MY CULTURE SHOCKS IN RWANDA

Muraho, Amakuru? Oh sorry, I forgot you may not be Rwandan, that is the greeting in Kinyarwanda (Rwandan language) for “Hello, how are you?” {Winks}

In my opinion, Rwanda is really a great place to live and I would pick her anytime above some other African countries if given the options.

So, to start with, I’m making this note, not because I didn’t have some of the best times of my life in Rwanda but just to keep tourists and people aware and prepared if they plan to visit, live or move to Rwanda one of these days. Last year, I was able to visit and live in Rwanda for few months. I enjoyed the more stable electricity than I’ve been used to, organized political structures, good roads, a better city structures and tourisms-the Kigali conference center, the zoos and other great fun things.

Now, let’s get to it;

• Stare for a Living

I understand that MAYBE it’s very obvious to fish you out if you’re not from around a place but Rwandans will stare you out. More like some of them do that for a living alongside their 9-5s. At first, I thought it was because it was too easy to think I’m not from Rwanda but after so many of them have spoken Kinyarwanda to me severally and still stare, I concluded that I had to cope with the reality of how thing are as they are.

That was some shocks to me because where I’m from, if you’ve got something on your chest, you spill it even if you have to be in my face or I in yours. It became fun though because I kept giving those excuses that maybe I’m that beautiful blahblahblah. Well, you can’t blame me because the excuse is way better than the disorientation that comes with the shock.

• Coffee oh, coffee!

This is a great one. I never liked coffees and teas until I got to Rwanda. I hope you know Rwanda is the best coffee making country in the world. If you plan to travel to Rwanda for a cup of coffee alone and get back to yours, it was worth it. Yeah, it is that good. It ended up giving me headache when I overdosed myself every morning at work. It’s one the strong highlight of my stay there, yet you should watch out for your limits. Did I mention that I wasn’t that into such beverages before time? Again, be reminded that Rwandan coffees and teas are the real ones, so, don’t go around drinking every cup you can find, you may hurt yourself too much.

• No meats or fish for me?! What’s not to love about meats?

At work, they would cook lunch for us to re-energize us for the rest of the day. Well, I’m not used to eating without meat, I mean, why do I want to eat without meats anyway? Unfortunately, Rwandans don’t value or eat meats or fishes that much for some weird reasons which is still weird to me. To add to that, my employer being vegetarian is another killing idea. Whenever he won’t be at work, they said they would prepare the lunch with animal proteins but all through my stay (and he didn’t come every day, of course), no meat or fish was sitting on my lunch. Sad right? There is a very great solution to this, I decided to stock my freezer with all the animal proteins I want.

So, if you plan to live or move to Rwanda, don’t be surprised if you visit a Rwandese and the food you’re served looks weird(bare). Accept the potato soup with love and move on. I don’t even want to talk about the diverse soups today but you’d probably love them or not {shrugs}, I don’t know, you can let your taste buds decide.

• I may not drink my tap water.

About this, well, I have to become a very frank. At first, I thought it was a fable. When I first planned to visit Rwanda, I saw the warning on a YouTube channel but I felt, maybe it can’t be that bad, so, I tried it. The day I drank directly from a tap in Rwanda, I thought I was have some chronic intestinal twist wars. Don’t you try it, just humbly buy the water (bottle or jars) and or boil before you drink if that works for you though (For me, boiling and drinking wasn’t even close to my best option). This is from me to you, it’s a real life warning, not a joke nor a fable, IT IS THAT BAD! You’re very welcome.

• Watch out for the established foreigners

This is quite sensitive for a culture shock but take as a very important one especially if you’re going to Rwanda as an employer to foreign organizations. I could be wrong or maybe the situation I found myself was different but I’ve worked with international people in my country and I know how things should run but when I got to Rwanda, it was a different ball game. So, I will just leave a tiny note on that which says; know what you want and don’t let people see you any different than who you are. Humans are naturally humans and may have some ideas about you or your background, be a good human anyway. Never be afraid to face your demons and theirs if you have to work with them. With time and patience, I think we’re all meant to learn lessons through other’s experience only when we don’t want to learn from ours. The Rwandese aren’t the ones to blame for most of greedy decisions in the market place, but some of the established foreigners. In all, can you believe Rwanda still keeps them checked while making room for them to breathe? That’s some good stuff.

I love Rwanda and I love that I had the privilege to have so many great experiences and fun there! These are like the few ones I can remember for now- I didn’t add that I never understood how to count the money, how cold the country is that I almost thought it’s not in Africa and how they really don’t do well with peppers(spicy meals)  ‘cos I felt maybe that’s on me (lol).

I hope you had a good read? You can share your Rwanda cultural shocks with me in the comment section or shoot me a direct feedback.

Kubuzima bwacu, Murakoze! Cheers, thank you!

Dr. Adebankemo O. Michael

If you had questions and or additions while reading this write-up, kindly leave a comment and or reach me on info@omnipurpose.org