Rwanda

On Saturday, Sarah and I left for Rwanda. I was very nervous about taking the Jaguar bus to Kigali because of my experience a few weeks earlier. I had been travelling to the village to treat some rabbits when a Jaguar bus tried to pass me on a very narrow road. The bus clipped my car, hit the sideview mirror and continued driving at 100km/hr. As the bus passed in front of me, the tail pipe flew off and almost smashed the windshield. So, I had good reason to be concerned about my safety. Sarah convinced me (rightly so) that everything would be fine, and we got on the bus, ready for a 6 hour journey. We were instructed to sit in a couple of seats by the conductor of the bus. This created a huge fight between 2 people because the bus had actually overbooked the bus, and kicked 2 people out of their seats so us whites could sit. I felt bad about this. There was a bunch of arguments from people around us and with the conductor. Luckily we couldnt understand the local language, but I think they were saying many nasty things about us. The man in front of us refused to move seats, even though he was seated in the wrong spot...and so you can see, the ride was chaotic from the start. We arrived at the Uganda-Rwanda border without a problem and we were told to get off the bus to walk across the border on foot. Sarah and I were the last to get off the bus and it seemed as though everyone from the bus had disappeared. We walked around the border clueless for 10 minutes or so until one of the patrons on the bus recognized our confusion and guided us to the customs office. He then showed us to a second office and then to the area to have our baggage checked for plastics (they are prohibited in Rwanda). This made the crossing very nice and we made a friend. When we started driving around the Rwandan hills, chaos broke out yet again. The hind luggage compartment had not been sealed properly and a womans luggage had fallen out as we were driving. The bus stopped, but the woman was only able to retrieve one of her bags. She was screaming hysterically at the bus conductor and it took a good 15 minutes before we were driving again. After this, things were fine and we arrived in Kigali safely. The bus stopped in a HUGE bus park filled with hundreds of vehicles, buses and even more people. Sarah and I had NO idea where to go or what bus to get on etc. The worst part is that taxis are hard to find here. They have public taxis, private ones, and other types. I dont understand their transport system. Luckily, the guy on the bus that helped us at the border (Steve), helped us once again. He and his friend (the stubborn guy that sat in front of us, Gift) recognized our confusion and offered to drive us to a hotel. I was nervous at first about getting in a car with 3 random men, but they seemed nice enough so off we went. Gift (the stubborn one, with a really interesting name) and his brother Innocent and their friend Steve drove us around looking for a suitable hotel. We found one and they dropped us off. We made plans to meet up again for supper and we went out for beer and bruschette (roasted goat meat, like muchomo). After supper, they drove us to the airport where we picked up Judy, our friend from Canada who is working at FAOC with us. They then dropped us off at our hotel. Our first day in Rwanda went very well, thanks to our friends that we randomly met.

Today, we went to the genocide museum which was heart-wrenching. There is not much else I can say about it. Afterwards, we took tea at the Hotel des Milles Collines. The hotel is not what I expected it to look like (partly because the hotel in the movie, Hotel Rwanda, was in South Africa, not Rwanda) but it was still nice to see.

Some random interesting things about Rwanda
1) The city is incredibly CLEAN. There is no dirt on the roads, garbage on the sidewalk, etc. This is much unlike Kampala.
2) Plastic type flip flops are illegal here. Weird.
3) It is mandatory to wear seatbelts in the front seats of vehicles only. In Uganda, wearing seatbelts is unheard of.
4) All people on bodas (motorbikes) must wear helmets and only 1 passenger per bike is allowed. In Uganda, there are no helmets and bodas there will take as many people that can fit on 1 bike.

I don't have access to the program I need to upload photos so I will post them once I return to Uganda in 2 weeks. Sarah, Judy and I are off to trek gorillas on Tuesday (I am so excited!!!) and then on Wednesday, we fly to Arusha to start our Serengeti safari adventure. We wrap up this part of the trip in Zanzibar for 3 days, then Judy and I head back to Entebbe, through Kampala and back to Mbarara.