On Death and Leopards

A few nights ago, we had dinner at a friend’s house in Kigali. The dinner was spicy rice mixed with some meat (goat, I assumed), which is a pretty typical meal here. Right before dinner was served, the power went out, and we ate by candlelight (also pretty typical here, but I don’t mind it at all). Because the power was out, we couldn’t watch a movie or TV after dinner, so we got to talking. We started off with religions common in Rwanda, moved to our own personal takes on religion, but eventually shifted into more magical ideas.

What I mean by magical is this – the friend was telling us a story about a leopard that had frequented his yard about a month ago. The guard at the house would sometimes see the leopard strolling alongside the house at night. My friend said it is not all that uncommon to have animals in the yard though, because he lives right next to “the bush.” Sometimes a few monkeys will just walk through the yard, no big deal. But, he added to the story, maybe the leopards were just people who had transformed into leopards. He said it as if I would nod in agreement that that was a possibility, but I didn’t; I had no idea what he was talking about.

So, my friend went into a very long explanation about how there are some things in Africa that I just won’t believe. One of these things is that select people can turn themselves into leopards whenever they want. Other examples included people turning themselves into birds and flying to different countries in the night, and people taking part in a type of magic called Juju (not sure on the spelling) that renders them invincible to bullets or other harmful things. Potentially the most important element of this story is the credibility of my friend; he is a working man like I am now, and is probably one of the most intelligent and reliable people I have met here. I was especially interested in what he was telling us because of what I have learned in my anthropology courses so far and how this applied to what I have learned. I told him after he was done that I wish I could do those things.

But even more interesting than this was his perspective on death, and I thought many of you back home would appreciate it. He told us that when someone dies before they are meant to (read – before God has determined they should), they disappear from our eyes at that moment. But, they don’t disappear from the earth; rather, they travel around the world and do whatever they please, going wherever and meeting whoever. They are visible, perfectly normal looking to other people in the world, just not to the people in their lives before they died. Then, when the time comes that God had determined for them, they are disappear from the earth. Even if you are not really religious (I include myself in that category), I thought it was nice to think of people we have lost traveling the world, finally having the chance to do everything they had always dreamed of.

In other news, my bag has finally arrived, and everything is intact; not a single thing missing or broken. When I told people at the office that I got it and everything was there, they couldn’t believe it, they were sure that everything would be stolen. I was glad they didn’t share that attitude with me when it was still missing. Also, USAID (the US Agency for International Development) in Rwanda has enthusiastically volunteered to pay for the donated soccer jerseys to be shipped here – the soccer league for the kids should be off the ground soon. As a last note, Gotshalks Soccer (in Raynham I think) donated all the balls and jerseys; if you are going to buy soccer equipment, you might as well buy it from good people (wegotsoccer.com).

I will be in the field from now until Friday – talk to you all then.