Interlude; noun: "a temporary amusement or diversion that contrasts with what goes before or after."
If my life were a play I've reached the point where I've landed into a new act, but I'm looking differently at the stage. Ten weeks isn't long, but it's long enough to see things differently. At times home feels beautifully comforting; the simple pleasure of knowing that there's always enough water and electricity for a cup of tea. Yet at other times it's oddly disconcerting that you can't haggle with people in the shops, or that everything happens on time.
Rwanda is one of those slightly stressful yet beautiful places where people make time work for them. Like other countries I've travelled to, there's no rushing around or panicking when the bus doesn't come. Despite its troubled past there's always time for laughter, hellos and opportunities to pop round for a cup of sweet african tea.
Rwanda has challenged me to let go of my schedule; that one I was so attached to before. Because I'm recognising, perhaps like Rwandans, that the value of people and their stories is so much greater. So as relatives question me about the future and when exactly I'm going to find a job, and what exactly I'm going to do with the rest of my life, I'm asking myself some different questions. How I can spend more time with my parents, when I can hear stories from my friends and where I can learn more about how community happens in the UK.
Some people in Rwanda are worried that as it becomes more modern, it'll become more selfish too. They equate modernism with individualism and in their eyes that's not something to get excited about. In a country where communities supported one another in the middle of turmoil; helped one another in the middle of killings, "me first" isn't the way to go.
So community is on my heart - the type that loves and cares and makes a difference to the world. I'm questioning the norms of our culture to be rich or successful or married; ignoring the voice that screams that I need to be the best human I can be. Rather, I'm exploring how people - together - are loving together, living together, achieving together. We weren't created to live individually, and Rwanda has taught me that we live so much better with the help of one another.
Over the next while I'm going to explore how people live better together, and I'm going to make some noise about it. Watch this space. The next act is an exciting one.
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