With backpacks and travel guides ready, we departed Saturday morning. It immediately started raining and with Hannah forgetting her rain jacket, it seemed maybe the travel gods were plotting against us. However, after we got to the city center and were soaking wet sitting on a bus bound for Ruhengeri, we got a break and sat next to a student who we knew in Kigali who lived at the Imbabazi Orphanage and was going home and invited us to join him. The Imbabazi Orphanage has a cool backstory, and is detailed in the book Land of A Thousand Hills by an American, Rosemond Carr, who moved to Rwanda and spent her whole life here. Coincidently, I was just finishing the book and was excited to see the place I had been reading about. When we reached Ruhengeri, in true adventure fashion, looked around and decided we would not stay there and changed buses with our friend.
We got on a bus heading for Gisenyi and halfway there stopped in the middle of the road to leave the bus for the much more exciting motorcycle ride down a terrible dirt road, but ascending and desending the hills and looking out over the Rwandan landscape in the shadow of the giant volcanoes that are the Northwest boundary of Rwanda. While it was cool to see the orphanage and meet the very friendly Americans who worked there (Mrs. Carr died a couple years ago), the most impressive part of this was simply its location and great views of the country side.
Before dark we jumped back on a moto and by a stroke of good fortune were able to flag down one of the last busses headed West towards Ginsenyi, where we found cheap lodging and a place to eat on the beach of Lake Kivu.
Sunday consisted of relaxing on the beach all morning, which was amazing. It was a little too cool to swim, which I was actually happy about the relief from the heat, and I spent the morning laying in the shade watching the waves come on shore. While this was great, I can only sit still for a little bit, and the close proximity of Goma was calling to me.
Goma is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and was the place where thousands of refugees fled during the Rwandan genocide. As a long result of this, it has continued to be a place of conflict both within the DRC and with its Rwandan neighbor. The history is long and complicated, but quite fascinating to learn about if you are interested. There is also the most active volcano in Africa on the outskirts of town which erupted in 2002, taking out half the town. Today it still smokes all day and glows at night.
Because of the secuirty issues, we were told by a couple people not to go to Goma. I think these warnings just made it more appealing, so we decided to go. After waiting in line for one hour, bribing two Congolese officials and paying $40 a piece, we got into Goma... and were kind of disappointed. It was cool to walk on the lava rock from the eruption and see the reconstruction and the smoking volcano, but other than that Goma wasn't much more than a gray, drury town with too many United Nations trucks driving around. We were there two hours and crossed back and found a bus back to Ruhengeri.
The next morning we headed north from Ruhengeri to visit Lake Burera, and the accompanying Rusumo Falls. After another bus ride followed by moto, we arrived at a small house with a boat on the water and told the drivers to stop and let us off. It was a boat tour operation, and the manager seemed very happy to see us, it was out of the way and I don't think they get much business. After arguing over a price for one hour, it began to rain so both sides gave up and we sat inside and drank tea, looking out over the lake, whose banks are formed by an impressive collection of hills, giving it a unique, jagged appearance.
After the rain we decided to walk back to the main road to catch a bus back to Kigali. To do this we walked through some very rural areas and with the lake on our left and volcanoes on our right, my visions of amazing African landscapes were fulfilled.
Monday night we arrived back in Kigali, mentally rested and physically exhausted. On Tuesday I was back to work, clearing brush with a Machette in the morning and playing rugby with the Rwanda National Team in the afternoon. Yes, Africa is good this week.
This is Hannah walkin with our escorts back from the lake. In the rural areas "Muzungos" are fairly rare and they love to walk with you, touch, stare and say "good morning" regardless of the time of day,
This is me negotiating prices with the boat operators. We were drawing in the sand and doing math arguing about what a fair price is. Because i have been here for a two months, I have a pretty good idea what fair prices are, and what a decent wage is. When people try to rip me off because I am white I get a little irritated and while in reality we are often bartering over small sums of money (in this case a difference of about $12) I think my stubbornness plays a bigger role than my wallet.
Smoking Mount Nyiragongo, the most active volcano in Africa (in Goma).
A view of Lake Kivu and some of the hills of Rwanda.
Hannah, Gaudi and myself at the orphanage with the beautiful gardens maintained there.
This is Chris, Pascal and I with a bunch of random Rwandan kids in front of some rural landscape. We visited Gitarama and stopped to take some photos and the kids (who live outside the city and aren't used to "muzungos" came running)
