Presidential elections will take place around August 8-9. The current president, Paul Kagame (see photo), has been in office about 15 years, since shortly after the genocide. He held a press conference yesterday, and where I was working at the hospital, the staff were listening to it on the radio. Mr. Kagame held the entire press conference in fluent English. So I could easily understand him, but I wondered how many of the 9 million Rwandans understood what he was saying? I'm told there are 4 candidates, and the elections are held about every 7 years. A couple of expats have mentioned that there could be some unrest around the time of the elections. For a developing central African country, Rwanda seems fairly stable at the present time. However, I suppose that a certain amount of unrest is fairly common in developing countries around the time of any (potential) change in leadership. Mr. Kagame is visiting this district (Nyamasheke) this afternoon, and the hospital is going to let some of the staff off work so that they can go to hear him speak. I asked a couple of the staff what they thought would happen in the elections. Would the president be reelected? One of them said nothing, and the other shrugged and replied, "The people will decide." I reflected on how different this was from American politics, where everyone has an opinion and usually we don't hesitate to share it with each other!
Thanks for your posting about politics. Perhaps they are wise to reserve political opinions since I often make the assumption others have opinions similar to my own :) Just finished my morning walk -- quite humid. We had 4-6 inches of rain Tuesday AM so we can take a dry spell for a few days. Local officials are studying the sewers since heavy rains can quickly over run the existing sewer and backup the excess. Tim and I stopped by a local gathering to express our opinion about the need for work in our subdivision. Following the heavy rain, the gathering was well attended. Have a safe trip home, Jill. Love, Steph
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