My Canadian lineage

Le 20 janvier   It’s the strangest thing living in a community in a foreign language.  Most in the house know some English, but Sr. Ema has never learned so we stick to French if not sometimes Kinyarwanda to communicate.  That being said, my go-to language has become French.  Once in a while I’ll be in an establishment where the staff speak perfect English and they might say, “Well if you’re American, why are you speaking in French?”

“It’s a habit.”

When I was in Kigali to apply for my visa, I was able to go to a few of the morning masses at the chapel there presided by the Belgium Fr. Michel.  The mass was in French.  Sr. Lumiere introduced me to him afterwards in French.

I responded in French.

When I came to Kigali with Joselyne at the end of the month, I was able to meet up with my now-friend Kyle that I’d met by chance in Simba Market.  We shared a bit about one another including what we’re doing as volunteer work, who we live with – you know, the whole nine.  And just like in Rhode Island, there are never really more than two degrees of separation in Rwanda because the place is just so small.  Sure enough, he works in community with Fr. Michel.

Kyle went on to talk about how wonderful is and that they have the most amazing conversations.

What?  How do you communicate with him, he doesn’t know English?”

“That’s funny, he said the same thing about you – he thought you were Canadian and thought you knew no English.”

Bahahaha.  Under these circumstances, I considered this to be quite a compliment.

Just before leaving Kigali with Sr. Ema, we had to stop by Gatenga, the community where Fr. Michel and Kyle live.  I was able to meet a few of the others who live there, and Fr. Michel introduced me to the others as “This is the American volunteer that I’d thought was Canadian!”