Local Rwandan Cuisine

Local food is yummy! Although they eat various types of red meats here, its quite easy to avoid them. If you're not the biggest red meat fan (like myself), you'll probably end up eating mostly starches, which are more than likely fried. Although everything is not as heavily fried or saturated in palm oil as Ghanian local food, the Rwandan diet is fairly starch-heavy. At a local restaurant you will find an array of starches - rice, crepes, cassava, sweet potatoes, chips (as in fried potatoes) and matooke (starchy bananas).

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not a complainer, but one aspect of Rwanda for which I am greatly thankful is their coffee! Compared to the other two African countries I've visited - Ghana and South Africa - where Nescafe or instant coffee was staple, having freshly brewed coffee is pleasant. Even when studying abroad in Thailand in 2007 instant coffee was the norm, so its nice to wake up to real coffee for a traveling change. The fresh milk served alongside the coffee is always warmed, which I also appreciate! It makes total sense... why put cold milk into your steaming hot coffee? Of course you'd prefer warmed milk in your hot beverage!

Anyways, here's some photos of Rwanda's delicious local food-

The first local meal we ate in Kigali. It was SO yummy. Cassava, dirty rice, green beans, sweet potatoes, garbanzo beans and potatoes.

A Ugandan dish at the Bethanie Hotel in Kibuye near alongside Lake Kivu. Apparently its usually eaten as a hearty morning breakfast. I forget what it was called, it it was basically a stewed mix of veggies, chicken, beans, rice and pasta. Hearty indeed.

Driving around Rwanda banana trees are everywhere. Apparently, there are four types of bananas grown here: the small sweet ones (good for dessert), matooke (more starchy, less sweet and typically boiled, plantain (ideal for frying), and then the variety we are accustomed to eating in the US. Prior to arriving in Rwanda we heard that they make banana beer and were excited to try the local beverage. What we found instead was more of a banana wine, with an alcohol content of 14%. The one below was found at the local supermarket for 1500 RWF, or about USD $2.50. If you've ever tasted palm wine before, the banana wine tastes somewhat similar.

"Akarusho" or banana wine. Made of fermented banana juice and sorghum. It tasted similar to palm wine.

Humbled to enjoy a homemade meal in a village in the Rutsiro district near Kivu Lake.

A homemade Rwandan meal at the home of an FR mother. Peas and carrots,  boiled cassava, squash, matooke stew,  rice and pineapples.

It isn't uncommon for families to ferment bananas in their home and make their own banana wine! We visited two different FR mothers who make the local drink. One mother gave us a tour of her house and showed us the room where she ferments the bananas, while this mother in Kibuye served a generous pitcher for us guests with our meal. 

Especially in the rural villages of Kibuye where most families' livelihood and income rely on agriculture cultivation, bananas is one of the priority crops. Not only is it one of the main staples, but also serves as a food security crop with a year round harvest. During our interviews we were shocked to hear from one beneficiary about a dangerous and epidemic disease that a caused 100% of banana yield losses. After doing some research we learned the disease, banana xanthomonas was recognized as a national threat, spreading to Rwanda and other countries in Eastern Africa after emerging from Uganda. Apparently the Rwandan government is trying to solve the issue by replacing farmers' diseased banana trees with new banana trees.

Homemade banana wine in Kibuye.

While I am least adventurous with red meat, I never say no to fish. Jules treated us to talapias at her hotel. The meal reminded me of Duncan's in Accra, except there was no accompanying banku (I prefer rice anyways. 

Delicious talapia fish at the Chez Landau. SO fresh and yummy. It was accompanied with spinach, pees and carrots and rice. Definitely one of my favorite meals in Rwanda.

Our Capstone Team was blessed to be paired with such an amazing client. I am most humbled to have shared homemade meals with locals on several occasions. Foundation Rwanda has made a strong impression on the local community here in Rwanda, making friendships with kind and generous people. Learning and laughing from inspiring and successful business women like Joy of Gahaya Links over a glass of wine or watching Sam's wedding videos in his living room with his wife as if we were actually present on that memorable day, are some of the best memories I'll walk away with from this trip. 

Another homemade meal - Chicken, fish, rice and tomato sauce, peas,  potatoes, crepe and cucumber and onion salad.

Dirty rice, homemade peanut sauce, chapatti, potatoes, boiled sweet potatoes, beans  and homemade chili salsa.

On the Eastern Shore of Lake Kivu

To speak humbly, every day in this trip has been better than yesterday. I admire our team so much – I truly am lucky to have such as KICK ASS team. Since we’ve arrived on Tuesday, January 8 we’ve been working nonstop conducting research on partner organizations, refining our strategic interviews and identifying goals for each meeting, conducting interviews, synthesizing answers, and trying to make sense of it all. During our ‘free time’, which is practically nonexistent, we are planning ahead for the next day’s meetings. After dinner we typically fit in an hour or so more of work, head to bed around 11pm or midnight and are back up at it again at 7am. (This morning I woke up at 5am and watched the sunrise over Lake Kivu, which to be honest I am not going to complain about).

Since I have a relatively faint heart I’ve emotionally prepared for this Rwanda trip knowing that I will encounter the sensitive topic of genocidal rape by reading tons of books, watching documentaries and setting Google Alerts following the Rwandan genocide in the media. One of the books I read, Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza is a memoir by a genocide survivor who worked for the UN thereafter and still lives in New York. She tells the miraculous story of strength, faith, and survival. She describes how God and a local Hutu pastor hid her and seven other women in a cramped bathroom of his home the size of a closet. They spent 91 days in this closet praying each day they wouldn’t be found until they eventually fled and found a French refuge camp. When she left the bathroom hiding spot she faced the loss of numerous family members and friends, including her parents. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a personal account of someone who survived the Rwandan genocide. Anyways, point is that the book took place in Immaculee's hometown of Kibuye, so I was extremely intrigued and humbled to get the chance to visit this part of Rwanda where 90 percent of the Tutsi population was murdered during the genocide of 1994. After reading reading Immaculee's story and description of her home town, its enticing to be able to put a 'face to a name', so to speak.

Overlooking Lake Kivu from the Moriah Hotel

Lake Kivu is nestled between the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, with many memories from the genocide lingering within. Although today Rwanda has somewhat found peace after its civil war, there are still acts of violence continuing on in Goma, on the north side of Lake Kivu just across the Congo border. The Western city of Kibuye is one of the most rural, but has an amazing story of survival to tell. Although about 90 percent of the town's Tutsi population was massacred during the civil war, the women have since emerged triumphant through the formation of a community support network.

Through speaking with many of the women, we found the concept of 'active listening' keeping many of these women alive and sane. 'Active listening' can be more or less described as community counseling. One women gets receives training in 'active listening' and becomes a mobile community counselor, inviting other women to call upon her when in need, and willing to travel many kilometers just to visit a women in her community who desperately needs someone to actively listen. I should mention that due to Rwanda's thousand hills and hilly landscape, outlying towns such as Kibuye and Cyangugu are isolated from the reach of servicing nonprofits. One of Foundation Rwanda's local partners, AVEGA West, is the nearest servicing nonprofit to these women, yet it would take nearly a 2 hour walk to reach the nonprofits compound for a counseling session. Thus in my opinion it is these women's evident bond and strength in numbers that has allowed them to survive and remain positive. 

Women survivors of Rwanda's genocidal past find laughter, tears of joy and self-confidence in lipstick.

These women were vibrant and full of life. They had a sense of humor and laughed with us. They cooked and shared with us a delicious local meal and strong batch of home brewed banana wine. Their smiles were bright and it brought me indescribable joy to laugh with them until they cried. They shared with us their hopes and dreams for themselves and their children. Seeing their strength today, you would never have known their traumatic past, but I am thankful, humbled, and inspired by the individual stories they shared with us. If they can live to have hope, anyone can. I only hope our paths will cross again.

Instead of a 2.5 hour drive back through the hilly terrain, we opted for a boat ride across Lake Kivu and back to our hotel.