Tom Close

Even though I have no job, I have been keeping very busy! Friday night, Alex, Patrick, a new girl we met named Becky, and I headed to Butare which is about three hours away from Kigali to meet up with the FSU students and go to a concert. Tom Close is a famous Rwandan pop star, and he was putting on a benefit concert to help raise money for GPE. We stood out in the cold trying to sell tickets for about two hours which was somewhat miserable, but finally the fun began. We got to listen to about five other "musicians" first..."musicians" is a very strong term for some of the people we heard. It was so interesting because everybody there just sat while listening to the music--nobody was dancing! I can't imagine going to a concert and not dancing!

One of my friends and I decided that we wanted to dance so we hopped up on stage with one of the singers and danced for a song. It was so exciting! And finally, when Tom Close came out, everyone swarmed to the front and began dancing. We also hopped up on stage with Tom to sing "Si beza" with him, which is his most popular song. After the concert, we continued the dancing at a bar with some friends we had met in Kigali who happened to be at the concert too. It was a very fun night!

Yesterday was of course America's Independce Day, but it was also Rwanda's Liberation Day. Unfortunately, we missed the parade in Kigali because we were still on our way back from Butare. However, later that night, Becky, Patrick, and I went to a Liberation Day concert in Kigali. We were danced out though from the night before so it wasn't quite as fun as the night before! I do enjoy a lot of the music here though, and I was absolutely ecstatic when one musician began to play "Hakuna Matata!" I was finally able to sing along to a song! It absolutely made my night!