And then I met, and shook hands with, President Paul Kagame

Never have I ever been star stuck, and given the year I had before I left I thought that if it was going to happen it would have been then. Shaking Paul Kagame’s hand was unbelievable! SO EXCITING! I have my reaction after on video, unfortunately the image itself was not captured. This all happened at Kwitia Izina, the baby gorilla naming ceremony I went to in Musanze. At first I was disappointed when I found out there would be no actual gorillas, I found this out from the gorilla trekker that guided me to the ceremony, through a forest on a 45 minute hike. He explained to me that baby gorillas cannot be separated from their mothers and that gorillas live in the wild in limited areas of Rwanda. When the trekker asked if I had ever seen a gorilla before I didn’t have the heart to bring up the concept of the zoo. At the ceremony I was guided to the VIP section where all press was standing, I stood right next to the people dressed up in very realistic gorilla suites, the dancers, the musicians, the honorees naming the gorillas, Don Cheadle- who was a guest of honor, and president Paul Kagame. It was not until after the ceremony when I got to shake hands with the president. The friends I met at the ceremony arrived earlier and were told they could not bring cell phones in, after the ceremony, and after the wine and beer that was given to us, wine- a huge luxury in Rwanda, we went to the hotel near the ceremony where the cell phones were checked. We were told that we had to be extremely quiet and sit in a room and wait. We did not understand at first, but then learned the president was there, OMG! Yes I just said OMG! He was giving a tour to US military members on an exchange in Rwanda, and it was then that I shook the presidents hand! Extremely exciting! The president of Rwanda!!! One of the most exciting moment here so far.