Kwita Izina

I had the wonderful opportunity last weekend to attend the 6th annual "Kwita Izina" event at the Volcanoes National Park in Kinigi. Kwita Izina is a special naming ceremony for the baby gorillas that are born each year. This year the event was even more special because it coincided with the celebration of World Environment Day. The theme of this year's event was, "Many Species, One Planet, One Future." Rwanda is home to about one third of the 750 mountain gorillas left in the wild. The rest are in the same Virunga Mountain Range, a chain of volcanic mountains shared by Congo, Rwanda, DRC, and Uganda. The remaining gorillas have survived thanks to renewed conservation efforts on the local, national, and international level.  Since 2005, 103 baby gorillas have been named! This year, I was privileged to hear names for eleven baby gorillas. Individuals were chosen from around the world to name the gorillas. This event has drawn visitors from all over who are dedicated to the enivornment and protecting these gorillas. This year, the honored guest was actor Don Cheadle who portrayed hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina in the film, Hotel Rwanda. Last year Jack Hanna attended, and the year before, the honored guest was Natalie Portman. It was rumored that Arnold was going to be here this year, but he didn't show. We all said it was a good thing because he would have named the baby gorilla, "Terminator." :-) It was a great day of food, fun, entertainment, meeting new folks, and honoring these baby gorillas.

Rwandans getting a ride to the ceremony. By the way, they can fit more than this! Plus goats and chickens too!

The crowd

Mr. President! I had a great view of him and even got to meet and shake his hand later on!

Traditional dancers, singers, and drummers

There were no real gorillas there, but these kids in gorilla costumes sure pleased the crowd!

Press conference with President Kagame

Don Cheadle. I listened to his press conference and he spoke very eloquently and passionately about the importance of conserving our planet. He gave some remarks on the BP oil spill as well. I have a video of him, but it was too long to upload. I'll try later on when I get back to the States.

Me and Don

Kids waiting to hear their President speak

The day ended with a long, but interesting bus ride back to Kigali in the rain. I had the pleasure of another one of those wonderful connections that God brings us. I was sitting on the bus, jam packed with people, and I noticed another mzungu towards the front. We were two. He didn't have a proper seat though....he was all squooshed up in the middle of some folks. After we made the first stop in town, people got off and this other mzungu made his way to the empty seat beside me. I was just listening to music and staring out the window, when I caught a glimpse of this guy's arm. There was a huge tatoo on his forearm of the state of North Carolina! haha! I took another look and realized it really was my state! Turns out that this guy was from Hickory, and doing research in a village for Appalachian State! So we had a nice chat about all things NC, encouraged one another, and parted ways. It's always a blessing to make connections like that so far away from home! 

ami, amiable, amigo, amicus, amico

Wow. The last week of school is hectic in any country! We have finally finished testing...(only took 3 days, but still!) We had to take Acheivement Tests through ACSI. It was weird though...because the tests had obviously been written in the U.S., and geared towards American kids, so I felt lots of the questions had a bias. I know we are an American International School, but I still feel some sympathy for kids who have no clue about where North Dakota is, or what the weather is like in wintertime, or how big an inch is. Or when they have to read stories about the pioneer days or the gold rush, and they have no frame of reference. Makes a big difference! But one thing I've learned this year, and it was especially apparent during testing last week....it's so important for kids to be bilingual or at least have an understanding of another language! Most of my 4th graders speak 3-4 languages, and they all speak at least 2! They speak English, French, Kinyarwanda, Swahili, Maori (tribal lanaguage of New Zealand), Spanish, and some German as well! And during the reading and word studies part of the test, I don't know how many times my kids said, "Oh! Miss Griggs, I didn't know that word, but it sounded like the French word or Spanish word I know, so I was able to figure it out!" Even throughout this year, I can't tell you how many times a student was able to figure out a word in English because they knew the similar word in another language. I knew all along that knowing other languages was helpful, but it has really made an impression on me now. Some words they were able to understand last week...musings, appetite, pliable, droll, reasonable...all because they knew the word in another lanauge and were able to make a comparison!

On a totally seperate note...with only a week left here, Mark just discovered that in order to renew our visas for next fall, that we had to first obtain a greencard in order to get back in the country. So with little time left, please pray that all the necessary paperwork will be completed before our flights out. Many other teachers leave this Saturday! I'm thankful I will have a few more days, but still.....you never know the timeline with things like this in Africa! :-) Thanks!

punks

Thanks to American attorney, Mr. Kurt Kerns, Rwandans now know the meaning of the word, "punk."

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14280&article=29855