During our stay in Rwanda at Cathy’s house, there is one person who has delighted and impressed us, and has earned a permanent place in both of our hearts.
Ronnie Bakira – preschool teacher by day, ‘Acidic’ – musical prodigy by night. He is the saver of orphaned kittens and the collector of lizards in your bedroom as you hysterically shriek for help. He is also the purveyor of the ‘African Knock’ – a culture-appropriate way of admonishing kids who throw stones at the dog, kick a ball at Cathy’s head or engage in any sort of unsavoury behaviour. (While Western society may balk at the thought of knocking little ones swiftly on the head with a knuckle, I’ll say all the kids I’ve met here – INCLUDING the street kids – are scores better behaved than 70% of the kids I’ve met in Canada). I might need to administer a few African Knocks myself when I’m back, so hide your sons and daughters.
Ronnie is 26 and returned to Rwanda from Uganda about 1997/1998 by his estimation. He has no parents, and one brother who lives in the area. Ron is a permanent fixture in the house – while he lives in his own place, he’s at Cathys house for all meals and to help out with any volunteer related details. Such as taking so and so to the bank, taking this one to the gift shop, and that one to go buy phone cards. He’s always available and ready to help.
He also says some interesting things like ‘I wish to live only until I’m 60’. ‘Don’t you want to see your grandchildren??’ David asked. He pondered it for a moment. ‘No’. Fair enough.
At school, he’ll spend a Friday morning playfully sparring with one of the 2 year olds in his class, while on Saturday morning he’s a strict disciplinarian and coach to the over 100 street boys who turn up every Saturday to play soccer and receive a meal of bread and sorghum, as well as soap. In the pre-school, any child who is misbehaving need only see him come around the corner and they’re swiftly back in place. And if someone isn’t doing quite what I tell them to do, all I have to say is ‘Teacher Ron’ and they turn into angels. Who says threats don’t work?
Ronnie hopes to come to Canada someday and go to school there. This would be an excellent opportunity for him – he’s a smart, witty, resourceful and personable young Rwandan man, and Canada could provide some amazing opportunities. In Rwanda, when the locals see non-black people, they shout out ‘Amuzungu, Amuzungu!’- which loosely translated means white-person/foreigner. Ron jokingly asked if when he came to Canada, people would point at him and go ‘BLACK BLACK!’. We said yes.
But first he needs a passport – which costs about $100 USD to process in Rwanda. While Ron has been saving for this passport, we decided it would be a really worthwhile initiative to use some of our excess goat money to fund Ron’s passport. Which we’ve done. His first stop in Canada is BC – and when he makes it to Toronto, he’ll hopefully stay with us so we can treat him to Indian food (which he tasted for the first time with us, and loved) and to feed him sushi which he will likely hate, but it will be fun to see him try to choke it down. Retribution for the time he told me a store bought strawberry ‘wine’ was ‘wonderful’ when in fact it tastes like cough syrup.
So here’s to ‘See you sooner’ Ronnie. We hope you make it to Canada real quick.
Dal |
| Dal, David and Ron on the way to Kigali. Ron LOVED wearing yellow |
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| David, Steve and Ron have drinks at Khana Khazanaa..an amazing Indian restuarant in Kigali |
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