After many, many months off (building a tree house, making macarons, coming to terms with virtual school) we are FINALLY back in action with R, heading to our favorite topic of “random African Country.”

But actually Rwanda – a country the size of Maryland with the population of Pennsylvania – has quite an interesting history and culture. And there is so much more to it than the genocide that killed a shocking 800,000 Tutsi people (5% of the population – at the hands of Hutu extremists) back in the 1990s. Rwanda has an early history of a thriving Tutsi monarchy and German and Belgium influence. And today Rwanda is a one of the safest and cleanest countries in Africa and is a growing tourist destination.

Here are some more interesting facts we learned:

• Most of the country is more than 5,000 feet above sea level.
• Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains are home (one of only two habitats) to the endangered mountain gorilla.
• Once a month Rwandan citizens must participate in a service project to help the country.
• Sixty percent of Rwanda’s parliament is female, this is the highest representation in the world.

…And for more information on Rwanda, check out this awesome presentation Isaac put together: RWANDA SLIDES.

FOOD

Like other central African cuisines, we expected lots of beans, greens and a soft dough-like fufu. And Rwanda did not disappoint. Though, Isaac declared it was much tastier than some other African countries we’ve sampled!

Breakfast

In Rwanda corn is king (unlike many other neighboring countries where cassava or cocoyams are the staple!) So that means corn porridge for breakfast – with sweet potatoes on top. However we could not find any specific porridge at the African grocery store, so we just cooked up some corn grits. I like the different sweet/savory taste, Isaac liked it with brown sugar on it, and was not a fan.

Dinner

Apparently in Rwanda they usually only eat meat once a month, so we decided we would choose such a night and have grilled spicy chicken brochette along with other traditional items

Ugali – This their corn fufu -a soft ball of dough they dip in stews. And this is by far my favorite fufu – kind of tastes like an undercooked corn tortilla.

Isombe – This is a stew of spinach and cassava leaves (which we found at the African grocery store). But it has a lot of peanut butter in it (and Isaac thought we should have more,) which really gives it a different taste. Not our favorite but not bad.

Brochettes – Delicious! We loved the spicy tomato marinade grilled with simple onions and peppers! We’d definitely make this again.

CULTURE

This was a easy choice as music and dancing is an key part of most Rwandan celebrations. The dance they are know for – which always bring the different ethnic groups together – is actually two dances, accompanied by drum:

• The umushargiriro or cow dance, performed by women
• The intoreor or dance of heroes, performed by men

We watched this VIDEO on the history of the dance and then made our own wigs (one out of ripped yellow liner fabric and one is an old skirt that had fringe) and tried our hand at it. True to the dance, the boys spent lots of time choreographing their moves and we had lots of fun (despite Eve refusing to participate). You can watch our moves HERE.

We hope to be back in two weeks with S – where we will be moving north to central Europe!