Rwanda

March 1–2, 2013

Compared to its neighbors, Rwanda is practically Switzerland.

Where else in Africa would you find blinking LEDs illuminating the edges of roads at night?

The streets are wide, tidy and clean.

Not all the roads have LED lights, of course, but the cleanliness is universal.

They work hard to ensure that here. What’s more, plastic bags are prohibited throughout the country.

Three main trash can models can be seen in the city. The first is a yellow cylinder with an ad for Western Union.

The second consists of a truncated pyramid lid hanging over a rectangular bucket from a pole bent into an arc.

The third model is a rectangular bucket under a canopy with a cutout opening.

A baffling phenomenon: the striped red-and-white stickers on the backs of pickups, trucks and buses are always pointing in the same direction (and not in two opposite directions as they should be—see Uganda). This is probably because they cut each set of stickers in half here, which is why you see only the L or the R on the back of each car.

A license plate.

A street sign.

A simple traffic light.

A modern traffic light with a countdown timer for each signal.

A pedestrian light.

Old payphone booths.

Rwanda is the only country in the world where the stop signs are hexagons and not octagons.

And its roundabout signs have the world’s skinniest arrows.

Children.

A pedestrian.

There are cabbies on every corner—on motorcycles.

And once again, we see an unheard-of practice for Africa: the cabbies all wear helmets and carry an extra helmet for the passenger.

A bus stop.

A truck being loaded up with merchandise.

Rwanda is known in the rest of the world for its multi-year bloody civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, as well as for its gorillas.

The war drew global attention to the country and then ended. Now everything has been rebuilt. Tourists travel here to see the gorillas.

And the concerns of the country’s inhabitants have shifted to other matters, such as getting new teeth.