Hubby and I meet the most interesting people when we travel, from locals to other travelers like ourselves. It’s one of the best parts of traveling. But every once in a while you meet someone really special.

While traveling in East Africa, Hubby and I found ourselves  on the shores of Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes, on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We stayed in a charming guest house on a hill overlooking the lake. The area was hauntingly beautiful, culturally rich, and extremely poor.

At breakfast we struck up a conversation with a young American couple. (They were the first Westerners we had seen for days.) It turns out those two young people, Kayla and Sutton, were running the guest house. And a local school. And were involved in projects to help improve the lives of people living in one of Rwanda’s poorest communities, on Nkombo Island in Lake Kivu, such as providing access to clean water, education, and family planning.

As I said. Special.

So, I was thrilled and honored when Kayla agreed to write the first guest post for my little  blog!

The Dos and Don’ts of Traveling to Low Income Countries
(By Someone Who Has Done all the Don’ts)

When my husband and I moved to Africa to work for the Anglican church, we had spent relatively little time outside the U.S. (We were only 21… yeah, I said husband). We were young and eager to go somewhere before we could get sucked in by The American Dream. We were asked to move to Rwanda in April, said yes in May, and landed in Kigali, Rwanda, on the 20th of August.

Two years and a baby later, we’ve returned home to Virginia- but not without encountering the best and worst of traveling Westerners.

My role in Rwanda was running the church-owned guest house. Our town was in a remote area on the Congolese border. Within an hour’s drive, is a rainforest where you can go primate trekking, a series of islands that make up the poorest region in the country, a once wealthy Congolese city that has fallen into ruin because of war,  the border of a country battling genocide, and a geographic area known in Rwanda as an HIV breeding ground. The guest house is one of the few safe places you can stay with access to these locations. So, as you can imagine, we received a variety of guests, from aid workers and missionaries to millionaires on safari and gorilla treks.

As a result of their experiences and my own, I learned a lot about what to do and not do when traveling to developing countries.

DON’T go without educating yourself on the local culture.

Probably the only thing you know about Rwanda, if anything, is that there was a genocide. At least, that’s all I knew. And prior to moving to Rwanda, I spent two years working for a Rwandan coffee company. I went feeling like I knew a good bit, but boy was I so wrong. I didn’t know that the genocide was something that was NEVER appropriate to talk about. I didn’t know that I could show as much cleavage as I wanted, but NEVER my thigh. I didn’t know that it was offensive to eat in public outside of a restaurant. I found out all of these things the hard way, through awkward confrontations after a year of committing these atrocities.

Facebook has loads of expatriate groups that you can check out to connect with people living locally. You can ask questions about culture, as well as what it’s like to be a foreigner in the country you’re going to.

DON’T assume that you understand a culture based on Hollywood.

The number of times people have asked me if I worked at “Hotel Rwanda,” like from the movie, is insane. If you’ve seen the movie, you know a pretty small and one-sided version of a genocide that began long before the 90s and was, in part, the fault of westerners.

The same goes for watching Moana and thinking you know all about the South Pacific Islanders. Movies are for entertainment. Don’t take Hollywood’s renditions as fact.

DON’T use hand sanitizer every time someone touches you.

I don’t care what your mom or you doctor told you, it’s degrading. Even if the people you encounter don’t know what hand sanitizer is, they know when you’re repulsed by them. If you MUST sanitize, please do so in private.

DON’T give gifts to people you don’t know.

As someone who has lived in a developing world country among the locals, extravagant gift giving is not sustainable. Most of the people we encountered wanted to know what we had to give them, because white people always bring gifts. If you want to give locals gifts, like balls and candy, give them to a local organization to distribute, or even ask if you can help them to distribute things. You want the locals to look to organizations for help, NOT a random white person. These organizations know where the need is greatest and where your gifts will make the greatest impact.

Also, handing a kid a ball is dangerous for that kid. I once bought a piece of bread from a kid selling it on the street. I couldn’t eat it, but I wanted to encourage his entrepreneurship. So I casually handed it to the next kid I saw and kept walking. Within seconds the boy was at the bottom of a 15 kid pileup. This might sound like an extreme case, but I’ve been asked not to visit homes in an area because when I have, homes were robbed immediately afterwards because their neighbors figured I left something worth stealing.

DON’T leave your suitcase full of clothes you don’t want.

This is one of the most common and awkward things I dealt with while working at the hotel. It’s also incredibly good-hearted. Mission teams stocked up on clothes they didn’t want from Goodwill then left bags and bags of stuff in their rooms when they left, assuming they were giving their things to the poor and that whomever discovered them would be excited. Well, they are excited. So excited that they hit each other to take things that won’t even fit them. This also portrays that white people are so rich, they don’t even notice they leave more things behind than locals could afford in their lifetime.

DON’T give out your contact information unless you expect to financially assist the person you’re giving it to.

Guests have contacted me in disbelief that locals have sent them Facebok messages asking to be flown to the U.S. and given a Visa. In many cultures, including Rwanda, once you’ve given someone the ability to contact you, you are friends, and friends help each other pay school fees for their entire family.

DON’T pose with the poor.

Your Facebook friends might think you look cute “saving” a poor African baby, but think about how you would feel if a stranger grabbed your baby and took a picture to post on the internet. Now imagine you haven’t fed your child in a few days, even though you are doing everything you can to provide for them. Or that there’s been constant rain so your child is covered in mud and you can’t clean his clothes because you can’t dry them. Yeah, I wouldn’t want that either. Even if I didn’t know that hundreds of people would like the picture or see that person as a hero.

DO take public transportation.

If you want to experience a country, see it the way the locals do – by bus, or mototaxi (a motorcycle that taxis passengers), or boat. Not by helicopter or Land Rover.

DO learn a few words in the local language.

Nothing makes a local as joyful as hearing a Westerner butcher basic phrases. I once tried to pay a man a compliment by calling him a muzehi a term that was supposed to mean “elder.” Instead I called him a mad man! But everyone around us loved it (including him.) The truth is, gifts are great, but if you take the time to learn how to say “hello” to someone, it means you see them as a person- an equal- and not a way to get likes on a Facebook picture.

DO try local food.

I was once with a group of students who wouldn’t eat anything our host (a poor pastor’s wife) cooked while we were visiting her village. She was deeply offended. They didn’t want to impose, but she felt like she hadn’t made anything good enough for them.

Aside from the cultural implications of not eating what someone serves you, a lot of local food is a (good?) experience.

Do avoid things that aren’t cooked, but if you happen to get worms you can easily get rid of them for about 10 cents. And having worms is certainly an experience!

DO hire locals (by recommendation).

In many places you can hire local porters, translators, and guides, all of which is great for the local economy. But do make sure to hire someone that has been referred by someone you trust.  Hiring locals allows you to build relationships with those who know what they’re talking about. They are also often quite enthusiastic about sharing their country with you, and can be a great source of local information.

DO talk to strangers and allow yourself to be affected.

This is how I met Melanie and Anthony. They were referred to our guest house by another guest house further north, took a boat at this person’s recommendation, and stayed a few days. They saw another white person (that’s me) and struck up a conversation. They listened to my story and came to see the work the I was doing on one of the islands I mentioned earlier. Then they let it affect them. They asked questions about what they saw and wanted to know how they could help. A trip they took over a year ago is still having an impact on a little island in Rwanda.

DO use common sense.

Everything I have shared is based on my own experience in East Africa. These aren’t hard and fast rules. Take these things into consideration, but don’t do anything that doesn’t feel right. Be bold and adventurous, but don’t be careless. Register with the embassy. Tell people where you are, or where you’re going, or take a friend. Make sure you have medication you might need and the ability to get clean water.

DO extend your stay.

You can’t experience much of a place in a day. This is actually something Americans are famous for. Our European friends always joke about how Americans have seen Europe in two weeks when Europeans haven’t seen it in their whole lives. Americans think of Europe and Africa and Asia as countries, when there are in fact hundreds of different cultures and languages. Go deeper instead of broader – you will be glad you did!

 

Traveling in developing countries has its challenges. But it can also  be extremely rewarding.  I learned what to do and not to do the hard way. I hope my experiences help make traveling in developing countries enjoyable and impactful for you and for the people you encounter.

What about you? What dos and don’ts have you learned from traveling to low income countries? Share in the comments below!