Saturday July 31, 2010. Gorilla bones, bicycles, and a trip to the airport
Apparently my suitcase has lost about 12 kg here in Rwanda, presumably the result of all the vitamins I’ve been taking and a bit less toothpaste. After agonizing over the best way to get my “excess” baggage back to Entebbe, I got the scale from the clinic and – guess what - I’m 9 kg under the limit and apparently 12 kg less than it weighed at the Entebbe airport. Someone’s scale isn’t correct and I don’t think it is the one here. So first problem solved. Taxi Peter comes through – after I text him for a pickup at the airport he calls back to confirm – what a gem. My computer seems to be working, although I am short a few programs that I can’t download off the internet. But at least I’m back in business. And all this before breakfast.
Gorilla bones
After breakfast Jan, Cyprian, a Kenyan vet volunteering here, Andrea, Dallas and I went for a stroll to the Karisoke garage to inspect their bone collection. Very impressive! The gorilla skeletons that are exhumed are brought here to be cleaned, inspected, and catalogued by Shannon and her crew before being placed in paper bags and cardboard boxes for temporary storage until the museum in Kigali is ready to receive them. It is impressive – they are very very organized and detailed. The skeletons are laid out on a large board after all the cleaning and preserving, all the bones are identified down to the finger and toenails (I know, not a bone) and then photographed and described. Then this data is compared to the clinical records and the pathology reports, and will be made available to other researchers in the future. When we arrive there is a table laid out with the skeleton of an adult female they have just finished processing. It’s quite a sight. The animal has osteoarthritis of the spine and bony recession around the teeth, just like older humans. Shannon’s husband is a neurobiologist and works with MRI images of the brains of various species – we have a good chat about atlases of gorilla and elephant neuroanatomy – it’s amazing what a group of very eclectic group of people one can run into.
And Bicycles
Next stop is the project Rwanda office to check on their Boerbull – a 7 month old dog – part bull mastiff, part great Dane, and part Rhodesian ridgeback. Big, bouncy, and fortunately very friendly. His “parents” are out of town so he is hanging out with the staff. The Project Rwanda property is filled with combination of bicycles and motorcycles. The wife runs the “cargo bike” project here, and the husband apparently manages the Rwandan bicycle racing team. We have a few of the cargo bikes at MGVP which are used by the staff for errands, and by Mike for “exercise”. Given the fact that Rwanda is totally hilly, riding a heavy cargo bike for the sheer joy of it is something I will do without.
And on to the Airport
The taxi to the airport was $100 US, so I decided the local bus was good enough for me. So, for 1700 Rwandan franks (about 2.5 US$ I took the Volcano Express. Jan drove me the few km into town and then my suitcase and I piled aboard at the appointed time. Although I bought a ticket in advance, I’m not totally sure that they limit the number of tickets to the number of seats on the bus. Jan thought she bought me a ticket for the “Business Class” transport, which is the size of a Greyhound bus at home, but I was aimed towards the medium bus – lots smaller than a Greyhound but bigger than a taxi/matatu. It’s elbows out when it comes to getting on the bus, but fortunately for me everyone seems to head for the seats in the back. I want the seat next to the window, behind the driver for maximum fresh air and minimum motion sickness. So in we pack, with fold out seats in the aisles and my suitcase propped against the inside of the door, preventing ingress or egress unless it got moved out of the way.
The drive to Kigali took about 2 hours, and is very scenic. The road wanders up and down and around following the contour maps of the hills. The potholes are there, but filled with gravel which helps a bit, and in general there are two lanes of width. Because it is Saturday there is much less traffic on the road, which means less passing and less being passed, both of which are potential accident actions. Plus less diesel fumes which is a bonus for me. The hills on either side are completely terraced and planted, maize, bananas, eucalyptus for wood. There are piggeries, a fish farm, brick kilns, cattle and goats being led along the road, and a cavalcade of humans of all shapes and sizes. The bus driver is particularly careful about the groups of very small children playing on the edges of the road – he honks loudly at them as we approach. Transportation by bicycle is common – both people and cargo. Up to three people are often on a bike, and the loads of sacks, sugar cane, bananas, and boxes have to be seen to be believed. I don’t know which would be worse – trying to pedal the load up the hills, or trying to slow it down going down them. It is terribly hazy out so the views are not what they could be – there is a lot of dust from the roads and fields and no rain to wash it out of the air. But still impressive.
We pull into Kigali – a city of 3 million people build on hills the way Kampala is. But much larger hills. The map is a total labyrinth – I hate to imagine driving here although we will probably come in with the girls. It is a hodgepodge of neighbourhoods – hotels and large government buildings interspersed with shopping plazas, and then off in the distance small lanes with basic housing. Julius has arranged for his driver to pick me up at the bus station to transport me to the airport – which is very convenient, and the car is actually pulled right into the bus yard waiting for me when I get there. So much easier than having to find and negotiate with a taxi! So I’m whisked off through a series of roundabouts out of town along a double lane highway with a palm encrusted median and dropped off in front of Kigali airport, where I arrived 8 days ago. A bit of a hurry up and wait circus, my bag still weights 21 kg, and upstairs to the lounge for a final Primus (beer) and some samoosas before the uneventful flight back to Entebbe. Although the Rwandair staff get full bonus marks for being able to seat everyone, provide snacks and drinks to all, and the clean up before the termination of a 40 minute flight!
