the road to kigali

The trip up to Kigali took about five hours. I'm told that it usually takes longer but Dan (Brose) was moving right along and we didn't have any delay at the borders. You have to stop first at the Burundi border and fill out a bunch of paperwork and get the okay to leave, then you drive a few hundred feet and stop at the Rwandan border and process your paperwork and get the okay to come in. Sometimes they can keep you for an hour or more. The roads are really something! Immediately upon leaving Bujumbura city you start climbing. The city is right next to the lake (Tanganyika) so it's down in the valley but it's completely surrounded by beautiful mountains. The roads in Burundi are barely paved - in some places not at all - and wind back and forth and all around the mountain curves. There is almost a constant stream of people alongside the road. All kinds of people from women carrying produce or water (not to mention their babies), to children playing or carrying water, to soldiers lounging around with their guns, to farmers carrying their crops, to men hauling amazingly huge loads on makeshift carts or bicycles. There are still many people on the roads in Rwanda but the roads change drastically as soon as you cross the border. The roads are well paved and even have lines painted on them. The amount of money pouring into Rwanda is astounding and it shows. Mind you it's still very primitive compared to Western standards but compared to Burundi, Kigali is a city for kings (or President's wives).