Some things in Rwanda never change. The beautiful weather. The friendliness of people. The love of action plans. How amazing breakfast at Bourbon Coffee is. Other things are always changing, like the number of comically stressful situations that we encounter. The availability of any kind of vegetable. How much Freddy impresses me. And finally, what the best day I’ve spent in Rwanda is. It was Friday, after we went out clubbing, but today took the cake I’m afraid.
We were at Bourbon early because we had a meeting with Edward Munyaburanga, the executive secretary for the Bugesera district. We went early enough so that Freddy could join us for breakfast before work. I mentioned earlier how we had learned through an article that Freddy fought in the RPF in ‘94, but that he never mentioned it. Well at breakfast Kara brought up that he had never mentioned it before. Freddy said he should sue that journalist, because he specifically told him not to write it. He found out that information without Freddy telling him, and when Freddy read the article before it was published he told him to remove it. Obviously, he didn’t. I asked him why he told him not to publish it, and he said because when people found out they always asked, just like now, and that it was something he didn’t want to talk about. But while talking about the journalist and why it made him mad, he did tell start to tell us about it. He described what it was like in ‘94 and the days following. It was unbelievable in every sense of the word. I try to imagine what the people tell me and I can’t. It’s impossible for me to understand what happened here. Like Freddy said before, every good thing he has in his life now he has earned, and he doesn’t feel bad about it. I have the exact same good things in my life that Freddy has, except a huge difference is I’ve done nothing to deserve them. I just got lucky. But that doesn’t make me feel bad; to me it’s all relative. Freddy payed for what he has, and then he got it. I have it, and I haven’t yet payed, but I will. I will work to deserve what I have and I’m happy to do it, it’s the best debt I could owe.
Freddy left for work and Edward arrived. He started off the meeting by saying that a lot of people waste his time with good ideas that they never do anything about, and he wanted to know what it was we were going to do. It was so refreshing to hear someone talk like that, to care more about the action than the action plan. We hit it off with Edward to say the least, I really liked the cut of his jib. Our meeting was brief but rewarding and we seemed to gain his full support in our projects and I think he’s going to be a really helpful person to know in the coming days.
After Edward left but while we were still hanging out, Dany called me. I was actually planning on moto-ing over to Bethel hotel to say hi since we had the afternoon off, but on the phone he said he would come to Bourbon to meet me. He said he’d be there in 20 minutes, and sure enough he was. The funny part is he walked, and I don’t know how you’d make it from Nyamirambo to Mumugee in 20 minutes on foot. But I forgot some stuff at the hotel so I asked Dany if he wanted to go for a walk and he said yes.
The two of us walked to the hotel, grabbed the stuff I needed and then we got a fanta in the restaurant downstairs together. We sat and talked for as long as Dany could stay away from work, and it was awesome. Kara gave him an Emily Carr University pin that says “Embrace Change” on it. He said ever since we gave him that, he’s been trying really hard to embrace change. He’s started taking English lessons and he’s working diligently and he’s going to become fluent. I asked him what then, what does he want to do after he learns English? He said he wants to come to Canada, but it’s really expensive. He then said it was so hard though because Bethel pays him so little, but he’s going to try and get a better paying job. He wants to drive a moto because they make more money. So he has a lot of dreams going and he knows what he wants to do so that was so great to hear. He asked me if I forgot that I told him I’d see him again, because I had said I’d give him my cell phone when I leave. I told him I absolutely didn’t forget, and I promised that I would see him again right before I leave and give him my phone. He asked if I was making any movies yet and I told him about the short I started. He said he wanted to see it, so I added a third promise: that I would give him a DVD of the short film too when I gave him my cell. He said the three promises I made were his three favorite things.
I payed for Dany to take a moto back to work and I went back to meet Kara and Lama. Martin called right as I got back, and Kara had ordered me food that I was so hoping to eat. But the only chance I could have to return the mic was right then, so I dropped my stuff with Kara and took a moto to Isimbi, to Novotel to meet and pay Martin, and then back. It was a sunny day so the moto was a joy.
After eating my cold lunch we went back to the hotel so I could work and Kara could nap. I spent that afternoon editing/capturing and the like. I also talked to Taylor Krauss on the phone, a documentary filmmaker from New York who has been working on a project here in Kigali since 2005. I was given his name from Julie who I met at the Canada day event. Anyway, he said dinner at 7 downtown would be great and I worked until it was time to leave.
The reason today over took clubbing for the best day yet was solely because of Taylor. He is an amazing individual. First off, he’s just a great person, and regardless of how fascinated I was in his project here I enjoyed his company as an interesting human being. Secondly, I was blown away by the dedication and passion he has for his work here. The documentary project he has started is called Voices of Rwanda. Taylor is essentially obsessed with history and its preservation, and when he visited Rwanda in 2004 he could not believe no one was systematically working to document the genocide stories from the individuals who experienced them. Thus his Voices project was born, and from what Taylor told us, it sounds to me like they are doing such an amazing job. They are meticulous in their quality and methodology to create a thorough documentation of every individual story so that it can be preserved and used in many applications of research and archiving. The coolest part is his combination of obsessing over quality and details and still letting the project be organic. There is no set structure to how they conduct the interviews because every one is unique and a precious thing that they are very sensitive to. From what he told us, the project is going to continue for the next 20 years , and I can’t express how incredible it was to hear him talk about it.
In the process of talking about what we were all doing and getting to know each other, we never even opened the menu. The waiter must have come 4 times and each time we’d apologize and say we hadn’t even looked. It got funnier each time, but it was too interesting to pause the conversation to flip through the menu. Eventually the waiter suggested the buffet and since we needed to go to the bathroom, we used it as a moment to stop and get food. We were the last people to leave and we had stayed until the restaurant closed. As we were walking out, Lama grabbed a cab and the three of us were just walking down the deserted, cool streets. Taylor said he’d take a moto home and so we walked with him to where he could easily flag one down. Just like over dinner, we couldn’t stop talking and Taylor kept passing on motos as they drove by because there was never a good moment to end the conversation. I finally asked him how far of a walk it was to his house and he said around 15 minutes. It was such a beautiful night and we were just enjoying ourselves so much that Kara and I decided we’d walk him home and take a cab back. 15 minutes was an idealistic guess about the walking time, but really it was for the better. It took us over an hour to get there, but the whole experience was great. Talking with Taylor was so fun. He is so well read, has lived all over the world and had the most interesting jobs as a journalist/freelance videographer. I can’t believe the quality of people we continue to meet here. I really hope we get a chance to meet with him again before we return to Canada.
So, for the time being, that was the best day in Rwanda.
