Vacation Games

Soccer, basketball, volleyball, dance and music competitions are all part of the Vacation Games, hosted by Maison des Jeunes, a youth center in Kigali, Rwanda. The games go on for two weeks during the school holidays in late July and early August. By the time finals roll around they're drawing thousands of spectators. It's one of the only places for kids to go during the holidays, and the impressive attendence shows a clear need for these kinds of programs here.


Soccer tournement during Maison des Jeunes Vacation games:

Even with the goal keeper laid out in a pile of sugar cane husks the green team somehow managed to prevent a goal.







Games were frequently interrupted when trucks brought in boulders to reinforce collapsing riverbanks next to the field.

Never did figure out why the guy in yellow is wearing black nylon stockings...


No Rwandan event is complete without some traditional dancing. For the Vacation Games groups of competed in singing and dancing.










As much as Rwandans love their traditional dance, "modern dance" was clearly the most popular event of the Games.
Stayin' Alive?

Nice hats. Nice pinstripes. Nice surgical gloves?

Oh yeah. Nice shoes.

Nice moves.

Nice shades.

These guys got kicked off the stage for making a mockery of, well, pretty much everything. Nice.

The kids on stage were lucky this woman wasn't competing.

The Vacation Games draw huge crowds. The director boasted that even the mayor of Kigali couldn't get such a turnout.

Top row, balcony.

The hills around Maison des Jeunes form a natural amphitheater.

Kimisagara Illustrated

I've been spending a lot of my time in a part of Kigali called Kimisagara, which lies immediately below the city center (Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. The city center is at the top of one of them. Kimisagara is at the bottom.) The district is home to a youth center called Maison des Jeunes, the only one of it's kind in Rwanda. They sponsor youth soccer, basketball, and volleyball leagues; and host English lessons, a Kung Fu club and a journalism club. I'm also teaching photography there and working with the journalism club on radio production and reporting. Here's some stuff I shot while working with my photo students:


Rwandese drumline. These guys are getting ready to compete in a traditional dance competition during Maison des Jeunes' Vacation Games, a kind of youth Olympics held during Rwanda's school vacation.


This guy seemed to be acting as the captain of the drumline.


Not surprisingly, the youth center is always full of impossibly cute kids.

Mud brick houses on the hill facing the center make a great afternoon backdrop for photos.


Shootin' hoops. Basketball is second only to soccer in popularity here.


More hoops.


I disrupted things badly when I passed this primary school with my photo students. I created a catastrophic domino effect as I walked past the line of classrooms. Kids dropped everything to run to doors and windows to look at the Muzungu while teachers pounded on desks in a vain attempt to retain order. Pointing a camera at the kids didn't help.


I know this looks fashionable, but it's actually a form of street vending. Women walk around with impossible loads of fruit on their heads for sale to anyone who passes by.

Presidential Pooch Part II

On the first day we toured much of the volcanic north. On day two we headed east to Akagera park, on the border with Tanzania. Rwanda isn't known as a major safari destination, but Akagera has a good assortment of the usual African fauna. Check 'em out:


Giraffes were the most cooperative subjects. The let us walk up very close before they got annoyed with us and loped away with their long and deceptively fast strides.


Giraffes are very social animals, and often one or more keep watch while others eat.


Our crew for the day, from left to right: Andrew McGregor, Jon Vidar, William Karambizi, and an Akagera park ranger.


Zebras were much less cooperative. Most of our photos are of their backsides.


Akagera is full of a bewildering variety of things with hooves and horns that the park ranger invariably called "antelope." When he was feeling expansive he would explain the differences, but mostly he just pointed at stuff and said "antelope." It was very similar to the way the Rwandese point at everyone who's not African and say "muzungu."


Hippos were the least cooperative. Mostly they stayed underwater, surfacing occaisionally to spout like whales and grunt a bit before going back under. As photographers we were frustrated, but as overgrown kids we were thrilled to be standing so close to them.


Jon in the safari jeep. Other groups we met were clearly envious of our open canopy roof.


The tour operator liked this one. Hey, if he's happy, I'm happy.