Small stories from a big world

  S aturday morning. It is a bit cloudy and cooler than yesterday. Ideal to work in the garden before the sun burns too hard. I hear some birds whistling in the bushes. Nothing else. Not the sound of the heavy traffic on the connecting road across the valley. Not the voice of the woman who passes by in the street, loudly praising her goods which she carries in a basket on her head. No children playing. I hear no snatches of the gliding exercises with which the choir of a church a little lower on this hill warms up the voices. No drums or percussion either. It is silent. It is the last Saturday of the month. It is umuganda. Umuganda refers to community work that contributes to the development of Rwanda. Every last Saturday of the month, economic life falls silent from 7:00 to 11:00. During this time, everyone has to work in their community: cleaning, helping to build a school, constructing terraces, fighting erosion, you name it. The system has existed since the last century, ...

At the end of June, the Commonwealth Summit (CHOGM) took place in Kigali. More than 30 Heads of State met in Kigali. The Prince of Wales, Charles and Camilla, were also here as representatives of Queen Elizabeth. A great logistical challenge for a small country like Rwanda. And it all went well. No incidents. In the run-up to the summit, Kigali paid a lot of attention to improving its infrastructure. Suddenly, bus shelters appeared everywhere. Many roads were given a facelift, holes in footpaths were repaired and shoddy construction sites disappeared behind metres and metres of canvas advertising Rwanda's tourist assets. Perhaps the biggest challenge was getting the many roads -earmarked to ensure efficient flow of traffic during the summit- ready in time. Some roads were built, others were doubled in width. The latter also happened to a connecting road between the hill where I live and the next one. I never knew that road to be busy, but it is the fastest connection between th...

  Today is 'Face Day'. In the cabinet decision of Friday 13 May, there was an important paragraph: face masks are no longer compulsory. Unlike many other countries, in Rwanda we still had to wear face masks both outside and inside. Until Friday the 13th of May, that is. They are still recommended inside though, but it is not compulsory anymore.  For the first time since I moved here, which is over a year now, I can see the faces of the people who I pass on the street. Like today, on the way to the swimming pool. The face of the woman who walks down the street and loudly praises her fruit and vegetables in a basket on her head. For the first time, that voice has a face. The smile of the children playing with a homemade ball on the corner. The dogged expression of the man cycling a colourfully dressed woman to her destination. She is not very thin and the road goes uphill. The face of the pump attendant who tries to calculate how much change I should get. The faces of the beauti...

It was a small message on twitter . Rein Taaramäe, an Estonian rider with Intermarché, was on altitude training in Rwanda. He prepared himself here for the Tour of Italy. As part of that, he changed bikes. He tried out a local bike. In the video you can see how he sprints with the other cyclist, who uses Rein's bike for the occasion. Rein soon gives up, he loses with flying colours. If you pause the film, you can take a closer look at the borrowed bicycle. Yes, it has gears. But it also has an extra construction. A sort of extended carrier has been created with a cushion on it. Indeed, it is a bicycle taxi. The driver can take two or even three people on the back. In a country full of hills, this is heavy work, very heavy work. Cyclist Rein, also without passengers, losses from the taxi rider. Who has the best legs here? The film puts the concept of top-class sport into perspective. The taxi bike in the film has gears, but most bicycles used here for transporting people and g...

 It is not yet four o'clock in the afternoon but it is already dusk. The lights of my small, red rental car pierce through the darkness that soon falls. The windscreen wipers try in vain to wipe away the volume of water that falls. I am driving on Nelson Mandela Avenue, towards Bloemfontein's city centre. I am weary about the potholes I know occur in big quantities and all sizes on this road, but can't see them because of this downpour. The road looks like a river. The white road markings that should indicate the four lanes are no longer visible. They are not even visible in dry weather and bright light. They have faded away years ago. Bloemfontein on a bright day, seen from Naval Hill Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa but it seems a backward, dilapidated place. I was here a few months ago and again I see that the decay has continued. In the inner city, some streets have so many potholes that you'd better drive an SUV to navigate them safely. The pa...

A few months ago, on a Saturday, the sound of a tractor or excavator woke me up early. That typical growl of a heavy engine, deeper and louder when the machine is doing heavy work. Slightly lighter, catching its breath, when the machine moves off and prepares for a new assault on the heavy task. Again and again. After my stay in Vietnam, I know very well what that means: a new construction site next door, or rather, opposite the door. Not exactly reassuring. Memories of the rhythmic turning of concrete mixers, the squeaking of reversing trucks with concrete (bê ton, in Vietnamese), the toiling of excavators, the shuddering of drills, the screaming of workers, the layer of cement dust on all the plants in the garden, and the smell of concrete came to mind. Anyway, things weren't going that fast here. Apart from the excavator, no other machines were involved. It was not about building a new residential tower or hotel, like in Da Nang, but about rebuilding a house. Drastic, though...

  If you are travelling in a car in Rwanda, and someone in the car says "Sophia", the driver will immediately hit the brakes. Sophia is the name used here for the hundreds of speed cameras on the roads. The original Sophia is a humanoid robot built in Hong Kong. It is one of the first robots to make an almost "human" impression through artificial intelligence. You can talk to her, she responds correctly, uses hand gestures and facial expressions. Sophia visited Rwanda in 2019 during a congress on the transformation of Africa. She made a lasting impression in a country that likes to call itself the Singapore of Africa. In the airport, there is a robot -also called Sophia- that looks a little less feminine, or even human. It supposedly can move around and measure the temperature of people in the departure hall. Yes, supposedly, because I have not yet seen the Sophia robot in action. It is always parked neatly by a wall or in a corner, charging. Anyway, everything...