Ten hours later I awoke to the sound of waves hitting the shore line that was just beyond my window. I opened the patio door to discover the island dotted Lake Kivu. As my eyes adjusted to the rising sun I tried to envision the shores of the Democratic Republic of Congo that were just on the other side. But that is a development tale for another day perhaps, today was the first day of Fun Week. 
After a simple breakfast we headed 30 minutes into the mountains, which is a really short drive. As we arrived so did the children. A teacher and a whistle guided one of the schools down the mountain and announced their impending arrival. But to their astonishment a Muzungu was cheering on their arrival. Once they caught sight, the entire school stopped in their tracks. They slowly approached and gathered around saying nothing and only able to respond to, “How are you?” with “I am fine, teacher”. It quickly became obvious that the chosen meeting location of the local government building was not a suitable place for 2,000 children. The solution was to send them to the “field” on top of the nearby mountain.
It turned out the “field” was a pine forest, but this was a blessing as the day was spent in the shade rather than the equatorial sun. The event started with the signing of the National Anthem. It’s always a wonderful experience feeling the National pride of a country beaming through the voices of young children. Short introductions, including the Muzungu trying her best to speak the very few words of Kinyarwandan she knew, lead to the children’s performances. 
All of the songs and dances were written and choreographed by the children. The theme was fighting against child related violence and the promotion of children’s rights. Each school took their turn dancing, singing, reading poems and entertaining the crowd. Given the number of children at the event it was a bit of every child for themself and they slowly pushed in on the stage area, while other children took to the trees to get the best view in the house. I’m pretty sure if I would have climbed a tree at my school’s event I would have been very quickly escorted from the event. 
After the performances prizes were handed out to the top children in each class. One prize was for the overall top student, while the second was for the top performing female in the sciences. This is done to encourage female students not only to stay in school, but to work just as hard at classes that typically thought to be only for boys. The children were very proud to have won the prizes, but they really didn’t know how to react. There were so many people looking at them, they were given such nice things (new backpack, English dictionary, math set, notebooks and pens) and a Muzungu was asking them to smile for a photo! It’s a lot to deal with for sure. 
After all of the prizes were handed out it was time for the good stuff, Fanta and a Rwandan donut for all! The children were organized into their classes and made to wait for the arrival of their treat. As the tops were popped off their eyes were fixated on the fizzing sweetness just out of their reach. Fanta, Coke, Sprite and a few rogue Tonics were dispersed throughout forest. Their sticky smiles were quickly filled with baseball sized donuts. As I wondered the forest I was greeted with curious eyes and eager handshakes. I’ve recently taken to the Obama style fist bump over the grubby handshake. Thankfully they love it and laugh when I complain they are too strong. We exchanged names, said hello, found out our age and then resorted to the camera for endless entrainment of taking photos and then showing them off.
The day ended with a typical meal of bruchett (meat skewers) and chips (French fries). Contrary to my travel goals and practices I don’t have any photos of Rwandan food, but I intend on taking some photos and sharing the Rwandan cuisine with you all soon.
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