This is their story : Rwanda is a country in the midst of change, and the pace has increased quite visibly since the Presidential elections in August.

All around Kigali centre, smart new mirror-windowed offices are beginning to tower over their surroundings.

Previously pot-holed dirt roads are being laid with black bitumen and kerb stones.

All the talk in the press is of a fibre-optic internet cable, scheduled to go live at the end of this year which will herald a new era for Rwandan web users.

There are even rumours circulating that very soon the government will decide that traffic will stop driving on the right and start driving on the left hand side of the road.

It is not only the infrastructure that is changing.

Within the inner circles of Rwandan politics, a proposal has been tabled to amend the 2003 constitution.

The article in the constitution which limits the president's office to two seven year terms has been described in the press as 'a burden on Rwandans' because Paul Kagame is 'exceptional'.

It has been reported that by November a bill will be tabled before parliament allowing Kagame to stay in office when his current term expires.

On a more positive note, an Access to Information Act is currently in front of the cabinet although with a 20 year prison sentence waiting for those that question government policy it will be interesting to see how much information is accessed.

There are as well signs of a growing confidence in the Rwandan government.

After the leaking and subsequent publication of the UN Mapping Report accusing Rwanda among others of genocide in Congo during the late 1990s, President Kagame threatened to pull his peace-keeping troops from UN service in Darfur.

In Europe, Rwandan requests for the arrest and prosecution of Rwandans in Holland have brought accusations that the Dutch courts are being used as a puppet of the African state to persecute opposition politicians.

President Kagame has never been embarrassed to play on the international stage and punch above his weight.

Yet behind all this activity and striving to evolve from one of the poorest countries in the world into a modern economy, not a lot seems to be changing behind the façade.

One of the schools that Mission Rwanda is working with provides places for children who wouldn't otherwise get an education.

They recently received a visit from the local government.

Regulations have changed it seems and the school has been told to close.

The classrooms aren't large enough.

In the dirt tracks around our street children's project there is no shortage of children who don't attend school for lack of money.

Four new youngsters have been taken in recently who are luckier than most.

Their father was a soldier before he died so the children are given free school places.

That is perhaps the children's only good fortune. The mother, like many we have seen, has no means of earning an income and has no form of pension from her husband.

When the children were brought to the project they were starving. At least now they are receiving food each day.

For all the trappings of growing modernity that can be seen around Kigali city, it seems that the gap between rich and poor is growing wider rather than narrower.

The new office blocks look very impressive until one looks around the back and sees the slums that lie in their shadows.

A fast internet connection will certainly bring unprecedented access to the electronic world, albeit at a fraction of the speed enjoyed by the west, yet the benefits are unlikely to be appreciated by the large parts of the country that don't have electricity, never mind a computer.

And driving on the left hand side of the road? Rwandan drivers appear quite indifferent to which side of the road they use, so this is one piece of change that they are unlikely to have any difficulties with.