4 December 2011
The invisible line that separates two countries would not be noticeable if it were for the immigration and customs officials… right?
Oh-so wrong.
When crossing over from Tanzania to Rwanda we were struck by the contrast between the two countries. If we don’t jot them down now, we will probably forget them, so please excuse this potentially-boring post (there are no interesting photos or anecdotes to redeem this!)
So what was so different?
- It is ordered, clean, and welcoming…like a little-America in the middle of Africa!
- Swahili is gone; Kinyarwandan, French, and (a little) English are the spoken languages. We are still catching ourselves greeting people with “Jambo!” and thanking them with “Asante!” after so many weeks in Tanzania where it’s sink or swim in terms of learning the language.
- Say that again?! As we drove out the Rwanda immigration office, the officer casually said, “You do know to drive on the right-hand side of the road?” We didn’t know that – and his comment proved helpful as a truck and six motorbikes came flying around the blind corner.
- Traffic cops are welcoming and helpful – so far none have tried to intimidate or ask for a bribe, which makes for a pleasant change!
- The roads are excellent – what a treat to enjoy the countryside without having to look for potholes or people as there seems to be a sidewalk on either side of the road all the way. To top things off, the speed limit on the highways is 80km/h so it feels very casual. It is a bit of a pain to have to slow down to 40km/h in the towns, and unfortunately town planning in Rwanda seems no different to the rest of Africa so Rwandans seem to build their houses close to the highways.
- Gardens! Rwandans have front lawns and beautifully-trimmed, knee-high hedges that contour their lawns and pathways. It has been a while since we saw manicured lawns.
- The houses are also completely different to Tanzanian houses. They are much better built, have a glazed red brick exterior, with a natural stone façade that covers about a third of the height of the wall, like an exaggerated, exterior dado rail (about half way up). They also have modern-looking corrugated iron roofs – a significant improvement on the banana leaves and reeds used in Western Tanzania. Apparently, it is now illegal to live in houses made of leaves, reeds, and sticks. The Rwandan government is pushing hard to reach its housing Millennium Goals, set by the World Bank, in order to qualify for further aid. Sho, these guys know how to get hand-outs!
- The electricity roll-out in rural Rwanda is also incredible. They use mini-pylons that look very sophisticated – some engineer has put a lot of thought into developing a pylon that is suitable for their energy needs! Apparently, during a 5-month period this year, the country doubled the number of people on the electricity grid. (I wonder what base they were working off? It makes you wonder whether South Africans kick up enough of a fuss about poor service delivery?)
- Plastic bags are illegal. So your shopping is packed into brown paper bags, your mince is packaged in waxy bread packets and the country is virtually litter-free!
We have really been looking forward to visiting Rwanda and besides it being really expensive, so far, so good!
weloveafrica 