Our guard (better said his wife) had a baby boy. He is happy because it's a boy. He already has three girls, 2, 6 and 8 years old. The gap implies something went wrong 4 years ago, didn't ask.
He is a nice bloke, came from Burundi about 15 years ago and left most of his family behind,rather tragic. As he is happy to work at our house; easy job, bit of extra money because he does the odd job etc. He asked if we wanted to give him a name. A bit hesitant, not to get too close we choose not to offend him. We did check if he wanted an english or french name, this is very important to some people. We finally decided on Peter, my middle name and apropiate internationally.
We now have a photo of the little NKURUNZIZA Peter Smith. Rwanda names are not inherited, this makes linking people to their parents hard, same goes for brothers. The first name (in capitals) is what we would call the familyname, but as explained, it's not. So Peter Smith would be his first and second names. I'm so glad that we didn't choose John, as that would make him John Smith.
Family names often relate to God, King or positive words like 'hope'. Nkurunziza means Good News. The national anthum is Rwanda Nziza, so the Nziza (good) part we knew.
To anyone who is interested the photo of little Good news Peter Smith is on our fridge, you're welcome to come and look.
2 comments:
Why not a picture on the internet?
Markelo.
Does naming him mean that you are his godparents and they haven't told you yet? groetjes,
Nienke
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