What's in a name?

  
  

Hello,

I just had a long post I was going to send but the internet cafe was switching from off the generator since the power came back on so I lost it all. I have less time now to say hi to you all but I'll be back on Wednesday I hope. We have just 11 days left in Uganda and then we are on to Kenya for a month. I am definitely excited to see another country.

I was thinking that maybe I should explain my name to you all. If you noticed I have been signing my blog posts as Isimbi Johanna. Obviously you all know that my name is Johanna:) Isimbi is my Kinyarwanda name (pronounced ee-SEE-mbee). It is very special to me because Selassie gave it to me. He said that it was perfect for me and since he rarely reached out to people like that it meant a lot. Simply translated Isimbi means "shining". A more accurate translation is shining like a snow-covered mountain or a pebble in the water. Rwanda has no natural resources like gold or diamonds so when people wanted to describe something that was treasured they used the way the sun glistens on the top of a snowy mountain as an example. But that is not what means the most to me about my name. When Sel gave it to me he said that in Rwanda girls that were named Isimbi were special. They were in his words " quiet, beautiful, and wise". As soon as he had said that he started talking about 1994. He said that during the genocide sometimes the killers would ask people what their names were and when they came to a girl named Isimbi they still killed her anyway. He had this look on his face that I can't describe and he shook his head and said "that was very bad" as if killing them showed how little regard there was for anyone at all. So, anyway that is the story of my name.

I will talk to you all soon! Bye for now!

Isimbi Johanna