My Rwandan holiday – Part Two

Gisenyi's sandy beach

As I said at the end of Part One, I was looking forward to a different type of ‘resort’ experience in Gisenyi and I was not to be disappointed. The town of Gisenyi is famous for its sandy beach, colonial history, closeness to the DRC and also to the Virunga National Park with its range of volcanoes famous for the mountain gorillas.

Being in Gisenyi felt like being by the sea – you couldn’t see the opposite side of the lake and there were even waves. A long road with palm trees and old colonial houses runs along the beach and leads to one of two border crossings – Gisenyi has seen some troubles over the years most recently with fighting by M23 rebels in Goma but today there is a sense of peace and calm.  It does have feel of a faded past with some of the old colonial houses having seen better days but like many other places in Rwanda there are new hotels and other buildings going up – I felt it a shame they couldn’t repair and preserve some of the older buildings as it would allow Gisenyi to have something quite unique.

A reminder of Gisenyi's colonial past

I stayed outside Gisenyi in Kigufi at a small Catholic retreat called St Benoit. Beautiful location, right on the lake with lovely gardens, trees, birdlife, flowers and best of all no Wi-Fi or internet access! I was entertained one morning by the sight of the elderly gardener cutting the grass not by a slasher (long bladed tool) used by most people here but by an electric lawn mower – there were a few anxious moments when the electric cable got very close to the blades.  I think he was probably quite happy with his slasher.

St. Benoit's gardens right on the lake

Cutting the grass with the new fangled contraption!

It was a 20-minute ride by moto to/from Gisenyi, along the lake and across a broken bridge that stopped any car getting to Kigufi unless they took a 45-minute detour. Each time I went over the bridge, on the moto, I wondered whether it would give way – my driver, who I used every day, was called Muzungu Jonathan (you couldn’t have made it up) and as it happens all the time here I now have a new friend.

Muzungu Jonathan and Jonathan Muzungu

I was invited by someone I knew, who lives in Gisenyi, to go on Sunday to his church the Zion Temple - I knew I would be in for a long (3 hours) and lively service.  The preacher who had been invited from the DRC, preached for around an hour in French and the leader of the church translated into Kinyarwandan and my friend tried to translate for me into English – not easy!  As are many of the preachers here, he got very animated and excited as did the church leader who I think felt he had not only to translate but do all the actions as well – very entertaining and made up for the fact that I couldn’t really understand the sermon.

The highlight of my stay was to visit “Imbabazi” a bus and moto ride towards the Volcanoes National Park and a noticeable drop in temperature as we climbed quite quickly from Gisenyi. “Imbabazi” was an orphanage, a pyrethrum farm and gardens created by an American lady called Rosamund Carr who spent much of her life in the DRC and Rwanda until she died in 2006.  She created a wonderful English garden in the middle of Africa and she was also known for her friendship with Dian Fossey – her character and her gardens featured in the film ‘Gorillas in the Mist’.

An English country garden in the middle of Africa

For a couple of hours I felt I was back home in England walking around manicured lawns and flowers of all descriptions.  Ros Carr discovered that due to the climate and the fertile volcanic soil, flowers from all over Europe did very well and she also developed a business selling flowers to many of the hotels in Gisenyi and Kigali. I was accompanied on my tour by three very friendly dogs and at times a very playful cat but I was reminded that I was not really in England by the sight of Rwandans walking along the lane by the gardens.

Two of my three four-legged guides

I bought and read her book “A Land of a Thousand Hills” and I certainly recommend it as a really interesting story not only about her life but also the history of the DRC and Rwanda through peaceful and turbulent times.

The figure in the background was a reminder I was in Rwanda

Then it was back on the bus to Kigali for an overnight stay before the six hour drive back to Kamembe made interesting, as these journeys always are, by a German missionary who decided to preach to the bus as we drove through the Nyungwe Forest much to the amusement of the Rwandans who couldn’t understand a word (maybe not a bad thing) and five Italian girls who were going trekking to the forest. These are never quiet journeys as the radio is blaring out music, people are talking very loudly on their phones or listening to music and the usual loud conversions or shouting as we narrowly avoid a truck coming very fast around the corner in the other direction. I have discovered that having a good books provides some distraction as sleep is out of the question.

So now it's back to work and taking my first day easy by writing this post.