help me carry large buckets that I needed home from the market. I asked Olivier where Robertson was. He took my hand and started walking me. I assumed we were off to Robertson’s house but we kept walking. Soon, we were joined by Edison and his younger brother Robert. About 5 minutes into the walk, they told me Roberston was in hospital with a broken arm. Quel Domage! Once we got to the hospital, we wandered around all the wards looking for him. A large Muzungu with 3 boys created quite a stir and soon the entire patient body was staring. We found Robertson and his mother and wished them well. Then, my three helpers and I went off to market. They helped me negotiate prices and carry my buckets home. In return I bought them chocolate lollipops and gave them 100RWF. 

Tomorrow school starts but I do not know what level I am teaching, the curriculum or the timetable. As I understand it, those tiny details are what the first few weeks are for.

Alieze 

 

Robertson, Olivier, and Edison