First Chinese meeting!

On Sunday, January 3, we finally reached the moment we had been waiting for....

As a Chinese pre-group, of course we have had language classes as well as preaching. But this day was particularly special....

Yes, I am referring to our FIRST EVER CHINESE MEETING!

As I mentioned in previous posts, this was to be a video public talk. During December our pre-group distributed a special invitation to Chinese people in the city of Kigali. Out of 100 invitations, 95 were distributed.

But, before revealing how the meeting turned out that day, let me describe what took place the day before, which happened to be the wedding introduction described in the previous post.

We had planned to borrow a TV screen from Brother Zimulinda, who was the father of the bride. However, I had not tested the screen until Saturday, the day before the Chinese meeting, because I figured that we would be at his house anyway for the introduction. I had the public talk on a file on a flash drive, which I wanted to test on his TV to make sure everything worked properly, especially the sound quality. It should have only taken a few minutes to do the test.

However, I can tell you this in hindsight—a wedding introduction is not the best occasion to test a TV screen. Especially since the TV sat in a room where guests were filing in and out and also where they were taking pictures of the wedding party.

But earlier that afternoon, I was bending over to wash my hands in a pail of water when the flash drive fell out of my shirt pocket and into the water. (I had just spilled beer all over my dress shoes a few minutes earlier. This was not my day.)

So when we finally just took it upon ourselves during a break in the action to plug in the TV and insert the flash drive, the file wasn't there. Was this because the file got wiped out when it fell in water? Or was it because the TV didn't accept the .mp4 format? After lengthy discussion with Blaise, Victor, and a few others, we decided that Victor and I would both have to get our laptops from home. I had the file, fortunately, on my laptop, and Victor had a program to convert .mp4 to other formats, if that was necessary. So we returned to the Zimulindas, and played the video file. That was when we noticed a synchronization problem, which got worse as the video progressed, until the video was a few seconds behind the audio. What to do? Victor proposed to convert the .mp4 file to .avi, and though it took a while, all went smoothly thereafter. (This was by 9:00 p.m., when most of the guests had gone home.)

OK, there was some anxiety the next day also. I had a mental checklist of everything we would need for the meeting: two signs that say "Chinese" in Chinese, one for the KH staircase, and the other for the back room door; scotch or masking tape; scissors; 20 copies of the song in pinyin/characters; table to put the TV screen on. This, in addition to making sure we had power and testing the TV screen once it arrived. Well, everything made it and was set up before the meeting start time. (whew!)

Interestingly, at 10:30 a.m. that morning—an hour before the meeting—I got a phone call from the younger sister of my Bible student, who apparently was still on vacation with his family and would not be returning until late that day. She asked me, in Chinese: Is there still a Chinese public talk happening today? I said yes, do you want to attend, and do you have a car? She said yes, but didn't know where the Kingdom Hall was. I promised to 接送你, which means "pick you up and drop you off." That was easier to say in Chinese than trying to explain where the Kingdom Hall was, even though it wasn't very far away. So I scarfed down what remained of breakfast, threw some clothes on, grabbed the two signs and two flash drives (just in case), and took a motorcycle out there. She drove us in her car to the Kingdom Hall, and we made it in time.

So, the bottom line is ... three Chinese people came to the talk! Total attendance was 16, including the language learners.

Wedding introduction

In Rwanda there exist traditional customs in connection with weddings. I learned of this firsthand this past Saturday when attending the wedding "introduction" of Aurore and Innocent. (Aurore is a pioneer sister in my congregation.)

The "introduction" is somewhat like a reception, where everyone dresses in their finest and there is music, dancing, and plenty of food. The event includes a dowry payment, though in this case the payment—by the groom to the bride's family—had already been made earlier. Traditionally, the dowry is in the form of several cows, depending on the groom's means, but since this is a big city AND it is the 21st century, usually the monetary value of the cows is given. Based on the varying opinions of several I talked to, a cow may be worth anywhere from 60K-100K Rwf ($80-$130US), so five cows, for example, is quite a tidy sum for a groom in this country. He would need to have a fairly good job, and—based on the prevailing views of people (especially the ladies) in many countries of the world—a decent house. And a car, if you're talking about China. (Which may explain the high rate of singleness among young men and the rate of depression among young women in that country.)

Traditionally, the order of events is: the "introduction," arranged by the bride's family, usually held on a Saturday afternoon; registration of the marriage at the appropriate governmental office; the talk at a Kingdom Hall the following Saturday; and, finally, the reception, arranged by the groom's family. Between the introduction and the reception, the former is generally the bigger and more elaborate event. And, indeed, Aurore's family did go all out on this.

What I didn't realize—or else I would have eaten something before coming—is that the introduction consists of about two hours of speeches by various people in Kinyarwanda, as well as traditional dances and songs, and then the entry of the bride with fanfare as she is brought to her husband-to-be. (Note: Non-Witness introductions can go on for four or five hours of speeches. I wonder, what could they possibly have to say in that much time?) In any case, I managed to chug down three sodas, which managed to stave off the hunger pangs and keep me reasonably alert during the long stretches of nothing but Kinyarwanda.

Anyway, it was a very fancy event, which you may judge for yourselves from the pictures and video clips that follow. (By the way, in the second video, the men are doing dance movements that imitate a cow.)