New post | The road to Musanza, Rwanda.
On the trail of mountain gorillas and golden monkeys in Rwanda & Uganda.
At 10:00 Hussein is already parked in the small lot of the complex. Salam alaykum, I say. Alaykum salam, he returns.
He’s come to take me to Musanza, one of the fastest growing cities in Rwanda and the jumping off point for gorilla tracking in Volcanos National Park. As we drive towards the edge of the city he tells me he’s one of only 5% of Muslims in the country. I ask him where the mosques are in Kigali. There are few, but there’s one near to where we are right now, just down the street from the beautiful façade of the public library we just drove past.
We run into some traffic and a slight slowdown. As we approach the root cause we see a tuk tuk stopped in the middle of the road. Passing, we see the driver hunched over, replacing a flat tire.
Towards the edges of the city he points the out bicycle taxis that line the street. They’re not allowed in the city center but abound in the suburbs. He tells me that the road we’re on is a popular one for them as it’s not as steep as some of the others in the area.
We climb out of the city into the mountains. Along the road children are using plastic jugs as sleds. He tells me that there’s a spring up in the mountains that people come to fetch water for their homes. It’s a long hike up and I ask there are plans to bring the water to the people and he says yes, there are. It’s a process.
As we finish our climb he points out Mt. Kigali on the other side of the valley we’re on and tells me the city is named after the mountain. The word means big. A little further on, we’re also rewarded with views of the city itself; its skyscrapers jut out from the hilltops.
