Michelle May

Happy Holidaze from Kigali, Rwanda ya’ll… Made it here from Uganda a few days back.   For 2 such small (relatively speaking) countries, Rwanda & Uganda could not be more different from eachother!  I took a local bus to the Rwandan border from Kampala, Uganda.  THere we had to exit the bus & take all contents out of our bags and bus.  The Rwandan authorities went through everyone’s bag, etc- to be sure that no plastic bags were on board- little boys were running around selling brown and cloth bags rather than the usual water, sweeties, etc-.  I learned that Rwanda has a law that is truly enforced-  no plastic bags are allowed.  Apparently this happend after they did a big clean up in Kigali & found millions of plastic bags littering the place- The President Paul Kagame made the decision- no more plastic bags!  Wow, if America could just do that.

As we drove into Rwanda we shifted from driving on the left side of the road to the right- another surprise.  Something else that struck me was that the green rolling hills and small villages were not littered with trash like i am used to seeing in nearly every corner of the globe (hey, have never been to SIngapore).  THere seemed to be a dignity even in simple homes & huts- flower gardens were bursting, etc-.  A man I met on the bus told me that Rwanda has strict laws around littering, and they also pay people to clean up the streets- creating jobs/income & keeping it clean.  Every last saturday of the month is community project day where all businesses are closed & no one is allowed to drive a car or motorbike- because they ought to be working on their community project!  Amazing….   My new friend & I discussed how many many countries, like Rwanda,  get huge amounts of international aid- but many of them do not seem to benefit or make real progress.  Well considering the genocide just happened 15 years ago- i would say that Rwandans & the Kagame government seem to be doing something VERY right here. 

It has been heartening to see how well this country is doing now- I did not expect it.  That is not to say that there is not still poverty, pollution, chaos- but from what I see so far Rwanda is much better run than any other sub-Saharan African country i have been to, all while carrying the huge burden of their past.  When i think about the aid that say, Haiti has gotten & compare to it here there is such a big difference- as my friend on the bus said, the difference is having a good leader versus a bad one- but we also suspect there is more to it than that & we need someone to do some hard research on the subject.  I just got here so i am no expert but so far I give Kagame my stamp of approval.  It’s not just the plastic-A few other things that made me say hmmmm…:

- pedestrian appears to have the right of way when crossing the street- cars stop so us pedestrians can cross in cross walks where there is no traffic light- not true in most parts of the world where crossing the street is the biggest travel safety hazard (ie:  Tehran, Beirut, Hanoi, Bangkok, Ramallah, etc-)

-Kagame has changed the official language from the local Rwandan & French to the local Rwandan & English.  Seeing as how France sold the genocide perpetrators millions in arms which were used to carry out the genocide, I can see why- also it is a smart $/business/tourism in my (selfish) opinion ; )

- i thougt there was more & there definitely is, but i just cannot think of them right now (it’s nap time).  What i am telling you is all very surface- there is so much to say about everything else.. i will get to that soon… But must get some shut eye now…  Much love from Rwanda.

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