Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A little motorcycle ride to UCBC


(This is not the gate to our house. But I used to live here!)
Noé and I are really blessed to have our motorcycle. I call it ours but he's had it for almost a year already. Since I got back from the States in July, Noé's called it my motorcycle, and I've called it his. But, "what's mine is yours, what's yours is mine..." It's our motorcycle and it's really helped us so much. 

I remember so many times in the last few years where we'd have to borrow from friends or rent them if we needed to go places for the day... It's really just been a huge blessing for us to have our own source of reliable transportation.

A few days ago, Noé and I left home to go to work (albeit a bit late, due to yours truly). When we left the house, Noé said he didn’t know if we’d have enough gas to make it. I thought maybe we’d stop to buy some gas along the way, to ensure we’d “make it…” But he said, let’s see! :)

So we left.

And we passed the gas station.

And as we were going around the last corner before UCBC, I was feeling pretty good about how we’d nearly made it!

And then Noé says, “Oh, that’s the sign. We’re out of gas.”

(I still don’t know what the “sign” is, but this has happened a few times where he knows we have a few moments [or meters or centimeters or…?] to go until we actually run out of gas. And at this point, we'd never actually run out of gas, so the "sign" is actually pretty helpful.)

Anyway, instead of stopping on that corner, where the last little boy was selling gas in old ½ liter water bottles – we kept going.

We were so close.

We got to just before the UCBC driveway, when we were no longer sputtering forward, but coasting… And then we coasted to a stop. So I hopped off the motorcycle and Noé pushed it across the street (we have to cross traffic to get to UCBC).

He then told me to get back on. I smiled and couldn’t help but say, “Shouldn’t I just walk down the driveway?” He was like, no – let’s go. So I get on, and we easily coasted down the whole driveway to our regular parking spot underneath one of the trees.

As I got back on the motorcycle to enter UCBC, Noé reminded me that the entire driveway slopes downhill… And sure enough, my husband got us to UCBC, in spite of us not having enough gas.

It was hilarious.
Memorable.
And a lot of fun.

I’m thankful for these little moments that God gives us.

It could have been stressful, annoying, frustrating. But it was something that just cracked us up. Nobody knew we ran out of gas, and so what if they had known! We got to UCBC, we were able to get more gas before the end of the day, and get back home - all without a "problem."

It was a good morning! 

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Revamping the Congolese Railway System

So who will be going to Congo next?

DR Congo Launches $600 Million Program To Revamp Rail Network

5/12/2011 6:17 PM ET

(RTTNews) - The Democratic Republic of Congo launched a program worth $600 million on Thursday to revamp the country's aging and largely neglected railway network within a period of four years.

The project was launched at a ceremony held in capital Kinshasa. The main financiers for the project are China and the World Bank. The overhauling of the 435-mile-long rail network is mainly aimed at boosting agricultural and mining industries by improving transportation facilities.

Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu who is also serving as interim transport minister said at the ceremony that the revamping of the railway system will help "growth in the mining sector, the development of isolated communities, and the fight against poverty."

While the World Bank has agreed to provide $218.8 million for the four-year project, China's contribution of $200 million will come from the "minerals-for-infrastructure" deal signed between the two nations in 2009. The remaining amount will be funded by the Congolese government.

World Bank's Africa Transport Program Coordinator Pierre Pozzo di Borgo said the joint financing of the project "will improve the efficiency of both our investment and their investment and it will ensure Congo gets the best value for its money."

The maintenance of the country's colonial-era rail system had been neglected in recent years, mainly due years of misrule and conflict. The new project includes replacing or repairing damaged rail tracks as well as purchase of new locomotives and wagons.

A part of the fund will be used to pay wages to nearly 12,000 employees of the national railway company SNCC who have not been paid for more than four years. Also, staff over retirement age will be given the option of retiring after they are paid pending salaries and and pension contributions settled.

The lack of proper roads in DR Congo has forced a vast majority of its population to depend on boats for transport across the country's numerous rivers and lakes. Revamping the country's rail system is expected to provide an alternate and cheap mode of transport for the country's impoverished population, most of whom cannot afford airfares.

by RTT Staff Writer

Friday, October 22, 2010

traveling on the back of a piki piki

A common mode of transportation in Congo is small motorcycles. They are readily available... And not always the sturdiest of vehicles... But they get around and can get through places a larger vehicle could not.


"Oh, these bridges..." Some are terrible! Thank God for these little piki piki's!
"We made it!"
Although that's not always spoken, it is a feeling felt all too often... At least by me! ;)
So it's a good thing I don't drive them. I don't have to figure out how to maneuver the roads (or lack thereof) in Congo... And thankfully Noé was happy to drive!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Stuck in Kampala


While stuck in traffic, waiting to get out of Kampala to head to Beni in November... One of the buses ahead of us, was REALLY stuck... In a deep pit of mud. Megan, Justin and I (along with about 50 people on our own bus), watched for about 20 minutes (or was it longer?) as a growing group of men worked to get it out of the hole... Eventually, they did!