Day 8- Rain, Market, Africa's Hope

Ahh! Today was just great because we got to get up at 10am--which is like heaven to us. While we were eating breakfast we noticed the sky was getting pretty gray. I was wondering if we were gonna be seeing any rain. We saw it today. It started down pouring 10 minutes after we noticed the sky. Eve and Stacey were the first to run out to play in the rain. Lewis quickly followed. I honestly wasn't going to join and then I thought to myself..."I'm in Africa and I have an opportunity to go play in the rain..." So I finally ran out there too. So glad I did too. It was a bit chilly at first but Eve and I just went crazy jumping around, doing push-ups and punching the air to stay warm. Once we got used to the rain it was grand. There was a mini waterfall coming down from the house. If you stood under that, you'd be getting drenched. Naturally, I did just that. Oh man it was like a mini shower before my real shower. It was fantastic. We had our fun came in, I showered and got into dry clothes. Mmm putting on dry clothes after getting soaked is like one of the best feelings. You've got to agree...It's pretty awesome right?! Anyway... Next thing was going to the markets. We all pretty excited to go shop a bit...Even I was excited which is weird for me to be excited to go to any kind of store. So the first one was a small shop in downtown Kigali that has a bunch of handmade stuff. Cool sculptures, handmade baskets (which are very special in their culture), little animals, beautiful earrings, bags, pots, the list goes on...I bought some cute stuff and moved to the next market. This place was more fun because we got to bargain our prices. It was a bigger store that had sections which belonged to a different person. Whatever was in their section is what they were selling and where they named the starting price. So say I see a scarf and I ask "How much?" He says "5000" I say "ehh, I think I'll keep looking." And as soon as he sees you won't buy he'll say "how much you pay?" That's when you say the price half of what he wanted. So I say "3000" and he then says "4000" I say "hmm 3500?" and he agrees. That's how it sometimes works and other times they won't even change their price, but if you try you could get a great deal. But I realized how bad I am at haggling---terrible. But I loved everything at the markets, cheap and really cute creations right from Africa. Hopefully my sisters and my mother will like what I got them :)
So after that we went to a nice restaurant in the Kigali mall which was really nice. It was the first time we ordered food off a menu. I just got a sandwich with fries cause I had been eating the traditional Rwandan food and wanted to be my old boring self one time.
We got back to the house and got to just hang out for a few hours before we went to ISHYO Performing Arts Center to see Mashirika's show called "Africa's Hope" that was apart of a bigger conference that we didn't see. We were introduced to two of Carl's Rwandan's friends Emmanuel and Johnson. They have amazing stories. We played a really fun game called "signs." We all sit in a circle on the floor and we start by picking our own personal sign. So for example my sign was picking my nose and Carl's was swiping his forehead. Once everyone has shared their sign with everyone we were told that the point of the game is to pass the sign without the person in the middle knowing who has it. So say I start, I pass my sign to Drew by doing his sign. He receives it by doing his sign and then passing it to someone using their sign.  The person in the middle of the circle is trying to figure out who is passing it or who has just received it. That is how they get out of the middle. So everyone passing and receiving has to try to be really sneaky and focused so they can keep the passing going without that one person knowing. It is so much fun!!!! You should play it sometime.
We had dinner then headed to ISHYO. Their show was absolutely fabulous. It started with a video about genocide. There were pictures and words and it was a very moving video. Then the whole play consisted of outstanding music, dance, drumming, and amazing acting. It pressed upon genocide, hope, a better day, fighting, power, confusion, empathy...and more. What really strikes me about the artists in Mashirika is the amount of energy they carry when they're on stage. No matter what's happening they are always filled with what is happening in their world on stage. The drumming was just out of this world. I loved the dancing and how they fit it into the story. I recorded some stuff from the show so I will always be able to watch it. At the end of the show they ended in song. They actually wanted people from the audience to get on stage to sing and dance with them. We, Theater students, were super shy about getting on stage..............Once we were up there we danced and sang. Rosette (the one with the amazing singing voice in Mashirika) handed me her microphone and had me sing the song with Angel (who is the coolest girl ever). It was just a great way to end their show, for them and an audience member--like me!
More singing and loudness accompanied the ride home. Another great day here in Rwanda Africa! 


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