Sss

 

Kigali is a green city, spread out over various hills. I find jogging and walking good ways of discovering a city. But the steep slopes make jogging, walking and cycling real work-outs. In Da Nang I was running at sealevel, and it was flat. Kigali has an average height of 1500 m. You can just imagine how these first runs looked like. Uphill, puffing like an old steamer.  Suffering.

One day I went jogging after a heavy rainfall, just before it would get dark. That happens in no time here. Twilight barely lasts half an hour. I passed the American Embassy and turned right. Most of the paved roads have sidewalks that are easily passable and not, as in Vietnam, crammed with scooters and food stalls. Usually there is only a sidewalk on one side.

I had reached a good rhythm and was on my way to my temporary home. "Sssss," I heard across the road. Jogging. "Ssss," I heard again, from across the road. But also from some distance away. Looking up. Across the road, pedestrians are making signs at me. A little further on, a soldier (or is it police?) is also waving and pointing. Oh, I get it. I'm not allowed to walk on this side of the road. I quickly cross the four-lane road and continue my path on the other side. I see that the footpath where I was walking ends. That's where an area starts with higher levels of security. Fair enough.

Both the officer and the passersby were trying to get my attention. Not by shouting "hello" or “excuse me”, but by a simple sound "sss". It works. I just have to learn to respond to it.