I havn’t found much time to write within the past week, mostly because work has been busy and internet has been down the whole time. I have also been doing a lot of traveling which tends to be exhau
sting especially on winding roads with po
t holes every ten feet for 3 hours. Despite the pot holes on the way, Gyseni was well worth it. Gyseni is a Rwandan town on Lake Kivu that is shared with the Democratic Republic of Congo. We traveled there in my ro
omates car which we call “The Beast” because it can handle everything. We packed up the old white la
ndrover with my two close
st friends both named
Amanda, 5 law students from Pepperdine, myself, and Gad who is becoming a
close friend of mine and is one of the most
genuine humble Rwandans I have met. He takes very good care of us and knows almost everyone in Rwanda, and I mean everyone. We all piled in on th
e bench seats in the back and traveled thr
ough lush green mountains, villages, volcanoes, and gorilla territory to Lake Kivu. The origina
l plan was to try and make it into Goma, DRC on Sunday, but unfortunate
ly that did not happen
. The goal for the weekend was to just get away and relax and enjoy the beautiful country that Rwanda is with a thousand rolling hills. When we got to the Lake it literally looked like Hawaii. Just as we were about to pull into the hotel there was a dust
cloud up ahead and was moving mysteriously fast toward us. Someone shouted to roll up the windows but we couldn’t because we were in the beast. Next
thing we kn
ow we come to a complete stop and let the cloud of re
d dust consume us. We took a deep breath ad the dust came in and filled the windows. Not only we
re we in the cloud…we were the cloud. Next thing we know we hear honking and a tractor becomes visible as it is about to scoop us up. We swerved out of the
way and couldn’t stop laughing at how not one person
could see it before this all happened. It was a nice relaxing weekend and the Amandas and I found a canoe which we thought we could conquer. This canoe was most defiantly made from one tree and we begged the fisherman to take it out. Within two seconds the canoe took on water and we
were going under. We sunk the boat and as the captain
I went down wi
th it. I couldn’t leave this poor man’s boat at the bottom of the lake so I flipped it over under water and somehow got it to shore. Then if that wasn’t enough I found a one man pod like size canoe and paddled my way out into the lake w
ith the end of a shovel that I found. I almost sunk myself and didn’t
make much progress. With only one paddle and a pod I ended up just going in circles. The drive home on Sunday night felt even longer than the way there. It was like a movie though as we drove back to Kigali under a
full orange moon above the volcano and clouds lightly covering it.
The rest of the week was eventful as the new interns arrived on bus from Uganda. They are the film crew and my friend Rachel who is head of the REMBA team which will be starting a beauty school intiative. I also ended up moving into their house with them because rent was much cheaper and in a better location right behind the US Embassy. Everyone in my new house is mostly from southern California and one is from Hawaii. I finally booked my gorilla trek this week and will be hiking 5 hours into the jungle to be with them on the 27th. It is going to be so surreal and I have to start training cause apparently the hike is at a very high altitude. I am so excited.
I have spent most of my time this week going over some business checklists with the women. One day I walked up to the market with them after work and we all laughed and linked arms. We ended up having a photo shoot on the walk up to and all the women couldn’t stop laughing. Their spirits are much higher as we bought bundles of food out in the countryside on our way home from Gyseni and gave it to them. I love them so much and I already can’t imagine leaving them. Aside from the great week I had…I also had my first Malaria scare. I woke up on Friday and could tell that something was wrong. My body was aching and I had hot sweats and chills. I came into BURANGA and the women immediately noticed that I looked weak. My boss told me that I had to immediately go get malaria testing cause apparently even though I am on preventative medicine I can still get it. I grabbed a moto to the hospital and waited for a while to get the test. My Rwandan friend and Amanda showed up at the hospital and it meant so much even though they really didn’t need to. Turns out there was no need to worry and the test was negative. Still scary but I knew I didn’t have it. This weekend my friend also hooked me up with tickets to the annual Gorilla naming ceremony, which is a festival that they name all the new baby gorillas that were born that year. Last year Natalie Portman came and this year Akon is coming haha should be a good time. As of now my health is back to normal, the women are finishing up a big order, spirits are high, I will hopefully learn how to drive stick this week, and I can’t wait for the gorillas!
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