We visited a local market to buy some groceries to be able to cook a traditional African meal for the welcome dinner at Félicité's house. The market in Rwanda is more like a farmers market in Chicago. Except for the chickens. They sell live chickens at the market (about $8 - depending on how good a bargainer you are! :D). The customer chooses a chicken and then it is killed. Live chickens are cheaper, because all the plucking and cutting is done later by the customer. Latrice and Yonetta ended up saving a chicken. They bought a live one and took it to Henrietta's house where it would live with a couple of hens she already had. We all petted the chicken and held it in our laps - locals were laughing at us because they don't usually pet their dinner. ;)
Welcome Dinner
When got to Félicité's house, each of us was assigned a task. Some made the salads, some made fish or chicken. It took a couple of hours for the meal to be prepared. At about 4 PM friends and relatives of the Rwandan girls started to arrive. When the official welcome started we introduced ourselves and our pen pals and we did a runway show with our wonderful new African dresses. Than we did the traditional Rwandan dance about the cows in traditional gowns that were rented. And the Chicagoans sang a song about family. Kigali girls danced again and we later joined with all the family members.
We also surprised Linda with a birthday cake that Henrietta made. Everybody sang Happy Birthday in 3 languages! ;)
Dancing (or not).
Then we were ready to go out and have even more fun. But that didn't last for long. A couple of the Rwandan girls were underage. And when finally it was decided that just some of us would go, we all got carded and the fun night was all done.
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