We were all packed and ready to leave Nairobi at 7 AM but the bus didn’t even show until 8, typical Africans, never worried about time.
Loaded up our packs in the bus, I race on to the bus to try and claim a seat near the front, in hopes that I won’t get car sick if I sit there. This bus is definitely one of the more luxurious buses I have been on since being on this trip. Big, comfy, individual seats, no A/C and a large flat screen tv in the front.
Driving through Kenya in the morning it is surprisingly nice weather, not to hot, not to cold, drove through the great Rift valley and some amazing scenery.
Eight hours later around 3 PM we finally stop to eat at some town near lake Victoria, but I never actually saw the lake. Back on the bus and driving for another 4 hours before we hit the border of Uganda. We get out of the bus and go through the whole process of exiting Kenya and entering Uganda, getting passports stamped and paying for visas, during which time I got proposed to approximately 3-4 times.
Now we are in Uganda, but nobody really cares, all anybody cares about is if the bathroom has toilet paper or not.
Back on the bus it’s starting to get dark we’re getting tired and hungry and the roaches start to crawl out of their hiding places. While we are still moving slowly and I have my window open I play a game of flicking the roaches out the window.
Now it’s about midnight and everyone is getting really hungry, but we have two delimas, first our bus driver informs us that we will not be stopping anymore for the night and two even if we did stop we would have no way to buy any food because all we have is Kenyan schillings and they won’t take those in Uganda.
I fall back asleep, but not very well because it’s freezing cold, even with all the windows closed and I have a constant fear that a roach is somehow going to make their way into my mouth.
I wake up in the morning around 6:30 when the sun is starting to come up. I can’t tell where we are because we are in such thick fog that I can’t see more than a couple of feet out my window. When the fog finally clears I see that we are in the mountains and I am completely taken aback by how beautiful it is. Rolling green mountains, tons of trees, little mud huts scattered across the mountainside, and the Uganda children all in uniforms on there way to school.
Right now I am sitting on the bus in Rwanda having just crossed the border and now border control is pulling all of our bags out of the bus and saying they want to open and go through every single one of them.
Yes, they did, they went through every single one of our bags.
Then we had to argue with the bathroom attendant so he would let us use the the toilet by either paying with Kenyan shillings or not at all. First he wanted to charge each of us 100ksh ($1.10) but in the end he let me use the toilet for only 10ksh. I don’t really know what’s going on right now, but they won’t let us into the country. So while the leaders are trying to figure things out I’m sitting on the bus killing roaches.
Two hours later they finally let us go.
The countryside of Rwanda is even more gorgeous than uganda and everyone waves as we go by with huge smiles on their faces.
Finally arrived in Kigali our main contact here told us not to get off the bus because it was too crazy at the station so after somethings were sorted out by the leaders they drove the bus to the other side of town to this really nice hotel and we all met with our contacts.
Sophonie is who met us and took us here to his house, where we will be living with him and his family for the next month. Sophonie has eleven kids and plenty of other people that hang around here, I can’t figure out which ones are his kids and which ones are not.
After lunch and settling into our room I found my self standing in the doorway surrounded by about 20 Rwandans asking me various questions as my teammates slept right next to where I was standing.
After talking to them for a while they said they would let me sleep so they all scattered and I was left to myself and to think about how great this place already is, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the month is going to look like.
