Driving through Rwanda

The day after we first visited CPAJ, Ebralie had arranged for us to visit the Remera Hospital in a rural area about an hour’s drive south of Kigali. The Remera Hospital was part of the Presbyterian Church system. Dr. Felix was the medical director for the Presbyterian Church, whose offices were at the same complex as the Guest House where we stayed. Felix accompanied us on the visit to the Hospital.

The drive to Remera was the first time that we had ventured out of Kigali. While we drove in SUV’s, we were one of a very few privately driven vehicles. Private cars were a rare sight. Most vehicles fell into one of a few categories. The most numerous vehicles were the mopeds that scooted around all over the city. Most of these served as taxis in the city of Kigali. I found this interesting, that most taxis in Kigali were mopeds. It really was pretty practical. The taxi driver would pull to the curb, and the passenger would hop on for the ride. As we left the city, though, the mopeds became scarce.

The second most numerous vehicles were the mini-buses that ran between the cities of Rwanda. There were many different bus lines, like Safari Bus or Horizon Bus, but they all looked like VW minibuses from the US. They were designed to carry maybe 12 people, but they all seemed to be stuffed with far more people than that, along with an occasional chicken. The third most common vehicle was larger trucks carrying goods between towns. There were not nearly as many of these, but when you saw them they were packed full.

More striking than the few number of vehicles on the roads was the incredible number of people walking everywhere. In the city of Kigali, people were walking everywhere at all times of day. It was amazing how many of the people were carrying large loads almost exclusively on their heads. I thought this would subside as we drove out to the countryside, but I was wrong. Along the entire route to Remera, people were walking alongside the road. Even on our return to Kigali at night, there were still people walking every few yards, invariably carrying something like farm produce, firewood, or water. I never saw anyone using a cart, and I saw only a few wheelbarrows the whole trip. I did see about 15 bicycles, but only 3 were being ridden and the others were being used like a cart with people walking beside them. I told Ebralie that when I returned to Rwanda, I was bringing a cart for the ladies to use. She laughed, and said the carts might get heavy on their heads!

The main item being carried in Rwanda was water. There is virtually no running water outside the large cities, so getting water was one of the main chores that had to be done every day. Water is very heavy, weighing over 8.5 pounds per gallon. Just five gallons would weigh over 42 pounds! We would pass a public water well from time to time, where the locals would be lined up dozens deep with their plastic water jugs. At other times, we would drive by rivers where locals would be lined up with their plastic jugs, dipping them into the untreated rivers to get the water they needed. Young and old, day and night, hauling water over the hilly terrain of Rwanda was an endless chore of the country.