The Kazo Kids

This morning Lama and I got up at 7 am to go for a run.  Exercise felt so good the other day that we agreed to start running in Kibungo.  I didn’t bring a pair of shorts either, so I had to borrow Kara’s ridiculously short shorts to run in, thus displaying my glow in the dark legs for everyone to see.  And it really was everyone, because it was Sunday and everybody was on their way to church and the streets were packed.  To avoid the crowds, we eventually ducked into a basketball court and just ran suicides.  Our goal is to run to the court and then add one suicide every day.  We’ll see if we can keep that up.

Once we got home we showered and had breakfast.  I would describe what we did after that “putzing”.  It wasn’t quite working hard but it wasn’t doing nothing either.  It was just not as intense as the rest of the week.  It’s nice to take a break once in a while.

At around 11 am we were surprised by an early visit by the students from Kazo, including Agnes, the 5th student we hadn’t met yet.  We were expecting them in the afternoon sometime but it wasn’t really a big deal.  The five of them had walked all the way from Kazo, and even though it is only a 15-20 minute drive, it’s about an hour and a half walk!  So we bought them cokes and Fantas and we all sat out on the patio and talked.  Using Lama as a conduit, we took turns asking each other questions.  Soon it was time for lunch and Alice had prepared enough for everybody.  At the table, one of the questions we asked the kids is what is their favorite kinyarwandan word, since we know ours to be umudugutu.  They said there were too many to choose from, it was hard.  So we asked what is your favorite English word then?  They responded that Together, Everyone, and Love were their favorite words.  I think those are excellent words too.

After lunch we showed them lots of different things: photos on our computers, stuff we’d brought from Emily Carr, Kara’s designs, a video I have made, and then engaged them in discussion about it all after.  They’re sharp kids, they laugh a lot and it is obvious they are extremely close to each other.  None of them have parents due to the genocide, and Maurice, who is only 17 lives on his own.  Lama asked him what he cooked for himself and what he liked to eat and it cast a silence over the table.  Food isn’t polite to talk about really and they were embarrassed by the question.  Eventually Lama coaxed it out of him but it was really painful for them to talk about food and eating, because it’s quite a private, unpopular thing here, and there are many good reasons why.  It is just bizarre to me, coming from a culture that loves food and eating, and to me is more than just an element of survival.

Lama wanted to talk with the kids alone, and Kara and I were dozing and in need of a siesta anyway, so we retreated to our rooms.  Lama walked them to a means of transportation and payed for them to get back to Kazo so they wouldn’t have to walk.  I fell asleep immediately in my room and slept right until dinner time.  After dinner my parents called and I was lucky enough to talk to them for about an hour.  From there I just worked alone in my room and everyone eventually went to bed.  I wanted to take some kind of break, and in my serious lack of movie selection, watched The Jane Austin Book Club.  Meh.  Then I went to sleep.