Song and Dance

Monday, March 8, 2010
International Women’s Day? I’d never heard of it either. Apparently we don’t celebrate this in the US but here in Rwanda this is a holiday, which means no school, no museum visit, but lots of dancing and cheer. Today, instead of language and tech training, we went to the Nyanza soccer stadium (yes soccer) in order to celebrate International Women’s Day with the local schools and “authorities” (This term is used loosely when people don’t actually know those who are present). After walking through a short cut from our PC center, which revealed a new soccer field, we arrived at the secondary school to find students singing and dancing, clearly practicing for a major performance. A performance we soon found out we, were to be a part of.

After waiting on the cement bleachers for nearly an hour, the students entered the stadium ran over to our group, grabbed each of us by the hands and took us out in the middle of the field to dance, sing, and clap along. If you think you need coffee in the morning to wake up, try getting into a jumping contest and dancing along with Rwandan school children. The passion of the kids was contagious as they sang songs about the importance of their education, the country’s future, and rooting out genocide fears and ideals. Although the genocide is what put Rwanda on everyone’s map, it is rarely discussed here. This was a chance to see and hear the language (via our language facilitators) of how the rebirth of a country is discussed with the youth of this country.

International Women’s Day ended with a celebration at the PC center with a discussion on the role of women in global societies, a few enlightening statistics, and of course, more song and dance. If every day were Women’s Day, we clearly would much be happier, and a rhythmically gifted people.