Gisenyi, Kimbiri trip -- March 28-30, 2013

On Thursday morning we embarked, with Andre Sibomana, on my most recent African Adventure!  On Thursday, we drove from Kigali, through Musanze (Ruhengari), to Gisenyi.  On Friday we drove from Gisenyi to Kimbiri.  And then on Saturday we drove from Kimbiri all the way back home to Kigali!

The view leaving the city.

Here's a couple of sights leaving Kigali.

It is very common to see bikes, motorcycles, and cars
driving along with milk cans.

This is what a traditional beehive looks like.  There's one patch of road lined with trees that have tons of these hives in them!

Some scenery...

Our first destination was Musanze.

 One of the first intersections in Musanze...

"Uganda Border 25 KM"

We stopped at a restaurant Mom & Dad had been at before that served delicious pizza!  While we were waiting for it to arrive, a couple of little birds dropped in for a visit.



Wonder why the name "Volcana Lounge"?  Because you can
see several volcanoes from your table!

On the road again...

There are many eucalyptus trees along the way! (both the bluer,
broader-leaved variety, and the greener, skinnier-and-longer
leaved variety)

On one section of road, there were lots of people carrying (or pushing on a bicycle) sacks up a hill.  Dad asked Sibomana whether they were potatoes, or something else.  Sibomana revealed the trick to knowing what it was-- if it's being pushed up, it's sweet potatoes; if it's being brought down, it's potatoes!

Another fairly common sight is seeing cyclists hanging on to the back of trucks to get a break from pedaling.  Knowing how many hills they're climbing, I certainly don't blame them for taking a break!

As soon as you get outside of Kigali, there are markers on the side of the road marking the kilometers.  We would keep an eye on and track them...Here's #100!

Fields of tea!

About an hour outside of Gisenyi, we stopped to visit a CBCA church.  The CBCA is a Baptist denomination in the Congo, that has a daughter denomination in Rwanda.  We had to walk in for about 10 minutes and attracted quite a crowd!

 



I love this picture!

 

The church!

There were many children in attendance, and they sure could sing!
 

A choir that sang for us a couple of times.

The church was decorated inside with these strings of cloth
and flowers.

Dad bringing a devotional.



Us with the congregation!

While we were in the church, the clouds rolled in and it poured rain!  Getting back out again was a bit more difficult, trying to straddle streams of water and not slip in the mud!
 

Continuing on the way to Gisenyi...

One thing we've found very intriguing is how they sell carrots on the side of the road; they build "carrot towers"!

A couple of other sights on the way to Gisenyi.



We visited a second CBCA church that was located in Gisenyi near the border to Congo.

A really cute baby with a pointy hood/hat on!

Dad sharing (Sibomana translating)

The service ended rather abruptly and we were hurried out to take a picture.  As soon as the first one was taken, about half of the people darted away down the street.  It turns out that it was 5:55 PM and the border to the Congo closes at 6 o'clock!

We stayed at "Paradise Malahide" on Thursday night.  It's a pretty beautiful place!

We spotted a kingfisher!!!

palm oil



Exploring before breakfast.

During breakfast all of the fishermen come in to the harbour beside where Malahide is located.

 

An orange tree...with just a couple of ripe ones!
 

The "little huts" we stayed in.

When we left, they gave us all a little snack for the road--wrapped up in a banana leaf!

And now, the drive to Kimbiri!

We followed the Congo Nile Trail, and the scenery and view was absolutely breath-taking!!!

Some of the fishing boats "docked."

You can follow the road along the hill.

It is common to see kids going along with a tire as a toy, both in the city and in the country.

Some more stunning scenery.

 

We also drove by several spots where bricks were drying on the side of the road.

Unfortunately, life for these kids isn't just about playing.  So many of them can also be seen trudging back home carrying water.
 

Some typical homes...

Another bay...

A wooden scooter!!

 

In case you hadn't picked up on it, the view was absolutely stunning!

My favourite!

Almost there!

Coming into sight...

This is the house we stayed in at Kimbiri.

Meeting the director of the Bible School.

Meeting one of the students and his family.

One of his children's toys:

We visited a coffee plantation--that's another blog post!--but here's some of the view along the way.

The blue-ish trees are eucalyptus trees...

Dad trying to get a eucalyptus branch to bring home.  :-)

More scenery...

A spider we found in the sand/rocks.

And some "friendlier" wildlife...



 

There was a tree in the middle of the "compound" that had a HUGE trunk!

And--we had to have one of these--Caleb and I standing in Lake Kivu!

We can't do anything without causing a commotion and attracting a crowd.  This is us packing up the car...

...and the "window view" when we left.

Now, for the ride back to Kigali...

Cabages

Beans

 

And a bit of the "wild life" along the way...

Yes, he was as terrified as he looks!



This was sooo cute!

Volcano rock walls & foundations.

 

The following picture is one of my favourites from the trip.  You can see some of the "layer effect" of the hills, and the volcano in the background.

A couple of other volcanoes...

Our destination!

Here's some more scenery.

I kept saying to the rest of the family that looking at all of the different shades of green on the hills made me think of a pack of pencil crayons!



Getting their evening water...

Remember those little kilometer markers that I talked about on the way to Gisenyi?  Well, here we are making it back to marker #1!!!

Not quite the same as the proper-type car seat in North America, eh?

And, finally, we did make it home.  And Dad was able to enjoy his eucalyptus branches!  :-)

 

March 2013 Update!

Wow!  March has been a busy month!  Here's some of what's gone on.

•  Karen McCullough, a teacher from Canada who leads professional development seminars, was here in Rwanda for 3 weeks.  During her last week here we were able to have her over for supper.  Here's Mom & Karen.

• On Friday, March 8th, we were able to attend a performance by the Injyana Orchestra Rwanda.  It included instruments ranging from a bassoon to a harp and there were over 400 people in attendance!  It was amazing!

Three members of the orchestra who are in Grade 9 at KICS
and are also all on Caleb's JV football team.

• March 8th was also a special day because my cousin, Cody, got married to Victoria in Tennessee!  While we weren't able to be there in person, we were able to have a couple of Skype calls (to get in on some of the craziness!).  Cody's sister, Skye, also frequently posted pictures on Facebook which helped us keep up with what was going on.  And, finally, they were able to live stream the actual wedding, so we got up at 2:30 AM to watch it!  It was fun to be able to still feel like we were apart of the weekend.

Up at 2:30 AM for the 3 AM start time---totally worth it!!!

• Then, later on that day, Mom & Dad attended our first Rwandan wedding.  Quite a cultural experience, and definitely not as quick as Cody & Victoria's!

• Some of the sites of the KICS JV football games are pretty incredible and have amazing views!

 

• On Sunday the 10th, Dad preached at our AEBR church for the first time at a regular Sunday morning service.  His message was about God's unique love.

• Then, on Sunday afternoon, we were able to have Gato, his wife Anne Marie, and his 2 youngest girls, Ruth and Laurena, over for a visit and supper.  We had a nice time getting to know them better!

• Caleb with a "double banana."

• On the 13th, we were finally able to have the development team over for a "Canadian meal"--and provide them all with chairs!

• On Sunday the 17th, we were able to attend a performance by the Young Kigali Musicians, a group of eight musicians from 3 families, and including three violinists, a cellist/pianist, two clarinetists, a French hornist, and a piano accompanist.

• This past Saturday we had quite an adventure!  Rainy season has begun, and we woke up Saturday morning to steady, heavy rain.  Normally, this would have been no problem.  However, Caleb's JV football game was scheduled for 10 o'clock that morning!  The solution?  Bring towels & umbrellas!  We joined several other loyal KICS fans in cheering our team from a 3-0 deficit to a 4-3 victory!!!  It was an amazing game to watch, made even more incredible by the condition of the pitch.  I'm stealing my friend Grace's line from her blog:  "The dirt field was fully transformed into a mud pond and the clean and professional team was transformed into a wild and dirty mess."  But they sure were a happy dirty mess! :-)

 

• We had the Miller's over for a light supper & a game of CatchPhrase on Saturday evening.  We had lots of fun!

An impromptu guitar/ukulele duet before supper, to show what
a uke sounds like.

• Jose da Silva, a CBM consultant, has been here for a week and a half and we've been able to connect with him several times during his stay.

Finishing off a delicious meal at New Cactus.

So, that gives you some of the highlights of our month!  In the midst of all this was normal school work, projects & tests for C & I, and normal language study schedule for Mom & Dad.  Dad has had a couple of opportunities this past week to take part in a Bible-study follow-up session with some literacy groups, which has been exciting!  The Soucy's leave tomorrow for a few months in Canada.  We also have an upcoming visit to the AEBR Bible School in Cyimbiri and an opportunity to meet a couple of CBCA pastors in Gisenyi.

Have a blessed week leading up to Easter!

A Busy Week!

As predicted, this week was quite a crazy week!  Colin Godwin, our team leader, stayed with us Monday-Wednesday as he was involved in quite a few meetings.  The Kenny's were also here this past week, staying at the Soucy's, as they helped lead a Guardians of Hope conference.  Around language, Caleb's school schedule, and a couple of unexpected meetings, Mom & Dad were able to attend quite a bit of the conference, as well as leading a devotion and speaking during one of the sessions.

 

Check out the Kenny's blog to read a really interesting update about the Guardians of Hope program here in Rwanda that is impacting so many lives: http://www.fivekennys.blogspot.com/2013/03/leading-for-change.html

Yesterday afternoon we were able to visit Sam and Alice, and their new son Daren.  Sam is a member of the development team that we work closely with.

 



This week should hopefully be more a "normal" week, with regular school & language schedules...hopefully! :-)

A couple of other things to finish off with...

Caleb's JV football season has started, and they've played 3 games so far, winning two of their games and playing really well--while missing several of their key players to injury--in their third game.

And here's a kite that perched on a branch outside my window while I was doing school last week.

Flood at 5,000 ft!

We had an adventure on Saturday night!  Because it was umuganda, we went to ABC for pizza & ice cream for supper.  While we were there it got cloudy and rained some so we had to move inside.  On the way home, though, we came upon a tree that had blown down across the road and was blocking one lane of traffic, so we knew that it had been a pretty bad storm.

We got home and the power was off--not too surprising.  What was surprising was walking into a house full of flooded rooms!  Our upstairs main room, Mom & Dad's bedroom, Caleb's bedroom, our living room, and my bedroom all were wet.  A few of the rooms had several centimeters of standing water, while others were more dirty and damp. 

We proceeded to rescue the important items that needed immediate attention and then worked at squeegee-ing, mopping, and wiping up all of the rooms.  Faustin turned out to be very efficient using the squeegee!  After a couple of hours of hard work (by candlelight & flashlight), we had most rooms back in order.  And, to make things even better, the power came on before bedtime!

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Colin Godwin arrived on Saturday afternoon and preached at the AEBR service on Sunday.  We also formed a new "choir" and sang "Tiba Saatnya (This Is the Moment)."  (That's the song we sang at church visits during our last home assignment).  I've now sung that song on 3 continents--Asia, North America, and Africa.

 

This week is going to be a busy week.  In addition to Colin being here, we are on our way to pick up the Kenny's at the airport.  They are going to be leading a Guardians of Hope (GOH) seminar this week.  Mom & Dad are going to be attending most of it, which mixes up their language lessons, but this is too good an opportunity for them to learn about GOH to pass it up!