Celebrating good health

Recently, my night guard had experienced poor health and had been in the local hospital for some time.  Although not completely recovered, he is now back at home.  I had been visiting him when he was in the hospital and was always greatly humbled by the gratitude I received for this from his friends and family.  I consider Justin to be my friend, I care what happens to him and his family, so I wanted to visit.  Now that he is home I have not seen so much of him as he lives about 20km from the town.  However, I was invited to visit this week.  I accepted straight away.  I knew I would probably feel a little awkward as I assumed there would be friends and family gathered and it would be quite an occasion.  But I got more than I bargained for!

First of all, I was an hour late arriving.  I had struggled to get on a bus as all of the buses coming from Kigali in the direction of the Tanzanian border were full.  The local matatu was being repaired at the side of the lorry park and so it took a while to get on the bus.  Once on it, I had instructions to go to the village of Rukizi at the 114km marker on the road.  I got off in the village of Rukizi but discovered I was still some way from the house, so I began walking.  It was a really hot afternoon, so I took my time and drank in the scenery (trying not to focus too much on the tarmac road! – although even that had it’s charms.  It is the main road to Tanzania yet there were games of football and suchlike being played on it, clearing out of the way for the occasional heavy goods vehicle that passed).  As I approached the 114km marker, there were a few people waiting.  One of them greeted me by name – he was my welcome party.  I greeted the other two men and assumed they were waiting for a bus.  Turned out they were with us and one of them was Justin’s pastor.  We walked to the house and it was explained that Justin and “the others” would be a few minutes.  Justin’s cousin came out to greet me and took me inside the house.  We sat down on the benches, and then David, Justin’s eldest son (6), came out.  He ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug.  Then he sat right next to me and held my hand.  And that is where he stayed for the rest of my visit.  I have met him a couple of times before and he was very shy at first, so I was hugely flattered to be getting such love from him.

We sat attempting conversation – thankfully Justin’s cousin speaks some relatively good English.  Then Delphine, David’s sister came in.  She was doing her best not to come anywhere near me but did keep laughing at me.  She is quite spirited so it was enormously entertaining to watch her.  A doll appeared and we had some fun playing with her.  The local children had heard of my arrival and a reasonable crowd gathered at the door.  David wanted to know if I could photograph him and the doll, so that was an excellent opportunity to get my camera out – it’s so nice when people ask you to take photographs rather than you feel like you are being a nuisance by taking them.  After a serious photo shoot with David, Delphine, and Davina the Doll, David asked if he could dance.  So he did, and we photographed and videoed his moves.  He was hilarious.  A couple of the children watching at the door asked if they could perform, so they did.

Then David said he would like to come home with me, so we all had a laugh about that and discussed when he could come to visit.  He suggested I bought him some sweets instead.  This seemed like a fair deal, so we went to the shop next door and purchased 20 sweets for David, Delphine and the other children.  David and Delphine allowed themselves 5 each and then there were just enough to hand out to those that were there at the time.  We went back and sat around talking some more.

Then Justins’s wife, Emmeline arrived.  I have met her many times now on my visits to the hospital, so rather than greet with a handshake I always get a lovely hug from her.  She is a very beautiful, poised woman and always looks elegant.  It is also lovely to watch her with her children.  We did some more talking.  I had now been there for an hour and a half.  After two hours, and many more drips and drabs of people coming in, Justin arrived with another pastor he had been staying with.  They had been praying for him to try and make him better.

Justin certainly looked better.  He has put on most of the weight he lost in the hospital and he seems to be making a good recovery.  He is still not quite what he was, but is clearly on the way to good health.  He stopped at the door as the pastor and other friends said some prayers, then everyone came in and there was much hugging and shaking of hands.  Then, my interpreter told me we would pray.  This was Rwandan “freestyle” praying, where everyone just does their own prayer, out loud, at the same time.  Some of them shouted to make their message that little bit stronger and there were a good few hallelujahs and amens coming out of the throng.  I kept quiet and said my own little prayer in my head.

Following this, we had a hymn.  The singing was beautiful and it was amazing to hear how everyone just quickly chose a different harmony to sing and the range of clapping and banging all came together to make a lovely sound.  The song lasted a good 5mins and then there was some more praying.  The middle bit of my visit is a little blurred as there was a lot of praying, singing and talking.  At one point Justin and his pastor asked me to stand up and introduce myself.  After more prayers and songs and bible readings and sermons, everyone had a turn at introducing themselves and stated which Church they were from (it was fine that I was Catholic and everyone seemed OK that I “prayed at home” as I didn’t understand the Kinyarwanda service).

It was starting to get dusky outside, so I suggested to Justin’s cousin that I should think about leaving.  He went to discuss this with Emmeline, and the next thing I knew, big bowls of food were delivered to everyone in the room.  There must have been about 20 friends and family there, so this was no small thing.  There was even a piece of meat for everyone.  It was very tasty and I ate as much as I could.  David finished mine for me as he said it tasted better than his own (honestly – they were all identical!).  We drank tea and then it really was dark.  Dismas, Justin’s cousin rang his friend who had a bus to see if there would be another bus passing.  After about another 20mins and more serious praying now that we had full stomachs, I was hauled out of the house as the bus was stopped on the roadside for me.  I said my goodbyes to all my new friends and Emmeline took my hand and walked me to the bus.  There we parted with more hugs and handshakes and said we would meet again soon.

It was a really special afternoon.  It is not something I ever really envisioned I would end up doing.  To be invited into someone’s home is a great insight into life here and the people you meet on these occasions are always so warm and welcoming.  Despite my anxieties that I would be a spectacle, I felt very happy to be there and honoured that I was invited to celebrate the fact that Justin is now on his way to recovery.