Road Trip 08/26/13

One of the things I'm not too crazy about in Burundi is going between Bujumbura (the capital) and where I live.  It's a 100km drive.  The road is paved which is a blessing and a curse.  There are no speed limits, passing is allowed anywhere, and there's no line in the middle of the road.  Cars move at high speeds past oncoming traffic and close to people in the villages and walking on the shoulders. 

The taxis are generally small white Suburbs like the one shown in this picture.  If you look closely, the sticker in the rear says, "NO FEAR."  No kidding!

One passenger sits in the front, and four people squish in the back.  Kids are free...they sit on passengers laps.  If you don't want four people in the back seat, someone has to pay the fare for the fourth person.  Generally, a seat belt is available for the front passenger, and required for the driver.  Thankfully, the fare is about $3.75.  It's more if you have a lot of luggage, and $3.10 extra to pick passengers up from the YFC guest house.

There are some major accidents.  Often I see people on the back of semi truck trailers, either hanging on, or on bikes.  On this last trip, I saw a tractor trailer that was barely recognizable.  There are a number of trucks that come from Tanzania and either travel to the capital or on to Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

I decided to write this blog though after I heard of an incident last week:

A truck carrying 40 cows went off the road.  The driver survived, but all 40 cows were killed.  This happened about 63kms from the capital.  The local people cut up the cows and took the meat.  Some of the meat ended up in the market of a nearby town, and some in the market in my town.  Veterinarians weren't able to inspect the cows or the meat, so it was unclear if the meat from the 40 cows was good.  Since the police couldn't tell which meat in the markets came from the truck, police put all the meat in a pile and burned it in both markets.  It's a bummer that so much meat was lost, but it was encouraging that some health standards in Burundi are enforced.