What to wear

One of the things that I notice in almost all discussions about Rwanda is that the people there have really clean clothes despite the red dust/dirt that is everywhere. Ex-pats and tourists, however, remark that they leave their guest houses or hotels all clean to start the day, and within ten or fifteen minutes, have smudges of this red dirt on their clothes. I don’t know what the local peoples’ secret is to keeping their clothes clean

I tend to favour navy blue pants and white polo shirts for travel. Red dirt and white shirts are not a good mix. Our trip leader says that the nuns who run our guest house do a great job at getting clothes clean. The laundry service is a way for them to make a little extra money. He says the sisters can get the clothes clean, but shoes take a real beating from the red dirt, and the nuns don’t launder shoes. Somehow dark clothes don’t seem to be a logical choice when traveling to the middle of Africa. I think light clothes are called for, but the red dirt poses a challenge.

Plus, I have read in a few places that the colour blue frightens animals in the savannah and in the jungle, and both are places we will be going. The last thing I want to do is scare animals, especially if that fear makes them aggressive. I may be looking at buying some linen (at exorbitant prices here: $25/meter for 100% linen at fabricland!) and making some black pants to wear.