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En Route
We came to Africa with small pieces of home- in this case, Oreos! We got up nice and early and showered today. Then everyone loaded into the taxi and the Toyota and we headed out. It was quite scattered, to be perfectly honest. Once we finally got everyone in the vehicles (which was rushed by my yelling in Luganda), we started in to town. Sarah and I got dropped off just in time to get on the bus to Rwanda.
Originally, we were going to fly to Kigali to save time, but it was not cost-effective at this time, so we decided on the 8-hour bus ride. Whenever anyone in Africa gives you a timeframe, it’s always “ish.” 20 minutes could mean an hour. Noon means sometime before 3. So “8 hours” was sort of a guess. We had two seats in the back row, on the window. The back bench is built for 5 people, which we had, plus a small girl, maybe 3 years old. Honestly, for being on the bus as long as she was, she did pretty well, only crying a few times; she even behaved while her mom was puking. At one of the stops, though, we picked up an extra guy who parked himself on our bench.
Toys
A girl at the orphanage- her toy is a stick with a tupperware lid nailed to the end. It was super cramped, and he was not a small man. Not only was he big, he sat so he was comfortable, despite the rest of us, with legs spread and arms going wherever he felt they should. I was not a happy camper, and neither Sarah nor I are sure why the bus would allow extra random people on mid-route. Oh well.
But when it’s that hot and there’s 60+ people on a bus with no air other than the windows, it gets pretty stinky. I smelled some things I don’t ever want to smell again. Silver lining: there was no livestock on our bus.
All in all, the trip wasn’t too bad. We got some reading done and chatted a bit. Tried our best to take pictures out the window, which was more fun than I would have expected and occupied us for at least a full hour. Several times along the road we had to pull over and get checked by soldiers; they stayed outside and waved us off after they looked at the tires. At times, I felt like the bus was ready to tip over on the next turn. But we arrived safely with no break-downs or anything!
In the bus, for entertainment I’d guess, they have a TV in the front. It’s maybe a 13-inch screen, which isn’t big when you’re in the back. But, it was loud enough that we could hear clearly and my eyes are good enough I could clearly tell what we were watching. For a while, it was Ugandan music videos, which are ridiculous, and then it was the movie Anaconda. I saw part of it when I was in Hawaii, I think. It wasn’t as good since it was dubbed over in Luganda, but the crowd on the bus got a kick out of it.
In Uganda, everyone (mostly) drives on the left side of the road in cars like the UK, but in Rwanda, people drive on the right side, but with whatever kind of car they can find. Some of them have the driver on the right, and some on the left.
Crossing the boarder wasn’t too bad, and they didn’t eve go through our bags. We filled out the same paperwork as we have done a zillion times (I about have my passport number memorized) and waited in lines. We had to tell Uganda that we were leaving, then walk a while, and then tell Rwanda we were coming. I’ve never been in a “not” country before.
The rest of the trip, just over an hour, was beautiful. The mountains here are amazing. Our window was open to get some air, and we smelled some fantastic smells! It honestly smelled like someone was smoking or barbequing meat, and it made me want to eat at Randy’s.
On our journey, we saw some things we haven’t seen yet. It was the first time I saw kids with jerry cans at a mud puddle. There were way more huts and “typical African” houses, meaning those made of sticks. The more I look at them, the more I am amazed at what people can do. They need houses, and they have dirt and sticks, so they build a house with dirt and sticks. I don’t think I could.
A friend of Prossy’s, Honoline, picked us up at the bus depot here in Kigali. Though we have never met, we’ve heard great things about her from everyone, and she was more than happy to house us and show us around town while we’re here for a few days. She took us to the orphanage to drop off our gifts before coming him. There are about 125 kids there, from infants to about 20 years old. Some small kids came to greet us while the older boys had a crazy game of football. It made me a little sad to see them- they are the same age as many of my grandkids, my high school students, and it was hard to imagine those I love so much being in a place like that. Although, from the looks of it, it is a very nice orphanage.
At Honoline’s, she introduced us to her roommates that are here: Peggy and Joseph. Peggy is also at the university, and Joseph lives here and cooks and cleans and things. He only speaks Kinyarwanda, but Honoline and Peggy both speak English. Honoline actually speaks 5 languages fairly well! While Joseph was making dinner, Honoline showed us to our room and then the rest of the house. Out back, there is a wood structure with the kitchen, the shower (which is really just a room with a drain for basin showers), and the toilet. There’s a name here in Africa for the toilets, and it’s called the Long Drop. Basically, it’s a hole in the ground, and this one has raised parts for your feet. Honoline told us that we’ll learn to aim while we’re here.
A great thing about Honoline’s house: pillows! We don’t have pillows at Prossy’s.
Honoline told us, “Good night, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” I told her that that’s fine in the West, but here, there is actually a concern about bed bugs, so it’s not so funny to say that.
Some of the really funny things we see here, in both Rwanda and Uganda, are the signs. A lot of things are written as you would do shorthand for a text message. 4 and U and things like that are used as words, or they’ll substitute the number 8 for the sound. I really liked the sign for the Equ8r. Some of the funny signs are also humorous because they are translated kind of odd or the English is used slightly incorrectly. For instance, there was a sign for a college called Brain Trust College, which I thought was a good concept but wasn’t quite right.
P.S. Sarah and I had a debate about how many “s” should be in the plural of “bus.” Any thoughts?
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Jenn-na-na
non-member comment
spelling test
hey friend! so, just thought I would comment on the plural of "bus" - there are exactly two (2) "s". Buses...I'm kind of surprised that with all of your massive amounts of knowledge that this was a point of debate... sounds like you're having a blast...I wish I was there. blessings!