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This time, that’s it… With nearly four months’ delay compared to the original schedule, I have finally arrived in Kigali to meet the last Constellation group.
(A reminder: Constellation is a cultural NGO bringing together several painting-awareness groups around the world.)
All that remains now is to reach their village: Nyakabanda.
Apparently it’s not very far, and the directions given by Alphonse, the local coordinator, are simple and clear: go to Gitarama, then from there take a motorcycle taxi to Nyakabanda. He will be waiting for me at COFORWA.
Gitarama is only about 40 to 45 kilometers from Kigali, and minibuses run there regularly.
Nyakabanda, on the other hand, I couldn’t find on the map. Probably a small village somewhere nearby. It shouldn’t be much of a problem.
There is just one detail bothering me: Alphonse wrote that the motorcycle ride costs 5,000 Rwandan francs, about 10 dollars.
A fortune here.
But well… probably a typing mistake.
So I set off. The weather is beautiful and I have the whole day ahead of me.
And without any difficulty I reach Gitarama.
The bus stops in the middle of a large dirt square. A few steps away, several motorcycle drivers are waiting for customers.
I walk up to them.
— Nyakabanda?
The answer comes back as a burst of laughter.
The muzungu wants to go to Nyakabanda!
Within seconds the news spreads across the square. Everyone is laughing.
One man, apparently incredulous, asks me to repeat:
— Nyakabanda? Are you sure?
— Yes, yes… Nyakabanda! At COFORWA!
— Five thousand francs.
The amount is huge. To come from Kigali by minibus I paid 600 francs.
But that is exactly what Alphonse told me.
So I agree, somewhat doubtful.
The man straps my backpack onto the luggage rack and we set off.
Ten meters later a kid comes running.
Stop.
He fills the oil tank.
We start again.
Fifty meters farther, another stop: this time the fuel tank needs filling.
The discussion between the pump attendant and the driver is lively. The only words I catch are:
Nyakabanda.
and Muzungu.
Once the tanks are full, we finally leave…
Only to stop again five hundred meters later.
The driver disappears into a house.
Alone on the motorcycle, I wait.
What has he gone to do?
He did say something to me, but it was in Kinyarwanda, and my knowledge of that language is extremely limited — practically nonexistent.
So I wait.
Eventually he comes back.
This time wearing a thick jacket.
Damn… where the hell is Nyakabanda?
But now, at last, we really set off.
Very quickly the road begins to wind through the mountains. The scenery is magnificent and, if I didn’t hate being a passenger on a motorcycle so much, I would probably enjoy the ride immensely.
But right now I’m mostly looking forward to arriving.
So it is with relief that, after about forty minutes, I see a sign:
Nyakabanda
No distance indicated.
But since we are leaving the paved road, I assume it cannot be very far now.
Not very far…
Just 25 kilometers of muddy mountain track.
Just one more hour clinging to the back of this damned motorcycle.
My GPS tells me that as the crow flies I’m only 43 kilometers from Kigali…
And yet I have the strange feeling that I’ve reached the edge of the world.
All that remains now is to find COFORWA… and Alphonse.
Stage 3
In fact, Gitarama was about 90 kilometers from Kigali, not 45 as I had written at the time. The town changed its name in 2006 and is now called Muhanga.
I therefore assume that the journey must have taken a good three hours back then.
From there, it took me about two more hours by motorcycle taxi to reach Nyakabanda (−1.852200, 29.695267).
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