Today was a real adventure. We went way out into the countryside to visit Patrick at school. It was a hour by bus to Gitarama, and then an hour and a half from there through the mountains. Flipping heck the roads were bad.
And the bus was a 'knees round your ears' sort of affair. The matatus are fine for running around town, but three and a half hours on dirt roads in the rain, was brutal. We desperately wanted to get some photos, but it was so bumpy that most of the shots were blurred beyond recognition.
But the Rwandan countryside is gorgeous.
Patrick showed us round the school, but because of the rain and the mud it was really difficult to get around. As he was helping me up a muddy hill (I was wearing flip flops), he said, 'Nicole, I wish you were more like Karyn', pointing to her skinny waist. The three other bazungu went silent and looked at me, horrified. 'Trouble is Patrick,' I said, 'I just like chocolate too much.' We walked to a local cafe to get fanta and play cards for a while, but our time was soon up and we had to go home.
On the way home the bus was in fairly bad repair, and every time we went over a bump the boot would pop open and everyone’s' luggage would fall out. We were on the back row so every few minutes we would have to yell, “Stop the bus!” and someone would have to run back down the road to pick up all the bags. The guy also found my mobile phone at one point, which had fallen out of my pocket, on the floor and out of the bus. Talk about lucky break.
We stopped to get some pineapples, three for 50p, and then went into town to get some less healthy snacks.
We all really wanted Doritos so we traipsed through town for about thirty minutes looking for them and the fourth shop we tried had some. Score. I really miss Tesco.
(All the good photos are by Karyn Makins!)
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