Stories

Rwanda. Like any country, countless stories, lives and histories continue here on a daily basis. However, in much of the western world, we know only one of Rwanda’s stories. Rwanda seems inextricably linked to another word: genocide. Vague and concrete images of violence crowd the mind, statistics. 800,000 people killed in 100 days. An eighth of the population. In the United States, this percentage would be equivalent to 40 million people. One of the worst tragedies of our time. The biggest humanitarian failure of the 20th century. For many of us, it is the only story we know.
But in this small country, there are so many other stories. It is the land of mountain gorillas and a thousand hills, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The size of Massachusetts with a population of 8.5 million. As I ride the minibus around these hills, everything is drenched in green. It seems each inch is under cultivation, a veritable checkerboard of lush grasses, maize stalks, cassava roots, coffee trees. Small streams separate crops, or different kinds of tall grasses or trees, creating lace like borders around the productive squares. In the countryside, small mud houses are intermittently dispersed among these, often on precariously steep hillsides.
On the streets of Butare, the university city where I am living, one hears both Kinyarwanda, the national language, and French. Muraho, bonjour. This, like baguettes, is part of the legacy left by the Belgians, who were Rwanda’s colonial guardians from the late 19th century until the early ‘60s. I wish that I spoke more French.
The main street through town is two lanes, lined by three grocery stores, the two ‘luxury hotels’ (still only costing $40 per night), a gas station, and countless young moto-taxi drivers. Women walk by with babies strapped to their backs and baskets of fruit balanced on their heads. Bicycles are common. People are everywhere. It feels slow moving despite being the nations second largest city and its intellectual hub.
I have been here a week and am starting to uncover some of Rwanda’s current stories. The one that I am working on most directly is the story of Rwanda’s run-away success in the specialty coffee industry. In the last five years, the income of some of Rwanda’s poorest farmers has doubled or tripled as farmers have joined new organizations and switched their focus from ‘more is better’ to ‘better is better.’ The farmers and workers and children I have met seem happy and hardworking, they are moving forward, progressing. I am hoping to uncover some of their secrets, their goals, their desires. I want to know more of Rwanda’s different stories.