Since our friends here in Bujumbura showed us such a good time for their Independence Day, we decided to throw a little fete and invite them to celebrate American Independence Day with us. Afterwards, we all agreed that next time we'll be a little less impromptu.
We had a modest plan from the beginning. Maybe a real cake, some popcorn and peanuts and we'd watch a movie. We decided to invite our whole AVP group which was 14 people plus the people here at the office in Rohero and Pastor Elie of course. Throw in Adrien's wife, children, brother & sister and one of Alexia's children and we realized the day of our party, it was not so little anymore. So then we went into the typical host panic of, "We must be sure to have enough food!"
The day before the party we looked for a movie to rent. We needed something that would be good for both kids and adults and preferably was in French with English subtitles (so we could all enjoy it too). We settled on Les Indestructibles (that's The Incredibles to you and me) and had a whole back and forth adventure between a video store and a rental place trying to settle on what made the most financial sense and ended up buying what is no doubt a bootleg copy for the equivalent of $6. We bought popcorn from a street vender and worried about whether we should have tried to bargain down from his price of $.50/bag. We're pretty sure we got the inflated mzungu price (you've got to figure if most people around here earn about $1/day there wouldn't be a lot of folks buy $.50 bags of popcorn) but I did notice that he put a lot more popcorn in our bag than in the others. Then we went on a quest for cake stopping in several little grocery shops. We found bread and croissants and cookies, but no cake. Day of the party, we decided to go back to the same bakery where we got my sweet bread and get a bunch of those. It was raining by then so I took the bread home while Andrew and John (graciously assisting the Americans with our party) went in search of peanuts and cookies.
Our first guests had already arrived when I got home so I bustled around getting Coke and Fanta for everyone and setting out the sweet bread. I also still had a bag of spicy trail mix and a box of animal crackers left from stocking up for the long flight over so I set those out as well. Red contributed some red licorice and before long Andrew and John were back with several bags of peanuts and an assortment of cookies. So far so good and more people arrived. Unfortunately we couldn't get the DVD we'd bought to work in the DVD player so we tried setting up a computer with speakers to play the American version of the movie Andrew had on his laptop. This took a long time. Burundians are fond of making speeches and they're part of most social events or gatherings so I tried to stall for time by making a little welcoming speech and explaining about it being our Independence Day and how even though we couldn't show them a parade we hoped they'd enjoy the combination of American and Burundian food and the American movie. We finally got the movie to start but even with the speakers the sound was very quiet so really only the 5 or 6 people up close could hear it. Everyone else sort of talked amongst themselves quietly. All while the rest of us were still running around refilling popcorn bowls and peanut plates and offering more soda. A few people seemed really to be enjoying the movie- in spite of it being in English- but I think we were all feeling about 2 hours in that the evening felt subdued and un-partylike.
Then Elie and Burundi culture saved the day.
At about 7:30 it was after dark and people would need to start getting home to real dinner while it was still ok to travel so Elie made a very gracious thank you speech which made us feel that in working so hard to keep the food flowing, we'd been good hosts. He finished by saying that in Burundian cultures the guests thank their hosts by dancing. Adrien started singing and everyone else started clapping and joined in the singing and there was dancing and it was instantly one of the best parties I've ever had. Adrien and Desire traded off leading the song (all in Kirundi so we had no idea what they were saying) and I gather that they were making up words to a song of gratitude or maybe adapting a standard one to this particular situation. There was a whole call and response thing and we each- John, Andrew, Red & I got called into the center to dance and be celebrated. It only lasted 15 minutes or so but completely transformed the atmosphere and when the leave taking began it was with such a joyful spirit.
Greeting and leave taking are very different in Burundi. When someone enters the room they greet and shake hands with everyone in that room, even if it's a party full of people. There's a whole language in the handshake as well. Your left hand rests on the crook in your right arm as you shake which is a sign of respect- so you don't do it with children though they will do it to you. Sometimes there's a three part hand clasp. Sometimes the handshake is preceded by a hug. Sometimes the hands meet with great engery, more of a hand slap that settles into a shake. Then again when you leave, you shake hands with everyone. Doesn't matter if you see them everyday and know you'll see them again tomorrow. You say hello, you say goodbye. It's quite wonderful and I love it. I always hate it when people leave a party or event without saying goodbye. I like closure of that moment.
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