Today is my team’s last day in Rwanda. We started the morning with no electricity and no water so we had to “rough it” in the wild! We went back out on safari at 7 am after breakfast in the hotel. They have the most amazing mango juice that they serve there. It is so good!
This time our safari was down to the lake side. On the lake side is where the elephants, leopards, monkeys, and hippos are. I was on a mission to find the elephants and Robert was on a mission to find a leopard. To our dismay, we found neither. We did find a bunch of hippos and of course the impalas were everywhere. We drove around looking for the elephants but we never found them, sometimes the safari guides will go days without seeing them and then other times they will see a whole group of them. We did come across a hippo out of the water. I had to pee really bad and when we were taking pictures of the hippo I turned around and found a bathroom. So I excitedly grabbed the roll of toilet paper from the van and ran up the hill. Shawn and Caroline ran up there with me, Shawn for protective reasons and Caroline had the same problem I did. This bathroom was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. It had not been used in probably three or four years and whatever was festering inside of it just made me nauseous. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do. So I closed the door, held my breath and went for it. Being as careful as I could not to touch anything for fear of getting the herpasyphagonamalariaids. Yes, that’s right I said it. Anyways, shortly before I passed out from the smell I noticed that I was not in there alone, I was in there with 3-4 wasps, so I very very quickly ran out and that was the last time I will ever do something like that again. Next time I will just use the bush. It was pretty gross. Shawn thought that it was hysterical and decided to take pictures of me running out all grossed out. Caroline seeing how traumatic of an experience I just had, wisely decided to use the bush behind this wonderful non-flushing, clogged up hole of a little toilet instead. Needless to say it was an adventure.
Gaining no ground on the elephants we decided to visit the giraffes once more and then we went back to the lodge to have lunch and check out. The power was off once again, along with the water for a short time. But thankfully both came back on and my team was able to shower before we checked out.
We headed back to Kigali and once we got into the city we headed over to our church to say goodbye to our pastor once more. When we got there he had a gift for all of us. It was a personalized, framed, certificate of appreciation for everything we did with the church and it listed every activity we participated in. It was very special and something to remember our church here in Rwanda by.
After our final goodbye, dropped Caroline and Jade off at Bourbon Coffee and we headed to the P.E.A.C.E. office so my team could get their luggage. They repacked, loaded up the van and we took off to the airport. I said goodbye to my team and sent them on their way back home. Shawn and I went back to the P.E.A.C.E. office and picked up mine, Caroline, and Jade’s luggage and went to drop it off at the Presbyterian Guest House where we were going to be staying. Once we got there however, the team that was arriving that night, Steve’s big team of 30 had already taken up all of the rooms except for one room. This room however could only sleep two people, not three. So we decided to leave the luggage there and we would talk to Steve and try and switch rooms with two of the women on his team that had a bigger room. So we went back to the airport to meet Steve’s team that was arriving. Once we got there Jean Marie and I left to go back to Bourbon Coffee.
I got there, sat down, and ordered some tea. Trying to calm down from all of the excitement and running around from the day/night I was a little flustered and wound up. Sitting in Bourbon drinking my tea, the girls and I proceeded to be attacked by large dragonfly/moth looking bugs. Not knowing what they were and getting extremely annoyed that they were coming in from the patio doors that were open, and that they were flying all around us, Jade decides to take a pillow from the chairs we were sitting on and kill one. Seeing her brave gesture, Carline and I proceed to do the same. At one point I was sitting in my chair and one landed on my foot so I kicked my foot up in the air to shake it off of me and I ended up spilling tea on myself. So now I am getting really annoyed at these irritating African dragonfly/moths, and in an effort to show these things that I meant business I hold my pillow like it is a baseball bat and swing really hard at the next one that comes at me. Well being the extreme athlete that I am, I somehow miss the crazy African moth and end up hitting Caroline and Jade’s tea pot and cups, sending them flying across the room! Now, here at three muzungo’s (white people in Kinyarwanda) swinging large chair pillows around in a coffee shop filled with people at night and one of them throws a tea pot and two cups across the room. Tell me we did not cause a scene, I dare you! Jade turned around and just about bolted out of the room, Caroline, I have no idea where she ducked to, and I doubled over laughing in embarrassment. It was ridiculous! I felt so stupid. It was so funny we all had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard. Thankfully the tea pot and cup did not break but I did spill tea everywhere!!! The waiter came over and brought a couple napkins to clean it up. I felt so bad I kept apologizing and every time I’d apologize he’d say “it’s ok” and then he would apologize to me. So we helped him clean it up and when Shawn finally made it back to us we had to relive it all over again and tell him the story. We were crying again from laughing.
Jean Marie drove us all back to the Presbyterian but we now had a dilemma. We could not switch rooms with someone from the team that just arrived so we have to find somewhere else to stay. So we headed over to the Iris but they had no rooms either since Steve’s team has taken up the remainder of the rooms there as well. So now it is almost midnight, its raining, and we are homeless. The girls and I have no place to go. So Shawn makes an executive decision and brings us back to the house he is staying at. The people that live there are American’s and rent out the many rooms for people that come into town. We were scheduled to stay there anyways, but not for another week. And despite all the running around, it was well worth it. This place feels like home! It is really nice and more importantly it is CLEAN and has HOT WATER! Something we have not had since we have been here.
In Kigali there is dirt everywhere! It is all over the place and it stays with you. I mean it is so bad you will start coughing it up. So to be in a home where there is no dirt and you can actually walk around bare foot was such a blessing! I took a hot shower and all I could say was “PRAISE EM”!!! It was awesome! Plus my mattress is so comfy! I love it! So all in all it was a great day and a funny day to say the least!
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