A World Apart But Life’s Essentials Are The Same
One of the biggest takeaways I had from visiting rural villages in Rwanda was how simple their daily lives were compared to life in America. Don’t get me wrong, their lives are much harder than ours in many ways, including daily survival. When times are good, villagers may earn 2 to 3 U.S. dollars a week. They try to make enough to buy a bag of rice and a bag of beans to spread out over 2 weeks for the family. They till the soil and harvest crops while relying on mother nature to supply the rain. It is not an easy life and their harvests are not always plentiful which means food is harder to come by, but it is something they have become used to. It comes as no surprise. They rely heavily on their faith that God will always provide.
However, with these challenges, also comes peacefulness, time with family and their community and time for reflection. In the remote village of Gasarabwayi, the children attend school if their families can afford the school fees but they also spend hours in the quiet countryside, breathing in the fresh air that God created for us to enjoy. The village homes are simple. The frames are made out of large sticks and mud and concrete. Most homes have no electricity. There is one living room area and maybe 2 rooms for sleeping. The cooking area and bathrooms are outdoors. They hand wash their clothes every day and dry them on bushes in the sun. They walk miles to pump water. There are no cars and, other than walking or bicycling, people stay fairly close to home.
During this time of Covid-19, the virus has forced all of us to slow down similar to daily life in the village. It has brought our hectic daily lives to a screeching halt. Our cars sit idle in our driveways, our trips to the grocery store have been stretched out, some of us are without work and many of us are sick. There is no cure for the corona virus right now. It is something villagers have always experienced when it comes to treating diseases like malaria. We have been told to self-isolate and to shelter at home except for daily outdoor exercise.
It goes without saying that this is not the life we are used to and while we can be grateful, it has been hard to have no control or know when this will end. We have to rely on faith to get us through and that God will provide. It is giving us time to reflect, to think more about others who may be struggling more than us and time to think about the more important things in life. In Rwanda, they are also under a shelter at home order. In the capital of Kigali, there are cases of Covid-19 but according to the Rwandan Health Ministry, there have been no deaths. Because people cannot leave their homes, they can’t work. They have been living without daily wages since mid-March and food prices have gone up. Food is scarce. Life has gotten harder in the city and once things can return to normal, it will be 3 to 4 months before the local economy will even begin to recover.
Even while Covid-19 takes its toll on the world and even in the capital of Kigali, surprisingly, back in the village, life hasn’t really changed all that much. They have been told not to travel but most of them don’t normally travel far from home. They have been told to stay in their homes but they continue to cook in their outside kitchens. They are able to harvest crops in their fields and their children are still able to enjoy the fresh countryside air. The only change is at the local market. Usually, families can sell their goods but right now they can only sell food and they aren’t able to gather in large groups.
While life in America is very different from the villages of Rwanda, right now things are oddly much the same. We are all on a similar playing field. We are not traveling far from home and we are enjoying the fresh air when we can. When and if, life ever becomes more normal, I also believe it will never be quite the same. Hopefully, we will make use of the life lessons we are experiencing right now and live more meaningful and thoughtful lives in the future. Hopefully, we will hold onto and continue to focus on the things that are most important: time with family, caring for our community and perhaps discovering and living out the mission God set out for us.