Day Four: Introspective Thoughts on Culture

Seven months ago I had the opportunity to travel with a group from my high school to Rwanda. We spent three weeks there, immersing ourselves in the culture and people. We learned about the tragic genocide, which occurred twenty short years ago, and how the country has started to recovery from it. We worked with a community of coffee growers as they tended the ground around he coffee plants. We went to schools and orphanages to talk with children of all age groups and education levels.  We collaborated with a community group bringing clean water to their village, and made media with them to share their stories. We even had the amazing opportunity to stay for five days with host families in a neighborhood in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Over this time I learned a lot about the Rwandan culture. I learned how they sing and dance through the back-breaking labor in the coffee fields; I learned how much of a privilege it is to go to school, and to be able to learn English and French; I learned how important church and religion are to the people.  The most important thing I learned, however, was the power of forgiveness and the strength of a community.
Through government propaganda and the media throughout the 20th century, the Hutus (an ethnic majority in Rwanda) were told to fear the Tutsis (another ethnic group in Rwanda).  Hutus were told that they needed to seize power in the government from the Tutsis, and that even their Tutsi neighbors weren't safe to trust.  Small scale massacres of Tutsis occurred through the 20th century as the USA sat back and did nothing. The anger and fear towards Tutsis kept growing until an order was given from the Hutu government to kill Tutsis. As news trickled down, people took this order to be a law, because the English words for "order" and "law" translate to the same word in Kinyrwandan.  On April 7, 1994 the genocide began. Hutus mercilessly killed their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus.  At first they killed their neighbors and friends, but then the hunt started to happen. Tutsis sought refuge in the churches and schools, which had always been safe places, but the Hutus came to Murambi, Natarama and Nyamata and so many other schools and churches and committed mass murders.  The Tutsis fled into the forests, but were pursued and slaughtered there too. Many fled into the neighboring Congo, only to be met by trouble there too. This one-sided slaughter went on for three months, and an estimated 800,000 innocent Rwandan Tutsis were murdered.  This tragedy created a rift in the people. When Hutus were released from jail, the Tutsis didn't want them to return to the village. But as time passed, they rebuilt their communities.  The Hutus were able to regain some Tutsi trust through respect.  The Tutsis began to forgive the Hutus and try to live in peace. Twenty years later, they are still rebuilding those relationships, but they have come so far. Hutus and Tutsis can work together again, making their country a better place, and working together to fix issues in the community and in Rwanda. The resilient strength of the Rwandans is what has allowed their country to recover, and become stronger than it was before the conflict.
I learned so much in that three week time about Rwandans and their culture, but, through their eyes, I learned so much about myself and the American culture.  I learned how much we take for granted. Each morning we wake up and dread the fact that we have to go to school. We take for granted that it will always be there, and we feel like we are forced to sit and listen to someone telling us how little we know. The same is not true in Rwanda and many other developing nations. Education is not guaranteed, it's a privilege.  Every day the kids who get to go to school wake up excited; they walk to school with smiles on their face, and they are eager to get to learn anything they can.  Education isn't the only thing I have always taken for granted. Running water. Not just running water but hot water at the turn of a knob. In America, when I want to take a shower, I turn the nozzle, when I want to drink cold water, I turn on the faucet. It's easy and mindless.  A lot of Rwandans aren't that fortunate. They have to walk miles to get water, which they know is contaminated. Even if they are lucky to have a nice house with a solid roof over their head, they don't always have running water. In the house I stayed in during our home stays there was indoor plumbing, but that didn't always mean running water. The water collected in a basin outside of the house, and once that basin was empty the water wouldn't flow. That meant bucket showers, or no showers at all.
Being in Rwanda gave me a new perspective on how I live. Being wasteful had been an unfortunate part of the American culture. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the USA threw out 250,890,000 pounds of garbage in 2012. Only one tenth of that amount was recycled.  The garbage production in Rwanda is much lower. The people try to use every last bit of what they have, and this includes food.  Americans through away excess food without giving it a second thought. This is one habit I have tried to change since returning. Most people in Rwanda don't get enough food to satisfy themselves and to get the right amount of nutrients, so needless to say they don't have any food scraps to through away. In America and other developed countries, we always have easy access to food, so we don't understand how important every morsel of food is. Nowadays it's much harder for me to throw out waste knowing that there are people who are dying because they can't fill their stomachs.  My perception of wealth has also dramatically changed. My family has never had a huge plethora of extra money, but we've always made a living without worrying too much. We are by no means rich according to American standards, but we could be off much worse. I have always been able to afford to clothe myself, to get a good education, and my parents don't have to do any tough physical labor. In Rwanda, there are too many people who rely on the generosity of others to give them clothing filled with holes so  their kids can wear a shirt, too many can't afford education, and there are so many people who have to work long hours in the fields to barely make any money.  It seemed very strange when multiple Rwandans told me they thought every American was rich, because our statistics don't show that, but compared to their standard of life and wealth, we are very privileged.
Six months later I still struggle to comprehend all of this. I'm trying to understand the American culture, which I thought I understood so well. I'm am still amazed by how a country so poor, disease-ridden and hungry could be so much richer in spirit and community than a country that can have anything at the drop of a hat. This experience taught me something more valuable than anything I've learned in a classroom. It has taught me to reevaluate my life and culture, and how to value things I have taken for granted.
-Libby Morehouse