The language situation in Rwanda: In rural villages, most people speak Kinyarwanda. In competitive, religious schools, most people speak French. Near the capital, Kigali, you can find the highest concentration of English. I work at a competitive religious school in a rural village near the capital. Shyorongi is Babylon, right after God got angry.
Most of the rural Shyorongi villagers rarely get the opportunity to practice their French and basically never get to try out the English they know. So whenever I go for a stroll around, people open the floodgates and release every foreign word they've ever retained, probably worried that they may never get the chance for a glowing white apparition to appreciate their efforts ever again. When I pass by the little kiddos that live on my running trail, their unvarying reaction, day after day, is
"goodmorningteacherhowareyoufinethankyouwhatisyournamemynameis____byebye"
after which they collapse breathless in a fit of laughter at this crazy ol' thing called life.
An old man followed me up the hill today muttering a string of sweet nothings into my ear in French. No one ever seems to be peeved when I don't respond, so usually I just listen quietly and then say goodbye when it seems like they're finished. Whenever I say even the most basic of hellos in Kinyarwanda, most people lose their minds with ecstasy and amazement, so maybe they're expecting the same thing when they show off their Euro languages to me. Sorry, Shyorongians!
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