Gisenyi, January 13th 2014.
Greetings from the Kivu lake shores. Sitting on
the balcony of my hotel room with a great view on the Kivu lake in Gisenyi I address you my last Rwandan news letter
from inside the country. Purpose of my stay here is to order my thoughts and
write an initial report for the Minister of Sports and Culture whom I hope to
meet before the end of the week.
This morning I made a long walk on the beach
some soft music from my earplugs and the sound of a lost rippled wave. My
thoughts are emotional and I tried to order last week's events.
As you could imagine the big black hole after
three weeks of intensive dance teaching opened its doors after one day of
inactivity. So the second day I decided to go with Egide's children to the
swimming pool of a nearby hotel owned by a friend of the family. For the first
time since my arrival I was able to read a book (on the I Pad) with a glass of
beer... no stress, no thinking... thoughts on zero. In the evening family visit
to a long time friend... conclusion...Guillaume drinks water instead of milk,
or maybe he has the capacity to change milk into water, what I dare to doubt as
his religiosity is not that big compared to the one of most Rwandans. After all
these years I'm still wondering how so many people are attending services in
churches after what happened in those churches during the genocide. But I have
to say that in this as in other matters I and others have to respect the will
and the thoughts of the inhabitants of this magnificent country. So slowly the
discussion if yes or no 'mon' Kagame (some people tend to call the President
'ton' Kagame when I spread his words and messages on my FB) will run for
another term is growing and it will be an internal decision of the Rwandans
that nobody should criticize from the outside world as this country is a heaven
of security and peace amidst a central Africa in turmoil... again.
So Saint Guillaume did it again, as predicted,
he's drinking water and makes his guests drink something a bit stronger. I
could resist the Waragi this time but the week is not yet over and also Turbo
King is still on the wish list.
If you think Kigali's 'The Culture Lab' is
something as a cultural nightclub in Ethiopia then you are more than wrong.
Aimable, owner of the place wanted to see me to discuss the possibilities of
what we should call an aerobics based on traditional dance steps. The talk evolved
into a broad discussion about arts in general, and you can imagine more in
particular traditional and contemporary dance and the possibilities and
limitations of professionalizing dance art nowadays in Rwanda. It's a
hallucinating experience to have such a talk on the hook of a bar surrounded by
a bunch of only men drinking out loud beer, eating brochettes and roasted corn
and only revolting for one second because the match on tv is interrupted by a
power failure. Beer and food soothe tempers. I was wondering why my glass was never
empty that evening and I was awarded the title of Commando despite the fact I
didn't mount the hill upwards the street yet. Later I made it without any rope
so the title was justified. The talks with Aimable will continue this Thursday...
I think on a safer place, lol.
On Friday morning I experienced again that time
management in Rwanda is a key issue. After we changed several times our schedule
for the day I was having a coffee at Bourbon's reading five times the Rwandan
Times (what's in a word...) and what was supposed to be a break of one hour
turned out to be a 'double'. Ladies and Gentlemen as the word Time Management
seems to be a dirty word here in the country, also according to many of my counterparts,
I took the brave decision to delete it from my Rwandan dictionary and to
replace it by a new term: 'Les quelques secondes de Françoise' or 'Françoise's
few seconds'. I leave it to linguists to translate this new idiom into Kinyarwanda.
Friday evening turned out to be the moment to
meet UNESCO-IHE's Alumni. I can say without any hesitation that I know them all
since my special relation with the Rwandans at the Institute. It was great to
see them all and despite the absence of a few who canceled for private reasons
but whom I saw on other occasions we had a great evening, good food and drinks
in a fancy bar 'Chez Yves'.
On Saturday afternoon I gave a 'master class' to
Joseline Murekatete, Kanombe based Abatarutwa Cultural Troup's star dancer.
She's one of the most fantastic dancers I have seen for years and she's the exceptional
result amongst other dancers of the fine and warm policies of that company I'm honored
to work with. In April we will launch the 'Agaciro' movie at the occasion of
the 20th Remembrance of the Genocide against Tutsi and you will all see the
quality of Abatarutwa and its dancers.
In the evening I was cooking for the family and
this dinner was the start for a series of goodbyes. Alvin, Loris' inseparable
cousin, and staying at Egide's house for almost the entire vacation, left the
house with his mother and I will not see him again after my return to Kigali.
Together with Loris he will go to a boarding school and they stay there for
almost three months. The same happened already with Rolande, the eldest
daughter one week ago. The house will be so empty at my return Wednesday. Lucky
us, Nounou will entertain us, once her grief for all those departures is over. I love those kids a lot, we had a perfect time
together and a lot of fun... and they were so valuable during my classes,
translating, filming and always helpful. They are a blessing for everyone.
As i told you at the beginning of this letter,
I'm writing this from the balcony of my hotel room and in between I had a lunch
and a nap. The weather is perfect and despite these are my last days in this
paradise on earth I don't feel too sad -for now - that I will have to go back
to cold busy busy Europe with spoiled people bathing in luxury. Luxury here are
friendly, nice hard working and dedicated people, even poor enjoying life! Once
back I have a lot to do... editing the movie, talks to create a platform for
contemporary dance in Rwanda with the support of dance platforms in Europe,
finding scholarships for talented Rwandan dancers and making decisions about my
own future. Quit a program isn't it? For the latest news of my last days this
week I refer to the next news letter that will be written from Dutch soil...unfortunately.
 |
| UNESCO-IHE Aumni gathering... |
 |
| UNESCO-IHE Aumni gathering... |
 |
| UNESCO-IHE Aumni gathering... |
 |
| UNESCO-IHE Aumni gathering... |
 |
| UNESCO-IHE Aumni gathering... |
No comments:
Post a Comment