Peace

My friend Linda, organiser-extraordinaire - rented a jeep and planned to take me and a couple of friends to see the chimps at Nyungwe National Park at the weekend. With a full jeep - two Kiwis, two Brits and a token American - we called a couple of Rwandan friends for directions. My google image print-out, displaying about five roads in all of Rwanda wasn't going to get us there. Granted though, there may only be five (tarmacked) roads in this country. The friend exclaimed "Oh no, it is not possible, you have never been there before?". We didn't much fancy the thought of getting stuck in the backcountry and spending the night in the (very small) jeep. Change of plan. Kibuye it is! So I rushed back into the house and grabbed my swimming costume and a towel, looking forward to a weekend beside Lake Kivu.

After two hours of hairpin bends, climbing into the rural highlands, and then descending to Lake Kivu, we alighted at Hotel Bethanie, the lakeside resort for Presbyterians. A night of beer and cards followed, whereby we all took turns in having our nationalities ripped to shreds.....being a dual national I tried to sit on the fence, but my accent gave me away.

After a sleepless night in a tiny double bed with Linda, kept up by a huge storm, we enjoyed a lazy breakfast with some strong coffee. We then took a boat across the lake to Peace Island - complete with a small cafe, campsite, and seemingly all the muzungu we'd seen at our hotel. 11.30am, we decided, was not too early for a beer. Pubs open at 11am back home after all. And so we sunbathed, jumped off the jetty into clean, turquoise, pleasantly luke warm water, and swam around the island, all the while trying to avoid a very hairy, very big man in a pair of very small and very tight y-fronts who had taken a shine to Linda. Luckily, around 1pm we were the only ones left on the island, so we had some lunch and dried off in the afternoon sun. My chips and salad were a little disappointing. Asking for them to leave out the carrots left me with a small plate of onions and mayonnaise...I miss Greer food.

Just as the clouds were gathering we hopped into the jeep and made our way back to Kigali. Whilst dozing off, we took a corner and the wheels locked on the wet road, sending locals standing by the side of the road flying and the car in an almost 360 degree spin. Luckily nobody was hurt, and the road was empty. I stayed awake and alert after that, and was relieved to return to a rainy Kigali, a little burnt, but very relaxed.