On the road

 

Musanze, formerly Ruhengeri.

It is still early when I go jogging. The mountains are shrouded in mist and clouds. A dirt road first, then I get onto the tarmac road. It is busy on the road. Not because there are many cars but there are many people on their way on bikes and on foot. Cyclists with large, pale yellow, plastic cans. I don't think they contain water. Rather something that is fermenting, because I hear a soft hissing. Maybe banana beer? The road climbs steeply. The cyclists get off and push their heavy loads further.

So do taxi bikes. A carrier is welded onto the back of the heavy bicycles, with a colourful cushion. Sometimes the seat is extra-long so that two or even three people can be carried. Hard work for those who pedal. I see women carrying large bags of greenery on their heads, bundles of brushwood too.

I pass the campus of a college. On the grass, young people, each with two basins in front of them, doing their Saturday laundry. Soon, the washing lines are full of sheets and clothes. Choral singing sounds from the campus chapel. People rush to the chapel with their bibles in their hands.

I pass a nature reserve. I am not allowed to enter because I did not book my entrance ticket online in advance. The guard and I chat in the sunlight falling through the dense foliage. I turn around and go down a country road. Children walk with me for a while, calling out to me. On both sides are pole beans, as far as the eye can see. To the north, I can see the contours of the Virunga volcanoes. The clouds become more and more threatening and promise a heavy downpour soon. Time to turn back.