Leaving Kayenzi

Wednesday, May 11

Report that the road over the river in Kigali is open came as good news yesterday. Chesie's dad who works in Kigali was able to make it to Kayenzi yesterday afternoon. 

So, we wanted to get an early start so we could get everything done. Our plan was to leave around 8:00 for Kayenzi to catch the twege. Rachel called Pacifique to see if he would drive our luggage to Kayenzi like he drove it to her house. He said that he was unavailable. The Health Center folks started working their contacts and finally was able to get the

Twege to drive to the Health Center to pick up us and our luggage. Several Health Center staff went to her house to carry our luggage. 

Many of the Health Center staff that we had met came out to tell us goodbye. When Rachel went to the staff meeting to ask about how to get our luggage to the twege, they thought she was leaving too. It was great having so many hugs and thank you comments about our visit. 

Joy, Rachel's counterpart, and me. 

Joy, Joe and the assistant tutilaire (can't remember her name).

Katherine and Innocent. 

The sadness of leaving Rachel started at that point. 

Twege took us to Kayenzi where we had to wait for more people to pile in. Road was not as bad as I thought it might be after the rains. 

We got almost half way - that is, almost to the paved road - when the twege started jumping and lurching forward. We were out of gas, yes, I said out of gas. I couldn't believe it. Someone got a gallon plastic jug from under a seat and handed it off to a moto who took off and came back in a few minutes with fuel. Then the driver took a laminated piece of paper out of the twege and used it for his funnel. You just can't make up stories like that!

I guess we got to Kayenzi around 1:00. Rachel wanted to go to a bagel place called J Lynn's for lunch so we did. We ordered way too much food. Chips and hummus, bagel sandwiches, and molasses cookies for dessert. We were stuffed. 

After lunch we went to the market to get the clothes we had had made. Rachel wanted a skirt, Katherine a shirt and a skirt, and me a shirt. I only have a picture of R and her skirt. 

It is too short for Kayenzi but she can wear it in Kigali. Cute!

Joe had gotten us rooms at a hotel called Step Town Motel, one popular with Europeans. We thought we had 2 rooms but when we got there the only thing available was a family room which was okay because they had 3 twins and 1 double plus a loveseat and coffee table. It worked fine for us. 

I really wanted to go to Hotel des Mille Collines (hotel in Hotel Rwanda) just to say I had been there. Now remember we had come from Kayenzi on the twege, been to the market, and were not wearing fine clothes. We get to the hotel and discover that the hotel was full of people from around the world who were attending the World Economic Forum on Africa. They were arriving in fancy cars and wearing black suits. I was in capris that were not exactly clean and a t-shirt. Oh well. We sat down near the outside bar and had drinks. 

From there we decided to walk to the Indian restaurant where we had eaten one other day. It was less than 1/2 mile. We get there and realize from all the fine cars and nice vans waiting with drivers in them that those same type folks from the Forum were eating there too. So, we ate anyway - the dirty folks from the village eating with the city and foreign folks. It was a little funny.