The villager who inspired me

THE WORLD CUP is here. Billed the biggest sporting event on earth, it stops life as we know it, wives become soccer widows for a month as their husbands and world’s attention shifts to Brazil this time round. And Brazil is such a perfect venue…the most successful country in the world cup, Brazil holds the distinction of having won it more than anyone, six times and been in every world cup competition from its inception but they have never won it at home. We, in Rwanda and indeed the entire East African region, have never been at the world cup despite being football crazy. It is a huge gap in our soccer souls. So, here’s the question: Can Rwanda host the world cup? To attempt an answer, I will use a hilarious incident I witnessed the other day aboard RwandAir from Nairobi to Kigali. We had passengers connecting from Nairobi to Joburg and Dubai. The service was fine and we were also relaxed and happy. We also happened to be East Africans seating around each other and under those circumstances, a little trigger always sets a friendly and engaging banter. In this case the trigger just so happened to be this one gentleman who could not partake of most of the servings. This was curious, because we checked in just before lunch time and as such this was our lunch. At first, I thought he was a vegetarian or something like that. We did not wait for very long to satisfy our curiosity. In an uncharacteristically honest and open manner, he said he cannot eat food that does not look like food he is used to where he comes from. “So where do you come from?” A neighbouring passenger asked. He mentioned a village and further questioning revealed where it was. The fellow was a pure unadulterated villager on his way to Dubai! You do not meet many of such on a plane. Typically everyone is so suave and polished! It brought to mind the saying that you can remove a villager from the village but you cannot remove the village out of him/her. I don’t know the exact source of this saying but it has always been presented in hilarious contexts where villages and villagers always represented backwardness, many of us have never bothered to think it through beyond the good humor it presents. This villager was no exception in the perception of his fellow passengers. In fact one more sophisticated fellow took it upon himself to ‘bring him up to date’ with what lies ahead on his journey. Of course he was just being patronizing and having fun at the villager’s expense. But he is not alone in this, it has been so for ages. That villages and villagers are seen to be backward is not a new phenomenon. It was also the case in ancient Rome. Christianity hit the cities first and as the religion caught on, the surest way to tell a non-Christian was to meet a villager, or a pagan (pagus being the Latin word for village). Back to our story, as the sophisticated passenger went on questioning the clearly unsophisticated villager on plane and giving him ‘guidance. It hit me that the hero here was the villager, he was going ‘kutafuta maisha’(seek to better his life). Let’s try to get into this villagers mind and see things from his perspective. Imagine him, with very little exposure and modest education, leaving the comfort and security of his village to venture into the unknown. Imagine him planning, fundraising for airfare to Nairobi and then to Dubai. Picture him going through the obviously, confusing maze of getting his documentation right…passports, visas, e.t.c When you get in this villagers mind, what do you see? I see a determined, focused; calculating fellow who has turns of guts and can take risks. The fellow has an entrepreneurial mindset. I learnt and was inspired by this villager. He did not allow himself to be limited by his circumstances. He ventured and cast his net far and wide. He was a villager alright, but his mind and thinking are world class. I wish and pray for his every success as he is already a hero to me! This is, perhaps, how you and I should think... like that good natured villager. May be if we cast our nets wide, Rwanda could host the World Cup within our life time. After all, I don’t remember Qatar team in the world cup either. Birashoboka!