What I’ve Learned: “Everyone here is friendly, welcoming and kind.”
Written by Peyton Stoike — Dec. 30, 2019
When I took my first Global Eyewitness trip to Mongolia, the people were friendly but walking on the streets, they avoided you and never smiled or said hello. Rwanda is the exact opposite. I feel as though everyone here is friendly, welcoming and kind. Most everyone does not show a care or a worry when walking down the side of the road or milling around a place.
In the United States, it is common to find people who are unfriendly, unkind, unwelcoming and even judgmental. Sometimes there can be weird glances or stern looks from walking down the sidewalk, driving a car or even sitting in class or being in a place of business. It can sometimes be as a switch is flipped to be consistently welcoming and friendly.
So far in Rwanda, we have not encountered anyone who is really unwelcoming or unfriendly; everyone smiles and enjoys that fact that we are trying to speak their language: Kinyarwandan, (and let me tell you it is not an easy language to be learning).
I never noticed how unwilling people are to change. Twenty five years ago, Rwanda had a devastation that they did recover from. The country is a completely different country today than it was then. In the U.S., every day things happen that make people upset and angry, and they never really get over it; the devastation in their lives continues and leaks into their day-to-day life.
So I guess the moral of the story and what I have learned the most since being in Rwanda is no matter the baggage that you carry or the stress that you are under, it only takes a second to smile and to appear and to be friendly. A smile can make someone’s day.
