Rwanda, not exactly a luxury destination, but the most fabulous trip I’ve taken in a long time. For each of my children’s 10th birthdays I take them on a mommy & me trip. It’s more for me than them, am hoping they don’t get wise to me.  For my oldest daughter’s trip, she chose Paris, we bought shoes and ate chocolate. When it came time for my next child to choose his destination the ideal trip presented itself to us.  We have been supporters of Partners in Health for years, in fact my son has been accompanying me to their annual meetings for the last 2 years. When the opportunity came up to visit PIH and tour the medical center that we helped to build, he jumped at the opportunity.

I was shocked at how many of our well educated and well traveled friends were stunned that I would take a 9 year old child to Rwanda. The country does live in our collective memories as a place of horrors, and rightly so. However modern Rwanda is actually quite safe and is a fascinating place to visit. Unlike many other economically disadvantaged countries I’ve visited I never felt harassed or preyed upon in Kigali (the capital) or in any of the villages. Only once did a child announce “you give me some money”, I think it was the only english he knew (besides, “how old are you?” which I was asked repeatedly…and never answered). I’m not sure he wanted money as much as he just wanted to test out his english, and if someone gave him some cash, all the better.
Getting to Rwanda was easier than I thought it would be. We flew directly to Brussels from New York, as Rwanda was a Belgian Colony, many inbound flights originate from there. Ironically, the Brussels/Rwanda leg of the flight on Brussels Air was much more luxurious than the NY/Brussels leg on American Airlines. Hot food, comfortable seats and well dressed flight attendants speaking French, it didn’t really feel as if we were headed to a war torn african country.  We were lucky to have some inside help from Partners in Health in arranging a car and driver.  Our driver it turns out had been in the army and took amazing care of us.  Did we need him for safety?  No.  Did I feel better having a driver who knew the area and was looking out for us?  Yes.  We met many cute American girls living in Rwanda working for various NGO’s and charities, they all used public transportation and felt perfectly safe.

Over the next few weeks I’ll recount our trip, including some guest blogging by my son, he recounts it as a “life changing experience”.  Which is adorable, given that he’s just now turning 10, how much changing could his life have needed?