It's not dark yet, but you know that by the time you get home it will be. You squeeze your way into a seat on the bus, and wait for it to take you home as it fills up. All of a sudden you are 20 persons in one Toyota Hiace, and you are ready to go. It has been a long day, and as the bus snuggles through the narrow (or maybe just overfilled) streets of the centre of Kigali, the noises prepares you for what you expect to be a normal bus ride.
As the life in Kigali overwhelms everything else, you do not discover until later how the mood in the bus really is. There are people shouting, cars blowing the horn, and you are sitting between as many people as the bus can possibly carry, looking forward to get home after a long day.
When you finally get out of the "queue" and into the roundabout, the bus driver speeds up and makes you clench your fist around the seat in front of you. You drive past the big "westernized" supermarket, into another roundabout, and finally you are definitely heading home, lost in you own thoughts. It is not until your friend whispers "everyone's quiet", that you realise that that is actually the truth; NO ONE is talking.
I do not know if you have ever ridden a Toyota Hiace, but if you picture yourself sitting in the very back of one, with three others on the bench with you, and 16 others in front of you, and then you picture it being as silent as when a whole football stadium takes one minute of silence. And this lasts for MANY minutes. Actually it is not only a couple of minutes, it is the whole ride home. Usually the bus is full of music, voices or some kind of disturbance. Now it does not seem as if anyone has anything to say, and even when the conductor claims money from those who want to get off, they all whisper.
When you almost reach the top of the hill, and you prepare to get out, you do it silently too, and when people have to leave their seats to let you out, even the children do it without a noise. You pay, get your change, agrees on the amount, and crosses the street to go home. Africa was extremely quiet this evening, and for a girl from Norway like you, you appreciate it. Because it is nicer to be quiet together than to be quiet all alone.
Linn Silje<3
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Hei og hå Linn Silje! Du e utrolig dyktig med å oppdatere, eg ska prøve å følge me på bloggen din videre:) Takk for det sosiale lag og all hjelp me har fått!
Du e ein utrolig bra ressurs for Hald og AMU!
Jeg leser, og så er jeg liksom litt med deg. Du er så bra, du!
-Papillon
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