UPDATE! See video about the Reconciliation Village recently posted. click here.
Wednesday, October 26th. We got to go to Kimonyi Village for the first time. We filmed the dancers and singers performing as well as a community lunch afterwards.
Thursday, October 27th. We returned to Kimonyi to shoot scenes around the village. We also had some time to film our first interviews – with an ex Hutu rebel (one of the lead dancers in the Kimonyi Reconciliation Village Dance Troupe), and his Tutsi wife, as well as with an elderly lady who lost her husband and nine children in the genocide. The stories are pretty incredible although they were reserved in their interviews. It became very apparent that Thabo would have to spend a lot of time at the village for them to trust us and open up more. One thing that stands out is the abject poverty of the people, especially reflected in the children following us around, mostly wearing very dirty rags for clothes. Hygiene is not possible in a place with a lack of water and is obviously not a priority – survival is. Our hearts went out to the people and my resolve to help them develop sustainable projects to alleviate their poverty just got deeper.
Friday, October 28th. We travelled with the Kimonyi dancers from Musanze to Gisenyi – a town that sits on the lake bordering the Congo. The venue itself was rather disappointing but the day was saved by three impromptu dances: 1) We got footage of the dancers arriving for the bus in the morning. They walked up the hill singing and put on a performance on the side of the road while people were walking down hill to work and carrying fruits and vegetable; 2) The dancers streamed out of the church venue into the street in Gisenyi and did a performance in the street for locals to see. Lots of kids started showing up and we had views of the Congolese mountains in the background; 3) As we arrived at the dancers’ drop-off in Musanze, they got off the bus and did another impromptu performance, attracting a very big crowd right next to the bus. This was the Gospel in action – the message of reconciliation through Christ preached through dancing and singing amongst the people. It was fantastic!!! The story of this dance troupe should be taken to the rest of Rwanda and into the countries in Africa devastated by so many ethnic clashes. It will even have a powerful effect in Western nations.
Sunday, October 30. We returned to Kimonyi Village once again. We filmed the dancers traveling by foot and by bicycle to their neighboring village where they put on a performance in intermittent rain. It was absolutely beautiful and continued in a field when we got back to Kimonyi. Afterwards, we got to interview an ex Hutu rebel who killed scores of Tutsi soldiers and civilians and raped many women in the Musanze area during the genocide and in the years afterwards, as a rebel solider based in the Congo and surrounding Rwandan hills. Once again, he was a bit reserved, but his story was incredible as was his transformation in Kimonyi Village where he realized that the Tutsi were not his enemy, for the very first time. He is now head of security for Kimonyi Village and also one of the most outgoing dancers in the troupe!
