My friend Dave is in Rwanda for three months filming a documentary. Here’s an excerpt from his first email:

My first week in Rwanda is over and so far virtually nothing is how I imagined it might be. There is extreme poverty almost everywhere but also pockets of obvious wealth. Shanty towns and supermarkets. Kigali is reasonably built up and considerably more advanced than the countryside, which really is ‘third world’. The Internet is very unreliable and mobile phone service is patchy.

I’m staying with a Tutsi family, which means they are quite well off – the home has television and electricity (most of the time), but all the cooking is done on a coal fire, the toilet flushes intermittently and the only things on the state owned Rwanda Television station are news programmes in the local language and endless documentaries about the Genocide, all of which demand everyones full attention. Apparently it is required viewing every time the Rwandan President or a member of his government makes a speech. And they make a lot.

Everyone loves the President and there is near universal dislike of the French. In fact the French ambassador was thrown out of the country the other day and diplomatic fies with France cut off in the latest spat between the two countries. Apparently the English are very popular. Obviously you can’t move for Man Utd strips.

I’m looking forward to the next dispatch, which, with Dave’s permission, I will republish here. One question so far though—is there a place in the world where the French are actually liked? (Other than France of course.)