Some young kids have rekindled the spirit of patriotism that for the last couple of years seems to have taken the backseat in the land of a thousand hills.

In their simple home-made attires and even  simpler backgrounds, Rwamakondera, a dance troupe that includes former street kids, flew their country’s flag high in Holland winning the top honours — and hearts —that were up for grabs.

It has been long since some kind of success has come our way in the cultural world, apart from Uduseke (since our football team has turned out to be an expensive bagful of failed promises).

Some leaders were bitten by the Mobutu bug and started dipping their sticky fingers in the little we have, thinking that simply because their colleagues had hidden their heads in the sand, they would get away with it.

The future looked gloomy. One was starting to think that the few rotten apples had contaminated the rest of the bowl until the true results began trickling in:

First it was the third straight Berlin Tourism Trade fare win in a row, then came news that our economy had one of the highest growth rate in the world last year.

The ICT sprint had been won by Kigali and this was recompensed by the One Laptop Per Child project deciding that is where it would build its African home.

But the icing on the cake was knowing that despite the setbacks, many people still have the drive and they deliver. One needs not look further than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) where the country is one of the few on track.  

Rwamakondera have actually reminded the country that it costs nothing to dream — and dream big  —because we have the sky as our limit.

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