A sigh of relief as lunch break finally arrives and I get a chance to head home for a couple hours of doing nothing before heading back to work. I begin down the dirt road that leads to the health center, passing schools on my left and right. I hear mingled shouts of, "mazungu," "good morning," and random other kinyarwanda phrases that were aimed at me without falling on comprehending ears. I am contemplating what I have waiting for me a home to munch on when all of a sudden there are two small hands in my own. I look around and notice a group of 5 or 6 kids, with the green uniforms, now forming a line linking themselves to the two holding my hands. Somehow there is an energy that gets passed through the held hands because it seems like a privilege to be in the line. I smile since the green uniforms are always the cutest and are typically the only ones I allow to hold my hand as we walk home, since the massive advancing line tends to get noticed.
They are all jabbering away in Kinyarwanda and I am giving indiscernible mumbles that neither affirm nor deny my knowing what they are saying. Then, one plucks up the courage and makes to impress by testing out some of the english words he knows. None of my line can be more than 7 so I decide to see what else they know and start spouting the random words I know in their language. "Inkoko?" "Chicken" they reply without missing a beat. "Igiti," "tree!" "Inka," "Cow!" Needless to say I am impressed since I am struggling to remember simple vocab to keep the game going. "Ihene." A momentary pause and then a tentative, "hen." For an odd reason I feel the absurd thrill of outsmarting them. Yes, I admit that I was glad I knew something the 7 year old didn't, so sue me. Unfortunately even that was short lived as one of the brighter kids corrected himself saying that no, inkoko was hen. "Goat" I declared triumphantly and they all ponder this new word. They are just too darn cute really.
Now I just need to find someone I can clutch hands with on my walk home and play the Kinyarwanda name game with.
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