On Monday, we took our last trip to Akagera National Park. It was a fun, exciting, and crazy day. We started the day off right, with one of the jeeps breaking down on the way to the park. The drivers were very nice and cool though, and fixed the giant Land Rover pretty quickly. To get to Akagera, you have to travel down a long winding bumpy dirt road for about fourty five minutes. Out driver Bosco makes the journey twice a week, and knew how to throw the jeep every which way to avoid large holes. This was a really rural area; as in no electricity for miles.
We arrived at Akagera National Park, and activated our retracting roofs. The roofs in these safari mobiles can be pushed up, creating a truck like convertible. This way you can stand up and see the animals. If we thought the road getting to Akagera was bumpy, in the park was a whole nother situation. Bosco maneuvered around huge rocks and ravines; it was a lot of fun actually. In the park we saw a baboon, then zebras, and a herd of elephants way way off in the mountains. Many of the animals were literally chilling roadside and are used to cars, but nonetheless are still very wild. It was not at all like a zoo, we’re talking a real safari here! We saw plenty of monkeys and beautiful birds. We stopped by a lake to have lunch. Apparently a hippo did also. We were eating our peanut butter and Hummus and beyond sandwiches, when a hippo rouse out of the water, and plopped itself down in the shallow reeds not far from us. We didn’t get to close though, because hippos are extremely dangerous. Wait did someone say hummus!? I told you there was hummus in Rwanda. Well it was form Rami Levi not Rwanda, but it was still a fantastic surprise that Adina had for us. People did not like it, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. This is because it is made purely out of chickpeas (and a few add ins) so it does not spoil, which people weren’t used to. Hummus and a safari, my ideal day.
After the beautiful once in a lifetime safari, we headed back to Agahozo-Shalom for our last family time. Our convoy of three trucks took up most of the road, and we made good time. My group got to know our driver Bosco very well. He is a genocide survivor, and knows a lot about nature. We had almost reaches Agahozo around dusk, when a moto(motorcycle cab which is what people use to get around) zipped by us going very fast. I noticed that its headlight was off, and passed very close to our jeep. As soon as the moto passed us, we heard a loud smash. Bosco stopped the jeep, and every single person around us ran to the cloud of dust behind us. “The moto driver must have hit a pole”, said Bosco. Bosco got out to see if he could help, and my roommate Robert (who is an eagle scout) and I followed him. I am trained as a lifeguard and to be a first responder, which makes me much more qualified than the average Rwandan.
When we got to the crowded scene, our friend Elena who is a MADA volunteer had the situation under control, and was trying to help the passenger, a young boy who was lying on a wooden bench. The Rwandans were literally swarming this kid, all of them eager to get a piece of the drama. The kid was pretty beat up, and was bleeding from his hands and knees, and was in a ton of pain. Apparently the moto hit a ditch, and both the driver and passenger went sliding on the dirt. I bandaged his cuts up as much as possible, but he seemed to be in a lot of pain in his gravel road. Elena, Rob, and I worked together to evaluate what condition he was in, and between the three of us decided he would be ok, but that we needed to get him to a clinic immediately. Our jeep drivers were translating four us, and many villagers helped, but the majority of the people seem to be suffocating us; it was all very chaotic.
The villagers wanted to put the boy on another moto to get him to the hospital, but we insisted he go in our jeep. Rob and I carried him to Elena’s jeep, and made sure he was comfortable. The jeep drove off lead by another moto with the injured driver on it to the clinic. My job in this ordeal stopped there. I did what I was trained to do, which was be a first responder in an emergency situation. Mission accomplished.
When we got back to the village all the power was out, which does happen regularly for a few minutes, but this time there were no lights on in any of the surrounding villages. This meant that when our injured Rwandan friends got to the clinic, there was no power! Backup generators?...Welcome to Rwanda.
We finished up the day with our last family time. What a crazy day!
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