Bujumbura

Burundi

I have had a pretty amazingly good for the soul couple of days here, though for some reason I have felt uneasy the entire time. Having Lars and Bethany in from San Diego has been amazing. I needed to hang out with familiar faces and speak English at my normal pace more than I realized. Conversations on social justice, spirituality, politics, culture, language, media, health care, civil rights, the human condition, food, lack of food, land, lack of land, development, lack of development, beer, love, friends, family, passions and the dispassionate was like cool water to my weary soul.

Last night we went out to "karaoke", as Lars well described it, a cover band that plays a lot of African music that everyone is stoked on and your occasional "La Bamba". There seemed to be little age barriers and it was refreshing to be in a place where everyone was just relaxed and having a good time. Didn't catch the name of the place, but was one of the two places to be for after wedding parties (I saw 7 weddings yesterday alone).

Today we will be avoiding the regular muzungu hangouts and finding a coffee shop somewhere to continue our debriefings on the past 6 months of our lives that can sometimes feel like years. Tomorrow I'll hop a bus back to Kigali, and providing I do not plummet off a cliff, will start moving back towards the DRC.

The work I have seen here is good work, the people good people and I like the Burundi vibe in general.

Kigali-Bujumbura

Burundi

Ten dollars gets you a 9 hour bus ride, which is good, seeing as I paid ninety flipping bucks for a Burundi visa at the embassy. Anther American on the bus got hers at the border for 40, so, who really knows. I just did not want to get all the way to the boarder only to find out I could not get one there, as they told me I could not at the embassy. Ah well, whatever. 

A handful of guys are at the border eager to ease your transition of countries with changing money, snacks and sim cards. Sim card is 1,000 Rwandan Francs (not 3,000 as some tried to sell to me) and airtime is about 1,000 for 12 minutes. They take Rwandan Francs at the border, but that is because they are worth twice as much as Burundian Francs and they still ask the same amount. I didn’t mind, as I didn’t need much.

Belvedere bus ride was clean and too fast; I thought we would plummet off the cliffs (already adorned with many many crosses) as our tires squealed turning downhill corners. I put my earphones in and concentrated on my breathing… for about 3 hours of the trip.

The scenery was beautiful, so different from Rwanda. Hilly and winding with pine tree forests that descended into banana plantations that descended into fields of vegetation too far down for me to distinguish. There is a stark difference in development levels the moment you cross the boarder. The roads are still quite nice all the way to Bujumbura, however, the housing, people, crops, and every other indicator speaks volumes to the socio-economic state of Burundi.

As a rule of thumb, I do not drink water when on road trips, however, there were pleasantly two bathroom stops and not too shabby at 100francs a pop.

Arriving at the station, I was met with a police who took my passport along with others on the bus and quickly went into a room, I could not follow him and it made me nervous. I was greeted by about 10 members of the organizations we partnered with while I was working in Hong Kong, they were all smiles and cameras and I felt very welcome. We all found the room my passport had piled into and got through customs, for the second time. I hopped into their car and we were off. Chatting on the way to Pacific Hotel, we talked about their work, how the container shipped from Hong Kong has helped their work and other things that I will not go into in this post. 

The hotel is nice, clean, quiet, has wireless a nice garden and about a 50% success rate with hot water showers. Service ranges from helpful to unsure if they noticed you talking to them and the food is decent. Lots of upper class African men talking down to the waiters, which I never like. So long as you specify you want your beer cold, you are in for a fine time!

Goma-Kigali

Rwanda

Often I try to avoid conversation on airplanes, but when turbulence is throwing every passenger  into a nervous collective laughter, talking to someone helps calm your nerves. Lucky for me, the man next to me not only worked for a Medair partner, but really nice and headed to Kigali the next day with an extra seat in the cab. I met their group at their hotel and we took their Heal Africa car to the boarder.

Congolese and Americans currently don’t need a visa to get into Rwanda, so the boarder crossing was pretty straightforward. They had a great taxi driver, Deo, waiting for us on the other side of the boarder. The drive is 100$, but not so bad when it is shared, and even better when their travel allowance is already covering it.

It is amazing, the moment you cross the boarder, the streets are paved, the people are smiling, Lake Kivu is shining… might have well just crossed a boarder into another world. Two police checks on the road stopped us, but waved us through with little hassle, though my adrenal glands still reacted as if I was at a Congolese checkpoint.

The 5 hour drive was windy and my abs got a workout trying not to lean too far into the men on either side of me. The land is non-stop hills, green, covered in crops of tea, bananas, carrots, gourds and countless other foods. I thought it was cheesy that the Rwandan government’s tag-line was “Land of a thousand hills and a million smiles”, however, the majority of people we passed on the road were talking and smiling amongst themselves. This was a stark contrast to the general scowl carried on the faces in the Congo that does, turn quickly to a smile when you greet with a smile… it is just different here.

I have wondered what is different, why. Rwanda was coupled with the term genocide (and still, often is) less than 15 years ago. The country is much smaller than the DRC, so easier to govern, but both countries are rich in resources, water, forests, and intelligent people. I can’t help but wonder at the vast differences and the whys that lie between them.

The houses made of earth glitter. No, seriously, they are sparkling like someone has blasted them with flecks of gold. Mud huts that shine in the sun. It must have something to do with the volcanic residue in the soil.

I arrive to Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel to an extraordinary number of American students. The place is really nice, the 6 bed shared dorms are 15$ a night, clean and safe. There is basically no staff, the bar is on a serve-yourself honor system that everyone seems to respect. The internet is painfully slow, not even worth it, there are a few hammocks in trees overlooking a beautiful valley. This is near all the embassies and also a 30 second walk to Magda Café, where I am currently indulging in a mocha, fruit and yoghurt, Al Jazeera and pretty speedy Internet. The staff here is also very friendly.

Today I have a list of errands to run that include Burundi visa, bus tickets, find a local sim card, sandals, buy a SD card, get cash, visit genocide memorial museum and I have no idea how to go about any of these. I will most likely hop a moto taxi (by law they are numbered, have fixed prices, wear helmets and carry one for their passenger – a stark contrast to bodabodas in Uganda), its an assumption that those guys will know how to get everything I need.
And P.S. Rwanda is a combination of every beautiful place I have ever been. This will not be my last time here. 

Ango-Bunia-Goma

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Reading the news while flying my plane... awesome.

So, from Ango to Bunia, you need to be an aid worker to fly with Avions Sans Frontiers, so, yeah, not much you can do there. But if you ever make it, I run the best (and only) guesthouse in town! From Bunia to Goma I took CAA, a super sketchy Congolese airline. Rough turbulence, an open cockpit, lots of people puking and a solid 1-second drop (that is a long time when your plane is freefalling) which I can only assume happens when you cross the equator. Sat next to a nice guy who works with one of our partner orgs, so that was cool.

I found the Bungwe Guest House in an online list and their phone number was the first that worked, so, I made a reservation. The hotel manager was great and very flexible picking me up from my 2 hour late flight. He called when he saw that CAA had landed and asked me what I was wearing. I told him I was the only white person on the flight, so that might be the easiest way to spot me, but I was also wearing a red shirt. He took me to the hotel for free, which is rare, and we drove from the volcanic rocky deep red dusty roads into a compound that was clean and so white I was actually comforted to see that it was in the middle of being painted. My room, fittingly enough, was named “Washington”.

My White House

The room was not a room at all; it was basically a suite/bungalow that was clean and insect free (consequently smelling of a cocktail of disinfectant and insecticide). Decent wireless Internet reached from the lobby to my front room with a couch and dining area that looked out onto my balcony. The bed was most likely made out of cardboard, but I have grown tired from sinking into my memory-free-foam mattress in Ango. The hot water got to lukewarm, at best and did not yield anymore pressure than my bucket showers, so that was disappointing.

The food, well, lets just say I ordered the vegetarian pizza and hour later it came with peas, chicken and some sort of thick beef based sauce where the tomato sauce should have been. But breakfast is included. The downstairs TV was blaring upstairs and fighting with the upstairs TV volume, which was tough to sit between.


That said, the service was great, the manager and front desk guy were happy to speak English when I couldn't find the French word. The garden was nice, the staff more than happy to accommodate and it was quiet and clean. Honestly, if you are the not-so-needy type, it is a pretty great place.

International Travel Must Haves: a running list

Headband
Calculator
Melatonin
Family photos
Address book
Long sleeve t-shirt
Jump rope
Steri-pen
Earplugs
Glue sticks
Scissors
Notebook
Eye drops
Waterproof watch
Zip-loc bags
Local language dictionary
Several pens
2 pairs of sunglasses
Dryer sheets
Sewing kit
Baby wipes
Passport
Camera
Baby powder
Sleeping mat repair kit
iPod
Sandals
Refreshing face wash
Compass
Lots of undies
Jeans
Tank top
Nasal decongestant
Universal converter
Headlamp

Additional suggestions?