Sleepin' In, Barf-burps, Kigali and O Sole Luna

So today we slept-in the best we could (8:15am or so-Actually I averaged-Cave woke up at 7:30am and Kuntz woke up at 9:00am-Kuntz's snoring may be as loud as the dynamite blast we heard yesterday!).

Once we actually got out of our beds, we had Rwandan tea and bread with peanut butter for breakfast. We then headed out to say good bye to our friends in Ruhengeri.

First we saw Hassan.

Then Greg. We paid for our rooms and made tentative plans to continue to work with him to organize our 2009 trip.

Then Delphine.

We love Delphine. Delphine is the young woman who takes care of the guest house and is funny as heck. She likes watching MTV and Nigerian soap operahs.

Byes done, we got our gear and headed to the bus station (we are heading to Kigali today) with two Americans. Steve (who was mentioned in the previous entry) and Debbie (seriously) who we call Deb (Do you have any boondoggle key chains Napoleon?!). Deb is working as a nursing student/exchange thing (not sure exactly) in Butare in the southwestern part of Rwanda. (In fact we are heading to Butare-more in a minute-I have to be linear).

Once we got on the bus it was totally packed. Now a bus in Rwanda was a 24 passenger truck that has folding chair seats in the aisle to maximize the fares. Of course Cave was in the folding chair and Kuntz was jammed in the backseat with his travel backpack, his daypack the tripod and video camera case (which looks like a Columbian drug lord's case) restricting his movement and the bloodflow to his legs.

As we were traveling Cave felt the sweat coming and started to get hot, pale and queezy. His stomache was rolling around with every turn. There were kids crying, BO, (Did I mention Rwandans do not open windows-We fought over that one for the better part of 2 hours-I won). Well, up, up, up and finally out came a barfburp (You know what I mean). After that things seemed to settle down and I am happy to report that there were no further false alarms or spew (which is good).

Once in Kigali we walked (why, why...BTW-what makes Rwanda so beautiful and unique-the hills-makes it a real pain to walk) to our guest house. It is a lovely guest house in the diplomat district of Kigali. It opens into a garden but the rooms are a little pricey ($35.00) by Rwandan standards. We dropped our stuff and headed to our favorite Italian restaurant in the world, O Sole Luna. After about a 10 minute moto ride we arrived (we met Stevie there).

We had a salad, Fanta/Coke and pizza. Yummers.

Moto back, walk 2,000 miles to the internet cafe on the main street (it is paved) in Kigali and now my fingers are getting tired.

Another 2,000 mile walk in a minute.

To bed in about an hour then up early so we can take another bus to Butare (Or Barftari and I may call it tomorrow) for the next 2 days.

Thanks for reading.

A shout out to Mick Hawkins (To get mentioned on the World Wide Web feel free to email us-our addresses are in the side bar to the right of this entry).

Amahoro.

Kuntz and Cave


(I have not changed my pants or undershirt in 7 days!!)

Little Sleep, Golden Monkeys, Interviews and Meals With Friends

So, last night we decided that we were going to try a little know trek in the Virunga Mountains. This trek is to see the Golden Monkeys. Fun. This trek is a fraction of the cost of the gorilla trek. Of course with no foresight at all we had to wake up at 5:15am to make our 6am transport to the ORPTN headquarters in Kinigi. We hired our friend Bosco to drive us.

Even before our eyes opened (which took most of the morning) we had tea, bread, water and we were on our way. We signed in for the monkey trek which was lead by a friend named Francis. Francis was the genocide survivor we interviewed. You know the one, the time when Kuntz screwed up the sound on the camera..

Anywho...

We were prepped by Francis and started our drive to the trail head. We went on what we call the Muzungu Parade. 4 SUV's and 1 VW bus (ours) on the roads to the trail head with Rwandans trying to go their work and yelling Muzungu, Muzungu.... Ick.

Once to the end of the road we hiked for about 25 minutes to the start of the park. We waited for another 30 minutes before we started in the park (the monkeys were lost). We spent that time working on our Kinyarwanda and making uncomfortable chit chat with the brits in our group (We counted 1 scarf, 3 walking sticks, 4 fanny packs and 3 cameras & lenses that were way too big...)

Francis told us to get ready to go. We geared up for a grueling 4 hour hike to see the elusive Golden Monkeys.....

7 minutes later we came across the monkeys. The GM's (as they will now be referred to) were super cool and active. Once you thought you got a good spot for a photo it was gone. Only to have another on jumping on the limbs behind you. We spent a little over an hour shooting photos and video of the GM (see above) and just watching. Fun.

Once our time was over we hiked a different way to the vehicles. There was one point where the obnoxious brit lady had a chameleon on her arm, her boyfriends arm, her friends arm, the other guys arm and she was shooting rolls and rolls of film all the time yelling.. "look a the chameleon on your arm!" or "Look at the chameleon on my arm!" (She was on brit with the scarf BTW)

We went and talked to local kids.

Once back to Ruhengeri we had lunch with our friend Bosco and walked to his home to greet his family one last time before we leave. We chatted with the family for about an hour (We each held the baby Samuel), shot photos and held the kids' attention with the video camera!

BTW-So seriously, Kuntz filmed for about 15 minutes-some of the cutest Rwandan kids posing for the camera, doing cute things-and he realized he did not push the Record button. LOL.

Bosco gave us a heart felt thank you to us and mostly to the BSM JH community for its "Caring to me and my family".

We left Bosco aty 3:20pm because we had to meet Francis at 3:30 to conduct a second interview about Rwandan history, the genocide, gacaca and his experiences (Do we call it a second interview if the first one had no sound?!)

Anyway, Francis spent about 2 hours talking about the above topics stopping a few times to chase huge birds away that were sqwaking so loud that we could not hear Francis and when a huge dynamite explosion shook the earth and deafened us (Francis assured us that it was dynamite from a road they were trying to put through the mountains).

We truly appreciate Francis and his honest interview. A few times he was visibly shaken when talking about the fact that he never found out what happened to his father and 2 of his brothers.

We made our way to the BG, the Swede Bjorn (seriously) had a kinyarwanda/english guide so we brought it to get copies (not for us because we are fluent but for other people).

After we picked up the language guide we jumped on moto-taxis and headed to the caberet that we first had brochette with our friend Justin. This place had the best brochette in all of Ruhengeri and maybe in all of Rwanda.

We were greeted warmly by Justin. (Justin if you remember is the former director of the national park where the gorilla treks are). Justin had invited a friend of his who was a businessman in Ruhengeri (his name was Justin) who sold fish from Uganda. Does well I think.

We chatted about our families, Rwanda, and our trip next summer.

Once done we took motos back to our guest house and were met by an American named Steven. Stevie (as I like to call him) is a millionaire wiz kid who sold a company at age 26 and is now traveling the world. We had Fantas and Cokes with him across the road from the guest house (I say road because very few paved streets exist in Rwanda).

Afterwards we went back, packed and went to sleep.

We are going to miss Ruhengeri.


Amahoro.

Kuntz and Cave

Little Sleep, Imbabazi Orphanage, Intore and a Birthday Dinner for Delphine

We both woke up very groggy this morning. There was a wedding taking place at a hall across the street from the BG last night. The wedding party went on until 4am with loud clapping and dancing. Perhaps we mentioned last summer that Rwanda was loud. It still is.

We got up at 7am to the sound of sweeping, goats and people talking to meet our good friend Hassan and a driver named Alex. They showed up at 7:45 and we made our way up to Imbabazi Orphanage near Gisenyi. For those of you that have read "Land of a Thousand Hills" by Rosamond Carr, you will be familiar with Imbabazi.

The road towards Gisenyi was under construction and was very dangerous (not for us but for the 1000's of people who were walking along side of it). The drive to Imbabazi took 1 1/2 hours and the last 1/2 hour was on a road that was not really a road.

Once to Imbabazi we were greeted by K-Ellen Cleary. K-Ellen had been a friend of Madame Carr for about 8 years before she died. K-Ellen and her husband now run this orphange and plant nursery. This place was one of the most lovely and beautiful places we have ever seen. The house is just like the photos in the book and the grounds are attended by 8 gardeners working 6 days a week. Imbabazi sits just below the mountains and volcanoes. The climate is a lot like Minnesota in late October (no malaria because it is too cool).

K-Ellen had us in the house for tea and cookies then gave us a tour around the grounds. Imababzi is a facility for 102 orphans. Some of them attend secondary school (which is almost always residential boarding school). There are about 30 kids who were at primary school but they were at school and would be back later in the day.

Imbabazi was so lovely that we decided to add it to our itinerary for next summer's trip. We would reccoment the book to all. It is a very nice, quick read about a strong woman in the Congo and Rwanda.

On our drive back to Ruhengeri we stopped a few times along side the road to take video of the countryside. We hope to share those images on this site when we arrive back home (so stay tuned).

Once back to Ruhengeri we made our way to the Amahoro tours office when we had a delicous meal with Greg. It was cabbage with carrots over rice and served with beans and sweet potatos. Delish.

The only thing is that we had to eat with some very abrasive Americans who were complaining about having to eat beans again. Rude. Go home! (Did I just say that out loud?! oops)

Afterwards we met with Greg and worked on planning the trip for next year. Once done with our meeting we went to see some of the best Intore dancers in all of Rwanda practice. Greg was able to convince them to reherse in thier traditional costumes for us.

Intore is a coed dance and drumming that can go on for hours. We go tired just watching them! Again, we video taped so stay tuned!

Once done with Intore we thanked them and made our way to the popular market. We purchased avocados (the best in the world btw!), onion, tomatos, garlic, peppers and lime to make guacamole! Funny but good.

At about 7pm we took our friends Hassan and Delphine out to eat (at the Virguna Hotel) for brochette for Delphine's birthday. Fun.

We are now typing and catching up on e-mail.

(James says: Mom and dad, thanks for taking the kids to Wisconisin! Mom, e-mail me so I can respond. I don't have your address) Kids I love you very much)

We are planning another big day with golden monkeys, interviews, meals and with friends in what will be our last full day in Ruhengeri. Sad but exciting to not know what we will be doing for the next several days.

We are going where Rwanda takes us.

Amahoro.

Dave and James

(Sorry about misspellings. Spell check is not working)

Trip Planning and Finally, Goat Brochettes

We finally got some much needed sleep last night at the BG Guest House. It was very nice to see our friends Delphine and Hassan. After sleeping for about 12 hours and late which is abnormal for both of us especially in Rwanda we met with Greg owner of Amahoro Tours.

Greg's focus for his customers is provide a genuine and meaningful cultural experience. He makes sure that the activities clients particpate in are memorable and will impact both Rwandans and visitors.

Greg will be helping us make plans for our trip with students next summer. He is arranging all of our transportation and we will be staying at the BG Gueshouse which Amahoro Tours owns. Greg is very excited to share the community in Ruhengeri with students from BSM next summer. The students will of course see the gorillas but will also be making bricks, weaving Rwandan baskets and mats, and will help make meals for the group at BG.

Later this afternoon we met with a man named Francis who shared with us his thoughts about Rwandan history and the Genocide. He had some very interesting insights, especially about the Gacaca court process. We talked with him for over an hour and recorded the conversation via video. It was great until we discovered that we had plugged his wireless microphone into the wrong place on the camera. We're meeting with him again on Tuesday for a do-over. Dumb.

On our way back to BG, we met almost all of our friends from Ruhengeri in about 10 minutes. Justin, Bosco, and Gato were all sitting right outside the internet cafe as we walked out.

We finally had our first meal of goat brochette tonight. We have been a little surprised and very distressed that we have been in Rwanda for more than 24 hours and have yet to have our favorite meal. It was really good with pili pili sauce and sweet potato chips.

We caught the last half and overtime of the Italy vs. Spain Euro game before going to sleep.

CM, Bosco and Ruhengeri

So we arrived in Nairobi at 6am. We went right to the secret transfer desk and they told us we did not have tickets!! AHHHHHHHHHHH.... Really long and frustrating story short, we got our tickets
After about 1 1/2 we were able to get things straightened out. Lots of stress though.

We boarded and made it to Kigali fine (we did have an hour delay however!). Once we reached Kigali we got 3 of our four bags right away. The last one was literally the last one off the plane. We had all of the stuff!!

Bosco met us, loaded up his cousin's van then we started our errands. First was to Centre Marembo. The kids were not there (it was Saturday) but they all wanted us to come back mid next week. We dropped 3 large bags of clothes, shoes, tooth paste, underwears, etc.. 2 lap tops, a printer, paper, etc.and gave the director $1,000.00 for the BSM community. She could not believe it. They are trying to purchase some land for a new center.

We then went to see Felix and drop off the books, letter and money. Dick. He gave us a bad look, took the books and off we were.

We drove to Ruhengeri. Bosco's son William barfed in the car but all was good afterwards. We went right to Bosco's house and were greeted with hugs from his wife and kids.

We chatted for a while then gave them the donations. Bosco kept saying that it was a miracle. (He is a scammer, but more later). The kids loved the new clothes, shoes, make up, etc.. We also gave them candels, matches, a computer, a digital camera. Very excited. Very cute.

Bosco and Damarse insisted that we have a meal with them in there house. We had a tomato broth with casava bread, cow and peas. Pretty good. Kuntz tried to drink the broth from his bowl and made a semi-permanent goatee on his face and spilled the rest on his shirt and pants. Pretty dang funny.

Bosco brought us to the guesthouse where we were greeted by Delphine and Hassan (our friends from last year). It is nice to be back.

I love you very much and I miss you. I will consider leaving on Thursday.

Have peace and don't make out with any buddahist guys in flannel.

Amahoro.

Cave

CM, Bosco and Ruhengeri

So we arrived in Nairobi at 6am. We went right to the secret transfer desk and they told us we did not have tickets!! AHHHHHHHHHHH.... Really long and frustrating story short, we got our tickets after about 1 1/2 hours. Lots of stress though.

We boarded the Kenya Airways plane and made it to Kigali fine (we did have an hour delay however!). Once we reached Kigali we got 3 of our four bags right away. The fourth bag was literally the second to last one off the plane. We had all of the stuff!!

When we got out of the airport Bosco's son William had a sign that read "James and Dave." Cute. When Bosco saw us he ran from the parking lot and hugged both of us. After we loaded up his cousin's van then we started our errands. First was to Centre Marembo. We arrived at the site of the orphanage. To our surprise no one was there. CM had moved. We called the director and she met us at the gate and showed us to the new center. The kids were not there (it was Saturday) but they all wanted us to come back mid next week to see us and maybe play football. We dropped 3 large bags of clothes, shoes, tooth paste, underwears, etc.. 2 lap tops, a printer, paper, etc.and gave the director $1,000.00 for the BSM community.

Nicole the director could not believe it. They are trying to purchase some land for a new center and our donations will help a short term need (charity) and a long term need (justice). (This was a shout-out to Ms. Reinardy!)

After stopping to get money exchanged and drop some things to a man named Felix we started our trip to Ruhengeri. Ruhengeri is about 2+ hours north of Kigali and is much cooler than Kigali.

On the way, Bosco's son William barfed in the car but all was good afterwards (He rebounded rather nicely) Upon arriving in Ruhengeri we went right to Bosco's house and were greeted with hugs from his wife and kids.

We chatted for a while then gave them the donations. Bosco kept saying that it was a miracle. The kids loved the new clothes, shoes, make up, etc.. We also gave them candles, matches, a computer, a digital camera. Very excited. Very cute.

Bosco and Damarse insisted that we have a meal with them in there house. We had a tomato broth with casava bread, cow meat and peas. Pretty good.

Kuntz tried to drink the broth from his bowl and made a semi-permanent goatee on his face and spilled the rest on his shirt and pants.

Pretty dang funny.

Bosco brought us to our guesthouse where we were greeted by Delphine and Hassan (our friends from last year). It is nice to be back! (It feels like we never left actually)

Thanks for reading.

Amahoro.

Kuntz and Cave

Getting there is half the fun!

My mother-in-law arrived about 5pm today and so did Kuntz and his wife Kathy. We packed up thier mini-van and headed to the airport. We are allowed 4 bags of 70 pounds (at $50.00/each over 50lbs). Our bags were 70.0 pounds, 69.5 pounds, 68.5 pounds and 58.5 pounds. So far so good. We asked NWA to get our boarding pass for our Nairobi to Kigali lehg but the were unable.

Our flight was fine. I slept about 5 of the 8 hours. We arrived in Amsterdam at about 10am. After trying to get our boarding pass for the Nairobi to Kigali leg (they couldn't do that for us) we found a locker, packed our carry on bags in and went to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is very excited about the HOlland team doing so well in the Euro's (European soccer tourny). Amsterdam is a very international city. It has many people, many bikes and many canals. (I fell the same way about Amsterdam as you do about Cordova).

We walked in the Red Light disctrict (after taking the train from the airport). Very unusual. Beautiful canals and buildings wiht many sex windows and sex shows and sex shops. In Dam it is legal to smoke hash and pot in some bars. Weird. We walked for a few hours just looking around. Dave and I split two delicious sammys. A hummus and veggies on a white roll and a mozzarella with pesto and tomato. Delish! I had a coke and dave had team. OBSERVATION: Europeans wear lots of scarfs.

Anywho..When we were done Dave and I continued to walk until I decided that we had acted like 13 year old boys long enough. We wanted to know how the sex worked. I knocked on a window and asked a Russian woman "So, what happens in there?" Well apparently you pay 50 Euros for 20 minutes of whatever you want. Sex, BJ's, me and Dave could have gone in with her or I could watch her and another woman do a "lezzie show". I told her that I was nervous. She tugged on my shirt and told me that she could make me horny. I said, "Only my wife can make me horny"....

We then made our way to the Ann Frank house. It was cool but not so much. There were journal entries written on the wall in chronological order. The most moving thing for me was the original patch of wall paper that had all of the hiding kids heights on them. Sad. IT was about a 45 minute self-guided tour with videos, quotes, simulations, etc. If you are in Amsterdam I would recommend it but don't go to Amsterdam just for it.

We boarded the train and went back to the airport. When we go there we check in and asked to counter guy if he could print us a boarding pass for our Nairobi to Kigali leg. He actually upgraded our tickets to Nairobi but told us he was unable to print them. He told us of a secret way to bypass the endless line in Nairobi though. We will see. We had some time so we went and ate McDonald's. When in Amsterdam...

So we arrived in Nairobi at 6am. We went right to the secret transfer desk and they told us we did not have tickets. AHHHHHHHHHHH....After about 1 1/2 we were able to get things straightened out. Lots of stress though.

We boarded and made it to Kigali fine (we did have an hour delay however!). Once we reached Kigali we got 3 of our four bags right away. The last one was literally the last one off the plane. We had all of the stuff!!

Bosco met us, loaded up his cousin's van then we started our errands. First was to Centre Marembo. The kids were not there (it was Saturday) but they all wanted us to come back mid next week. We dropped 3 large bags of clothes, shoes, tooth paste, underwears, etc.. 2 lap tops, a printer, paper, etc.and gave the director $1,000.00 for the BSM community. She could not believe it. They are trying to purchase some land for a new center.

We then went to see Felix and drop off the books, letter and money. Dick. He gave us a bad look, took the books and off we were.

We drove to Ruhengeri. Bosco's son William barfed in the car but all was good afterwards. We went right to Bosco's house and were greeted with hugs from his wife and kids.

We chatted for a while then gave them the donations. Bosco kept saying that it was a miracle. (He is a scammer, but more later). The kids loved the new clothes, shoes, make up, etc.. We also gave them candels, matches, a computer, a digital camera. Very excited. Very cute.

Bosco and Damarse insisted that we have a meal with them in there house. We had a tomato broth with casava bread, cow and peas. Pretty good. Kuntz tried to drink the broth from his bowl and made a semi-permanent goatee on his face and spilled the rest on his shirt and pants. Pretty dang funny.

Bosco brought us to the guesthouse where we were greeted by Delphine and Hassan (our friends from last year). It is nice to be back.

I love you very much and I miss you. I will consider leaving on Thursday.

Have peace and don't make out with any buddahist guys in flannel.

Amahoro.

Cave