Friday morning saw us up at 5:00 a.m. in order to get our stuff organized for leaving the Step Town and getting to Amahoro stadium.
The night before we had spent two hours in a government office getting credentials to go to the 20th Anniversary Liberation Day Ceremonies. For security reasons we had to be at a central pick-up location by 6:30 am. We were on time for that and were sitting in our seats at Amahoro by 7:00 am. And there we sat, in full equatorial African sun, until 11:50 when the festivities began. I was wearing long pants, a light tee-shirt and over that, my tilley sunshade shirt (with roll-up sleeves), a hat and sunblock.
I did not get sunburned. Linda, dressed similarly to me, and did not get burned either. Most everyone else in our group was burned, some of them badly.
The spectacle ended at 3:00 pm, and we had moved to the shade for the last hour, but by then, most of us were feeling a bit rotten by then. We had arranged to have lunch at the Hotel Chez Lando, and having had no cell phones on us due to security restrictions, Rich had had to leave the stadium to go to the restaurant to tell them we would be late.
Finally we made it to Chez Lando. I only had a bit to eat because I was feeling off and we had a long bus trip to Akagera ahead of us.
After lunch we spent a bit of time at the National Heroes Mausoleum, took pictures and then headed off to Akagera.
On the way, we came across a child laying in the roadway, on a road like highway 2 in Ontario, with a child standing in front of her waving his arms to warn traffic, but with about a dozen adults standing around doing nothing. We stopped the bus, fearing the child had been his by a car because she was shaking all over, and gave her a check over. Turns out she was having a seizure and it struck while she was crossing the road, still no one made a effort to move her. We put her into the bus, found out where she lived and drove her home. We gave her a soccer shirt and soccer ball, and were on our way!
In Rwanda people think seizures are transmittable, and that if a person who is having a seizure farts and you inhale it you immediately become infected. That's why no one else was assisting, usually Rwandans are very helpful especially if someone is sick and especially so in public, but ignorance is still commonplace and sometimes more powerful than common decency, on behalf of all Rwandans thanks for intervening!
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