kwita izina

Once a year, the Government of Rwanda throws a party/fundraiser/awareness-raiser called “Kwita Izina” or “to give names”.  At this event, all the gorillas born the previous year are given names by invitees who have either won some sort of contest, have donated a lot of money, or who have helped in some way in gorilla conservation.  For example, there was the CUTEST little girl who won some sort of coloring contest or something and she named a gorilla.  She got the biggest cheers.

There were two main divisions in the audience.  There was an open area which anyone is able to enter which was mostly filled with Rwandans from the surrounding area, there was another area which was “invite only” which had mostly wealthy Rwandans and foreigners.  I’m lucky enough to have a friend who works for the Rwandan Development Board (the part of the government that puts on the program) and he got me an invitation to the latter.

Kwita Izina was different than I expected.  I’m not sure what I expected… I guess it was more of a program than a ceremony.  I don’t really know what the difference is between those.  I guess a program involves entertainment.  Overall, it was great.  The Prime Minister spoke, there were some traditional dancers who performed, there was that cute girl I mentioned, and the best part is that they didn’t try to make it into an all day event.  They kept it relatively short, three or four hours if I remember correctly.

The cutie-pies getting named today

I think they hired the Troll 2 cast & crew to do the special effects for this event.  I couldn’t get enough of them.

I wish this guy would cheer up.  He’s marching for the Prime Minister for heaven’s sake!