Amaaaazing weekend! Wedding and art gallery

After our kind of bad experience at the Millenium Village, the rest of the weekend was amazing! Jenny, Meghan, and I went to stay with Jenny's friend, Baraka. Jenny knows Baraka's family, who lives in the United States. Her house is way up a mountain in the middle of the woods, and we had to take multiple forms of transportation to get there! When we got there, we talked with Baraka's brother for awhile about Rwanda and the US. Then we all ate a delicious dinner of beans and rice, and then we all talked about our lives. Baraka started a christian NGO in Rwanda after the genocide called Gates of Hope, which focuses on counseling and helping children. She talked about how many kids that weren't alive during the genocide still experience trauma, especially if their parents were involved in the genocide. She tries to help survivor's children and the perpetrator's children with education and psychological issues. She told us that a lot of the perpetrator's children feel alienated in society because they feel like they did something bad too, even though they didn't. God, that would be such a hard position to be in.
We ended up going to bed really early, which was so much fun. Meghan, Jenny, and I all slept in the same room, on bunkbeds (which I was pretty sure were going to collapse, haha). When we woke up in the morning, we went exploring around Baraka's home. It so incredibly beautiful because there were flowers and trees everywhere. We also discovered a barn/area where the cows sleep! We went to take picutres of them, and the farmer came to talk to us. We could not communicate whatsoever, but he was really nice. He showed us a room with at least 20 really cute rabbits. One ran out of the cage, and he picked it up by its ears and was carrying it around! I got a picture, haha. The cows were cute too, but they weren't as happy to see us as the rabbits. Its funny, because here, there are two kinds of cows: Rwandan cows and "Muzungu" cows (which means white people cows). The rwandan cows are brown with huge horns, and the Muzungu cows are the regular black and white ones we see in the US.
Before lunch, we went to a Cathoic mass with Baraka, which was held to remember the mother of her friend that died in the genocide. It was really sad sitting there, because I kept thinking about that poor woman who lost her family. Afterward, we all gathered near the church for a soda and a talk. Different people got up and talked about their experience in the genocide. I thought it was interesting because literally everyone that spoke talked about how they truly believe Rwanda can achieve peace and unity, even if it takes awhile. I just thought it was amazing to hear the victims of the genocide saying that! Hopefully, they are right.
Then we went to a wedding!!! It was seriously soo cool. We got to wear traditional Rwandan outfits, how amazing is that??! Don't worry, I took pictures of that too. The wedding was at a church, and we couldn't really understand anything because it was in Kinyarwanda. But it was still absolutely beautiful. The bride and groom looked so happy! I was kind of surprised when they didn't kiss at all, and I kind of laughed out loud because I really thought they were about to kiss but they didn't! Apparently, they don't kiss in ceremonies in Rwanda. Ooooppsss. Right afterward, we went to a hotel nearby, called Novotel, to watch the families take pictures after the wedding. It was kind of boring until everyone asked us to get in the pictures, even though they were just pictures of family members!!! I guess they wanted to document the Muzungus at their wedding. So anyway, I got to be in the wedding pictures of this couple that I have never met! haha
That night, I went with Moriah, Julia, and Jenny to an art gallery/Co-op right next to our guesthouse. It was aaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzinnnnnnnnnngggggggg. It is a co-op where young artists (like my age) live and paint. We took a tour of the gallery, and I wanted to buy every single thing in there. My favorite painting was of two women dancing. I took a picture of it so I could remember it forever. I would have bought it, but it costs $700 and I would have no way to bring it home. After, we sat down to talk with the artists. We meant to stay for like ten minutes, but we all ended up talking for like three hours. They were soooo cool! And kind of famous too, haha. There was one short and funny guy with dreds, who was pretty quiet at first. But then I started talking to him about everything, and I found out that he is a former Ugandan national soccer player/former undercover photo journalist/current hip hop artist/producer. Isn't that crazyyyyy. True, he could have been lying, but I really really dont think he was. I talked to him about Uganda, because that is where he is from. We got into a converstation about the civil war in Uganda and the LRA, which is basically the rebel group that is terrorizing the Acholi ethnic group in Northern Uganda. The war has been going on for over 20 years, and he told me that the Ugandan government could totally stop it if they wanted to, but they get more international aid and money when they pretend to be "negotiating for peace." That is sooo awful. I also talked to him about dredlocks for awhile, because I want them sooo bad! He was really funny, because he told me that he has to wear them in a pony tail, otherwise he sees them out of the corner of his eye and thinks someone is following him, haha!!
The other artists were really really cool too. Collin was the guy who painted my favorite painting, and I was really excited because I talked to him about the 33 countries he has been to. He said his favorites are South Africa and Kenya. Maybe I will go there one day! His brother Charles is from Uganda, and he wasn't an artist, he was just visiting. He was really cool though. He said he had been to Iraq and Afghanistan with some US security company. He really didn't want to talk about it, which I totally understand. He said he didn't want to remember the awful things that happened there. Innocent was another cool artist. He is soooooo tall, he is six foot seven and really skinny and funny looking, but I like him a lot. He showed us his art exhibit at a restaurant downtown called Torero's and it was so fun (we all had to pile in a taxi to get there. There were seven of us in one tiny taxi!!).
It was seriously such an awesome weekend! awesome!!
love colleen