Day 3- Azizi Life Experience

August 17, 2018

Muraho Family!

Today was the most incredible day of my life! I was not expecting today to be so amazing or anything like it was. I have never been happier!! We began the morning early as usual since the nuns serve breakfast from 6-8 and we had to be at the bus by 7:00. I really haven’t had too much trouble getting up in the mornings (knock on wood), I have just been so excited for the events of the day! After we got on the bus we had about an hour drive to what Rwandans call the Southern Provence. It begins when you cross the Nyabalongo river separating it from Kigali. We specifically went to a city in the S. provence called Muhanga. Rwandans are known for farming and we definitely saw that here. The bus ride to Muhanga was so beautiful, it was just green, rolling hills. When we got to our destination we met with the Azizi women. Azizi is Swahili for “excellent” or “treasured”. All of the women were middle-age or older. We were greeted with the warmest welcome of singing, drumming and dancing. It was so exciting and fun. After we watched them sing and dance they pulled us into the circle and we had a big dance party! My smile was so big it hurt! But I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. Once they finished the welcome dance we went into the “head” womans house. Before they did anything they said a prayer and explained to them how important religion was in their life. They proceeded to dress us in traditional Rwandan clothing. The women got skirts and head dresses and the men got a colorful sash. After we were properly dressed we introduced ourselves to the women and them to us. Most of them had four or more kids! After we introduced ourselves we went outside to a separate area that was the kitchen. We helped them peel some potatoes for our lunch and they began to boil them with the beans and cassava that had been boiling for 6 hours! Their kitchen was just a building in the backyard that had a fire and three stones to support a pot. It was very smoky, we couldn’t stand to be in there for more than a few minutes. One thing I didn’t really think about was that these types of kitchens cause lung problems for the women who use them every day. It makes sense because it is a space that is almost completely enclosed besides a small window and the door. While we were peeling the potatoes the women started singing a song called “Oh Suzanna” which was so funny because one of the girls in my group is named Suzanna. She is like a celebrity here because Suzanna is a popular name in Rwanda. Whenever we go somewhere and she says her name the people laugh and cheer. It is so funny, they LOVE her! After we peeled the potatoes they handed us plastic containers and we followed them to the river to gather water. In Rwanda this is typically the children’s job. The river wasn’t too far from where we were but it took about 15 minutes to get to the pump. When we got there the kids were so excited to help us fetch our water. They had a soccer ball (football) made out of plastic bags so we played with them for a little bit. They think we are the funniest people. Any time we would try to speak Kinyarwanda they would just laugh at us! They loved getting their pictures taken too. When ever we took a picture we would show them and they would smile and laugh. They even began making up different poses for the pictures. She of the children kept point to my hands and I couldn't figure out what they were pointing at. Finally I realized that they were pointing at the veins in my hands! They couldn't believe that I had blue lines on my hands haha. As we carried the water back the women attempted to teach us how to carry it on our heads which was SO hard!. They walked up these huge hills without even touching it! It was nuts. I couldn’t even keep mine on my head without touching it for a few seconds. When we got back we put the water in a large container and they sent us right away to work in the fields. We helped aerate the dirt and take out weeds with a hoe. They also taught us how to cut grass with this half circle knife. That was really hard! They helped us make these “crowns” out of banana tree leaves so that the grass would balance on our heads. That made it a lot easier but it still wasn’t completely successful.With the grass on our heads they led us to a cow and we dropped the grass on our heads for the cow to eat. After a long morning we finally got to eat lunch! Beans, potatoes and rice have never tasted so good! When we were finished we went outside again and the women taught us how to make bracelets out of banana tree trunk. They make everything look so easy! It was much harder that it looked. The woman who was helping me kept making me start over! But we got pretty bracelets at the end (mostly because she just finished it for me hahaha). Once we finished that it was time to go. We ended how we started, with dancing and singing. They asked us to teach them a dance we knew so we taught them the macarena hahaha. It was so hard to say goodbye to them, I already love them so much! After we left the bus driver took us to this little shop that had a bunch of stuff the women we were with that day had made. They had beautiful bowls, baskets, cards, nativities, bracelets, and much more. It was cool to look at the tag and see who made what! I loved today so much. I have never smiled bigger in my entire life!