(Ha! I love this picture of Ellen!) Obviously, weren't dancing in the van, but the journey started here. We were in the van driving to see the Women For Avenir cooperative, the place where I will intern later this month. I was expecting to find strong women who believed in unity through counseling, but I wasn't expecting to dance. I was so utterly impressed and humbled after leaving Avenir; but me, here, in this picture -- I was on my way to Avenir, excited and anticipating being impressed and humbled, but having no idea how it would happen.
When I stepped out of the van -- admittedly feeling a little queasy from the heat and traffic -- Avenir was upon me, just over a yellow gate. There were three of these (two this size, one bigger).
These houses that, at first, seemed to me like tiny castles. In the middle of the tripod, there was a big gazebo with about 12 women and five children sitting on mats. A woman in a red dress with a heart-patterned neckline greeted us at the gate and then animately chatted with Bea in Kinyarwanda as we all slowly walked toward the gazebo. It was beautiful. It seemed safe, clean, dreamlike almost, and I wondered how/why this space was created for the Women For Avenir ("avenir" meaning "future" in French).
A brief story of the history of Avenir says that Madame Florence, a women who was living in Paris in the late 1990s, met some people from Rwanda who had escaped and survived the genocide. She traveled to Kigali and decided to create a cooperative for widows of the genocide in the center of the city, and she built these homes to define counseling within a traditional society; she knew that these widows and women who had survived the genocide wanted a home of their own, and she decided to build traditional Rwandan round form houses (see above) as the site for the counseling center.
Avenir is the space for the reconstruction of self.
That's what this woman said, the woman in the red dress who laughed openly with Bea. She is Avenir's counselor and has been a counselor for genocide survivors and perpetrators since 2002.
She herself is a genocide survivor, and she is one of the most relentlessly compassionate people I have ever met. I don't know if I feel comfortable sharing her personal story about the genocide yet, but maybe after I spend some more time with her and feel confident that she would accept my storytelling, I will.
After she shared with us, we all embraced each other, and she spoke about the women at the cooperative. She spoke about the traditional home art that they create, and how it doesn't particularly sell well at the market because traditional art isn't practical or in demand, but how creating the art itself is essential to the women's healing process.
"In my opinion as the counselor," she said, "they have a strong concentration to what they are doing while they paint, like they are connecting to the past."
So, the women come to the Avenir site, they paint the traditional symbols of home -- like protection and long life -- they attend counseling sessions, they open up to the counselor and also to each other and themselves, they laugh, they cook, they breastfeed their children, and they dance.
After the presentation, the President of Women for Avenir, a woman also named Bea, told us that she wanted to welcome us into their home and thank us for listening to their stories; they show this appreciation and hospitality through dance.
So, they stood up, and helped each other stand up, and they each spread their arms and stomped their feet and danced. I wanted to take a picture, but Emmanuel pulled us up to dance with them, and then I was just so happy to be communicating with them through dance that I didn't think of anything but that.
What a beautiful, beautiful day.
Now, for some visual stimuli. Here are some more pictures of Avenir and a bonus picture of us posing with a Rwandan comedian/celebrity who Emmanuel spotted during our dinner at the Gorilla Resort. Enjoy.
Murabeho.
Bonus picture: A famous comedian in Rwanda (forgive me, I don't remember his name) and the rest of us. Just in case you don't believe me, check out the billboard below. Bam! Also to note: Robert DiNero and Ben Affleck are in town, so if the stars allign, there may be some more celeb pics to come.
Yanna
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