Transportation

There are several modes of transportation here. Mostly people walk. You can imagine in a “Land of a Thousand Hills” the people are in good shape with all the walking they do!

A few have bicycles but because of the hills, bikes are great for going downhill, not so good for going up. Those who can afford it, which is a smaller minority, own cars.

Then there are the “taxis” which are minivans that hold 10 or 12 people. There are a few larger ones but mostly they are the smaller vans. In Kenya a minivan is called a “matatu”. These are fine if you want to go where the van is going.

If you want to go somewhere more quickly or to a specific spot that is not on the taxi’s route, you can take a “moto-taxi” (moto for short). These are small motorbikes. There are oodles and oodles of these zipping in and out of traffic. Sometimes I imagine them as little ants. The driver wears a reflective vest that is good for seeing him at night. Also, the drivers wear helmets and carry a helmet for the passenger. I suspect the driver will be fined severely if caught with himself or his passenger not wearing a helmet. Most of the motos have small motors and are not able to go very fast, especially uphill. That is a good thing. Mark has taken a moto around town a few times. It saves money on gas but it can be a little nerve wracking. I haven’t been brave enough or needed to take one. For the number of them we see around, I’m surprised that we really don’t see too many involved in accidents. The car drivers are used to them and they all watch out for each other.

Often the moto passenger has something he or she is carrying. I have seen babies on passengers’ backs. Sometimes there is a big bundle between the driver and the passenger. Usually if the bundle is large, though, the driver puts it in front of him. A few times I have seen a driver with a small child riding up in front of the driver and the parent as the passenger. Occasionally I have seen the passenger with something long on his shoulder, like a board or a metal pipe. The funniest thing I saw the other day was a passenger with a car tire balanced on each knee! I wished I had a camera. It really was a bit comical to see this moto with these two big tires on either side of it. I suppose if it had crashed, it would have been a bit more cushiony. . .

Speaking of transportation, we are only waiting now for one more signature on a piece of paper and then the car we are buying will be officially ours!! The problem is, the guy whose signature we need lives about 6 hours away and he has to sign it in person here in Kigali. We were told he was coming to town today but we haven’t heard if he made it or not. We have the car sitting in our driveway and Mark has gone over it and made a list a mile long of all the things he wants to do to it when it is ours. He has also already gone through the wiring and taken out unnecessary items and moved some wires around or connected them using wire connectors instead of tape, etc. It will be nice when it is truly ours!