Setting the record straight

The bad news is, if I can call it that, I made a mistake. The good news is I know someone has been reading the blog. I have received word that I am in fact not a Muzungo; instead, I am an Umuzungo. Either the children are going to have to work on their pronunciation, or I will have to work on my hearing.

Now that I have set the record straight, I am going to spend a couple of paragraphs on the notion of perceptions.

In Canada, in conversation, if we've run out of things to say, we resort to talking about the weather. It sure is cold these days, eh? Here, I have come to notice they talk about something else. They talk about development and progress. If a Rwandan has been studying abroad, upon his/her return, the default topic of conversation is development - what has changed in the country since the student was last in the country.

And, indeed, things are changing. Yesterday, I went on a tour of Kigali's wealthiest neighbourhood. To my surprise it was covered with mansions that could rival any found in North America. As one visitor put it, we could have easily been in Miami.

It was a humbling experience because I realized that I hadn't expected to find such affluence in Sub-Saharan Africa - it didn't fit, rightly or wrongly, with my perception of Rwanda - but, as one of my Rwandan friends put it, one's perception of the other is often based on archetypes instead of actual fact. Indeed, it is as hard for one of my African hosts to picture a "poor" Canadian, as it is for me to picture an affluent Rwandan. While both manifestly exist, sometimes it requires seeing it in person to truly grasp what it means.

On a second level of perceptions, I have detected a fear of perception - if perfectly understandable - by Rwandans of themselves by others. Specifically, Rwandans are very aware that their country is thought of synonomously with its 1994 genocide. Many people I have met have tried to explain to me that they are not "barbarians."

On the contrary, it hasn't taken me long to realize that Rwandans are in fact extremely warm and hostpitable. And, if surprising, Rwanda is currently the safest contry on the Continent, and Rwandans are quick to remind you of that fact. I think Rwandans talk so much about development and change because they are trying so desperately to change the way the country is perceived by the rest of the world.

I am running out of time, so I will have to finish the substance of this post at a later date. In short, however, I do not have any conclusions, I am simply offering my humble observations. The only thing close to a conclusion I can come up with is that to begin changing one's perceptions, a first step involves seeing and experiencing things for oneself in order to put a human face on the subject of our perceptions.

My best from Rwanda,

Raffi