And by home I mean Kigali. Even though we've been staying in a tropical paradise here in Gisenyi, I think there's pretty much a consensus that we were ready to head back to Kigali. Since Gisenyi really just feels like a vacation, it makes Kigali seem like home - like it's where I'm most comfortable and in my element.
It was still a little sad to leave Paradis, especially because I had just started to get to know all the service people who had been so incredibly kind to us while we were there - the type of service you would pay hundreds of dollars for in America. After saying our goodbye we set off though, but we made a bit of a detour on the way back.
There's a primary school called Mwiko that sits right next to the Virunga Lodge, a hotel with views you pay $700 a night for. So the setting is good. It takes about 30 minutes of very, very slow driving with a few feet of clearance on either side of the truck between you and a couple thousand feet drop off the hill. The bright side of this is that the views are absolutely stunning - there's a lake, a volcano, and plenty of hills all set out in front of you. You also get to look at the clouds from about eye level.
The difficulty of the drive illustrates the biggest problem the school faces, its total isolation. Mwiko is extremely poor and extremely poorly supplied. Some of the teachers end up working for free, which is truly amazing. Seems unlikely for that to happen in America. If the drive up is hard, imagine what it's like for the hundreds of students and teachers who make the journey every day - on foot. One teacher I met said he walked an hour every morning and an hour every night between home and school. The dedication everyone shows is incredible. We arrived to the sight of about 300 students crowding the road waving at us in greeting... visitors are just as rare as supplies here. I observed an English class where everything had been in French until the start of the year (including the teacher's education). So a teacher who doesn't really speak English himself is trying to meet the new requirement to teach in English. Not an ideal situation, but once again, impressive dedication.
After a brief time with some of the students we needed to leave already in order to get some lunch at a reasonable time. As we were getting ready to leave, the whole school assembled and sang the school song and a welcoming song to us. A couple students danced in front of the rest of the kids as they sang, and the whole thing was awesome. When the second song started, the little 8 year old kid who was sort of leading the dance ran over to me and pulled me over to dance with him. My skills in traditional African dance are fairly lacking, and I think all 300 students present got a lot of enjoyment out of it. It's a pretty fair exchange, though, because it was definitely one of my favorite moments so far on the trip.
After we successfully navigated our way back down the mountain we started the lengthy drive back to Kigali, where I'm typing from now. I loved the countryside of Rwanda, but I'm definitely a city person. It feels like this is where all the action is happening; it's the place where I really get the feel for what's going on in Rwanda right now. We also have consistent internet, hot water, and comfortable beds.
It's good to be back.
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