Rwanda : Musanze “I wish to be a Rwandan” Livinus Renatus

“As soon as my country allows duo nationality, I will immediately apply for a Rwandan Nationality as my second National Identity rather than any other country” says Livinus Renatus.

Renatus is a Tanzanian young man and a form five student at Bukoba Secondary school, in Kagera region- North West of Tanzania.  He is in Rwanda for a week on a study trip organized by British Council through its Connecting classroom project that aims at helping youth better cope with and fit in the global world and become real global citizens. The project also helps students; teachers and the surrounding community discuss issues of global concerns including war, climate change, sustainable development etc.

Renatus was impressed by what he saw in Rwanda that he thought such kind of things belong to only western Europe and America. “I would not think of laptop in primary school and such ICT driven education” says Livinus commenting on One Laptop per Child project, after he toured six schools in Musanze.

“I was also thrilled to see how people are so welcoming and friendly, how every street and everywhere I go all things are so organized. Cleanliness is among the top thing that I could not think of considered our countries”. He continued “the road here are so nice and I could not take off my eyes from garden all along the roads from Rusumo up to Musanze where I have just come”   the young man  also says he admired a lot the culture in Rwanda and he was ecstatic whenever people stood for traditional dances. Similarly, he enjoyed how much Rwandan people are so caring citing that each place he and his friends visited, they enjoyed milk that they were welcomed with.

His envy on Rwanda was relayed by his colleagues and teachers accompanying them in the trip when they acknowledged that the organizational level of Rwanda is rare in African countries. “Considering the tragic past Rwanda has gone through, no one expects a country of such a rule of law, a clean place, cooperative people and so peaceful and calm that I have witnessed since I arrived here in Rwanda” retorted George.  George Joseph Rubaiyuka is the headmaster of Bukoba Secondary School (Kagera Region) and coordinates Classroom Connecting project in Tanzania.

Similar insights were shared by Bernard Chikuka, a teacher at Kabwe School in Zambia who referred Rwanda to as a “country with almost zero crime where all along the week I am staying in Rwanda, I can even walk during nights and feeling very safe”. Mr. Chikuka says he does not “doubt that the country should be the destination of investors”.

13 people from Tanzania and 3 from Zambia were in Musanze district on study trip since March 05 up to March 12. The two delegations comprise of students from both primary and secondary schools came in Rwanda to visit their counterparts in the Classrooms connecting project funded by British Council.