Trip to Gisenyi- Gorillas next week!

This week has gone pretty slowly. Monday was a holiday because Rwanda was swearing in their president. Tuesday and Wednesday I was typing out midterm exams for the primary school, and Thursday the kids took exams all day. Thursday afternoon, I went to a local gorilla veterinary school, and talked to the lady who started the center. She’s an So far this week, I’ve been at the primary school teaching English, and helping teacher Peter with his Science lessons. Thursday was a very long, but action packed day that began at 5 am in the morning. Monique, Cat, and I got to school at 6, and I was given a Wisdom Primary School collar shirt by Elie, which I immediately put on for our school trip to Gisenyi. After I put my shirt on, I got on the bus and headed off to Gisenyi with the kids. The trip took an hour and a half to get there, and I sat with teacher Janette, who is very nice, and is originally from Uganda. The first stop on our trip was to Hotel Lake-Kivu Serena. There, the kids were shown around by hotel staff, and were told what everything was in hotel, including: reception desk, fitness center, meeting room, poop area, bar, bedrooms, and restaurant. It was interesting to see the kids’ reactions to seeing a vacuum cleaner, and a salt shacker for the first time. After we saw the hotel, we went to Bralirwa, in hopes of seeing how Primus, the local Rwandan beer, was brewed. Once we go there the man in charge of the brewery told Elie that we all couldn’t come in, so we left instead. Next we walked to the local docking area, where the Primus beer was shipped off on Lake Kivu to other areas. Lake Kivu has an area of 2,700 kilometers, and the majority of the Lake is owned by the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the dock, a marine guard talked to the kids about how he patrols the lake, which was quite interesting. After we heard about the boats, we headed off to the hot springs, which were near by, but we were only there for about ten minutes, because we were behind schedule. Then for lunch time we headed back to Lake Kivu and ate on the beach. One of the teachers piece of bread was stolen by a hungry kid watching us eat. There were lots of observers as we had a well-prepared picnic. I felt sorry for the starving people, but was told not to give them anything. After lunch, we went to the Grande Barriere, where the border between Rwanda and Congo is. We were allowed to go into the “no man’s zone” in-between the two, but weren’t allowed into the Congo, for obvious reasons. After this stop, we headed to Rwandan’s weather tracking place called Gisenyi aerodome. The kids saw all the weather instruments, and then we got back on the bus and headed back to Musanze. We got back at around 6:30, and were all exhausted! Today (Friday) I went to the deaf school, and taught English with Cat. It has been a good day so far. I booked my trip to see the mountain gorillas for next Wednesday, and I’m very excited!