A time for Reflection

Muraho once again!

It has now been three weeks since I hugged my Rwandan family and friends goodbye and left Kigali. I am back in New Hampshire and things have been quite busy here since my return home.

My first week back was filled with some much needed quality time around family and friends. The B-day/coming home party was a blast in which Anna and Ayden ( for lack of better words my little sisters) filled up a GIGANTIC bag of candy from the town parade that took place. Since my voyage to Rwanda, my mom moved to a great place in Downtown New London.

Kara and I made a few trips down to the Cape to see the Hyannis Sound, and I was even able to make it to Nantucket to see my Nana and Uncle as well as spend some time playing on the beautiful beaches.

Unfortunately I was unable to go down to Adventure Links to finish off my summer at camp, but I was able to land a sweet job at Harvard First Year Outdoor Program for two weeks, thanks to my best friend, Christa. So, presently I am up at my prof's condo below the whites acting as basecamp and support staff for the 35+ trips that went out on Saturday.

Oh yea, I almost forgot!....MY BROTHER JOE WAS MARRIED THIS WEEKEND! This meant that I got to spend my weekend in Nashville, TN rocking out to country music with my cowboy boots. The wedding was beautiful and perfect in every way.

Perhaps more importantly, I have tried to be as aware as I am able of myself during this important time of re-entry. Reflection is one of the most important steps to an experience, and here are some of the things I have noticed:

1) I have been very family oriented. Kara and I were literally attached by the hip my first week back, and I was ecstatic when I saw my grandmother.

2) Random moments have struck me in random ways. I have found myself tearing up to weird moments as well as having a rush of different emotions. Often times these come with a memory, but sometimes I have to ask myself " Seriously, why am I crying right now?"

3) Thinking about the Genocide here has been harder for me than when I was actually in Rwanda.

4) Every time I see a black child I want to go over to him/her and pick them up.

5) I am making a big effort in trying to use my Kinyarwanda because I already started loosing it.

I will let you know how these things change over time and when I get back to school,

-Rach

The Dream

I dream of the plains in tales of old

Where cockspur ferns stretch to the sky

Where the hoof beats of herds have measured the passage of time

Where the cool of the evening carries the songs of shepherds

Where the music

Of the evening breeze accompanies the conversation of friends

Where the lion grunts

And roars in the night

Where the noise of the war

Is silenced forever

 

I dream,

I dream of waking

Beneath a morning moon, lost

Under the endless sky

Of Umutara

 

 

 

 

 

Rwanda Nziza

“A treat for the eyes”

The ribbon of tarmac snakes,

Flows into the hollows, climbs the slopes.

The drunken eye trying to find some steadying detail

Merely looses itself in a thousand hills

The furrows of terraces, the chess board of crops

The plumb line valley bottoms.

 

A visual Symphonie Fantastique

From the behind leafy screen of banana trees

Points the rusty red of roofs

Mounted on the white of a thousand tiny houses

A magic garden for tropical gnomes?

 

Far distant where the sun sets

Where the line of mountains stands

Dressed in every shade of blue

Reaching for the heavens

Remains a last elusive plot

Eluding the hand of Man

The spade of man

To the very last.

 

Each stage of the journey unfolds

Sky of Kamonyi, Gitarama

Kabgayi the seat of Bishops

Nyanza, home of Kings

Fountain of mysteries

Where lovers quench their thirst

Rubona, Save, Butare

Each seeming glimpse of elegance

Is merely part of daily life

 

Take the journey again

This time in your mind

All is colour and light

 

The spirits of the martyrs are my witness

Beneath the value of the eternal sky

Land of sweetness and of pain

Just as in the proverb I say

God may spend his days elsewhere

But this is where he lays his head

God’s house is here