The land of a thousand hills breeds a resilience and fortitude. The most densely populated country in Africa, Rwanda’s beautiful green landscape is a thousand hills covered in a quilt of farmland where no land is unused. Square and rectangular fields of bananas, potatoes, sorghum, pyrethrum, tea, coffee, corn, sunflowers, carrots, tomatoes, beets, string beans, cover the hills like a giant quilt. The fields are well tended with people working them all day throughout the country.
As many do not have electricity, they take advantage of the daylight which starts at 6 am and which does not deviate throughout the year as we are close to the equator. In the pre-morning darkness on the main road in the village, some men go for a jog at around 5:00 am while others carry empty yellow jugs to a water source to fill up the cans for the daily needs. Once it is light enough to see, women dressed in brightly colored outfits and often matching headdresses sweep their front porch and and the street in front of their homes bending at the waist and talking to each other. Some have babies on their backs. Little kids dot the front of houses as well either helping out or just sitting there looking at the activity of the morning. By 7 am, many children and adolescents have eaten a small meal of potatoes and maybe some vegetables, have gathered their books and put on their uniforms and they are off to school! The older children watch over the younger ones as everyone walks to school unaccompanied by an adult. The walk can range from quite close to over 10 miles each way. One child we met walks 2 hours each way to school every day. He leaves at 7 am and school is out at noon. If it is raining, then he places his books and papers under his shirt on his stomach to protect them from the element. Before school, he gathers some wood for firewood near his house in a eucalyptus forest to help his parents prior to the long walk to school. Then he walks back and is home by 2 pm. He chews on little pieces of corn stalk to stay hydrated and get some energy as he gets no food from after breakfast and no water to drink. The water is used for cooking, cleaning and other important activities in the home. He doesn’t always gather the firewood from the forest before school because he is “lazy or tired” and therefore, picks it up on the way home from school. Once home from school, he does his homework or plays with his friends. work being done by other family members. Often, there are chores to do and depending on the season, he may help out with farming Often, the homework is done at night as there is much work to do in the fields from planting, churning the soil, walking the goats around, or getting rid of weeds, a task that never ends. The kids work in the fields together, and I saw a pair of kids burning a small fire and cooking potatoes in the ground to eat. if the homework is done at night, then the parents turn on a kerosene light to see from 7-9p at 9p it is lights out and time for bed.
At school, kids are often paired up with an older student like a big brother big sister program. This teaches older children to watch over younger ones and gives the younger ones someone to look after them. School children also help keep the school clean themselves, cleaning and keeping it tidy. They are their own janitor and learn responsibility at an early age.
From the hillsides, one can see for miles other hills dotted with farms with farmers working their land all day. Men and women with babies on the backs lifting the hoe and working the land can be seen all day throughout the country. In the afternoon, men return from work and many go to their local cabaret, which is a room with small chairs selling household items like rice, hardware items, homemade banana beer, the national Rwandan beer like Primus (served always room temperature). Most drink banana beer as it is cheaper but just as strong. The men get together to drink and blow off some steam. Rwandans tend to talk quietly in general , but once at the cabaret and a few drinks are on hand, the voices get louder and more animated. With no electricity, there is not much to do at night and alcoholism is a widespread issue as it is everywhere else in the world.
Bananans have a special place in Rwandan society as Rwandans eat more bananas per capita than any other country in the world. Bananas come in many sizes and types are the most commonly grown crop in the country covering 35% of the country’s arable land. Rwandans eat them raw and peeled like a fruit, fried like sweet plantains, or cooked in a sauce more like a starch like potatoes, used as fuel or made into a beer.
The main roads or principal streets are places of congregation. Friends meet, talk to each other, courtships occur, it is part of the social fabric of life for the people. The road to me seems like the mall, the subway, highway, and park back home all rolled into one. People also meet in each other’s homes, often walking along the streets carrying some food for their friends. In these villages, people know each other and greet each other on the roads as most everyone walks. You can hire a moto taxi for long distances if you have the money or you can hire a bicycle for ride down the hill. You can hire a bicycle to help push your 50kg sack of potatoes that you are taking to market as well. Everyone walks on the roads, even the old and infirm. The very sick are carried on special stretchers on their way to the health clinics.
Saturdays are days are variable. Some work in the fields, others spend it with family and friends relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. But the last Saturday of the month from 8:00-12 noon is Umuganda, known as “community work.” It is a government program that requires the participation of the entire country. It is broken down into neighborhoods in cities and villages in rural life. Each neighborhood/village has a government representative who facilitates the umuganda. For part of umuganda, the people do community work such as cleaning the streets, rebuilding a road, helping to build or clean a school, etc. The other part of umuganda is for the government to communicate directly to the people about a variety of issues, such as government initiatives like a vaccination program, changes in the law, opportunities for the population, etc. Also, this is an opportunity for the people to be heard as well. Anyone can speak up about any topic or concern of his or her interest. Everyone participates and the country as a whole benefits. Could you imagine if we tried that in the good ol USA? There would be riots and shootings.
Below is a short video during our second drive outside Kigali during Umuganda. Note the small crowds of people on the
Below is a short video of a church service that we visitd in the Musanze area. The locals kept looking at Phi and I in the back of the small church. They did not mind the filming.
Sunday is a day of rest and day for church. Rwanda is a predominately Christian country with a small but prominent Muslim population. In the late morning, everyone puts on their finest clothes and walks together to church. Driving along the main roads in the countryside I can see throngs of people all walking in the same direction to church for miles and when I reach the church and pass it, people are walking in the other direction towards the same church. I am told people like to go to church as they feel closer to G-d and brings them strength in their difficult lives. Older people (older than 40) have strong memories and PTSD from the genocide, and church is the one place where many people feel comfortable confronting their past and start to heal from the trauma. This older population, as you can imagine, has not gotten over the genocide of 24 years ago and most likely never will. Most live with it every day in silence, both the victims and perpetrators, who live side by side and often attend the same church. Passing your neighbor on the way to the fields or seeing him at church, the same neighbor who 24 years ago killed your family member with a machete or raped you or someone in your family, or seeing the wife of a killer who actively supported her husband during the killings is an unimaginable nightmare of a reality that exists throughout this beautiful and complex country.