Umuzungu Hehe?

Since I am now the only white person in my village, and for that matter in quite a wide radius around my village, I am now on a personal crusade to get people to call me by my name. I am the only white person, thus they should be able to remember to call me Michele or Teacher. For the most part it is working, after I meet people once or twice and explain to them who I am, Why I’m here, and why I don’t like being called Umuzungu they tend to understand and remember for next time. My biggest tool in this crusade are the children, because they have a tendency to be clustered in large groups and to run after, up to me, etc whenever they see me shouting umuzungu. My new tactic for this situation goes like this:

*Chorus of children screaming “umuzungu” *

Me: Umuzungu?? Hehe? (where?) Do you see an Umuzungu? I don’t see an umunuzungu? While looking around confused

 This confuses the children immensely and usually they start laughing and looking at eachother like I’m crazy until one of them gets brave enough to point at me and inform me that I am the Umuzungu. At which point I laugh and say “no I am a Rwandan.” This generally sends everyone watching into fits of laughter until I explain my whole Peace Corps deal and then ask them very nicely not to call me Umuzungu because it makes me very sad. Generally children I do this too remember my name the next time and I usually instruct them to also tell their parents my name so that the message spreads further through the community. So far, its working. Buhoro Buhoro (step by step) they will know my name.