TWENDE TWENDE RWANDA

 TWENDE TWENDE RWANDA

For Mothers And Their Daughters; For Mothers To Read To Their Daughters.

In Rwanda, I learnt to love, and to love Adventure.

Hi. My name is Kimu (Kimungu). I am an African girl, born in Kenya and my name means Divine/Of God in Swahili. Today I am very, very excited because my Ma and I are in an aeroplane. We have been flying for 1 hour 26 minutes from Nairobi, Kenya, and we are going to land somewhere special. Baba is not here with us but we still say, ‘Twende Twende’. swahili for, “let’s go, let’s go”. We are going on a journey!

When we got off the plane, it was very warm and it felt a bit difficult to breath. Ma told me it’s because the air is humid, which means that it the air is hot, but also damp and sticky, with little wind. Ma also said it is because Rwanda is landlocked, which means that it’s completely surrounded by land and is not near any ocean or seas.

We took a taxi to Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, to the home of a local Rwandan family. The city was very beautiful, clean city, with no litter, pollution, or traffic. I also noticed that they drove on the opposite side of the road to my country, Kenya. The streets were also lined with beautiful green trees and colourful flowers. I asked my Ma how this was possible if the country was landlocked, and was not close to any water. Ma said, “the country’s leaders are very organised and make sure there is enough water and food, even if they are not near the ocean”. 

Our host was a lovely mother of three beautiful children. She spoke English, French and Kinyarwanda, which is the main language of the Rwandese people.

“Why do they speak french if they are not from France?” I asked Ma.

She told me that they speak French because many years ago, people from a country called Belgium came to Rwanda and made sure they learn French. She explained that these people did this because they wanted to control another country. The people of Rwanda took control of their country on July 1st, 1962. Our host also told us that not many Rwandese people spoke English and Ma also told me that it’s ok for people to speak a different language from yours.

Our host took us for a tour around the city, and I saw that Rwandese people were very beautiful! Most of them were tall, with milk chocolate skin and very white, shiny teeth. The girls had very long hair. The people were very quiet and polite. we went to a beautiful store where we saw extremely colourful scarves, clothes, and shiny jewellery. Also, they were not very expensive, so Ma bought a lot of things for her friends back home.

After that, we went to a place called ‘Rwanda Genocide Memorial Centre’. Our host told us that every city in Rwanda had a building like this. I asked her why,and she told me that this centre was to remember the people of Rwanda who were hurt by very bad people. She said it is called Genocide (jeh-nuh-sa-ed). She said it was a very sad and scary time in Rwanda.. I felt very sad in the Memorial centre.

The next day we went on a hike to ‘Volcanoes National Park’ which is where the beautiful gorillas of Rwanda live. We started very early in the morning when it was still dark, and took a long drive to the national park. When we reached, we had some tea and bread for breakfast and met our hiking tour guides who would protect us from the gorillas. They had guns. I was scared, but Ma told me not to be scared as this was an adventure. The tour guides gave us some rules about the gorillas. They told us to be quiet around the gorillas. They told us to be still and not to make sudden movements around the gorillas. They told us not to scare the gorillas by standing tall, and that we should sit or bow if a gorilla comes near us.

“Why?” I asked. 

“Because the gorilla will feel like you are trying to fight him/her if you stand tall”.

The tour guide also told us that gorilla’s are very strong and they can hit you very far away with just one slap. I was scared, but Ma held my hand.

We walked far up the forest until we reached a clearing, and there we saw them. A mummy gorilla, a big daddy, a brother, and small baby gorillas. I hid in the bushes when one of the gorillas came near us, but the guard told us to just be still and he would not attack. He just wanted to see who his new friends were. After some time, I got brave and got out of the bushes, and even waved at the gorilla. One of them waved back. Gorillas are ver smart. We stayed there for a long time and even saw a mummy gorilla carry her baby.

The next few days were spent shopping, eating delicious Rwandese food, and spending time with our host and her children. I think Rwanda is very beautiful!

For Further information on single parenting.

Where is Baba?

Sometimes, things are not always simple and happy with our mummies and daddies. Sometimes, they get upset with each other or they do not have enough money to go places together. It is important to understand that this is normal, and does not mean that our parents do not love each other, or that they do not love you. It just means that, like us children, they are human and they feel sad, or upset, and might say something mean to each other, even if they do not mean it. We must always remember that we need to learn to say sorry if we have said something unkind and be kind to one another. And some homes have only a mummy or only a daddy, and that is ok.