Kigali 15 April 2012

This is Kigali writing the (probably) last blog of our Rwandan adventure.

Let me first explain why we wrote this time very few blogs.

This has been the most complicated work we have done up till now. Not in the last place because of the emotional factor, the very tangible presence of the genocide. This made us  rather exhausted when we came home each night. Plus of course some internet troubles.

This means that we had not so much space for sitting down and writing.

Now, Sunday 15^th of April, we just came home from a short visit to the Cambodian house, where every one was in the middle of packing. That means quite a vast collection of boxes with clothing and not to forget, the set and the equipment.

George had some farewell presents, we had some, photo’s were taken, and off we went again.

To-morrow they will leave early in the afternoon and we early in the evening.

End of a rather crazy, but so very rewarding enterprise.

I go back to Wednesday 11^th of April. We went in a comfortable bus to Butare some 130 kilometre south of Kigali.

Butare is the University town of Rwanda and seemingly a quite nice town. Though we did not see too much of it, since it was still the week of commemoration and every shop, restaurant and market is closed after noon during that whole week.

The story of Butare during the genocide: The cultural spirit of Butare was so strong that the town seemed to be able to resist the madness of the slaughter and besides that, the prefect was a quite courageous man, who welcomed refugees from other parts of the country and kept peace in his area for two weeks. Then the hardliners in Kigali became rather annoyed and they airlifted paramilitary units to Butare, killed the prefect and started the slaughter. As a result the genocide in Butare was the most cruel in the country with 220.000 victims.

This explains why the mourning in Butare is extremely deep.

So, when we arrived at our first venue, the Salle Polyvalente, there was still a commemoration meeting going on in a crowded hall, with also hundreds of people standing outside.

We would start our performance at six, but we could finally begin at half past seven. Which wasn’t that bad.

Even though we knew about this week of mourning, I think that there, in Butare we became conscious of the real importance and the heaviness of this period.

The next day, Thursday, we played in the auditorium of the University. A beautiful campus with amazing trees and a sober memorial monument.

Again a full house (we always played in a hall with lots of people having to stand) and a good performance.

The actors are growing in their acting so fast. It really sounds like language-music and we heard that many spectators think that the Rwandans and the Cambodians can understand each others language!

When  we came back with the bus, the commemoration week was officially over, but still we could see many earnest gatherings with the purple and white banners in the fields..

One day of rest on the 13^th, very well earned.

The 14th of April, yesterday, we drove to Byumba, east of Kigali.

A very beautiful drive up in the mountains with spectacular views over the green valleys.

Byumba is situated in the middle of lush tea plantations.

The bus drove quite fast and especially on the way back with a heavy rain we had some fearful moments, when a woman ran across the winding road and a few chickens with baby’s

escaped just in time.

This was our last performance of the six and it was a memorable one.

There were 140 persons from the grassroots program of la Benevolencija.

These are groups spread all over the countryside of Rwanda, Each group has around 14 members and they follow a program that is linked to the radio soap Musekeweya. The aim is to learn to recognize possible aggressive actions or attitudes timely and take the right action in mastering the situation.

They were beautiful. Women in gorgeous dresses,  lots of babies and serious men. At the end of the performance the members of one group presented presents to our actors, which was very touching. (see foto)

This morning (15^th of April) we had an appointment with first Wesley and later with Gratien (the Rwandese actors)

This was quite intense and informative.

They both loved the work and they loved the Cambodians even more.

And, which is very important for us, they would gladly take part in a next play here in Rwanda for the Rwandans.

It would be great to work with them again. They are very good actors, and, important, they are as different from each other as can possibly be.

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The performance has been already twice on television.

To-night we have dinner with a Spanish woman who works in Canada and who would like us to perform this combined performance in Canada.

There seem to be both an extensive Cambodian and a Rwandan community over there. So that makes it rather interesting.

We will see.

Thank you for having read our blog, and we’ll see most of you in Amsterdam.

Annemarie and Nan.