Caleb's Log v.4

This is day 6 for us.  Feels like we've been here for a month.  So much happens every day and we're constantly settling in and discovering new things.

Shall I talk about golfing or driving?  

Let's go with driving.

Our experience with the rules of the road started with our ride from the airport to our home.  Fabrice helped us load up in his van and I was bold enough to immediately attempt to get into the driver's seat.  At least that's how he saw it when I opened the door on the right side of the car to get in.  I was a little confused when he told me I should go to the other side.  I said, "you want me to drive?"  He laughed and then I looked inside and the steering wheel was on the "wrong" side of the car.  We all laughed and I got in as the passenger on the left side.  Katie and I were really surprised, because we didn't know that Rwanda was a left-side-of-the-road driving country.  Well, it isn't.  He just has a car that was made for Tanzania or another British colony.

So, off we go in the van and we get to a traffic circle as we leave the airport.  Cool, you've all been in a traffic circle.  It's a little chaotic as cars to the left cruise through, you look for a good time to enter and then become the one with the right of way as you go around.  You then have to get yourself to the exit you want and peel out of the circle.  There were lots of cars and several motorcycles, but we got through fine.  What I was not prepared for was that every intersection works this way.  NO RULES.  Then as Fabrice kept driving, I started to notice the quantity of motorcycles and their aggressive style of driving.  In Kigali, motorcycle taxis are VERY popular.  If you've ever been to a big city with Lime scooters, it's similar.  They are everywhere and slip in and out of pedestrian/vehicle realms.  These lime scooters have drivers because labor here is VERY cheap.  (you don't clear your table, pack your groceries, open your door, choose your parking spot, pay a parking meter, clean your own house, kiss your own wife, etc.  There is always a person to do those things)  The motorcycles are a little like ants or a swarm of bees.  If you stop in traffic, you'll be overtaken on the left, right, across the front, behind you.  They're everywhere.  As Fabrice continued to drive us through different neighborhoods I was trying to learn how it all works for when I get a car.  What are the rules? How do you maneuver through the chaos?  My theory was that you just have to be bold and obvious and then others will adjust.  He was doing things like turning right in front of an oncoming motorcycle and everyone seemed cool with it.  Horrifying.

We rented a car and I finally got the chance to try it out.  I haven't explained yet, that there are no street signs.  No stop signs, yield signs, stop lights, etc.  So when you get to an intersection (that isn't a circle) it's up to you to figure out how to get through.  That might seem crazy, but it's like the intersection in a hallway at your old high school.  Somehow you get where you need to get without running into anyone.  And, if someone comes sprinting down the hall, everyone just kind of gets out of the way.  Asshole.  Fortune favors the bold and those who act, move.  Katie figured out pretty quickly that the only rule of the road seems to be, don't hit anyone or anything.  

This is my kind of driving and I've really enjoyed the combination of go-cart racing and on-the-fly problem solving.  If I were to sum it all up and help you get the best picture of driving in Kigali it would be with this PERFECT analogy.

Your car is a boat in a river.  The streets are a river bed.  The motorcycles are the water.  The other cars are rocks.  The pedestrians are fish.

It's your job as the driver of the boat to get down this river.  You better avoid the rocks, ignore the fish, and go with the flow of the water.  If you run into a rock, you're fucked.  If you hit a fish, that's kind of on the fish, honestly, and you can't hit the water...it just moves with you.  You go left, it goes left.  You slow down, it flows around you.  There is no escaping the water, but you don't have to pay attention to it either.  Yes, the fish are above water and are real human lives and yes, the rocks move with you as you go.  Fuck off, it's a PERFECT analogy.

While it is a little unnerving there is comfort in the fact that everyone is following Katie's rule of don't hit anything.  Other drivers adjust to you and you'd have to be trying to hit someone to get in an accident.  The lack of rules (lights and stop signs) actually make everyone really attentive and thoughtful while they drive.  There are no distracted drivers in a go-cart race.

I'm off to the bank now to try for a third time to get a username and password for my new bank account so that I can actually use that bank account.  On the positive side, I really have made some friends there.  They think my wife is BEAUTIFUL and they like me for that.

Here's a video