- Breakfast is always around 7:30 or 8:00 am, regardless of the day of the week or sleeping-in habits. Lunch is a big meal served around 1 pm, and dinner follows the pattern with a large meal served around 9 pm to 10:30 pm (yes, the gap is long, aggravating, and different but doable).
- People strongly detest eating or drinking on the streets, on the bus, or merely anywhere in public. It is not socially acceptable, and it’s rather subhuman to have snacks or a sandwich on the go.
- This may be very specific to Rwanda, but it is expected that you take a bucket shower once if not twice daily. Kigali is clean. Its citizens are even cleaner and everyone values a “smart” or sharp look. Thus, every day is dress up day.
- Water is not a very common drink for dinner or lunch. I often receive an abnormal stare accompanied with awkward silence when asking for water; the counter-question follows as to whether I would like to change my order to Fanta, Sprite, or Coke.
- When asking someone out for a drink or to go out for lunch (not in a formal date sense), Rwandans will expect you to pay for everything including transportation. So be careful when you decide to invite someone out for an evening on the town as you must have your wallet ready every step of the way.
- Not all bananas are created equal. Some taste like salty potatoes, others taste normally sweet, and others are disgustingly starchy and bland.
- Probiotics are a necessity. There’s no escaping the food and its exotic or unorthodox preparation. The restroom situation has been pleasant since I started taking daily pills—my stomach has adjusted and I’m not missing lecture or a conversation with my brother by spending so much time on the toilet.
- Umuganda is a monthly community service activity, which has been heavily encouraged by the government in Rwanda. Umuganda occurs on the last Saturday of the month and usually involves some sort of street cleaning followed by a community or village meeting. I participated in Umuganda today with my family, and attended the meeting (couldn’t understand a lick of Kinyarwanda), which mainly hosted the political elite of my umudugudu (village) and oddly a large number of old women. I tried to characterize the pattern of bystanders not participating in the community service, but it appears that every family is different and, since participation is not mandatory, Umuganda becomes more of a person, individual commitment rather than communal as its pretense and context suggests.
- Get to the bus early and know where you are going. The bus numbers here do not have a set path or schedule or bus driver, and every single day one encounters a new mare getting on or off the uncomfortably crowded bus. Yesterday, a man sat on top of my lap. A full grown man. On my lap. Things got a little interesting.
- That is all for now, I’m sure I’ll come up with more interesting tid-bits along the way. But I am happy to report good health and laughable experiences so far.
Tonight my family watched France 24 on TV and had dinner with one of my dad’s friends. I was starting to get the idea that my father was a very popular man that wore several prominent hats in the community. His friend’s name was Inocent, and he had just returned to Kigali after years abroad in Tanzania and Switzerland. After correcting some of my Kinyarwanda and questioning my motives for coming to Africa and specifically Rwanda, Inocent - the 60 year old world traveler - entertained a discussion about Rwandan politics and the guise of democracy.
Scooping up a spoonful of chickpeas and spinach my host brother placed in front of me, Inocent told me his thoughts about America. “Everyone wants to be western. Everyone wants to be American—you’re idolized here and always will be.” This deep idolatry of America and sensationalized view of the U.S. made me feel uncomfortable and stereotyped. I often don’t see America as the best, and I know several people who study abroad to escape its throes.
Inocent continued by letting me know that “No one can blame Rwanda because it is desperately trying to be like the U.S. in every sense, including its government.” At the time, I had not thought about this engrained admiration Inocent had just mentioned as a route to replicating the U.S. Constitution. I needed to think about this more but my discussion with Inocent would no doubt inform my upcoming interactions with Rwandans and Americans alike.
Scooping up a spoonful of chickpeas and spinach my host brother placed in front of me, Inocent told me his thoughts about America. “Everyone wants to be western. Everyone wants to be American—you’re idolized here and always will be.” This deep idolatry of America and sensationalized view of the U.S. made me feel uncomfortable and stereotyped. I often don’t see America as the best, and I know several people who study abroad to escape its throes.
Inocent continued by letting me know that “No one can blame Rwanda because it is desperately trying to be like the U.S. in every sense, including its government.” At the time, I had not thought about this engrained admiration Inocent had just mentioned as a route to replicating the U.S. Constitution. I needed to think about this more but my discussion with Inocent would no doubt inform my upcoming interactions with Rwandans and Americans alike.
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