It seems so weird, so far-fetched, to have any attachment to a place I have seemingly zero ties to. However, I feel some sort of connection to many places. I have spent hours soaking up knowledge of geography, culture and the world, but one place has stood out amongst others and even stood out in comparison to places I’ve been.
I remember closely studying the Rwandan Genocide and being so very interested in the role colonization played in essentially setting up the country for possible disaster. It was crazy to me that, even after the Holocaust, something like this could still take place. However, looking over its troubled past, it amazed me how the country has rebuilt itself and regained peace within.
When I look at Kigali – the most populous city and capital – it seems like an outlier amongst other cities in the world. With plastic bags banned, strict littering laws and community cleanups, Rwanda’s cleanliness feels inviting. With these clean streets, Rwandans and tourists are encouraged to use green transportation like bikes and walking on Kigali’s new roadside paths.
Cities are cool and all, but why visit a concrete jungle when you can see a real one? Rwanda is home to mountain jungles that house some of the last Mountain Gorillas on the planet. With rangers monitoring the gorillas to prevent poaching, tourists can go up with rangers and get a once-in-a-lifetime sight of these animals.
With all that, you can still get the traditional African safari experience with animals like hippos, lions, giraffes, rhinos and the national animal of the leopard.
In my opinion, the people of Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically, live in the most pure form. With life mostly straying from cities, and some of the last known nomadic tribes, the people coexist with the wild, with little environmental impact.
As a bonus, I love basketball, and the great part is that Rwanda is a part of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). I would love to watch a game and play some hoops, as I think the game of basketball in Africa has so much room to grow and great new talent to produce.
All of these things are great, but the people make all the difference. Going back to their genocide in 1994, and now looking at what Rwanda has turned into today, you can only label it as resilience. It impresses me how Kigali can boast things like the lowest crime rate and the cleanest city in Africa.
It’s amazing how the citizens of Rwanda united and worked together to achieve these things and take pride in their work. There’s a word called “Umuganda” in the native language of Kinyarwanda that means coming together to achieve a common goal. This type of grace and sense of gratitude and community is something I dream to feel or maybe even contribute to.
One day, I hope to relish in Rwanda and its culture, maybe even with a one-way ticket.
