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Taking back memories .... 19 YEARS LATER PART 4



   For the past two and a half  months,  I have gone through some normal moments and some extraordinary ones too.Writing about my experience back home in Rwanda has been the hardest to capture, from the point of view of some people it may seem like a normal visit ( sometimes that’s what I think too) but other times which seem like precious moments hidden somewhere in my mind, the experience has been exteraordinary!! Finding the right words won’t cut it, yet not finding the right words wouldn’t do justice to some of those precious moments.



   Going back to Gitarama was probably the climax of my visit, I went back home and by home I mean where I was raised for 2 years…where my parents were born,where it all began!! Driving through that countryside was like walking through a time machine ,the only difference was that I had no idea of what moment in time I had gone back to.



  It has taken me a week  to write this down and still, words fail me…my head is constantly replaying scenes of my visit;the long journey that kept me awake for almost a day, the first time I saw those houses built on hills and was stunned, the weird  feeling I got  from hearing everyone  around  me speak my mothertongue, the hugs I got from relatives


I hadn’t seen for years, the scared face of my niece who hadn’t realized who I was,
the heavy rains in April, the beautiful streets of Kigali that light up at night, the times I spent with my precious brothers, the confusing moments where my mothertongue would easily evaporate, the food I ate, my internship experience, the new friends I made, the times I missed home, sad stories about the genocide that I picked up… I remember everything!! How do I begin to write down each moment without wanting to write a book about it???!!!!



  When I saw where I came from, I could only imagine the childhood moments I might have gone through had I been brought up there...

When I saw where my mother had been born and raised, I saw the things that probably made her to be who she is ( the best mother I could ask for)

I  googled  the miles from Gitarama to Nairobi, 1236.7km ,the journey we made 19 years ago  and that made me appreciate the one man in my life who has been the rock that built my family ( I love my Papa) I was so overwhelmed with gratitude for my life,  God always has His reasons and I can only be grateful and accepting of them.



    I can’t say this journey back home has changed me ( maybe the weight gain) but it has made me think more about  my life and what I want with it. I am thankful for the warm welcome and I am most grateful to  my 3 brothers for making this trip worthwhile. I will miss it there but am glad to be back and whatever the future has in store for me in that beautiful land of a thousand hills, only God knows! I am grateful for the memories i have taken from Rwanda, at least now i have some to compensate for the curiosty that has lasted 19 years of my life.

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