Odile's Graduation

Another post! I'm still trying to catch you up. More to come soon. 

I’ve been wanting to write a quick entry about a cool event I attended in April.

I know I’ve written a little before about Mamma Odile. She’s the head teacher of our pre-school class and definitely my best Rwandese friend, other than the sisters. My French has improved significantly thanks to her as has my understanding of African culture, particularly what it means to be a woman in Africa. I just love her. 

Odile is a mother of three, a teacher, and in April became a college graduate- a huge achievement.
She invited me to her graduation ceremony and her party afterwards. It was such an honor to go and I had a great time. I wanted to upload a few pictures for those of you who are curious about African university graduations.
The Rwandese really enjoy grand events and pomp and circumstance are very important to them so the ceremony was very formal. When I told the sisters I was invited to the graduation, they were worried about what I was going to wear because at that point I only had one formal African dress that I had already worn to several events, so I went ahead and had a second one made to wear to the graduation ceremony. Odile’s niece is a seamstress so I paid her to make it.  

The morning of the ceremony, one of Odile’s brothers-in-law, Joseph, picked me up in his car with Odile and then we went to get her sister Noella who is also a teacher at our school and was also graduating. It was a really big day for their family. 

The actual ceremony lasted almost 6 hours and I was the only Mzungu there. I sat with the oldest sister of Odile and Noella and took lots of pictures despite the cold, rainy weather. 

Just getting started

After the ceremony, Joseph picked us up again (there were only two tickets so he  didn’t come in) and we went to their mother’s house and the women began cooking a huge feast. Even though the party hadn’t started yet and no other guests had arrived, Odile and Noella kept sneaking me food and Fantas. I didn’t exactly put up a fight to refuse (they are great cooks!). 

Little by little, people began gathering until there was a huge group of Odile and Noella’s family, friends, neighbors, and just random people who wanted to stop by for the food. There was a lot of dancing, eating, drinking, and just general celebrating. 

At one point of the night people started making speeches. One older gentleman began making a speech in Kinyarwanda and suddenly I realized everyone was looking at me. The woman next to me (another sister of Odile and Noella’s; there are 9 sisters) told me to stand up and then people clapped for me. I still have no idea what that man said or why they clapped, but I felt very welcomed.

Not a great picture, but it's the only one I have
 of my seamstress,  me, and the dress. In our better
pictures,  I'm wearing a cardigan but I wanted to
show the dress. At that moment we had just snuck
 some fried potatoes from the grill. 

The next week I went over to Odile’s house because she was braiding Noella’s hair and wanted company. For those of you not familiar with hair braiding, it can take several hours, so Odile invited me over to watch French soap operas and eat while she braided. My new dress also wasn’t fitting quite right so the day after the party I asked Odile’s niece to fix it for me. I was planning on picking up the dress at Odile’s that day. 

As we were hanging out, Odile and Noella gave me the best compliment I have received during my entire time in Africa. They told me that their mother really loved meeting me, then Odile added, “She said you are not like a Mzungu. You came to our home and were a real African. You are now a part of our family.” 

Just then her niece brought out my new African dress and had embroidered it beautifully. I was shocked because embroidery like that takes at least 5 hours, but they said it was a gift to prove that I was now a part of their family. 

I was so touched and wore that dress for the beautification of Blessed John Paul II.