Cattle Crossing

Here are some bulls that crossed the road just outside of town. I thought they were pretty rad lookin.

Motos!

Here are some motos. They are a main source of transit here. They cost about 400 francs to get across town. (That’s less than $1) It is super fun hanging on to the back of these while they squeeze between cars, pass in the oncoming lane and drive on the sidewalks.

White People?

I don’t think this little guy had ever seen white people before, because he came running by and when he saw us he stopped dead in his tracks and stared like this for five minutes. He didn’t move a muscle even as we waved and took his picture

African Time

The internet has been down for almost two days. Even now it is working very slowly. Too slow to upload any photos. Unfortunately, the experiences I had yesterday really need the photos to do them justice. I saw some very funny things around town and some very sad things as I visited the genocide memorial. I’ll try to update everything as soon as the internet is fully repaired. That’s just how it goes here in Africa though, not much seems to be reliable, except for the rolling black outs. : ) We call the slow pace of life here, African Time.

The Locals

DAY 6

Most of the days I’ve spent here have had a solid routine. Wake up about 6:30, breakfast at 7, straight to work, leave work at 5, dinner at 7, bed after that, then do it again. However, each day has many mad small adventures within it.

This country is very interesting because it’s history was written very recently. Each day on the drive to work I pass a prison where I can see many genocide convicts working in the yard. They wear pink uniforms and even though it has been fourteen years many of them are still awaiting their trials.

The country is also very beautiful. Even in the large city of Kigali everything is green, tropical and jungle like. There are many types of fruit trees that scatter the city, bananas, mangoes, passion fruit, pineapples, papaya. The birds here are also beautiful and full of interesting sounds. There aren’t many monkeys in the city, but some of the birds make some crazy sounds that resemble that of a monkey, making the jungle sound track complete. It is amazing to see all of the colored sparrows, vast array of hawks and the huge African Gray Harrons.

The only day that has broken rhythm was Sunday. Actually, stating Saturday night, I went to the Pangea Film Festival. I don’t know if any of you saw it on TV, but it was broadcast all over the world as different countries participated in this global film fest. The feeling was really strange because it was something I would have done back in the states, I even saw the Los Angeles crowd on the screens, but here I was participating in Rwanda. The films were really quite goo by the way if you missed it. Sunday morning I woke early for church, which was very exciting. I got to stand and introduce myself to the congregation twice during the service. Afterward I had the day to discover what I could about life in Kigali. I met some english speaking people about my age at the film fest the night before, so for lunch I met with three of them at a very nice modern coffee shot. This experience was most memorable because as we all sat there having fun joking and also talking seriously, we represented four different countries, none of which was the one we were in either. The four were, U.S., Canada, Scotland and England.

Later the day was spent walking around Kigali and learning how to get places that were out of walking distance. One of the most popular modes of transportation here is called the moto. Few people own cars here, so taxi service is very important and present everywhere. The motos are motorcycle taxis. Once you learn the name of your destination it is very easy to flag one down, tell them where you want to go, negotiate the price, then jump on. The price for a moto across town in usually about 300 or 400 francs. 541 francs equals a U.S. dollar. To ride in a car taxi it’s about 4000 or 5000. The motos are far cheaper and way more fun, especially in traffic when you are going between the lanes. Oh yah, and I’d say about twenty percent of driving here is done in the lane of oncoming traffic. It’s far worse than Mexico!

Thank you all for your interest and comments, please keep leaving them and let me know how you all are doing.

~Mike~

Tubbie

A view across Kigali

Pasvick and me in our work

This is the hole we dug to put a septic basin in. It’s almost 7 feet deep. He did most of it.

Sitting in the grass after work…