Day 3 Water

Water from the sky and from the tap, oh yes...

Rain on the corrugated iron roof, singing and drumming from.. I'm not sure were, started the day earlier than the 5.30am rising I'd planned.

Rwandan custom is to rise early and dress well.  I  go native and wear high heels, a necklace and smart dress. Useless, of course, for negotiating the red mud or dodging raindrops.

With a power cut last night I had to finish writing my speech by torchlight. An arduous affair.

On the face of it Rwanda is a country changing rapidly, forging ahead with a programme of construction. Everywhere you look schools, offices and roads are being built ,but the water and electricity supply are far from reliable. "Our leaders are strong and they want the peope to change quickly" Julienne, a librarian, told me yesterday..  A sentiment I've heard frequently.

At the MTN mobile 'phone shops, the slogan  declares "shop here for electricity".  Water and other utilities can be bought by 'phone, as can internet time and satellite tv.  Every street corner has a vendor selling top 'pay as you go' cards. It's so easy, it makes Britain look like a country from another era. Sales of cell 'phones have exploded. They offer a cheap and easy way for people  to access the necessities of modern life at the punch of a button.

Rwanda buys most of its power from neighbouring Uganda.  Where, I'm told, regions of the country can go for a week at a time without power, while the Government sells it's electricity abroad. .

In Britain we take for granted hot and cold running water.  Light at the flick of a switch. Yet, we are at the mercy of an old fashioned utility system and stand helpless as our household bills soar.

Global connectedness, we all now  plainly understand,  affects each one of us.  A crisis in one part of the world will ripple through into our daily lives.  Rwanda is not backwater in the world economy.  It's post war reconstruction is showing us what a newly made 21st Century country might look like, albeit enforced by the military.

The Government wants to modernise and fast. But it doesn't do things the way they are done in the elsewhere in the world, it cannot afford to. Instead, it is educating its people in sustainable technologies,  Starting with a clean slate these bright young graduates are already starting to provide the intellect to succeed in the war of resources.  By 2020 the Rwandans aim to be specialists in sustainable energy.  Where will we be then? Writing by torchlight, turning on an empty tap or buying their knowledge?