Tuesday, 20th of February, 2018.
Hey, guys!! How are you?! I’m fine! (please heard this in loud voice with child Ugandan accent)
I’m already in Kigali! Yeah, it’s was not my plan but let me tell you what happened.
This nice and young truck driver, in a total Bob Marley vibe, drove me from Kasese to Kalebe, a village just nearby the boarder.
From there, I paid 4 thousands until the border, which by the distance I think it was well paid.
At the boarder everything was fine and I was just walking to the road when this young and nice taxi driver asked if I needed help. Maybe I looked like kind of lost because there were so many trucks that I could not figure it out where actually it was the road. So he told me that there was a town nearby but it was too small and really close to the border. He told me the best option it was coming to Kigali, just over an hour from there, and his final destination (he was driving a British couple to there). I said thank you and started to walk.
They passed me and stopped a little further: the couple just invited me to come with them, since there were two more paces available in the car and they already had paid. So yeah! One of the fastest “not thumb up” hitchhiking ever!
Here in Kigali I’m now in the Backpacker’s Hostel. Everything it is quite crazy. To be around all these people, each one possibly with completely different reasons to be in here and to be travelling, just makes me get crazy. Why? Because even knowing that if they are here they are looking for a cheap place to stay, still they are all having beers from here, which means they have money. If I am jealous? Of course! I would love to have an ice cold Heineken right now. I have been to the Supermarket early and felt so crazy also. All that food and vegetables… and mushrooms! I saw people just buying simple things in their regular lives (like this women buying Heinekens and chocolate) and for one moment I missed having money to also be able to buy that. That is my weakness against the monetary world: food. I bought an water and a package of biscuits. It is cheaper having dinner here in the Hostel. And guess what: I get rice with vegetables masala (curry!!) and French fries! I do not know now if it was simply fucking good or it was because I just had had a rolex the whole day.
There is this kind of cute, kind of weird old man, with such a nice tent (by the way, I’m camping here) and a lot of food, cooking by him self with a lot of stuff outside. Really cool! And the manager is a really enthusiastic and nice young man.
So now, basically, I’m completely in doubt about what I’m going to do: Should I keep the plan I discussed with K. and find a nice small town, and there look for a school to teach; or keep moving around, like the four corners of Rwanda, just asking for some locals to make my camp in there lands and then cooking my own food. I want to help and go to a school but also would be so nice just get lost and discover the country. Of course there is the money part, and not have to worry about buying food and having to cook. Actually I think I also have to buy some gas…
I think I will stay one more night and, since I’m already here, take the opportunity to going around Kigali. By the way, everything here is so crazy! Do you want just one example? All the boda-bodas (is that how it writes?) use hat! YEAH! And there is more: they carry one or two other hats for the passengers. Bu-ha! But the town in general, you know?! There is this whole different atmosphere, so different of Uganda, which is so close. I mean, I am not talking just about Kasese, I passed throw Kampala and it was so different too.
Another thing: I have being thinking a lot about you guys. Every field I saw, does not matter which one, reminds me the EcoHub. While I was listening Bob Marley on the whole travel, it reminded me of us. Then I arrived in Kigali and passed through a school called One love, and just crossing the street a Coca-Cola advertisement with the word CHILL really big. I know, it sounds quite depressing. I just wanted to say that in this first day I already missed you guys. And I really hope that passes.
I also have a good hot shower! I have not had one since Senegal, did you know that? Before get in, I thought it would be something amazing, that I would enjoy as I never had one before, but you know what? It was so normal, as I just had had one last night. I guess this is a good sign, right?
Just for you to know, this e-mail will became a chapter of my book. Just like this.
Send me the pictures!
Love you guys,
Lei.
P.s.: I ended up having a beer. Not a Heineken but a local one.
Additional information:
– The town I was planning to go after leaving the Rwanda Emigration is called Ruhengeri.
– The couple who stopped for me was from England, Melissa and Jack, who have this incredible job back in the National Gallery in London! Wow! What a nice job, my friends! We had some nice talk until Kigali. They had spent one week in Uganda and another would be spent in Rwanda. They told me about a simple trail in the Volcano’s National Park, which could possibly make you cross the Gorillas path. They also surprised me when revealed not to have eaten any Ugandan typical food. Melissa told me be a Marathon Runner what make me admire her. With their email contact, Melissa also wished me a cute “Good Lucky!” Luckily, the Motel where they were staying (a nice one by the way) it was near of the Backpacker Hostel I should stay. Abdul, the nice young taxi driver, drove me even a little closer and gave me all the instructions. Because of that, I found very easily the place. Thanks you very much, the three of you, for help me so much that day.
– Looking back now to my decision of staying at the Hostel, as usual, I thought I should not have done. If I tell you that I regret to have spent the twenty nine dollars for two nights and two dinners you probably are going to say that I am crazy. But if I tell you that with that money, which could be more than thirty thousand Rwandan Franc, I could survive for at least two weeks you might change your mind. I have to stop to get afraid to make camp in the big cities again, as I was doing in the west. Even somebody told me later that in Kigali you can walk back home at midnight and do not have problems at all with security.