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Published: December 23rd 2009
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It's funny that that's how it's described, because million is the common estimation of the number of those who were murdered in the genocide in 1994.
Rwanda had captured my heart. It's a country with all contradictions possible: Green prosperous agriculture, hugh green coffee and tee plantations and on the other hand unimaginable poverty. optimism and belief in the reconciliation process but also cynicism and disbelief it could work (depends on whom you're talking to) great hospitality to foreigners but still there is a feeling of suspicion and that everything and everyone is controlled. A traditional society where old people are considered to be the wisest, when there are villages with hardly any elderly people.
Rwanda got straight in to my heart. In Tanzania I've started smiling, not only lips but all organs are involved: I smile with my teeth, all the way to my ears, even with my eyes. In Rwanda my heart got a lot wider. MY heart, the one that is always a bit protected, the one afraid of being exposed or scratched, the one that does not want to be connected with too many emotions, god forbid, is now present. vibrant. Accepting, feeling, asking, being empathic,
being shocked, understands, or at least tries to, happy, sad, curious, I didn't know that a heart could do all this.. now I know why those bastards Rwandans will give me a visa permit only for 2 weeks, to protect my heart from exploding...
besides all that I found out that my 10 days in Rwanda so far hadn't any affect on my French or the Rwandan Hebrew. Most of my attempts to communicate here have this language barrier but seems like we all enjoy the experiments...
the internet here sucks, I have to wait 3 minutes (I did count) after every click. I've even asked to guys (originally from Lebanon) owning a grocery shop (In here it's Supermarket) but they don't have any better solution. On the other hand, they were really nice to me as long as they though I'm Italian. When they found out I'm Israeli... well... that's when I started feeling, to say the least - unwelcomed. Thanks to the Israeli government....
I'm still surprised with the fact that I'm here in the same town (Butare) for a week and people are still excited when they see me.. I would have expected them to get used
to me wandering the streets.. they don't only chase me and shout “Mzungu” (white person) but they also touch me. As we know, I'm not very fond of people, definitely when they touch me without even asking my permission so I'm a little grumpy, though trying to hide it. It's not only kids, it's also women. Only yesterday I understood that they touch my skin and my hair because they can't believe that such a white woman would have such an African hair...I have Mzungu skin. But not Mzungu hair.....
the infrastructure here makes me feel like I'm on a safari.... occasionally we have running water, that's when everyone runs to fill the buckets and take a shower. Usually it happens when I'm not around OR by the time I get my soap and towel, it's all gone. Same with electricity - we have electricity once a day for 1 hour, in different times of the day. Usually it happens at 2 am, when I forget to switch the lights off and wake up shocked and half blind, to charge all I need before the dark returns...
will leave you now. I hear the water running....
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