Some Random Observations Which May Or May Not Be Of Interest?

There is no word for “please” in Kinyarwanda, which means requests come out as very direct commands.

·      It is not uncommon to see men walking around hand in hand or arm in arm and greeting one another very affectionately, this show of affection does not exist between men and women in public.

·      The last Saturday of every month is “umuganda” where everyone must report to their own sector or village to carry out community work. No buses operate or shops open between the hours of 7.30 and 11.30am and police will stop anyone during that time to find out why they are not participating in “umuganda”

·      Rwanda does not allow any plastic carrier bags in the country, they will be taken off you if seen at the airport. In Kigali everything is served in a brown paper bag, in the country you have to provide your own. The country is generally very environmentally aware and there is a major programme for tree planting within each district as well as hedges to be established around each property. The children are often sent home from school with pieces of privet hedge to plant round their houses.

·      This is a country where mobile phones are a basic and essential commodity and almost everyone other than the farm labourers are seen walking about with one if not two in their hand although they may be sellotaped together or held by an elastic band. It is perfectly acceptable to leave the room in the middle of a meeting, or leave one’s classroom to take a phone call. At meetings you will observe most of the audience busy texting during discussion if they are not already speaking to someone on their phone behind a hand shading their mouth. In every small village or town you will find phone charging booths and the opportunity to buy a recycled phone.

·      Burping, spitting and picking your nose in public is perfectly acceptable, in fact if you are not on your mobile phone at a meeting then picking your nose is the next best thing to occupy your time.

·      While eating it is the norm to spit anything unwanted onto the floor and most Rwandans I have observed will pile their plates high with food and then leave half of it.

·      Rwandan women are generally seen as the home makers and in the morning they are to be seen sweeping their homes inside and out. They don’t bend at the knees as we are taught to do but seem to be hinged at the waist as they do all their cleaning chores.

·      It is rare to see a woman of child bearing age without an infant strapped to her back or with a bump at the front – or both! This is a country filled with young people, perfectly understandable after 1994, but the prediction is that the population will have doubled to 20million by 2020 and it is already the most densely populated country in Africa.

·      Rwandan men appear to have a thing about pointed shoes, what is it they say about big feet?

·      I have been told that if it is raining heavily then not to bother heading for work until it passes - because no-one else will be there!

·      The government has dictated that all homes will no longer have mud brick roofs so the hillsides can be seen glinting in the sunshine with all the shiny new corrugated roofs, which are incredibly noisy when the rain is falling heavily.

·      The letters R and L are interchangeable which makes it very difficult to sort out files when you are looking for Remy and find it under Lemy. It is now the in thing to engage in gloup work in the classroom!