Rwanda?

I am now officially a quarter-of-a-century. My weekend was full of ups and downs – I was finally recovering from Malaria and missing the comforts of home (and friends and family gathered to celebrate my birthday). While there were some downer moments, there were equally many high points, many quintessentially African.

Everything felt difficult on Friday. While it is true that doing anything in Africa takes much more effort, planning, and patience than Western life, I was loving every moment… until Friday. Nothing particularly bad happened – but I was just done with the whole experience!

As a result of this, I went to the only place for MILES that has high speed internet and treated myself to fast email and a slice of chocolate cake. The place is called Jinja Nile Resort, and it is where another volunteer, Evie (Yvette) stays. As I was recovering from my personal pity party, Evie showed up. We headed to the bar for a glass of vino to chat… Well one glass turned into four :) and then dinner…

After much talking and laughing, we decided that it would be a GREAT idea to head to Rwanda together in two days time (on Sunday). With renewed excitement about being in such a great place, I fell sound asleep, ready to pack and plan a new adventure.

I awoke ready to face Africa anew. My newly optimistic attitude proved vital, as trying to plan the trip for five hours resulted in no progress – internet problems, phone issues, lack of electricity, and little information. Thankfully, I thought it was all quite funny and so typical. Evie and I decided that we could handle the unknowns together – it is much easier to do so when you have a travel partner. We went our separate ways to pack.