RWANDA

Rwanda (aka "The Land of a Thousand Hills"), a country in Africa, whose largest city is also the capitol is known as Kigali. The national colors for this country are sky blue, yellow and green. This country is a major producer of some of the region's best coffees and teas. Even though Rwanda has a population of about 13,000,000, it still manages to be the cleanest country in Africa due to the banning of plastic in 2008. Even though there was a major genocide that happened in 1994, they still maintain to be one of the safest countries in Africa. They have a low crime rate whose focus is security and stability.

Rwanda is known to have some of the best brewed coffees and teas. The exchange of coffee and tea contributes to majority of the country's economic foreign exchange earnings. The coffee flower gets planted in September and October then will be harvested around the months of March through July; some of these variations of the types of coffees are Caturra, Catuai and a variety of Bourbon (which is also known as Arabica). the teas that are harvested in Rwanda consists of black, orthodox, white, green, organic and spicy tea. the Middle East, Pakistan, United Kingdoms and Kazakhstan are some of the country's major marketers for teas. The teas of Rwanda have become a highly valued product for, weekly, for the East Africa Tea Trade Association auctions that are held in Mombasa, while the coffees of Rwanda have been winning international awards like the "Best of the Best" and the "Coffee Lover's Choice".

In an attempt to have a cleaner and safer environment, Rwanda has implemented the banning of plastic throughout the country. In the decision to eliminate all plastic single use items, Rwanda has made it a permanent restriction to opt out all of these such items for reusable items. one of the major changes that has impacted the country was changing plastic bags out for reusable bags, banana leaves and even bio-degradable bags. For the people of this country, this required more than just a legislation move. The Rwanda government has launched extensive educational awareness campaigns that will also encourage citizens to take action and fight against plastic waste. By doing so this not only protect and preserve the environment, but it also helps to protect and preserve the wildlife as well.

In the months of April through June of 1994, Rwanda experienced a genocide that nearly killed 75% of the Tutsi population. This event was a state-led genocide that was executed by fellow citizens of Rwanda. Tensions between the people of Rwanda started to rise in 1932, while under Belgium rule, identity cards were distributed among the citizens. These cards would distinguish the ethnic groups of Rwanda, which was a turning point for the relationship for the Hutus, Tutsis and the Twa people. By then the Tutsi people had the greater command in wealth and social position, but an uprising in the Hutu people led to a civil war which led to the domination of the Tutsi people coming to an end. A few years later Rwanda had gained independence from Belgium but about 120,000 people, mainly the Tutsi people had fled the country while Hutu leaders took control. Over the next few years tensions continued to rise as Rwanda formed exile groups and made military moves and many attempts to keep the peace between the United Nations and the regional African governments failed.

On April 6, 1994, a rocket struck and killed the Rwandan President Juvenal Haybyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamaira while returning on an airplane from peace negotiations. 100 days of mass killing s of the Tutsi people started immediately after.