Lounging by the lake

My last instalment of tales from Uganda will be brief. Mostly because the last place we visited involved doing nothing. Nothing at all, it was bliss. We went to an island on lake Bunyoni near the Rwandan border. Getting there from Kassese involved getting a moto, 2 matatus (squishy tiny little buses) and a boat, and took the best part of a day. But it was worth it. We stayed the first night in something called a ‘geodome’ which was basically a thatched roof covering with two beds underneath it. It was completely open on the side facing the lake so you could lie in bed looking out at the lake. We sat by the lake all day, read books and ate chapattis with shredded potatoes inside them, cheesy omelettes and coconut rum balls.

Getting back to Rwanda was something of a nightmare though. We hitched a ride in a very squashed car to the border (Kathy got rather closer to one passenger than she wanted to, but thats another story!), crossed the border and then had terrible trouble getting from there back to Kigali. Don’t know where all the buses had gone but they weren’t there, thats for sure. We walked to this town just in from the border and every bus that came was literally jumped on by hundreds of people, I’ve never seen such a scramble in Rwanda. There was no way we were ever going to get on with our big bags. However we had a friend already on a bus which was being held up through immigration so we ran with our bags all the way back to the border and managed to hitch a ride, thank goodness.

So now I’m back in Nzige. Its Easter Sunday and I’ve just been watching French Canadian star academie from 2003 pinched from another volunteer’s hard drive. I’ve been trying to translate the lyrics, easier said than done. I’m well stocked up on chocolate thanks to you good folk sending it my way.  In a moment I’m going to try and do something with the green oranges I bought from the market yesterday. It took me ages to realise they are actually oranges even though they are not orange. Can’t wait to cut one open to see what they look like inside - surely they at least have to be orange inside to be called an orange?! Later on today I’ll run through some Kinyarwanda and have a think about what I plan to do next week. Apparently Easter Monday is not a holiday here which is somewhat surprising so I’ll be back at work. Next week promises to be interesting. I’ve been invited to help with the ‘education programme area review’ for vso on Tuesday in Kigali and on Friday I’ve been invited to go to the British High Commissioner’s house for a Royal wedding reception. Can’t wait!

The mainland where we got the boat from

Lovely views

The lake at sunset

The geodome - wish you were here?!