Where in the World is ChicaChan?

Joe, Niya, Laura, and I took the 3-hour bus to Lake Kivu in Gisenyi, by the DR Congo border the following weekend. It was absolutely beautiful and we stayed at this adorable bungalow hotel right by the lake. Best of all, it was only $40/night for a double. A wonderful treat is the breakfast. Served out by a dock in the lake, it consisted of an omelet, fresh fruit cup, crepes, and coffee/tea. The hotel also has amazingly, fresh tilapia. It also has it’s own private beach! It’s wonderful!

There’s not much to see or do in Gisenyi besides lounging around by the lake. We had decided and undecided to go to Goma in the DR Congo many times, going back and forth. The safety of Goma is always in question with the presence of rebels there. Fortunately for us, a co-worker was spending the day there and had connections. He said it was fine and safe since he had been there many times. So we ventured into the scary Congo with him. What little that we did see was enough to realize that it is dark, bleak, and depressing. A volcano had erupted there in 2002 and had decimated the town. Lava rocks are everywhere and there is hardly any greenery there whatsoever. There are many UN trucks and peacekeeping soldiers there that it was the closest thing that I have felt to a war zone. You could feel the oppression and tension in the air in Goma. It’s a good thing we went with Jean Mattieu as we would have no idea where to go in town. In fact, all we did was wait for his friend at a really nice hotel right by the border, drive through town, and then end up at a swanky restaurant and had a nice lunch by the water. We all crammed in a car with 3 in the front and 5 in the back! We would not have been able to do this in Rwanda as you are only allowed 6 in a car but in the Congo, anything goes. One man on the street screamed at Joe in Swahili, “I am going to beat you up!”. Joe just casually yelled back, “Don’t beat me up!”.

I’m glad we got to go into the DR Congo for a bit just to see what it was all about but I would not go back there, at least, not back to Goma. In fact, Goma is expensive. The presence of the U.N. and other expats jacks up prices. It was also strange that US dollars are more readily accepted than Rwandan francs! We actually had to pay more for visas since we didn’t have enough USD on us. In any case, it was a sigh of relief crossing the border back into Rwanda.

As mentioned in a previous post, getting by without cash is incredibly hard to come by with no international ATM’s and with not accepting credit cards. We really learned our lesson, as after the $40/each visa that we all had to pay, we had little to no money left. What a struggle and an embarrassment as we had to borrow money from Jean Mattieu! Our money became communal money with every last franc or dollar was already accounted and budgeted to get us back to Kigali. We couldn’t even hit the local club because we didn’t have enough money for transport. In the end, it worked out but just barely! We ended up taking a crowded matatu with incredibly uncomfortable seats. My ass was dying at the end but we were home, sweet, home =)