Moto Adventures

The quickest, cheapest, and most effective way to get around Rwanda is by taking motos (motorcycles). They drive around the cities, gather in villages, and take passengers wherever they need to go. Motos are definitely not the safest mode of transportation, but all Rwandan moto drivers are required to have a specific license that is apparently very hard to obtain, and to carry an extra helmet for their passengers to wear. In our 5 weeks here so far, we've probably taken hundreds of motos. We take them to get from our little town of Gasima near the GHI farm to Kigali, we take them to get around the city, and we take them to all the homes of the mamas we visit to interview.

This is how they work. Because we are muzungus (white people), whenever we look like we might need a moto, a whole swarm of them come over, offering us their helmets. I think this is because they think they can swindle a more expensive price out of us than local Rwandans, which is probably true, although we have gotten pretty good at negotiating and bargaining. But essentially, you call over a moto driver and tell them where you want to go. Hopefully, they know where you are talking about, but oftentimes they don't, or they just cannot understand what you are saying. In the latter case, we usually just repeat where we are going a bunch of times hoping they might understand eventually, but as you can imagine this usually doesn't work. So, we are forced to get creative and talk about landmarks they might be familiar with located near our destinations. Either that or we find someone nearby who speaks a little English and can translate. Next, we negotiate a price. If communication is an issue, we often resort to typing a number into our phone calculators where they either agree, or grab our phones and type in a different number. This interaction goes back and forth until we both agree on a price, then we hop on the back, put on our helmets, and the driver zips off (usually way too fast) to wherever we are going.

I have never felt unsafe while riding on a moto, and have actually found them to be quite fun, but we have definitely had some interesting experiences while riding them. We take motos from the farm to Kigali and back all the time. This ride is always questionable as the road is full of dust and holes. We often find ourselves airborne on the back of the moto, holding on to the small bar behind our butts for dear life. But, this ride is a breeze compared to some other roads we have experienced while riding motos. We have literally been taken up and down mountains until the drivers could go no further, and we were forced to walk. We have been 'harassed' by a large friendly gang of moto drivers in Musanze who were so excited to see three white girls in their tiny village, that they all wanted to be the one chosen for the ride. They all had good intentions, but the amount of helmets that were shoved into my face and forcibly placed onto my head was quite overwhelming. We have been taken to the wrong location several times in remote villages with the GHI communications team on our way to home visits, and even in Kigali when Caitlin is just trying to get to the grocery store 5 minutes from our house and her driver takes her halfway across the city...

Moto-ing on the edge. The fact that I was taking a picture
and not holding on is definitely a cause for concern

This post was inspired by our most recent moto ride, however, to a home visit in Gasabo, about 20 minutes away from the farm. The GHI mama that we were going to see gave Lucie, our wonderful translator, some questionable directions, and we found ourselves descending a steep mountain ridge that should NOT have been accessible by any vehicle, including these agile motorcycles. All the drivers were struggling, which was understandable with the rocky decline they were trying to maneuver. All of a sudden, I find myself flying off the back of the moto onto the ground. The front wheel had gotten stuck in a small ditch and both me and the driver were wrenched off, although he was able to catch himself and his bike, while I took a much less graceful tumble. Luckily, I was totally okay, with only a few small scratches to mark the occasion, but we were still in the middle of this random road (if you could even call it a road), with no idea where we were going. Eventually, Lucie realized that we were in the complete wrong location, so we turned around and entirely retraced our steps. Finally, an hour later, we got to the site of our home visit. We had a really successful interview, and a very nondramatic moto ride back to the farm.

Before I end this post, I've got to amend the statement I wrote earlier. I have never felt unsafe while riding a moto, until today, but I appreciate the thrill nonetheless.