Let's run through my day on 7th of April 2010...
7AM - Up and excited that the day is here (and almost over)
7:30AM - Shower, breakfast and out the door
7:35AM - Drop off torches at the stadium
7:45AM - Load car with banners, water, candles, name badges, etc
8AM - Meet Richard, hang banners
8:30AM - Find out the President will be attending the event
8:31AM - Get excited and realize, crap, everything needs to change
8:45AM - Pick up Herve, Joel, Sam, and some volunteers
9AM - Find out the event has been moved from KBC Roundabout to Parliament (again, crap! all media, our tv/radio commercials all said KBC)
9:05AM - Talk to Presidents office; Call my brother Denis and send him to every radio station to tell them change of location
9:10AM - Head to Parliament; Talk to Presidents Security; Tell Denis do not go to radio stations and tell them about the Parliament
9:30AM - Arrive at Parliament; Hang banners; Talk to Presidents Security; Tell Denis to go to radio stations and tell people to go directly to the Parliament
10:30AM - Go home and paint the President's t-shirt to read - Dar es Salaam rather than Dar el Salaam - THE PRESIDENT'S SHIRT...yego!
11AM - Go to prep speakers; check up on team
11:30AM - Go to tent to see 144 student volunteers - drive some to the Parliament and KBC to direct people to the Parliament
12PM - Back home - SHOWER!
12:45 - Head back to tent - where is the bus for the volunteers? Funny, no one knows?!
1:00 - Drop off more volunteers at KBC - raise my voice for the first time at the "volunteers" who are simply sitting under the overhang letting people walk around aimlessly
1:15 - Head back to the tent with Rachel (130 volunteers still need transport, we have a mini-van)
1:30 - Arrive at tent, NO BUS! Super! Rachel becomes a taxi driver and I notice a massive dump truck two houses down who could take us in two trips; I ask the kids who will translate for me, all the boys are shocked and put their heads down, one tiny girl agrees
1:35 - Tiny girl and I mock the boys for being pansies and go knock on the owners gate; Talk to the owner who calls the driver and offers to pay for gas; Rachel continues to transport them back and forth; Denis tells the kids to start walking while we wait for the driver to arrive
1:50 - Driver arrives but bus finally came and picked up the kids on their way; Rachel comes back to get me
2:00 - President's speech starts; all roads are blocked off, Rachel drops us 1/2 mile from Parliament where they are about the lock the gates
2:20 - Arrive at Parliament; everyone is gone! People continue to trail in; Sam, Joel and I start walking to the stadium to get people organized
2:40 - Meet Rachel half-way; give out water
3:10 - Arrive at stadium; get hit on by almost every very attractive Presidential guard as I am trying to get to the track (I love Rwanda and their love for big, white women)
3:30 - Get onto track; receive 20 phone calls from people who the guards will not let enter (key people, speakers!); Start basically doing laps to make sure everyone can enter - again, pays to be a big white woman
4:15 - Start organizing the people into a ring for the lighting of the candles; Continue recieving phone calls, back and forth...
4:45 - Finally on the track to stay; start moving over 1000 people into on circle with no holes (by myself, thank you team "leaders")
6:00 - FINALLY, we have a circle!
6:15 - Music; make sure everyone has a candle
6:30 - Ceremony starts!
6:31 - I breathe and start taking pictures; really enjoyed the remainder of the event
Many, many other things happened but those are the basics.
Highlights - Approximately 9,000 participants (4x last year's event); President made a speech and lead the walk; TONS of media coverage; VERY HAPPY sponsors; Majority of the audience was youth - they came out in full support of the event; I am still alive and unwinding.
All of it made it easy to lose focus on why we were there. The actual ceremony really made it real. It is amazing what these people experienced only 16 short years ago. It's devastating.
MISS YOU!
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