Rwanda's future...contradictions

I just had an interesting, but challenging conversation with one of our friends here. I told him that I had questions, but I was not sure whether or not it was okay to ask them, because they were sensitive. He said I could ask. Below, I have put the conversation. It was just upsetting to me, because while I feel completely safe here, I am really worried about the future of these boys and the country. He was just much more pessimistic about the future of Rwanda. What it makes me realize is how important the next seven years are for the future of Rwanda. Now is the time that transformation has to occur in people’s hearts and minds. The election (in 2017?) when the current president is supposed to step down will be a real test to that stability and transformation. I quoted an article in our proposal that seems particularly relevant here: Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families, has said that “Rwanda's future lies with the country's younger generation, which will refuse to inherit the world that the older generation will leave behind." I’ve been trying to really think about what can be done to ensure that the pain and hatred of the generation who experienced the genocide is not passed down to future generations…I think that Umuryango is making valiant efforts towards this cause. I’d also really like to learn more about the work being done in the schools.

The conversation:
I started by asking about the President. He said that he would vote for him, because he was a strong president and he kept the peace. I asked him whether he thought he would step down after this term (After this election, he is supposed to step down according to the Constitution). He said he thought he would, and mentioned that maybe his son would run.
I asked if he thought that it would be okay in Rwanda after the next election (in seven years). His answer was really pessimistic and upsetting. He implied that he thought it might go back to war depending on what happened in the election. He said, “maybe it will go back to war, maybe we will die…I don’t know” and laughed…Kind of making light, but noticed about Rwandans, and Africans in general is that they seem to laugh at uncomfortable moments.
When I asked what could be done to make the peace stronger… less fragile, he didn’t have many answers.
He said there was peace now because the president was strong, but that there were problems. He told me that several months ago there was an incident between two families involving a grenade, right near the lake that we went to visit yesterday. I was surprised because the only incidents I have heard about have been in Kigali, however, this one was not the same. It was unrelated to the elections. I think maybe it was two families who have been fighting for a long time. It is still scary though, because it is just an indication of how fragile the peace is here.

I asked him, I know that now, you are supposed to say we are not Hutu, we are not Tutsi, we are one, we are Rwandans, do you think that people believe that? Surprisingly he said yes…he said he believed 95% of Rwandans believed that. But, maybe the five percent that were extremist would influence the others in a bad way.

He said that the organizations trying to “change the minds in a good way” are not getting to everyone, they aren’t getting to the people in the villages, they are located mostly in the cities, and the people in the villages don’t have TV, radio etc…