The opening of chapter 3 begins with Ruse explaining that in every underpriveledged country in Africa, there is one high class hotel, built to accomadate guests sent to take care of difficulties such as AIDs and starvation. According to Ruse, one nights stay is roughly equal to that of a year of salary for a worker at that given hotel.
While I knew conditions were bad in most parts of Africa, I had no clue that it could be that hard to make money. I cant imagine being charged for a hotel room, and then finding out that the person who brought me my coffee in the morning would only make 1/52% of that in a week. Its incredible.
Ruse goes on to say that for Rwanda, their hotel was the Hotel Mille Collines. The description of the hotelfits exactly how we as Americans would expect it to. But by the standards of mud houses that Ruse has set for his reader, the hotel's description is almost overbearing.
The hotel has been called the shadow capital of Rwanda because it is here that most of the international dealings took place.
It is here that Ruse tells his audience that he became a hotel manager by accident, and that his whole life he was told to become a man of the church.
Also, it is here that I learned that the child whom I thought could have been Ruse in the second chapter, was in fact, not Ruse. He explains in this chapter that when a baby is born in Rwanda, their family picks a special last name specifically for them (which explains why many Rwandan families have different last names.) It wasn't until he was 13 that he was baptised and chose the name Paul. I guess I was wrong :-/
1 comment:
I agree that it is heartbreaking that people in other countries live on such meager wages. Americans really don’t understand how good they have it. Even though I realize this severe inequality, I most likely don’t truly understand either because I haven’t experienced it. However, I do know that I would’ve been envious of anyone who stayed at the nice hotel while I was forced to live in a small mud house with little food (possibly crammed with several other people). This seems unfair to me. This is also perhaps a huge reason why people in other countries despise Americans. We have luxuries that others may never have—even if we don’t consider them to be luxuries. It’s this inequality that leads to a source of discontent and hatred of others. In the book, does it describe how the Rwandans reacted to the people who stayed in the hotels?
Also, is the hotel referred to as the “shadow” because the international dealings here were “shady” and corrupt? Were they “dark” dealings?
Lastly, I was wondering how Ruse became hotel manager by accident and why he chose it over the church. However, this leads me to question how people in other countries are able to live in such poverty and still believe in God. It amazes me how strong some people’s faith can be even when they don’t have half of what others do.
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