A Model for the Future

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta

Oh my gosh. I have so much to share with you this quarter, I feel like I could write a book. So, please bear with me if this quarterly communication is a bit longer than usual – and includes some visuals as well. But first, for those of us living in the Southeastern U.S., it has been a tumultuous, nervous, and tragic few months. The two hurricanes that made landfall and crawled their way North brought back memories of Miami’s Hurricane Andrew in 1992. For those of us living in certain areas in the county, our worlds turned upside down overnight and it’s difficult to imagine the aftermath if you haven’t lived it. But the abiding memory of those times for me was the overwhelming support that poured into South Florida from people around the country and that neighborhoods came together to help clean up, rebuild, and provide support to each other. I expect that is what is happening now in impacted areas. And that is the theme of this quarter – Community and Hope for the Future.

My most recent travel journey took me to Rwanda, a small country in eastern Africa where I experienced what could be called a true phoenix rising from the ashes. The seeds for this trip were planted in me in 1989, the year my parents took a trip to Rwanda, and my Dad took a Mountain Gorilla trek. A video he took then of an amazing creature looking at his captured my imagination and I knew I had to experience the same thing. Included below is a photo from his journey.

The trek experience to be with the Amahoro Family (which means peace) wasn’t easy as we had to walk up the mountain through potato fields and jungle for 90 minutes to be able to spend an hour with this family. When my Dad was there, only 364 Mountain Gorillas were counted. Today it is over 1,100.

This is the first example of a model for the future and community. After Dian Fossey was murdered in 1985, and after the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, the world and the government collaborated on plans to save these animals who share 99% of our same DNA. The poachers who had previously been the killers are now employed as the trackers who, daily, help find each family so a group of 8 tourists can visit them. Former Poachers earn more money now and it’s a steady income since tourism has increased from an annual 800,000 visitors in 1990’s to over 1.4 million last year. The gorillas have become accustomed to humans since they are no longer threatened and there is revenue produced to enhance the national parks and the country as a whole.

All this has been done at the same time that the country had to find its way after one of the most horrific instances of mass violence in the 20^th century which happened only 30 years ago! The Rwandan Genocide, which occurred over a 100-day period in 1994, involved the systematic extermination of a segment of the population by another segment of the population. An estimated 800,000 to 1 million people were slaughtered – 15% of the country’s population in 3 months. That would be equivalent today to 51,000,000 in the U.S.  

The story of how the people have been able to “reconcile” and live together again is complex and multi-layered, but it has happened and Rwanda has prioritized peace, stability and safety for its citizens and is now  one of the most progressive countries in the world. I may sound like the Chamber of Commerce for Rwanda, and in some ways that’s an apt description. I can say this because of an experience I was privileged to participate in, and wish that could be replicated here at home.

It's called Umuganda. Every month Rwandan citizens over age 18 come together with a common purpose. Umuganda is Rwanda's nationwide mandatory Work Day created to promote peace, unity and prosperity across the country. On the last Saturday of every month from 8:00 to 11:00 AM, businesses close and traffic halts as citizens, across the country, take to their neighborhoods for a shared experience in doing work to improve their community. If you are found driving and aren’t a doctor going to a patient you will receive a hefty fine.  We were invited to join the Kayonza District to help them dig trenches so that a new road could be built by the government. If the community digs the trenches, then they don’t have to pay for the road. A true Win-Win!

That’s pretty cool, but what to me was most impactful was how they came together afterward for a community meeting. There had to be 500 people gathered together to hear the local news for that month: what to know about Mpox and how to treat it, where is the nearest hospital to go to, how much it will cost (FREE), when the next school sessions start and where to go, upcoming elections and each candidate had 5 minutes to speak, etc.

So, what’s so special about this? Everyone got to hear the same news at the same time and could ask questions (and there were plenty), so the opportunity for ‘alternative’ news was obliterated. Because they have been doing this for many years, the questions are candid and fully addressed with different opinions and feelings. I was frankly a bit envious of the ability for a community to have this experience and wished that my country was as advanced. Don’t get me wrong, Rwanda has a lot of problems and heartache but the processes they have put in place for building community strength are quite admirable and could serve as a model for helping bridge community discord.

To wrap up, over the years I have added quotes to my musings from a financial writer whom I admire and think is spot on in most of his blog posts. His name is Jonathan Clements. I want to share one of his recent posts, after he was diagnosed with cancer, as often we get asked about “appropriate” levels of spending. I hope you will find this post interesting and perhaps helpful.

As we enter this last quarter of 2024, I hope you will be able to spend it with those you love, helping to make a difference in their lives and stay healthy. I will be putting together our travel journeys for 2025 keeping this quote from Maya Angelou in mind.  

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

Hope to talk with you soon.