Against all odds, the power came back just in time for us to have the dance we had promised the boys the week before. Friday, all of the boys received their most recent school reports, and many of the boys did really well. We had some of the top students for each grade at the local primary school. Willy was in the top 10 of his class in secondary school, so he visited the center to share his marks with Rafiki and the other staff. The mood at the center was very positive and happy. Just as we heard of everyone's successes, the power came back!
The timing couldn't have been better. We still had time to get everything together, including Willy's speakers, which were at his house a few kilometers away. They arrived at 5:30, and we started dancing at 6:00. We had 200 glow sticks that Woonsocket High School donated along with about 1,000 books. It didn't take them long to realize that you could crack them open and spray the insides all over themselves and the building. They were splatter painting everything possible.
We had some difficulties getting the music together. I had made a playlist of American music they were familiar with, and Willy brought some Rwandan pop music that the boys also really love. For some reason, we couldn't get everything hooked up right, and the boys handed us a CD that we had made for them. The CD had songs like Teach Me How To Dougie, Waka Waka, Kiss Kiss, Fire Burning, and Temperature. These songs were repeated over and over, and every time the boys were just as happy. They have a choreographed dance to Temperature, so every time it played, they would all get together and do their dance. They taught me the first time it came on, and by the last time it played, I knew their dance. If we were the DJ's at any party, I think we would be fired due to song repetition.
We had some left over glow sticks when we were leaving, so we decided to hand them out to random people along our ride home. We were able to give a glow stick to everyone on our first bus to Remera. They took it in amazement, and slowly shook it back and forth. I had a few stuck in my hair, and after a few minutes of playing with it, they stuck it in their hair too. Two of the women thought they were the funnies thing, and began asking us where we were from and what we are doing in Rwanda. By the end of the bus ride, we made two new friends and we have already received two calls from them asking us if we want to come to their house for a meal. We'll see if we have the time and energy for that in the next two very busy weeks.
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