The President’s Coming

Light had just begun to break up the darkness of the night, and the world outside was still cool when I woke to the sounds of straw brooms scraping the earth and spades and hoes throwing dirt and grass around the surrounds of my room. It wasn’t long before sounds of children playing, and being told off, and shouted commands disturbed what sounded like a scene of domestic bliss.

There was no use trying to rest any longer, so I got up and had my cold bath, and walked out to see what the activity was all about. People looked at me as if I was from another planet (not that that’s a new look over the past month) –His Excellency Paul Kagame (President of Rwanda) is coming to Nyagatare.

For the day the whole village came to a standstill. All businesses were expected to be closed and their owners take part in the umugande (community work), and there was restricted travel on the roads. So, knowing we couldn’t get any of the things we planned to do in town done we headed for the safety of Gituro.

This has become a place that we can go and sit and chat with the people as they gather in and around the shelter. The children make toys out of all kinds of cast offs and play for hours together. Doing my Pied Piper act, with my escort of children in tow I go for a walk around the village greeting the people, ‘Amakuru?’ (How is it?) and ‘Muraho’ (Hello). I am welcome here, still the source of some amusement and novelty, but in this place people know me and accept me.

Tomorrow, (Saturday) the President will address the people about 500m from our base, so we’ll be ‘encouraged’ to remain where we are, or go and listen to him speak. People like him, he was one of the leaders of the Rwandan Rebels that overthrew the interhamwe that were perpetrating the genocide in 1994; he’s been President for 7 years now, and he’s a local boy from this Province. It’ll be a big day!