Rwanda in the NYT

September 28, 2007, 12:37 pm
The Word Is Getting Out
By Josh Ruxin

Josh Ruxin is a Columbia University expert on public health who has spent the last couple of years living in Rwanda. He’s an unusual mix of academic expert and mud-between-the-toes aid worker.

It was much to the dismay of family and friends that my wife and I moved to Rwanda. Having seen little more than “Hotel Rwanda” to educate them about the country, they believed it to be a hostile and unstable place. We had a different take: it’s safe, clean, friendly and relatively uncorrupted. Our perception is clearly shared by others and, now, the country’s resurgence is being recognized.

Tuesday, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released the results of its “Ibrahim Index” — a holistic ranking of how African countries are doing across the dimension of governance. Ibrahim, one of Africa’s most successful and philanthropic entrepreneurs, set up the index to inform the Mo Ibrahim Prize — an annual award of $5 million for a former head of state who has demonstrated excellence in leadership. The surprise to all but Rwandan insiders was that Rwanda made the greatest progress of any country during the course of the last five years.

As the always insightful Steve Radelet pointed out in an earlier post, governance and democracy in Africa mean everything. Having worked in nearly a dozen countries in Africa, I decided to place my bets on Rwanda because it was the first place I’d never been asked to pay a bribe. I’m not alone: donors are lining up to invest in Rwanda, reassured that the money will reach the people who need it most.

None of this is to say that Rwanda is utopia: major challenges remain for improvements in the press and in democracy. Nevertheless, at a time when many nations are spiraling downward, it’s heartening to see little Rwanda making progress against all odds.

The News That Has Kigali Abuzz

From People magazine....I feel it could spark an intellectual debate on the role of celebrities in society, whether any attention is good attention, can fame play a role in economic development, etc. But....Paris Hilton?!?!? I can't bring myself to comment. Readers, thoughts?

It's not the typical sort of hot spot she's used to, but Paris Hilton says that she's planning to hit the road to Rwanda. Apparently making good on her post-jail promise to help others, the socialite, 26, tells E! Online about her African ambitions, "I'll be going in November, after I get back from filming my movie. There's so much need in that area, and I feel like if I go, it will bring more attention to what people can do to help." Though a trouble spot of notorious proportions – an infamous 1994 genocide in Rwanda claimed about a million lives (in a nation of 9 million) – the country's multitude of problems doesn't seem to worry Hilton, who vows to pay calls upon a variety of beleaguered regions. "I want to visit more countries where poverty and children's issues are a big concern," she says. "I know there's a lot of good I can do just by getting involved and bringing attention to these issues." Hilton reportedly will visit Rwanda at the invitation of Scott Lazerson, whose year-old Playing for Good charity assists celebrities and high-profile business personalities in getting involved with organizations that benefit those in need. Hilton's Rwanda trip will also cap a busy September, during which she's been in Toronto filming her upcoming movie Repo! The Genetic Opera, partying at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas and hitting a slew of Emmy parties in Los Angeles.

Language and Poetry

So, as I've mentioned, the language here is a mess. Kinyarwanda is the local language everyone speaks, Belgians instituted French in schooling system, was the most common language of the educated, but during the years leading up to and including the genocide, so many people fled eastwards and spent significant time in Anglophone countries that English is widely spoken, not to mention Swahili which exists quite a bit as a regional lingua franca.

So, its theoretically a tri-lingual (English, French, Kinyarwanda) country. Very few people though are fluent in all three. The past week I've run a few workshops for work, and usually the format was: the head of the organization would present for 15 min to his staff in Kinyarwanda to introduce us. Then my colleague from the US would present in English, and I'd translate slide by slide into French (using such hard to translate words as framework, balanced scorecard, etc). Then I'd present in English and a local colleague would translate into French and Kinyarwanda if necessary.

Something I've noticed though, is that people here are very, very good with metaphor. Not sure if its something thats used a lot in Kinyarwanda and they translate them, whether the educational system encourages it, or whether they are just a poetic people. When the audience of the presentations would ask questions of us, even in English or French (remember, not their native tongue) they would really have a way with words, giving vivid examples, etc As anyone who speaks other languages knows, you're usually just happy to get the grammar and the words right, let alone flowery speech worthy of literature.

The best example I can give is the following. At OTF, I'm managing two local consultants (kind of at the McKinsey equivalent of BA, the position right out of undergrad). One of them - whom I really, really like, is really smart, super nice and one of the few trilingual Rwandans - and I were working on a project on Friday. It was about 5:50pm, he was at my desk, and we were talking about how our meetings had gone that day and what needed to be done as the next steps. In my mind I was thinking, these are things that need to be done next week, but apparently that wasn't clear and he thought I was asking him to do them right then. He looked at me so earnestly, almost like a little boy (he is my age, married, and with a 3 month old son), and said, How long do you think this will take, I have a meeting with the queen of my heart tonight, and I am already twenty minutes late.

Referring to his wife as the queen of his heart. Isn't that the nicest thing you've ever heard?

Creepy crawly

In some of my pre-move research, I'd read that Rwanda was sometimes referred to as "Africa light" because it didn't get as hot or as buggy as some of the steamier parts of the continent.

So, I thought I'd be living alone in my house until Hannah's arrival. I was wrong. I have many roommates, with many legs.

Sure, there are mosquitos everywhere, and I'd been prewarned about the little ants that are omnipresent and impossible to get rid of - when I saw them coming out of a miniscule chink in the kitchen wall tile, I thought, How Industrious. They keep to their little area in there, and I keep to mine - a good arrangement. And, the small green lizards I've seen on the walls are old hat - they are all over SEAsia and I think kind of cool. So far so good.

It started going slightly downhill when I first noticed the caterpillars crawling on the floor, leaving a slimy trail. Not cool. Really not cool when I woke up one morning with one on the wall directly behind my bed. That was responsible for a night of constantly waking up feeling something crawling on me. That hasn't lasted thankfully.

One morning I woke up and was going to work, and in the living room saw a dead cricket. And there were my friends the ants, swarming the carcass in the hundreds.

All of this I was handling pretty well. But the worst part was the other day - I came home from work, went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and the biggest cockroach I have ever seen came scurrying down the side. I'd like to say I handled this well, but to be honest, I shrieked like a little girl and went running into the hallway. After a few seconds and a lot more screaming and the feeling that my entire nervous system had just lit up like the 4th of July (or 21st of July for you Belgians reading this), I realized that I had left the fridge door open and certainly didn't want that critter running in THERE! So I ran back into the kitchen, slammed the door, saw the roach again, screamed a bit more for good measure and at this point for old time's sake, stepped on the roach, and ran out!

Domestic Life

So, as a result of nothing terribly exciting happening lately, I'll share some of the more mundane details of my life in Kigali by answering come questions I've gotten in emails.

My "staff." First, that's weird to get used to, the idea of having 3 people have their full time job be related to my house. The two guards are named Edouard and Sombiri. Edouard is the night guard (6pm-6am, 7 days/wk), and Sombiri takes the other half. I was given the option of having armed guards, but I haven't seen a single other house with one, so I thought a) I don't like guns and b) it would give the impression there is something inside worth stealing, so they are unarmed. I often wonder if the armed guards would have been these same two guys, just with guns, or if there are more...highly trained armed guards. Don't get me wrong, these guys are nice, but I can't see either of them harming a fly.

Edouard is perhaps 70. And he moves slow. And the word frail comes to mind. He has taken over the garage, put a bed and radio in there, and I can hear him playing the radio if I am in the dining room or kitchen -he listens to news in Kinyarwanda or French, and often very Gregorian chant sounding music, and sometimes what sounds like more current African music.

Sombiri is I would guess 16. I haven't talked to him much because I am not around too often during the day. And the fact that he doesn't speak French or English complicates things. So I can't give you many details about him. He always has a huge smile on his face. But, he washes my car every morning! It seems like such a waste since its such a piece of crap, and you can't avoid dust here.

Of course, there is a part of me that thinks, how can I have guards who are either senior citizens or should be in school. Why isn't he in school? I casually mentioned to a coworker that it was hard communicating with him because of the language barrier, and the coworker was shocked that he was hired - suspects that maybe the office manager gave the job to the son of a friend. But, I don't want to say anything because I have no idea of the circumstances and certainly don't want to be responsible for someone losing their job. Maybe when I start Kinyarwanda classes I can practice with him and get some information.

Then there is the housekeeper/cook, Melanie. She is my favorite, because she speaks English and French, and leaves me funny little notes around the house explaining things or asking me questions. The company pays her directly, and also gives her money to go grocery shopping, so I am completely at the mercy of what she cooks me. Though I did stress, NO FISH in about 6 responses to her notes.

What she cooks though is usually excellent. Usually a salad with lots of vegetables, and then a rice/meat/sauce dish. The beef is good, usually in a tomato sauce. Chicken with peanut sauce. Pasta casseroles on the weekends. Meatballs and onions. I can't always identify it, but its usually great!

I think this week I am going to ask her to pack me a lunch, because I feel like it takes so much time for me to go home (the commute is only 5 minutes, but she serves the meal course by course, no one rushes anything here!), and while I'm at the table she serves me like a waitress which just feels ridiculous.

Long Awaited Pictures

So, these are all from the safari this weekend. Many thanks to my coworker Jeremy (and his amazing camera and photog skills) for sending them to me.

NOW are you ready to visit?

Safari!

When you think of African tourism, what do you think of?
SAFARI!

Rwanda's tourism niche is gorillas, and the traditional African safari is most often found in Kenya or Tanzania, and I guess at Kruger in South Africa. However, Rwanda has a national park on its eastern border (shared with Tanzania), where the landscape is drastically different - think lakes and savannah with small trees, acacia, etc. In this part of the country, there is most of the wildlife you'd associate with safari - elephants, zebra, hippos, giraffe, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, wharthogs, all sorts of antelope - topi, impala, etc. Even a few leopards, but none of the big cats - lions - those are all in Kenya and Tanzania. We saw everything except leopard and elephant, but what we did see was amazing.

We rented a 4x4, packed some lunches, and made the 2 hr drive to the border. It was my first time out of the city, and the countryside is really great. Hills that are completely green, filled with banana trees (its mainly the western and southern parts of the country that have the coffee and tea farms) that gradually gives way to a flatter, grassier landscape.

Also, outside of the city it hits home that the GDP is 270 dollars per person. Most everyone is a subsistence farmer, working plots of land the size of an acre and trying to scratch out a life. Most of the houses are stick frames and made from bricks or dried mud. Also we seemed a bit more foreign - got more stares and waves, and some extended hands asking for a handout.

We got to Akagera (the park), went to the office, and was given a guide. One of my coworkers had been to Akagera many times and knew the place well, but the guide was really good at spotting wildlife in the distance and in the brush. He also had a big book of the Birds of East Africa - apparently there are 550 species of birds in Rwanda and there is hopes to develop some bird tourism to diversify the country's offerings. Ever since my sister's pet parakeet Sammy, I haven't been a huge fan of birds, but these things are amazingly colorful, like someone painted their feathers with a brush.

Seeing the animals is a thrill, and most are completely unconcerned that you are there. The two highlights were the hippos and the giraffes. We went to one of the lakes in the park and there were about 6 hippos in the water, and one sunning himself on the bank. It was HUGE! Apparently the number one rule of hippos is: NEVER get between the hippo and the water. Water = safety for them, so if they are near water they feel fine; if they perceive a threat between them and the water, they'll fight like hell. And trust me, you'd lose that fight.
Our big fella just stayed there calm as day, watching us with a wary eye but only staggering to his feet after we'd been there quite a while and were revving the engine to leave.

The giraffes were much more skittish but we went offroad and got pretty close to them and they are amazingly graceful. And that neck is just so odd. Loved them!

There were a lot of DLAs as my coworker referred to them (Deer-like-animals) that were hard to keep straight, and after 6 hours it wasn't quite as exciting to see them or the baboons (so many it was like pigeons in Paris). Plus, after my experience at a game restaurant in S. Africa a couple of years ago, I was more interested in tasting them than sighting them.

My general theory on zoos etc is that they are smelly and kind of sad, but this really changed my mind - the guide knew an amazing amount and seeing them in the park was fascinating. Even though Rwanda may not be the place for the ultimate safari, the people I was with who know Africa well loved the fact that there were NO other people around. We literally saw a group of 4 Germans once, and Akagera receives only 15,000 visitors per year, less than 50 a day, while Serengeti etc are in the many hundreds of thousands. A hidden gem, and definitely on the must see circuit I'll take you on WHEN (not if) you come visit.