I’ve discovered a place far, far away that is the total opposite of Whitefish, Montana – it’s in Africa, more specifically Rwanda. The reason for my journey to this opposite world was to visit my daughter Tara, who is in the 2nd year of her assignment as a Peace Corps English teacher in the little village of Kibangu. After my visit Tara has assigned me the task of writing an account of my observations that resulted from my recent visit to her in Rwanda
Before I get into my account of my visit, I have to admit that if Tara had not summoned the guts to go to work for the Peace Corps and ended up in Africa, I would not found this opposite world. For reasons that I find difficult to grasp, she been compelled to go to a place that is so very different than Montana.
Here are some of the differences I found in Tara’s opposite world:
- Rwanda is near the equator, so there are no seasons. Therefore, so contrary to every changing sunrises & sunsets, each day is pretty much the same length. The sun rises and sets at the same time - 6 am & 6 pm. Until my trip there, I did not realize that in Rwanda there are no solstices to celebrate to mark the changing seasons, but there are Rainy and Dry seasons.
- After talking to people in Rwanda, I discovered that most have no concept of what snow is. So when they asked me about how things are at home, I had a hard time explaining that aspect.
- Rwanda is a small country – probably about the size of Western Montana. You could probably drive east to west in 4-5 hours. It takes 2 days to drive cross Montana, this is another hard concept for Rwandans to grasp.
- Rwanda is full of people roughly 11 million – Montana has 1 million people. Because all these people are condensed into fairly small area, everywhere you look you see people (except for the forest reserve areas).
- Twenty years ago Rwanda suffered through a horrible genocide where neighbors killed neighbors based upon whether you were a Hutsi or a Tutsi. Most of the world, including us Americans, ignored what happened. Montanans have never gone through such a horrible ordeal so we really have no concept of what those people have gone through, although the Native Americans in our state probably do.
- A majority the people in Whitefish are white, most of the folks in Rwanda are black. And most of the folks there are rather small in stature. This made a big, white guy with a grey beard like me feel like some sort of Martian (which may be true). As a result of my extraterrestrial status I was constantly being starred at. While it was a little unnerving at first, I got used to it after a few days. More importantly, it made me appreciate how an African- American might feel in a place like Whitefish. I think a lot of folks in our part of the world might view things differently if they were exposed to this opposite world.
- To get to around most people ride busses or walk. Consequently, the roads are full of both. And the pedestrians do not have the right of way. The busses seem to accelerate when they get in crowded areas so you need to keep an eye out when you are walking around. In Montana you can drive for hours and not see a bus or a person walking by the road. So instead of Rwandans having to watch out for busses because busses don’t move for pedestrians, in Montana pedestrians have to watch out because drivers are not used to seeing someone walking beside the road.
- Most folks in Whitefish are pretty well off. We have nice houses with electricity, refrigerators, cars and grocery stores. In general we are well fed. In Rwanda most people have no cars, no refrigeration. The grocery is the Tuesday open aired market in the center of town. To eat many work small plots that they till with their hoes – back breaking work. In Montana we have huge farms with tractors, in Rwanda there are no tractors. Many Rwandans have goats tied to trees near their houses for meat and milk. In Montana. a few ranchers have millions of cows spread over millions of acres.
- Instead of having elk, deer, antelope, eagles, moose and grizzly bears, the reserve areas in Rwanda have giraffes, zebras, gazelles, impalas, elephants, monkeys, baboons, hippos & fruit bats. All this wildlife, especially the thousands of fruit bats we encountered, made me feel like I was in Indiana Jones movie.
These are some of things I found in this opposite universe, but there were also similarities. Like Montana, Rwanda is a mountainous place and several places there rival the lakes, mountains and forest of Montana. And despite the huge differences in our worlds, the people of Rwanda and Montana are for the most part friendly and seem happy. Surprising both Rwandans and Montanans are very dependent on their cell phones – everyone has them there too! And the people in both places like to drink beer.
I enjoyed spending the holidays with Tara, it was an enlightening experience. It was nice to be in a place that wasn’t overrun with Christmas commercialization that never seems to end here in Whitefish. Mostly I’m glad I got to spend 10 + days with her, probably the most time I’ve spent with her since she left home to go to college. She has adapted to this opposite universe by becoming fluent in the native language and has become very self-sufficient. She doesn’t seem to mind things we take for granted. She adapted to the fluctuating electricity, lack of running water and the outdoor privy that consists of a roof over a hole in the ground (I would have to build a seat over the hole). I’m proud of her for her grit and ability to adapt to a very different situation. I’m also look forward to her coming home at the end of the year.