A couple of weeks ago, we decided to vary our morning exercise and walk to the Nyanbugogo market. It's about a five mile round trip, but it's mostly shady. The market is a topic for another day.
I decided to run a contest during our walk for who had the most interesting or ridiculously heavy loads with entries coming from either head carriers or bicycles. I probably captures about 1/4 of the entries on my camera, because I wanted to photograph them subtly so that I would look like I was just looking at my phone. So traffic, eye contact and speed of the carriers made it impossible some of the time. But here are some of the entries I caught. Top: this is a milk man. He's taking fresh, raw milk to a milk stand to be distributed into customer-provided containers. If those are full and hold 15 gallons each and each gallon weighs 8.6 pounds, that's about 260 pounds. Plus carrying liquid on a bicycle? Whoa that's sketchy!
That's about 60 pounds of potatoes on this fellow's head. I had just passed a man unloading a truck of 80 lb bags of concrete. . .onto his head, but I couldn't snap a subtle picture.
I estimate these two ladies each have about 40 lbs on their heads.
Often the fruit trays carried on the women's heads are quite beautiful, since they need them to symmetrical for good balance.
Here's another example. We see these women with corn "crowns" every Thursday, but it's a busy road, so they always have their little ones tied on their backs. This fellow looks like he's getting to big for that.
(Off topic: I've noticed lately that the poorest women usually have a tee shirt on top and then wrap an unhemmed piece of Kitenge (Kit-eng-gay) fabric around their waist or chest. I bought some kitenge fabric yesterday. It's very heavy cotton fabric, brilliantly printed 45 inches wide and cut into 6 yard lengths. I paid the equivalent of $11 for each six yard piece.)
But now the load contest really heats up. Those are potatoes, (spuds for you Idahoans.) I estimate 200 pounds. Here's a question, how did he get it onto the passenger seat of his bike?
Not to be outdone by the other guy, this fellow added a net to carry even more. I think they're onions.
This man is apparently supplying an entire bulk section of a grocery store. Beans, rice, onions, potatoes and maybe cabbages? Note that this man is walking on the sidewalk, which would be harder to manage the load. But he has to lean so far from the bike to balance the load that he would run a (very real) likelihood of getting his feet and ankles run over. It's a constant driving hazard.
This photo is a three-fer. In the background you see two bicycle taxis. They're cheaper than the motorcycle taxis you see with the yellow helmets. But to the center figure in the picture. Once in Ecuador, I tried to lift one of those bunches of bananas and I couldn't. They weigh over 100 pounds apiece. I estimate this grand prize winner has over 500 pounds on his bike.
With these mammoth loads, there is often a second person pushing from behind as they go up a hill. (And one of Rwanda's nicknames is "Land of 1000 hills."
It reminds me of the Savior's words that His yolk is easy and His burden is light
Hopefully, these hardworking people inspire you to remember that all of us carry heavy loads of one sort or another. There's no need for anyone to carry/push/struggle alone. If we give our burdens to Jesus Christ, he will give us His light and comfortable burden in it's place.
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