A Thousand Hills?
Is Rwanda what it claims to be - trash-free, safe, and the land of a thousand hills? Before we began our trip, I watched some videos on the internet about how safe and clean Rwanda is. In my second post, “Where will we be going” I talked about how Rwanda’s economy is growing faster than the US, and its violent crime rate is 15 times less than the United States’. The U.S. State Department lists Rwanda as a Level 1 country, the safest category - even France is a Level 2. After visiting the country for two weeks, I can confirm that Rwanda is primarily trash-free. I also felt safe everywhere I went - even when we were walking around on our own. Finally, Rwanda is also definitely the land of a thousand hills; you cannot walk anywhere without walking up or down a hill!
We went on a 100km three-day bike trip on the Congo Nile trail that runs along Lake Kivu on the Western border of Rwanda. Over the three days, we ascended and descended over 7,000 vertical feet. This is almost twice as much as climbing and descending the Mt Washington Auto road. Many times during our ride, I was really upset that my parents sent me on this ridiculous biking trip. The “roads” were like gravel biking if each piece of gravel was the size of your fist or bigger. On the uphill, sometimes it was too steep, so you had to walk and push your bike, and on the downhills, you felt like a piece of ice in a cocktail shaker getting shaken for over an hour. The intense heat from the equatorial sun didn’t help my mood.
On our ride, we passed through many small farming and fishing villages. They were farming bananas, coffee, potatoes, and cassava in these mountain villages. When we went through the villages, many little kids would run toward us and yell, “A muzungu! - A muzungu!” (muzungu is a term used in Africa for white person). Then they would say “Good morning” and ask, “How are you?”. Sometimes they were hiding in a tree where you could not see them as they yelled out to you. I was surprised by how many little kids there were in rural Rwanda.
There is zero trash in the more populated areas with a trash pick-up service. We noticed more trash in the remote farming villages, but still very little. Most of the trash you see people will pick up and reuse as buoys for fishing or cans to hold oils. We were also not in Rwanda close to the last Saturday of the month, and I assume there would be no trash if we went to those villages after the last Saturday of the month. The last Saturday of every month from 8 am to 11 am is Unuganda - a mandatory law that every Rwandan from 18 to 65 years old must do community service to clean or repair their neighborhood.
When we told people back home that we were going to Rwanda on our trip - they would say: “Is it safe? Didn’t they just have a genocide?” What surprised me the most about Rwanda is how courteous, friendly, and outgoing the people are. It's amazing how quickly the country has recovered after the genocide. Over 1,000,000 people were murdered within 100 days, and anyone over 30 was directly affected by it. There is clearly still a lot of trauma and pain from the genocide. Despite that, it’s inspiring how they have used the genocide to come together and say never again. I got the sense that Rwandans feel a sense of unity, pride, and hopefulness for their country.
Rwanda is definitely one of the top three countries that I have visited in my life. All the mountains and the terraced farmlands are spectacular. The spirit of the people is generous and helpful, and they have a sense of purpose. The capital city of Kigali is a beautiful, walkable city with amazing roads, great restaurants, and lots of art centers and craft shops. Craft shops are a weak spot because I love arty stuff and buy too much. We had to ship all the art and crafts we bought home; you don’t want to know how much that cost. I would encourage you to give Rwanda a second look and plan a trip there if you are ever planning a trip to Africa.
