Sophie in Africa

A few chosen ones from my trip to Rwanda in November.

 

Impression.

 

That's the best way of describing my first two weeks in Africa, Rwanda. I experienced so much, met so many people and learned much more than I had imegined. I got to know African culture and living in a unique way. I would like to tell you everything about my stay, but that's far from possible, so I decided to I would tell you about the impressions I got rather than what I did. I am just going to explain shortly how my stay was organised, and if you don't know about Taize please look it up yourselves.

 

So I was in Rwanda to attend the international Taize-meeetine "Pilgrimage of trust on earth". The first week was a so called "pre-meeting", for the Europeans to discover to discover the coulture deeper. For that, we were sent a few people to parishes across the country. I was fortunate to go with my friend Mareike fom Germany, and we ended up in the eastern part of Rwanda which is kind of the "Lake district", in Rilima parish. We had a busy program with a lot of visiting, meeting people, seeing places and experiencing christianity. So, here come some of my impressions  of the first week in Africa.

 

1. The africans are really welcoming towards new people. Their normal way of showing this is by singing, dancing and food. Even if it sounds funny, you don't starve in Africa. At least not as a white tourist. One thing that our contact-priest said was "we are poor in money, but we are not poor in food". That is actually true. On our first day, we ate a late lunch and then we ate dinner three times...

 

2. The people are so much mor aotgoing here, but also more direct. When they say something, they really mean it. For example they always laughed when I told my age, because they thought I was young, or thay can say "why are you so fat" if they think you rare fat. But still, I think that we stiff Europeans have a lot to learn from the people here.

 

3. In Rwanda, internet is really expensiva, but everyone has a phone. There can be 10 telephone-company shops in a row, even on the countryside. I calculated that is was cheaper for me to send a textmessage from Rwanda to Sweden, then it was for me to send a textmessage in Sweden to someone else in Sweden. Hm.

 

4. Even though I imagoned that I would be noticed as a white person, I never thought it would be this much. Everywhere we went the kids screamed at us and wanted to touch us, and the growm-ups just stared. They were all very excited to see a "Muzungu" or "Mzungo" (white person).

 

5. I saw a lot of poverty. In some rural areas the kids were all dirty and wore bad clothes, and many did not have electricity. In Town it was a lot better.

 

6. Funny fact: here, the people don't have dogs as pets, they have goats. Actually very useful. They are treated just like dogs are in our countries, like held in line. \

 

7. The people here seemed to think we were walking wallets or so. The kids screamed "give me money" aso. One day, we helpet cultivating the ground. We planted kassava-trees. Of course we used very simple tools, like machetes. Even days later, people taked about it and said that they didn't expect us to actually help.

 

8. There are very, very many christian here, mostly catholic. Service is every day, and God and Jesus are represent everywhere. Fore example, one day we took a picture and they didn't say "cheese", they said "Jesus". They also asked a lot of questions about faith in our countries, and it was hard to explain that the church does not have so much power.

 

9. They have a completely different timetable here. They usually get up at sunrise, like 5 a.m, and go to bed maybe 9 p.m.And being som time late for an appointment is completely normal.

 

10. I just have to say that the recovery this country has made is amazing. You can rever change history, but most of the people I met vere really friendly and welcoming, so it is hard to imagine that is was very different 18 years ago. Of course they still suffer, they often asked "do you till have you parents?", but they have come far.

 

 

November 14-18 was the actual Taize-meeting. It was very similar to the European-meetings, but African-style. It was so nice to see other Europeans and talk about their experiences the first week, which were very similar to urs. It was also nice to come out of the countryside and into the more developed city. Kigali is a big town, built on seven hills so the views are really beutiful. The Taize-program made me feel a little like home, but there was not one single day I wasn't annoyed by something. Late buses, unorganized meetings or very outgoing Africans. They really have so much energy, I have no indea where it all comes from.

 

One funny thing is that, I can tell you, I have never before been so happy to see a garbage bin before. You really don't know their importance unless you don't have them. At home, there is a bin every 50 meters, but still the people throw their trash on the ground because they are lazy. Here, this was the first bin I saw in one week. I really appreciate them a lot more now.

 

This update became very long, but there is so much I till sisn't tell you. Rwanda became my first taste of Africa, and it has been bth amazing and very tough. Anyway, that was it for now. About my first days in Tanzania I will write next time.

 

And since the internet is very slow, I can't upload pictures right now. Just be patient... it's Africa.