No Planes or Trains, only broken down Automobiles

Last Friday concluded the first set of training sessions for the internal savings and lending groups I will be working with for the next few months. The last session brought Flavien, Emmanuel and I to Kibumbwe, roughly 45 minutes to an hour (moto ride) away from Nyamagabe town. My first visit to Kibumbwe was nearly a month ago, when I first met the four ISLGs we are working with in the area. They gave me a very warm welcome with a round of applause after each sentence I completed in Kinyarwanda. The people, along with the fact that the heart of the “town” seems to be a soccer field, make Kibumbwe one of my favorite places to visit in the area. Other than the soccer field there is a health center, a sector office, a school, and a restaurant/store. Not much comes and goes in Kibumbwe, which was a point I understood in greater detail as the day wore on.

The ride to Kibumbwe was just like any other field visit. Emmanuel and I on a moto with books, pens, and paper strapped to the back end. When we arrived at Kibumbwe, instead of meeting in the health center, like we did last time, we decided to meet in the school. The second term has just ended, but children were around awaiting their grades. Instead of accompanying Flavien and giving my “motivational speech” I decided to sit in on Emmanuel’s session and watch his teaching style and his interaction with the ISLG members. He doesn’t quite have the dance moves that Flavien likes to bust out during his trainings, but his linear teaching style provided a clear and concise lesson on savings and lending practices. He also did a great job in handling the kids, who seemed to be taking shifts staring at the muzungu in their classroom.
As the day wrapped up, Flavien suggested I ride back with the car that brings the meals for the ISLG members. I didn’t mind, but was a bit worried since they were late bringing lunches because of car trouble. Nonetheless, I got in and away we went in a Honda Civic, which was weighed down by 5 people, 50 empty glass Coca Cola bottles, dirty plates and silverware and had little to no tread on the tires from what I could see. After bottoming out a few times on a road that was clearly not suitable for anything but a 4-wheel drive car or moto, we came to a screeching halt, before we started going backwards, on a very steep hill. The driver was convinced we needed to add water to the radiator (not sure I understand the radiator to steep hill relation), but I didn’t say anything. We parked on the hill and sat for a half an hour after getting water from a local stream. After two more failed attempts to make it up the hill, I decided to get out and call Flavien who was going to send Emmanuel to pick me up whenever they were done. After waiting for 15 minutes, a truck (with a good radiator) came by and asked I wanted a ride. I gladly accepted and away we went, bouncing over ditches and rocks that I don’t know how the Civic made it over in the first place.

As we were crossing the final bridge before Nyamagabe town, I heard a CRACK and felt the back end of the truck drop. The narrow beams, which were barely held together with bolts and screws, snapped underneath us, dropping the truck a few feet above the stream. The truck was surely not going anywhere, which amused most of us, but annoyed the driver who was busy running around trying to find a log to prop up the tires. Luckily, one of the onlookers was a moto driver, who was able to give me a ride the last 2 km to my house.

I forget sometimes that transportation here is far from a sure thing and arriving on time anywhere is not only a challenge, but also success (when it happens). We have another field visit to Kibumbwe in a few weeks which I’m sure will bring a whole new set of challenges. The first however is getting across the bridge that will hopefully be “fixed” by then. We’ll see!