“Rubavu here we come”

After having decided to “attack” Rubavu in style, we decided to have all the necessary kits in place lest we choke halfway in the long holiday. After all, so many people had swarmed the Nyabugogo bus terminal heading to Bujumbura, Kampala, Nairobi, name it, on our part, we decided to play it simple and safe, get away from home but keep home (am I confusing you?). Away from home in that, we were away from the daily pains of the “Chain Keepers”, home in that, we were not crisscrossing any borders! Much as Rubavu a.k.a. Gisenyi lies on the Rwanda DR Congo border, we had no intentions of crossing over unless it was absolutely necessary! Along with us was a one OO (Ojok Ojok) from Kampala, he happens to work with one NGO in Kigali. We decided to take one of our friend’s (OO) JEEPS so that we could arrive in style! We set off from Kigali towards middasy of the Saturday and expected to hit our destination in three or so hours of cool and civilized driving (no hurry in Africa). I cannot recall the exact spot but somewhere after Rulindo, an overzealous “Blue Boy” stopped us and demanded for our usual papers, we all pretended not to understand any word of Kinyarwanda and watched him suffer from a drought of the Queen’s language. He began by asking for a “Permes de conduire”, OO asked him what that was in English, he struggled and asked for a License, OO produced one. Next he asked for a “Carte Jaune”, we looked at him and he translated, “where is yellow Card?” OO produced a Yellow Fever Vaccination Card. Not wanting to make a fool of himself too much, he flagged us on. The first stop on our trip westwards was the famous Sina Gerard’s Nyirangarama Stop over for some “bull shits” read brochettes or nyama chomas. This place has the reputation of serving some of the best chomas accompanied by some deep fried Ibirayis! We “punished” the stuff as if there was no tomorrow. As we left the joint, our stomachs were begging for mercy! We left as we had arrived (in high spirit). We drove past Musanze a.k.a. Ruhengeri and headed for Rubavu. I am having problems memorizing the new names of these places, Ruhengeri for Musanze, Gisenyi for Rubavu etc. We arrived at Rubavu town close to 3 O’clock in the afternoon. Rubavu here we come, on arrival, a nightmare or can I call it “afternoonmare” awaited us, most of the Hotels and so called Hotels were fully booked; where were we gona sleep? That was the million dollar question on every one’s lips! Luckily enough, there is this friend of a friend of mine that lives and works in Rubavu, he made a few phone calls here and there and we had a few rooms at our disposal. We booked into a small by homely Hotel in the names of Musanto! Now that we were put, the beaches, sands and the clear skies would billow out our names! mfashumwana@fastmail.fm