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Comment by nicpottier | Hacker News Reader

OP here, happy to answer any questions peeps have on Nyaruka and our little journey.

Do you have to worry about Hutu/Tutsi issues still?

No, not at all. Rwanda is probably safer than any place in the states.. you can walk around anywhere in the city in the middle of the night (and I do) and there are no concerns. There is still unrest in DRC but that is very much localized.

I'm very surprised to hear you say that. My experience of Rwanda is that the issue is always just below the surface. I spent three months there 3 years ago working as a Physics teacher. The election was on when I was there and it was rather surreal, the radio was constantly going on about genocide and there was a lot of tension in the air.

Tension and violence are different things. This is still the very recent past, it is unrealistic to expect there to be no tension, especially during times of election or genocide memorials. But there is no denying it is incredibly safe and there has been so much invested in the country in the past 20 years that I just can't imagine anything happening here.

Almost unbelievable. After all the past.

Nope/Not as much. That was a mid 1990's issue. Rwanada under paul kagame has made some really good strides in development. Raising coffee and tea prices have helped the local economy to a great extent. I agree problems still exist but they are not show stoppers.

I have been interested in your company since I first heard of it a while ago so I am glad to see it is doing well. How is the infrastructure in Rwanda with regards to ecommerce? I have investigated doing business in Kenya but two of the biggest problems there are 1) online payments are not easy since few people use credit cards and paying online with M-Pesa is clumsy, and 2) there are no street addresses so it makes certain types of ecommerce difficult since there is no address to deliver a product if you are selling a physical one, or doing any type of pickup/delivery service involving locations. How are these issues dealt with in Rwanda?

And to look at commerce in the other direction, how is access to things you need for home/work? Say you need a new development laptop, are you going to amazon, local retain, or something else?

More on the consumables side, how's the coffee?

Heh, the answer here is friends with suitcases. You can buy some electronics here, Samsung and LG have a big presence, but it is at a premium. We are an Apple shop and all MBPs were bought in the states by us or friends.

That might sound like a bad thing but it is actually one of my favorite things about living here. You are just completely separated and freed from the crazed consumer culture of the States, just because none of it is available. And you don't realize how much that frees your head space (or at least mine) until you experience it. It is a fantastic place to just get work done because there is very little to distract you, in every respect really.

Coffee is pretty great if you buy the good stuff, though really the very best gets bought up and exported.

I like it, friends with suitcases works! I hear you on the head space. Thanks for the response.

Yes, both those challenges still exist, payments are actually even worse here than Kenya because there isn't huge adoption of any mobile money platform yet.

Both of those pretty much preclude doing anything ecommerce related

You mention you have two young kids. What's the education system like in general for kids in Rwanda?

I don't have a lot of experience for what school is like generally, but I can speak about it from an ex-pat's perspective. Our kids go to a Rwandan school (though a prestigious private school). It's far, far cheaper than private school in the states. Like most schools, the experience you have is highly dependent on the teacher you get, but we've been pretty lucky in that regard.

In some ways the academics are a step down and in others they are step up. For example, some of the subjects can be a bit rote, but my youngest has half of his classes taught in french (even though we are not french speakers). On the whole we are quite satisfied with their school. We also remind ourselves that as humans, we learn in so many ways and having our kids experience life in Rwanda (or anywhere outside of America for that matter) is one of the finest gifts we can offer.

I live abroad and my soon is not even a year old. I look forward to this, and the idea of having a grandson who will speaks multiple languages natively (I am English-speaking, my SO speaks Arabic natively) is very exiciting to my parents. I am waiting until he is older, but I look forward to even getting him into a language school so he will natively speak 3 or more languages.

Only if they had Chinese schools where I am . . .

Move to Oakland county outside Detroit where the public schools teach Mandarin from first grade on. Even better they use teachers from China.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2013/03/04/news/loca...

Their long term goal is that with the entire population someday being fluent in Mandarin the area will become the first choice for Chinese manufacturing firms setting up plants in the U.S.

Very cool but I live in the MENA region and that is not going to change anytime soon.

Still, very awesome.

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