Monkeys, Trees, Languages, and Volcanoes

Wish you were here

Dear everyone,


I write the above comment with the utmost sincerity. I wish every one of you could experience the richness of Africa as we have done in the past weeks.




The history buffs among you would be thrilled by the life-sized replicas of traditional Rwandan dwellings that we saw at the National History Museum in Butare. Or entertained by the fact that ownership of a country's royal drum technically conveys ownership of a country-- and Burundi's royal drum is owned by the Rwandan National History Museum.






The linguists among you would be amazed by the complexity of the Rwandan language. The length of the vowels in a word give its meaning. Therefore the word "Bayisigiye" has 32 different meanings depending on which vowels are stressed. No wonder the Rwandans are so good at French-- it's easy compared to their native tongue.



The nature lovers among you would be absolutely blown away by the 80-meter-tall mahogany trees that populate Nyungwe Forest. Nyungwe forest is the largest mountain rainforest in Africa, and is located southwest of Butare. And if the trees weren't enough, the many species of primate in the forest provide endless entertainment.


The public transport lovers among you (I know, you're few and far between) would be thrilled by the ride along Lake Kivu from Cyangugu to Gisenyi. The scenery is beautiful, and is perfectly accompanied by the sounds of dozens of Rwandans breaking into beautiful 3-part harmony halfway through the 12-hour trip in order to pass the time. Singing about the love of Jesus in Kinyarwandan never felt so fitting. It helped to forget the 100-meter cliff drops that we kept narrowly avoiding.




But all of you would be simply stunned by Nyiragongo Volcano. The volcano is located in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC is not a place you just visit-- it has been racked by civil war and violence since the Rwandan genocide, and it is always a risk to travel there. However, we met up with a UN friend (Mary Tennent) whom we originally met on safari in Kenya and we stayed at her house in Goma. We then spent one day scaling the volcano, and we reached the edge of the caldera at around 2pm. The volcano has the largest lava lake in the world, and the 200-meter drop into the crater does little to lessen the roaring sound the bubbling lava creates. We spent the night at the crater rim, and then descended back down to the base.

Mary picked us up and we spent the day at her house recovering from the climb. In the evening we went out for dinner and then sat in her living room discussing politics over Schmirnoff.

The next day (today) we crossed back into Gisenyi, Rwanda, and then made our way up into Uganda.

I wish you were all here to see how beautiful Lake Bunyoni-- the lake of "many little birds"--is for yourselves.