Yesterday morning was wonderful hiking with Patty and Bona for 3 hours through parts of Kigali I had never seen before. It felt like we were back on the Congo Nile Trail. Peaceful, beautiful, birds singing, vistas and great exercise with the hills. Patty and I found a great residential area for our condos.
Then I donned my Rwanda "Amavubi" (Wasps) shirt and had an experience like no other.
All I can say is thank goodness for Christophe being my body guard and friend or I might not have made it alive into the Amahoro Stadium. [Patty's note: This is the African Nations Championship. Michelle saw game one of a three week series. This is the largest sporting event Rwanda has ever hosted.]
So much for our VIP expensive 10,000 Rwfr ($15) tickets. It was mass chaos with bodies crushing for 1 1/2 hrs. Thousands of stinky, sweating and passionate football fans all wanting in the gates. At times it was like an ocean wave pushing and pulling us and you could not breathe. I think in any other city their would have been a riot. When we got close enough to the initial bunch of soldiers holding people back one of them eyeballed me and said GO, meaning duck under their arms. I said he's with me and Christophe came too. I thought that was it and all was calm. Not so. The tickets meant nothing....as we got towards the seating area the soldiers were turning everyone back saying the seats were full. The mob of Rwandans said "let the muzungo ( white person) in" to the soldiers and again I was pushed through with Christophe in tow. Next to the stands which were totally jammed and no seats numbered. We were looking in the 500 Rwfr zone. Way up a Rwandan looked at me and nodded, meaning he would make room for us if we could get up there. And we did and it was all incredible from there.
The Amavubi were the underdogs vs Ivory Coast. But with the fans support of raucous singing, drumming , cheering, vuvuzelas and chants the Amavubi played a brilliant first half scoring on a free kick right in front of us. [Patty's note: see video clip below for Rwanda's goal and crowd eruption thereafter, expand to full screen]
The second half was tense as Ivory Coast rallied, their keeper even stopping a penalty shot. The goal post was Rwanda's friend in the final two minutes. A great start to the tournament for Rwanda. Thrilled to say I was there but next time I would have to go at 10 am to avoid the frightening crush of human beings.
Waiting for Derek to return from Gorilla trekking with Tristan. I can't wait to hear about his experience.
Football and gorillas aside it has been another incredible journey to Rwanda on so many levels.
It always breaks my heart to say goodbye to the nurses. They have made improvements and do things to the best of their ability in the circumstances. If anyone can sponsor me they have asked me to come and work with them for a year :).
Thanks everyone for your support and help on this journey.
Derek....it has been a joy to share Rwanda with you. I hope your life is forever inspired.
Patty thank you with love!
See you soon Canada,
xo michelle
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| Ready for the Amavubi |
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