The Nine Hour Bus Ride

Ready to sit for an extremely LONG time, Evie and I settled into our seats in our ‘comfort’ coach (which was actually quite comfortable – go figure!). The first three hours were smooth and easy… The coach EVEN HAD A TV. They first showed a soap opera of a Ugandan film – so I napped. Evie was doing her own thing when her phone rang; this presented a slight problem as the volume on the TV was so loud that I was wearing ear plugs and STILL could hear everything… The solution to the loudness was Evie yelling to the front of the bus, requesting them to turning it down and stating that it was “as loud as f**k.” Oh dear, thought I. We got lots of funny stares, but I pretended to be asleep, Evie got to talk on the phone, and we just looked like even crazier mzungus (we were the only ones on the bus).

After that slight incident, they put on a Harrison Ford film, which was great – something like Clear and Present Danger or some such thing, but not. It involved lots of military, shooting, and tension. I was so happy to have a taste of America until I started thinking about who else was in the audience with me… Mostly Rwandans, probably many had lived through the genocide and had seen what was being played on TV in real life. It felt strange to be there, watching this with that particular group of people.

At long last, we eventually arrived at the border. I risked changing money (and got a GREAT exchange rate – thanks mom!). After leaving Uganda, we waited in the Rwanda entry line. We were promptly escorted to the front and then taken next door to the Rwandan Revenue Authority to get our visa, which both Evie and I thought we did not have to get due to our citizenship status (as it turned out, we were right). The woman behind the desk insisted that we had to get a $60 visa, so we paid, thinking that we did not need to apply for a visa, but did, indeed, need one. After getting the receipt for payment, we had to head back to the border entry desk to get the official stamp, at which point all h-e-double-hockey-sticks broke loose.

An official came up to the group of Americans that I was taking to (informing them about needing to have the $60 ready, as we did have to pay to get a visa) and said that, no, no visa was required for American or British citizens. Entry to Rwanda was free. Good to know! So, we promptly asked for our money back as we had been wrongly charged and had the receipt (reasonable, right?). The official, Amos, said that was impossible!! I thought that was incredulous, but Evie would not stand for it. She started yelling at this man in front of all of the people waiting in line (approximately 100+) saying that she did not “give a monkey’s a**” what he said, she was getting her money back and that it was not up for discussion. Well, to that, he walked away and headed for his office (I think he was embarrassed and wanted to get out of the pressure-cooker situation where everyone know knew that we had been screwed out of $120 and he was not going to help).

So, playing the good cop (Evie took the bad cop hat!), I followed him and said that I was not mad but really concerned about how to get my money back. I said that I understood that it was not his fault, but could he please help us figure out a solution with the lady who had taken our money? He acquiesced and came with us to the RRA office. We arrived at the RRA office with Amos, the head of the immigration office, a really angry Evie, and me. The lady first denied having taken our money and then when we produced the receipt, she said that she did not say that we had to pay. I was shocked to have someone lie so blatantly to everyone. After 20 minutes of negotiations and some harsh words between Evie and the lady, Amos sorted things out. As it turned out, there was also a Zimbabwean woman who works in SPOKANE also waiting in line. She was a huge help. We finally got our money back – and thanked our lucky stars that we were not entirely swindled!

After arriving back at the bus, we had a good long laugh.

We finally arrived in Kigali and a woman on the bus, Nuri, gave us a ride to our Hotel and helped us figure out the rates. She and her family are simply LOVELY – we had a very nice time talking with the four of them for about an hour and are planning on meeting them for dinner on Wednesday or Friday…