Someone PLEASE tell me where June went? Oh my goodness, turn around for five seconds and a whole month passes in a blink of an eye. Now I know my mother always told me that time flew as you got older - but I didn't really think I'd reached the age where a month happens and you barely notice.
So, what was the highlight of my June?
Last Sunday we went to the Multicultural Festival at Annerley Soccer Fields. There were so many different cultures represented and so much to eat, watch and do the whole day that it seemed to fly.
Brad had great fun watching the soccer, and I was able to indulge in everything African once more.
But the highlight of my day BY FAR was meeting the people running the Rwandan Queensland Association food stall. I didn't even know there was a Rwandan association in Queensland!
So I went up to the stall (to order some delicious brochette - man I miss that from Rwanda!), and as they started serving me, out I came with Muraho (hello), Amakuru (how are you) and Nitwa Umufasha (my name is Umufasha - umufasha is a Kinyarwandan word meaning helper, which is what Sascha means).
The poor lady almost fell over! She started crying and hugging me and just couldn't believe an Australian knew her language! I was just so excited to finally talk to someone who understood kinyarwandan, and was so glad she didn't think I was an idiot. She and her male helper wanted to know who had been teaching me, so when I told them I'd visited Rwanda last year, they almost started crying again. It's amazing to me how much being aware of another person's culture can make them so emotional and thankful.
I was on a massive high for the rest of the day, and it really made my year.
Brad had great fun watching the soccer whenever he got tired of walking around stalls with me
This Rwandan girl was so tiny, yet her voice was massive!
These young girls were from the Rwandan Queensland Association, and did their nation proud with cultural dance
Now I know I talk a lot about how much I miss Rwanda and how I would go back in a heartbeat, but to just meet up with a Rwandan family and talk with them really made it so much more clear to me that Rwanda is always going to be a part of me, and will never leave me.
2 comments:
Hey Babe - Glad you had such a lovely time there and that you found some Rwandas to "feed" your hunger for their country. It's amazing how close Sascha sounds to Umufasha!
Hey Babe - glad you had such a great time with your "other" nationals! It's amazing how closely Sascha sound to Umufasha - God knew where your heart would lie when He gave me that name for you!
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