To Rwanda, with love.........

To Rwanda , with love……….

As the car sped though the roads my eager eyes were gazing through the window. Neatly tiled pavements, clean roads and greenery all over met the eye. The car wound its way from the airport and as it neared the town I was amazed to see that the whole city was clean and beautiful. Yes my dear friends welcome to Kigali! Murakaza neza as they would say in Kinyarwanda.

The main roundabout a la our own flora fountain of South Mumbai is like a picture perfect neatly manicured garden with a flowing fountain in the middle and a center of attraction. The workers may be working discretely at night or perhaps early morning hours but at no point of time do you see even a speck of garbage in the precincts of the roundabout.  

Be it the church, the roads, the shops, the pavements – the cleaners are cleaning it with such zest as though it is not their work but their religion. It’s a great site to watch them clean the areas. There is a rhythm to their feet as though they are not working but dancing to some foot tapping music or may be playing a game requiring adept foot work.  

Initially,  I thought that perhaps it was just the main roads that were kept spotlessly clean. As the wanderer in me started taking long walks after having settled in the city, I found that not just the main roads but even small alleys and pathways that did not have any tarmac or asphalt, were clean too. The marketplace which is the most crowded and prone to garbage dumps is also regularly cleaned so that when the market is closed you find dirt free roads and not garbage dumps. In fact the roads and pavements in Kigali are so spotless that figuratively speaking, one could say that you can easily sleep on the roads. The  city is not just bestowed with natural beauty but you can realize that the city administration has gone at lengths in keeping it beautiful.

Another thing I observed that be it young or old, rich or poor - there is perhaps a community pride in dressing neatly and cleanly. I have yet to see anyone walking barefoot on the road - Be it even beggars or street urchins.

Rwandans have another great tradition that they follow every month called the Umuganda. On the last Saturday of every month each and every person right from the President to the grassroots all put in a hard day’s labour for community work. It could be building a road, or helping a friend to construct a house or digging the village well. Shops and all undertakings are closed and people are not allowed even on the streets. They have to be busy doing community service.

And yes I must mention the feeling of safety and security. I was told that I could go wherever I wanted without any fear even if I was a foreigner. Rightly so. The police that are posted are so shipshape and disciplined that it instills an automatic sense of respect for them.  You find that by evening there are gun toting military men posted at almost every corner or Street Square, which gives a real feeling of safety. They are quietly standing sentry to ensure that the streets are protected.

Discipline is their culture. You will find pedestrians crossing only at the zebra crossing and yes, the vehicles wait and allow you to pass. No honking, no screeching brakes. Even at the bus stand people are standing in a queue and when the bus arrives there is no jostling or pushing. Each one waits for the other to alight or board the bus as the case may be. All in harmony and peace.

When I was admiring the clean roads with one of the Rwandans he told me ‘Mama, it was no always like this. It took a lot of policing to see that people follow rules. So now it is our way of life.’ ‘ Byaybaye nk’umucyo noneho’ he said in Kinyarwanda – meaning It has now become a culture. Nothing surprising about it is what he meant. Yet frankly, on my part I was amused. Police could transform peoples’ habit? Elsewhere in some countries I have seen people palming off currency notes to police when they were caught peeing on the road or spitting. The police then looked the other way and all was hunky dory. You could throw rubbish, break traffic rules and all you need is a handful of currency notes to tame the police.

Does that mean Rwanda has no problems like the other nations? No, in fact the nation has more complex problems being a small land locked country with a thousand hills making logistics challenging. Then there are other issues like premature deaths, malnutrition, food supply, clean sanitation, health care, education and many more. Yet what is most encouraging is that the community as a whole recognizes the importance of agaciro ( dignity)  and  under one leadership is ready to rise like Phoenix from the gory ashes of genocide.

Imagine there are many who have grown up with no relatives at all; leave alone the nurturing of parents. When we look at the great lengths at which our parents strive to look after our needs, our value system and our traditions we can realize the vacuum that many of them have suffered with no one to call as even a relative.

By and by I realized that it is the Government’s avowed strategy of pursuing and demonstrating by action a zero tolerance to corruption that had percolated deep down to the lowest rung. I am told that if someone tries to bribe the police they would find themselves straight in jail. Simultaneously, if any police or other officials are found to take bribe, they were summarily chucked out of their jobs.

 A track record that ensures community discipline. So the spotless clean roads are not by chance but by design. It is by concerted efforts of both the administration and the community that this status has been achieved.

Rwanda I salute you!

Anagha Hunnurkar

Sunday, 14^th June 2015