She arrived in Kigali with suitcases crammed full of clothes
for the Centre St Vincent Orphanage and little in the way of clothes for
herself and also with loads of goodies to give out to schools. We spent a lovely day walking around Musanze
but then on day 2 we decided to go on the bus to Gisenyi. We arrived at the Serena and spent a happy
afternoon by the pool then headed for Paradise Malahide for the night.
The following morning we set off back to Gisenyi
to visit the Presbyterian church women’s co-operative shop before getting the
bus back home. We hailed two motos (by
hissing – the local way to attract attention and yes, it does work!) then off we went. All was well until we hit Gisenyi and the
motos turned the wrong way. We did an
about turn then I pulled in a little while later assuming Denise was still
behind me! Wrong…. Her moto driver had
taken her off somewhere else!! She had
no phone and had only been in the country one day and did not speak any
Kinyrwanda! What to do. I had no idea where he had gone or where he
had taken her. I was furious. I spent the next 45 minutes charging up and
down the road like a mad thing looking for another muzungu (white person) in
Gisenyi and not finding anyone!!
Eventually thank goodness Denise managed to get her moto driver to take
her to the Serena (the only place in Gisenyi she had ever been) then luckily I
had given her my phone number and she got the hotel to call me to say she was
there! Not a pleasant experience for
either of us. A few grey hairs added to
Denise’s blond locks!
Anyway the saga
continued as we went out for dinner the next day. We went to La Paillotte a small Italian
restaurant in Musanze and sat down for a meal.
We had been to the orphanage to drop off some of the clothes and I had
taken half of the remaining money for a bid I had got for them to give to the
nuns who run the place. They said they
needed the whole amount in order to arrange for the wheelchairs and walking
aids to be made - so I put it back in my bag and said I would go back the next
day with the rest. We were just chatting
when I looked down and - Ahhhhhh where
is my bag?? Sure enough it was not there
any more. It had everything in, my
money, credit cards, orphanage money,
green card, ATM card, cheque books, house keys, flash drives, modem etc etc.
and it was a brand new bag I had just bought when I went back to the UK! I was mortified and didn’t know what to
do. I ran outside to try to find Mathias
my moto driver as I didn’t have a phone to call anyone ! Luckily he was there and took me straight to
the police station. I reported the theft
and 30 minutes later they had arrested a guy who had been in the restaurant at
the same time as us. I am not sure he
took the bag but I could confirm he was there so he was number 1 suspect. I then had to ask Mathias to go to Maries
house as she was the only one with a set of keys!!! So I could get in at
home. Then the next day was spent at the
bank, and phone shop getting everything I had lost cancelled or replaced. (Waste of a whole day really) but could not
do much else.
Well you would think that the drama would stop there…… Oh
no… not when Denise comes to stay. We
headed off the next day up Remera mountain to see the school at the top. It was a lovely day. Half way up there are beautiful views of Lake
Ruhondo and Lake Burera. Denise wanted
to get off the motos to take a photograph which she did in such style.
She swung her leg back over the bike with
such force that she overbalanced backwards and did a spectacular teddy roll
down the mountain. Luckily she was
unhurt. As if that wasn’t enough she
bent over to do up her shoe lace and when she stood up again she cracked her
head on my moto helmet! Not a good day.
The following day we visited Mathias house and had a lovely
day with his 5 children playing frisby and teaching his boys how to play
dominoes.
All in all a lovely end to a
wonderful week. Thanks for spending some
time with me here Denise and for all your wonderful contributions all the
schools to whom I took the goodies after you left were very, very pleased and
thankful for your contributions.
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