Rwanda

 Rwanda, by Stephen Minot, is a story that crosses the themes of culture, with moral dilemmas faced by the characters. The story starts with a group of (what is presumably) American friends who are living in Uganda, Africa. They are as follows; Katy and Max, a couple who are studying animals, Francine and Frank, whom are a couple also who both used to be volunteers, and Katy, a forgetful college student. They’re out and about, complaining about life in Africa as compared to life in America, comparing and contrasting about both continents while going shopping when suddenly, Katy forgets her wallet at home that has two months’ worth of rent money at home… which is two hours away. It should be noted that Katy is very forgetful and not a very organized person. Francine tries to assure her it will be okay, but it is not because their house boy, Thomas, is in the house and can possibly steal the money.

This thought doesn’t stop the group though, because when they get back home from shopping, Max realizes his wallet was stolen. Now everyone is perturbed and annoyed and this leads off to a standoff of accusations between friends, until it is suggested to Max to go through Thomas’s hut and see if he can find the wallet. He does, and he finds the wallet in Thomas’s shoe, though this is only alleged. When the group calls out Thomas, Frank has an entire interrogation with Thomas and locks almost everyone in so Thomas can’t escape. All except for Francine, who leaves through the bathroom window, where she finally gets the police and Thomas is arrested for the suspicion of theft. When Thomas gets arrested, he gets brutalized, and Francine has the realization that this is similar to the Rwanda Genocide, which makes her realize that she is no longer an animal researcher, but a part of the people who are a part of the problem in the country.

 I think that the actions in Rwanda make the characters out to be ignorant of other countries, for example in the first act of the story they’re complaining about how inconvenient the grocery store is. Moreover, the group feels as though they are at wits end with each other on this trip and are absolutely over it with Katy. For example, Katy is portrayed as a person who needs constant supervision; from forgetting alarms, needing constant tutoring, or just being disorganized and not thoughtful. Francine, who is head strong and is more likely to react to a situation then be passive, despises Katy for not having it together. And finally, how they handle Thomas is not tactful, they refer to his house as “the hutch”, and from the get-go, blame him for the wallet being stolen. Francine is the only one who is being objective with the entire situation, which makes her question if they’re really doing the right thing, or, if they’re just being part of the problem. Nevertheless, the group dynamics in Rwanda are very turbulent because they’re a bunch of different personalities cooped up in one place.

Before I end my short summary, I do want to focus on that of the character, Francine. Francine is a character who is reactive. A character who has strong reactions to others tend to be strong willed and their inner stream of consciousness tends to be very blunt with how they think about people or perceive a situation. There are two instances that Francine has these thoughts that make her very head strong. The first is where she is critical of Katy and her constant need for her peer's support, often critical of why Katy can't be independent. Secondly, is when Thomas is being arrested and she wonders if it she has now became a part of the problem in the country that she is living in.