Babel

They have a small movie theater here in Butare. I went and saw the movie “Tower of Babel,” with Brad Pitt, there yesterday. It seated about 30 to 50 people in the Theater. It was not shown via film strip but rather by a computer projector. As a matter of fact, periodically the movie would stop and the word “Buffering” would come on the screen. A few seconds later the movie would start. The movie was in English, so Bart, Katherine, and I were probably the only 3 out of the entire theater that could understand the entire movie.

This is very ironic because the movie is about lack of communication. I don’t want to ruin the movie, but it does parallel the biblical “Tower of Babel.” The biblical Tower of Babel is about God’s people trying to build a tower to the heavens. God smashed it down and with it common language. After the Tower fell, different races and languages started. (This is a very short and possibly incorrect version, but look it up if your curious.)

What was so ironic was that I was watching a movie that is somewhat based on the Tower of Babel, a movie about miscommunication, while the theater was filled with people who couldn’t understand it. They either spoke Rwandan or French while the movie was in English. After the movie was over, they chattered away in Rwandan about the movie (trying to figure it out I assume) while I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

As a matter of fact, if there is anything that I am not enjoying about this stay here; it is that I cannot communicate with the local people. I can watch a movie in English with them sitting beside me. I can enjoy the movie (except for those few minutes that it is “Buffering”), and I can tell YOU what the movie is about; however, I cannot discuss this movie with those in the theater. We cannot communicate, and this time I am the outsider.

The worst part is that it is my fault. Most of the people in Rwanda speak at least 2 languages fluently. Some can speak 3 or 4 very well. I can only speak one language. (Refusing to learn more than English is as American as Apple Pie!)

I have promised myself to never say these words again, “Foreign people living America should learn to speak English!”Instead I shall say, “People who only speak English should live in America. It is the only place where you can get away with it.”