First Impressions

I've been walking and driving around this city for some 9 days now and it is a very different experience. Very different from Maputo. This entry is a collection of first impressions. Obviously there will be lots of generalising and I will likely draw conclusions I shouldn't, but that's why it's listed as first impressions.

Rwandans are very nice people. Very friendly. Overall people are a bit introvert, especially compared to Mozambique. Mozambicans have the Latin extravertness and can probably be considered the Brazilians of Africa. Rwanda has a more traditional culture. People have high moral standards which is what makes is quite safe and friendly. For example, I sat in a taxi behind another car who's driver took ages to cross a road. Even when there were huge gaps in between oncoming cars, he didn't dare crossing the road. What do you think my driver did during all this time? He waited patiently! A taxi driver!!! I was biting hard into the seat cushion to avoid shouting "come on!" to him and the guy in front of us! Even Mother Theresa would've been all over the car horn trying to speed up the guy in front!

That's one instance, but there are many more you experience here, which make you realise how 'correct' people are over here. Just to mention a few:
- People actually wait for a green light before crossing the road. Even if the nearest car is further away that peace in the middle east. I jay-walked once and almost felt like apologising to everyone.
- Nobody shouts here. I don't recall anyone shouting out loud on the street. Maybe it is considered impolite. I should check that.
- People go out of the way for others, greet politely, help each other out, etc. Very refreshing!

People look different here. I mean different from Mozambicans. Duh! In Mozambique women tend to have a triangular shaped face with a pointy chin and sharp features. The men have more rounded faces. In Rwanda the men have sharper faces and in between all the not-so-tall locals, you often find the odd 1.85-1.95 meter tall guy. As if they dropped a whole bunch of Masai in this city. The women have rounder softer features, and a more oval shaped face and there are three hairstyles for women: the traditional short afro, the straightened (ironed) hair and then there's the most popular pulled back braids style. Actually, a lot of women here look like Brigitte. For you non-Rabo readers: Brigitte is a Rwandese colleague who, as I now realise, has a typical Rwandese look. One difference though. She has more hairstyles than this entire country put together!

The language spoken here is the local Rwandese language Kinyarwanda which basically sounds like... ehh... an African language. I have mastered my first word, which is Urakoze which means 'thank you'. Apart from that I now know how to say good morning, goodbye and hello, but I don't dare writing these as my spelling will probably make Brigitte roll all over the office floor. The second language everyone knows is French (yeah, lucky me...Not!). However, due to the colonial past under the French speaking Belgians and the role the French played during the genocide, there's a strong governmentally promoted movement to switch to English as the second language. Basically, the government wants to push out the French language. Everywhere on the street you see people walking with English phrasebooks and Oxford dictionaries.

Last weekend we also did a walk through town. First thing you find is a bunch of Forex stores. On the first street corner we hit there must've been some 15 of those. Basically it's an exchange store where you can exchange your Euros or dollars to local francs. No, not a bank outlet or anything official. Just a table, a cardboard billboard with handwritten rates on it and a bunch of guys running up to any foreigner that passes by. The local Rwandese franc (RWF) is worth about 0.00125 Euro cents, meaning that you get 800 of those for a Euro. And the largest denomination you see on the street is a 5.000 franc bill. This means that you walk around with quite some bills in your wallet. On the positive side, you hardly see coins.

The city centre is not that big. A few street and a bunch of small stores. All of them have hand painted signs and they sell basic needs. This is where you see that Rwanda is still a poor country. The streets are clean and the city-scaping looks quite modern, but the stores are very basic and no luxury items on sale. Even in poor Maputo you would find the odd Diesel outlet, a modern looking computer shop or a plasma TV in the store window. However, there is one brand new mall in the centre. It has some 20 stores, a supermarket and even a small food-court. There's also a coffee shop (no, not the Dutch kind) with wireless internet, that sells Starbucks style coffee. And like in Maputo, there are no American fast food franchises to be found. Yet! I guess if you want to become a millionaire, get that African Macky D, KFC or B King franchise license and introduce the finest food the US has to offer to this continent.

Last Thursday a colleague and I went to the happy hour in Mille Collines ('Hotel Rwanda'). It was recommended by an ex-pat we met a few days before. First, it was quite strange to walk in this place you kind'a know from a very impressive and emotional movie. The hotel actually doesn't look like the one in the movie (which was shot in South Africa), but I still felt some jitters. Nowadays, the place is not that great. It's a straight forward 3-4 star hotel, with little facilities. But the main reason the place is a bit shabby, is the large number of working girls waiting for the guests in the bar every evening. Someone mentioned yesterday that the place has a new nickname: the Mille V*gines (I apologise to all readers under 18. I should've mentioned that you should read this under parental supervision only).

The happy hour itself was okay. The 'hostesses' were not out yet and there was a band playing covers ranging from Dolly Parton to Beyoncé to Bon Jovi. Musical tastes so far are a bit strange here. Especially when it comes to non-African music. Yesterday I sat in a colleague's car and his entire collection of cassettes (for those of you under 20, that's a piece of plastic the size of your iPod which holds no less than 10 songs. On each side!) covered only American Country & Western (!?). Now that is surreal! driving on a dirt road in between small shacks, smack in the middle of dark Africa, listening to Garth Brooks...