Oh My Word...

Hello dear friends!

I hope everyone is happy and healthy and that their summers are treating them well! As per usual, Rwanda is treating me very well and I am happy as a clam (never really understood that expression). I'd like to take the next few minutes to tell you about my most interesting long weekend here. This past Friday was Independence day and the following Monday was Liberation day from the genocide. We don't work on Thursdays so we were able to travel more of Rwanda from the Thursday to Saturday. Please, indulge in this past adventure with me:

Thursday morning was an early wake as we wanted a head start to our weekend. Our goal plan was to reach Kibuye, but in order to get there we were informed to bus to Gisenyi and take a leisurely and lovely boat ride to Kibuye. So, that's what we aimed to do. Off to Gisenyi we went where we spent a beautiful day on the beach. Beautiful was the weather, not so beautiful was the company. It was even more 'papparazi'd' than before. Men with cameras, boys with picture phones, creepers with other devices, etc, all surrounded us. 'Sista, regarder ici!!' 'Sista, look here!!' Pedestrians stopped by the road and stood on the fence to peer at us as we relaxed on the shore. I can only describe it to you as an animal in a cage at the zoo being watched by people stopping by. Oh my word.

After feeling like we received more than enough sun (I went all BA and wore no sunscreen...don't tell mum), we took off to find out where we could catch this boat. After walking all over Gisenyi and asking almost everyone who spoke English we soon realized there was no boat... It was either a 7 hour ferrie ride that wasn't even up for taking people or bussing to Kibuye which was 5 hours away. Not really knowing what our next step was going to be, we headed to town to ask about the busses. We were told to come back in an hour and catch the bus to Kibuye because that was the only one leaving for the rest of the night (it was about 4pm). We decided to go eat some food before catching this long awaiting bus. "We have an hour, that should be long enough to get some food in us." An hour and a half later our food ARRIVED. It's safe to say we missed our bus. Oh my word.

Next step: bus to Kigali and then Kigali to Kibuye. We bought our tickets to Kigali, hopped on our bus at 6:30pm and were off. However, we soon realized that we were passing right through our home town on the way to our destination. Thursday in a nut shell - what was supposed to happen: go to Gisenyi to beach, boat to Kibuye and settle in. What actually happened: went to Gisenyi to beach, caught a bus that took us right back home, then kept going to Kigali. Oh my word.

We're in Kigali. We headed for a cheap and nice-ish hostel that we knew of that was a taxi-moto ride away, just outside the heart of Kigali. I bet you can guess what happened next... we got inside only to be told they were booked for the night. Ya.. we had no place to stay. Trying to act cool, we went and sat outside on a step while we tried to decide where to go. We didn't have enough money to stay at a hotel and nobody spoke English to tell us where a cheap hostel was. Oddly enough, I had complete peace. Praying that an option would be provided and help would be given, I was totally answered. A minute after that prayer, a man who spoke English came up to us saying he wanted to help and walked us down the road to a hostel. Mind you, the hostel was down a dark alley and the place was the opposite of clean and past dirty. But, it was cheap and we were all together. I could tell you another story about our sketchy room neighbour who invited us over to drink a bottle of wine with him.. but you can probably use your imagination. Oh my word.

Friday! Finally! Bussing to Kibuye (after Naomi's phone was stolen and retrieved again) we got there safely and checked into paradise - Home St. Jean Hostel with an almost 360 degree view of Lake Kivu. It was phenomenal. We headed off to the shore to catch a boat (that actually came this time) to Amahoro (Peace) Island. Boating was surreal as the view was amazing, the people were great and the smells of the water and land reminded me of my cottage back home. The island was amazing - saw a real Rwandan monkey, relaxed on hammocks, ate some food and just listened to the water. Oh my word.

Unfortunately we had to take off the next morning so we woke up early (again, to the most amazing view I have ever seen), ate fresh fruit for breakfast and headed to town after relaxing for most of the morning. Bussed to Kigali, waited for a couple of hours for our next bus to Musanze and headed to the bus station again. Watching everyone jump on a bus, we assumed it was ours and jumped on too. Right before it was pulling out the ticket man came and asked for our tickets.. "You're going to Musanze... this bus is going to Gisenyi." Oh drat. Off the bus we ran and onto the next bus we crammed in the worst seats possible. We arrived late at night and walked home after quite the adventful weekend of travel. It was full of memories, new experiences, a few scares, but mostly laughs and outstanding views. My phrase of the weekend - oh my word.

-Steph