Nadege Ngoga and 13 other Rwandan university students, majority of them set to vote for the very first time, on Sunday, July 14, were able to arrive in New Delhi, India&039;s capital, by Saturday morning, after a long draining train trip across India.

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Rwandans living in the diaspora are ready to cast their votes in their respective locations during the general election, on July 14, the date set by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) for the diaspora vote. In India’s capital, New Delhi, where one polling station is located, at the Rwandan High Commission, 291 Rwandans will cast their vote.

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For the July 14-16 elections, there are 2,593 polling stations in total, including 160 in the diaspora. While the diaspora votes on Sunday, within the country, voting will start the next day and conclude on July 16.

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Ngoga and her colleagues were weary, having travelled all the way from the southern part of India, in Andhra Pradesh State, where their universities are located.

"It was a 28-hour journey by train. We started the journey on July 12 at 4:05 am, and we arrived on July 13 at 8:00 a.m." Ngoga, a final year student pursuing a Bachelor of Pharmacy course at Koneru Lakshimaiah University, told The New Times.

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"We travelled to join others in the elections. The majority are voting for the first time, so it&039;s a delight. The journey was overtiring, and a lot was really given up for that. But for that, we are committed. It is for the country's pride that we came."

Some of the students from Andhra Pradesh had summer classes, and "additionally, we are starting class for our odd semester. We are supposed to be doing registration for the odd semester."

Four days; a long, tiring journey but rewarding for Rwandans

Modeste Manzi, a commerce PhD student at University of Kerala, a state-run public university in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India, arrived in New Delhi late Friday along with nine other students eager to cast their vote on Sunday. Kerala, a state on India's tropical Malabar Coast, is about 2,200 kilometres from New Delhi, by train. A direct train trip goes for 84 hours. The road distance is about 2,750 kilometres.

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Unlike Ngoga’s group which spent nearly 30 hours on their train, Manzi and the group from Kerala State, located in the southwest corner of India, journeyed for four gruelling days on a train.

"We left Kerala on July 9 at 11am. On July 12, at midnight, we arrived in New Delhi. We spent four days traveling by train. It is a long journey, and tiring, but also pleasant journey because the voting mission we are on is rewarding for us, as Rwandans," Manzi told The New Times, noting that not all the 21 Rwandan students at University of Kerala made the trip since "others were sitting exams.”

"We are all now in a hotel waiting to go and vote very early tomorrow morning, at the High Commission. We will head back to our University on July 15, again by train."

His compatriot Thomas Bakundukize who is doing a Master of Arts in journalism and Mass communication (final year) at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala State, also braved the four-day trip to New Delhi.

Bakundukize said: "We travelled using a train as a simple and somehow affordable means of transport to us. Now we are living as nine people in the same hotel in different rooms. We will be here for three nights from July 12 to July 15 because our return ticket is for Monday, early morning at 5h:00 am.

"We took this initiative as Rwandans in the diaspora to participate and provide our contribution to our country; to vote together with others from other sides of India, at the High Commission of Rwanda, here in India. We come from different universities. We have three people from Mahatma Gandhi University, one from Kerela University, five from Rajagiri College of Social Sciences. We accomplished all this because Kerala State has a students&039; representative committee that made the arrangement from day one until we return to our universities after the election.”

The best decision I've made

For Justine Umutoni who has been living in Rajkot, the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat after Ahmedabad, in western India, for the past two years, the journey from the western coast of India took around 18 hours by train.

"I started my journey on Thursday evening to ensure I arrive in time for the elections. We reached at 9:30AM on Friday.

The third-year student doing a Bachelor's of Technology in Information and Communication Technology at Marwadi University said she will travel back on Monday. She travelled with 13 other students from Marwadi University and 12 others from RK University, another college from Gujarat State.

Umutoni said: "When I arrived here [New Delhi] I booked another train for the return trip because it is difficult to get a train. My train will leave at 8:00AM.”

Despite the fatigue, Umutoni too was excited.

She said: "Am so excited since it is my first time to vote, it is a good experience. Also, it gave me an opportunity to reflect on the importance of voting and participating in the democratic process, even while living abroad.

"Coming here was the best decision I've made."

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Back home, in Rwanda, polling stations were set up at hospitals nationwide, from district-level facilities to major medical centers, so as to ease the voting process for patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers, during the July 15-16 elections. Polling stations will open at 7AM on Monday, July 15, in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Voting will be closed at 3PM, according to the National Electoral Commission (NEC).