And, they tell really silly jokes.
Q: What do you call a cow on a trampoline?
A: A milk shake!
Driving through the countryside of Rwanda, children seem to be everywhere; along the roads, in the fields, on the beach of Lake Kivu, and running from one house yard to another. In remote parts, you often see children carrying water jugs on their way to fill up at a close-by water station. They dot the land in the cutest of ways.
And although I never saw this, I swear Rwandan children
in rural parts of the country, hide in trees. A simple task of pulling over on the side of the road to take a photograph of a splendid landscape, at a place where no other human appears to be around, quickly (and I mean really quickly) two, or three, or four...or ten children, magically appear.
From where? That’s a mystery.
Probably, though, because they are curious little kiddies, they can spot a tourist from a mile away and even if they aren’t in trees, they are somewhere close enough to run over the minute someone from a faraway land comes into viewing range.
They want to look. They want to talk even though they do not speak foreign languages. Many want their picture taken and when you show them the digital image after, they lean against you as if you were their new best friend.
And, they want to show off as most kids do when hanging with their friends. Who can make the craziest face? Who will be front-and-centre? Who will giggle the most? Who, in this little pack of wild things (read: children) can be the funniest?
“Hellooooo.” As Rwanda becomes known as one of the topnotch tourist destinations anywhere, more and more, Rwandan children are being exposed to tourists. So it is natural that when driving slowly in really remote areas, many children will run alongside for a bit, and pretty much all will wave and say ‘hello’.
Personally, I like to think they appear from nowhere simply to spread the next generation of Rwandan joy and hospitality.