road trip: northern province

I woke up early after a sound sleep.  The night before I got no sleep because I was still sick and mosquitoes were dive bombing me all night.  I decided to sleep under a mosquito net last night to avoid adding on to the dozens of bites to the face, neck, and arms that I already proudly wear.  It worked!  Stupid mosquitoes couldn’t figure it out.  So I woke up refreshed, made breakfast, and packed some sandwiches for the trip.

Matt and I took off to the bus stop so we could catch an early bus.  Unfortunately, no buses were showing up.  We were running late so we decided to hail two mototaxis.  Little did I know at the time, but I was purchasing a ride on the deathcycle.  Immediately the driver zoomed into traffic and we eventually pulled up to a dead stop.  But this did not deter my guy from stopping.  No, this man made his own path, literally.  He took a sharp right onto the sidewalk and cut across a grass lawn.  It happened so fast I could not even react.  We then made it onto a poorly maintained dirt road.  At this point I was holding on for dear life.  He punched the gas, leaving a solid trail of red dust behind the motorcycle.  Somehow, he navigated passed school children and potholes and came to the end of the dirt road.  That’s where we got some air.  There was a bump in the road and the speed of the motorcycle caused us to jump – much like an action movie – in the air and back onto the paved road.  My backpack almost flew off and I had to tell him, “my friend, my friend! Try not to kill us!”  But I got to give him credit; the guy knew how to drive.  We took a shortcut, stopped for gas (!!!), and then booked it at 100 kmph down the main road to the ministry.  It was definitely the funnest and most dangerous mototaxi ride I had here.  I thanked him for his skills and met Matt at the ministry.

Last week I got word of opportunity  to check out the country and learn about an exciting program that Rwanda participates in with its German partner.  This program is called “twinning” and revolves around the concepts of development, community building, and cultural interaction between Rwanda and an area in Germany called Rhineland-Palatinate.  Basically the people in Rhineland-Palatinate and in Rwanda form partnerships of self-help in Rwanda and cultural exchange between the two countries.  Rwanda is looking for other partners to “twin” with, so this may be another opportunity for another country to exchange culture and ideas with Rwanda.

The ministry is informing local leaders about the program and going all around the country to hold meetings.  Today, Matt and I tagged along to the northern province just outside of Volcanoes National Park and attended a meeting with 200 other local leaders.  We learned more about the partnership and about local government.  We interviewed a local leader and he provided insight into the decentralization process and helped answer some of the questions we had about the policy document we are working on.

But the most rewarding part of the trip came from leaving the city of Kigali.  It was my first time out and I was excited to finally see the countryside.  Believe me, Rwanda really is “the land of a thousand hills.”  The lush green scenery outside of the city was breathtaking.  It’s stupid, but all I could think of was, “wow this is like Jurassic Park!”  The country looks like a tropical island because of the enormous number of trees, hills, mountains, and volcanoes.  My entire day was one big adventure that began with a dangerous motorcycle ride and ended with a not-as-dangerous-but-still-unsafe-by-US-standards SUV ride through pitch black mountainous roads filled with people, bicycles, motorcycles, and cars.  But we both made it back and we look forward to tomorrow’s trip to the south.

I leave you with a few new pictures, enjoy!

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