How to find your way around Rwanda


June 22, 2012

Although Rwanda is a tiny country (drive 3 or 4 hours in any direction from Kigali, and you're bound to hit the border of another country), it is organized quite precisely. It is split into provinces (eastern, western, etc.), each of which are organized into districts, which are divided into sectors, which have individual cells. The precise vocabularly used for the organization of the country makes it sound almost military and is not unsimilar to the pre-war layout of the place.

So, even with the preciseness of the geographical proportioning of Rwanda, although there is no such thing as the precise address of a location, one can find the place with the province, district, sector, and cell information, along with the help of nearby landmarks, which is basically how anyone gets around the place, particularly via public transportation. It's funny because when I am asked to provide an exact address of the hostel that I am staying, I can only tell someone: in Kacyiru, Kigali, near the Top Tower. However, for a precise description, I could say, for example, one of the bridge projects that I am working on is located in the Eastern Province, in the district of Gatsibo, the sector called Nyagihanga, and between the Mayange and Kibare cells. That's about as accurate a description as one can get.

Thus, if you are trying to find your way about Rwanda, and especially in Kigali, it's best to learn all the major landmarks for references (I'm still working on that on my part)... good luck!

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