land of 1000 hills

greetings from kigali, rwanda...

or, actually, im back in kampala now, but after taking a bus with my friend chantille (from vancouver) from here into rwanda

to visit one of chantille’s good friends carly

who’s doing an internship with the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) in kigali. i missed a couple days of school to be there, but it was definitely worth it. not just that it was a bit of a break from kampala and our hectic schedules, but the point of me being in africa again this time was to see, experience and think through a lot of “development” stuff, and i think the things i experienced here in kigali were really what i was here in africa for. and ill read up on social research methods later... :)

it was definitely an interesting visit... my first thoughts of kigali were “wow... this is really super nice place!”

it’s a beautiful city, with a hilly landscape so everywhere is a view of the city... and it’s so clean and orderly... really unexpectedly litter-free... turns the city banned plastic bags in 2005 as part of a city clean-up... explains the search-confiscate-and-destroy-plastic-bags-in-my-luggage episode at the border!
we noticed even the farms as soon as we crossed the border (we took a 9 hr bus from kampala)... lush tree plantations... were so organized and well-laid out.

and when we hopped off the bus and onto motorcycles...

they were licensed, uniformed, and even provided helmets for us... which were way too big for me anyways, but at least i feel like i look safer at least! :) i do my best to avoid having to take them in crazy kampala.

and the infrastructure is miles ahead of kampala...

the buildings are well-constructed and mostly modern-looking, and road-wise, instead of giant potholes and chunks of asphalts everywhere, the roads are paved, there’s actually sidewalks (decorative-looking brick-tiled ones at that!), medians lined with palm trees and well-kept shrubbery, grassy gardens in the round-abouts... and the traffic actually flows, which is much more than i can say about the 2-hour-to-move-12-km chaos in downtown kampala. kampala is actually putting a lot of $$ into fixing up a few of the roads and “beautifying” the city in preparation for “CHOGM” – a meeting of the commonwealth states when Queen Elizabeth will come visit in november... the city-wide “are you ready for CHOGM?” campaign has become a running joke in our class, but from what i’ve heard, people are actually in uproar about the “beautifying” because so much money is going into primping the few streets the Queen will pass on... while just around the corner there are slums and poverty that should be much higher priorities for spending.

anyways, back to kigali... it definitely feels like a wealthier, “more developed” city... infrastructure aside, people are generally more well-dressed, poverty isn’t so evident and widespread... not really people idling/selling things/begging very much at all on the streets, no kids in raggedy clothes running around. i don’t know much about rwanda’s economy vs. uganda’s, but i wonder if it’s a lot to do with all the aid money coming in after the genocide in '94. there’s definitely a HUGE international presence here... not only big huge embassy buildings all over the place, but UN agencies – UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF and big-name international NGO’s like world vision, care international, human rights watch, etc... strange - in kampala, most of the NGO’s i’ve seen around are mostly local grass-roots org’s.

anyways... maybe b/c of the international presence and how the relations here are, which ill explain in a bit, and maybe partly the infrastructure, maybe partly the speaking french that i associate with european-ness (not that english is any less non-native to africa, and actually, french is actually spoken less than i expected in rwanda)... but in any case, the atmosphere in kigali is definitely very different than i’ve experienced before in africa. there’s less forward-ness (but also less openness & overt friendliness), a sense of courteousness, formality almost... and ironically (for lack of a better/more appropriate word)...there’s a serenity and peacefulness (maybe it’s solemn-ness?) about the city.

it was altogether real and surreal at the same time, being here – visiting the genocide memorial centre in kigali,

the Hotel des Mille Collines (literally, “hotel of the thousand hills” - the backdrop of the true story of Hotel Rwanda during the genocide in 1994)... we even had the chance to sit in on a Gacaca court trial for a man accused of being in the Interahamwe militia during the genocide (which we left after he gave his testimony, before the rest of the witnesses and the ruling, cuz the court was much tinier than we expected, so our presence was really obvious and we felt really inappropriate and intrusive to be there, among victims and friends and family, while having nothing to do with the case...) like i said... very real and surreal at the same time. the whole nation was part of the genocide... and it really was not long ago. everyone i meet, i don’t ask, but i do wonder...what’s their story?

i think the biggest thing with being here this time though, and chantille and i talked a lot about it... is the ex-pat community (ex-patriot... umbrella term basically used to mean white dev aid workers, like with the UN and NGOs). it was so different again to what i’ve experienced, and actually really upsetting... disappointing to see. in tanzania, i had my canadian friends, but i also spent a lot of time with people i met - my african friends. i haven’t met so many ugandans here, but some... and staying at the hostel i get to talk to the other students in the hostel at least a bit when im not too tired... but at least we’re all living in the building at therefore somewhat at-par with each other, and when we got home last night, our cook, Ruth gave us a big hug and welcomed us back. but staying with carly, who just started working with the UNDP but is super sweet and humble about her circumstances and equally confused as us, at her fenced-gated-and-guarded house in a wealthy neighbourhood and her roommates and new friends here... we got to be right in with the other ex-pats, which is a small enough community. maybe i did actually meet a fairly limited number of them... but still.. i was really surprised with what i saw and heard about – the distinct non-interaction with the local rwandans... the sense of developer-developee... like they play right into the role of the rich-white-man-in-colonial-africa, and then personally perpetuate the system themselves.

and just hearing some of them talk so exasperatingly about their work and the africans they work with and work for... conflicts and “having to yell” at their coworkers/clients about ways to do things (like getting community leaders not to recommend witch doctors to people, or getting women in adult literacy programs to do their homework, or getting people to get tested for HIV) because they “just don’t understand”..... im just like... then why are you here? what happened to compassion? or even humility? what good are your hands when you don’t have the heart? did you come with that attitude, or did you originally mean well at some point?

hearing about – and then observing – their relationships with the local rwandans... like our interpreter at the Gacaca courts that we had a miscommunication about a meeting time with, and the maid (which i’m not even comfortable with in the first place, with the superiority-subordination relationship)... which turned out not even just a functional relationship in this house... but downright rude and degrading. leaving piles of dirty dishes in the kitchen and reading a book/barking orders at/criticizing loudly while the maid comes and clean. seriously!?!

and the negativity must seriously just perpetuate itself... new ex-pats like carly coming into that kind of environment... if everyone else is constantly going on about how terrible it is to be here, how they’re just sticking it out til they can get out of here... how can anyone even have the chance to embrace & love it here?

and then i think about what i’m doing here... if i’m helping the situation any, or just criticizing along with everyone else, just about different things and different people. and the many many people on the streets that hold their hand out, and never knowing what quite to do, i resort to just walking by, because there’s so many of them and just giving money won’t really help change the system. but then again, walking by doesn’t help change anything either, and probably entrenches even more the stereootype relationship. i dunno, all these times you think you’re doing something good, or trying to at least... meaning well, and then you make things worse being there. im not homesick, but i think maybe its soon time for me to be home again... at least til i figure out more what/where my place is. not that im done with the whole development thing, just seeing all that you cant take for granted as good – and brings me to prayer for God’s purpose for me here or anywhere.

and until then... this was an uplifting reminder from a good friend who’s been following a couple guys online on their tour through Africa & the rest of the world & their thoughts on Rwanda

The Bishop of the parish in Gahini where we have worked said to us the other day, "Western people take such good care of the body that they forget to take care of their soul, here in Africa people take such good care of the soul that they forget about taking care of the body" It is very true in so many ways but I am not here to criticize my country, I am here to soak in the culture of Rwanda and let it change who I am today and who I will become tomorrow. I have never talked to a person who come home from Africa disappointed or unchanged and it so easy to understand why. It only takes few days here and my heart feels changed, challenged and renewed. Rwanda has been a joy to experience. A country of a bloody history now sitting in a great peace, a president who loves God and revival on the doorstep. I am blessed to be here, to be challenged be these beautiful faces and to enjoy the laughter and joy of life that comes only from human relationship.


and that’s just it - challenged in being here, but blessed. God is so present here, and that is a joy. much to learn still, but anyways, its definitely good process for me to be here right now, and it’s good to be here together with a bunch of other students and development-minded people... and getting to meet some Christ-centered people in our class and in our hostel... and tomorrow, i’ll hopefully join some of them for some children’s ministry thing in the morning. and i’m feeling more positive just thinking about that.

anyways, more to come... ill put up some pictures from class and stuff here soon. =)

much love!
rainbow =)