Downtown Kilgali, Rwanda
From the third floor of the high rise, ringed by sister skyscrapers, all seems modern and prosperous in this emerging African city. The reflections of sky gives a beautiful blue tint to the structures as clouds chase across their facade.
Kigali, Rwanda
But even as free enterprise swirls around us as expected up here, it is also alive and well on the streets. As I cast my eyes downward I see an impoverished area below. But it is just as vibrant and alive as the shiny city above.
As the morning wore on, door after ramshackle door was flung open and the people began to gather. In front of one, the woman in native dress had a small basket of bananas to sell. A man meticulously laid out shoes on a rickety card table. Another woman had some sort of red looking fruit displayed. All small amounts of wares, but offered up just the same.
In the countryside, the homes are built of mud and sticks but in the city more varieties of materials are available. These small shacks looked like they were built of any scrap of lumber they could find, and laced together in any way possible. But it was the roof that was most interesting.
In days of old they used leaves as roofs but now they are encouraged to use tin. Multi colored metal, patched together in a haphazard fashion covered every wood structure as far as I could see. I shouldn’t say haphazard…they looked that way to me but I’m sure every piece was carefully placed to keep the sun and elements at bay as best they could.
So what was rather random looking to my western eye, was in actuality very deliberate.
We expect a certain level of uniformity, they create what they can from what they have. Our houses all have a front door and a back door with multiple windows. Our floors are not dirt. Our toilets are indoor.
Aesthetics are not foremost in their construction.
We demand perfection, they desire function.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To its inhabitants, the word beautiful would never come to mind. Maybe functional, maybe crude or primitive.
But to me the cacophony of hues in a patchwork quilt of necessity was lovely.
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1 Tim 4:5 Everything God created is good, and to be received with thanks. Nothing is to be sneered at and thrown out. God’s Word and our prayers make every item in creation holy. (Msg)
-What beauty and blessings do you take for granted because we live in a first world country? (As opposed to a third world country).
-Next time you are tempted to complain– look at the beauty and blessings around you and say to yourself over and over, ” This is just a first world problem.” “This is just a first world problem…”