adventures on the low seas
Since we started our internship, Matt and I have been working on a comprehensive policy document that incorporates different aspects of good governance in Rwanda and informs institutions of their responsibilities for implementing various policy actions. We put together a draft of the document and annexes and on Tuesday we presented our work to dozens of policy makers. This was a task that normally would make me want to flee the country. I hate public speaking; it really freaks me out. But lucky for me, and my bosses, I had a lot of practice with this kind of policy presentation during my second semester at Pepperdine. The strategy class taught Professor Shires eradicated all of my fears of public speaking because of the many presentations we gave during the semester. Despite the large amount of people, the lack of chairs, no water, and stuffy room, Matt and I conducted a stress-free 40 minute presentation and received praise afterward. I felt like we really accomplished something significant, especially since we were just interns. Also, bonus ego points for us because there were a few other interns in the crowd who had to attend a meeting conducted by other interns.
The next day we took it easy and went on a little road trip. Matt and I traveled west to the town of Kivuye located on the coast of Rwanda’s largest lake, Lake Kivu. The lake is 800 meters deep and very blue. It is littered with small volcanic islands that are home to domesticated goats and cows as well as wild monkeys. About half of the lake is in Rwanda and the other half is in Congo (because we wanted to return to America in one piece, we stayed on the Rwandan side). Our driver David took us to a beautiful resort called Bethanie located at the foot of the lake. It looked empty and we only saw a handful of visitors at the restaurant. We walked down the steps and met the local band of boat captains who immediately began to fight over our business. One said he would take us out for two hours for 20,000 RwF and another guy offered a three hour ride for that price. Finally, we settled with the first guy who agreed to match the three hours and to show us one of the islands.
We walked down to the boat. Wow. It was a wooden boat with a white tarp that provided shade. There was a hole in the floor boards and water entered the boat. So far so good. In the boat there was a sign that disturbingly read “DON’T WORRY” in crude blue paint. We were given life preservers and we joked that they must have been filled with sand. The captain, who we referred to as Captain Wayne Brady due to his striking resemblance to the comic, slowly took us out to the middle of the lake. Somehow, the boat didn’t sink and we began to see more of the lake. The lake was so vast and open that we saw the faint outline of Congo 60 kilometers from our boat. We made our way to a large island whose peak was taller than any other island on the lake. It was very green and had a rocky shoreline. Other smaller islands were adjacent to this large one.
Captain Brady tied the boat down to a tree and we went ashore. Neither Matt or I expected much from this trip so we were surprised when the Captain and David said that we were going on a hike to the summit of the island. I was totally good with this because I put on sunscreen, had a hat on, brought a change of clothes, and wore hiking shoes. Matt, however, was wearing a dress shirt, moccasins, and no socks. It was embarrassing. But he agreed to go and we began the hike.
The path took us up the side of the island and past thick trees. We heard weird screeching sounds coming from the branches and we soon found out we were not alone. Little did we know, but this island was home to thousands of bats. So to our surprise, when Captain Brady began to make loud noises with his plastic water bottle and throw rocks into the trees, a storm of bats flew out over our heads. They were pretty mad too; imagine your just chilling out, upside, being a bat, sleeping, whatever. Then some jerk starts making loud noises; you wake up, and you’re like “what the… keep it down!” and then all of the sudden a freaking rock twice your size comes flying through your house and almost kills your bat wife. Now you (and your 3,000 neighbors) flip out and fly out of your bat homes and into the bright light, which only further angers you. Well that’s pretty much what happened. For us, it was quite an amazing sight!
We continued past the bats and got to the top of the island. We had a 360 degree view of the lake and proceeded to take pictures of the amazing sight. We stayed on the summit for a while to take in the sights and catch our breath. From the top we saw a farmer tending to some cattle on the other side of the island. We were told that these cows actually swim from island to island in search of grass to graze on. We climbed back down and got back on the boat. Captain Brady took us out to the smaller islands and we saw, and scared away, some of the bird life living on the lake. We went by this island that Matt and I dubbed “Monkey Island” for its supposed wild monkeys that you had to pay to see and that no one ever saw. We also saw an island that was home to domestic goats that we named “Brochette Island”.
We continued back to the resort and saw other resorts and homes that were located on the edge of the lake. For such a beautiful and large lake, there are very few resorts. We passed a canoe carved from wood with metal and plastic patches where the holes were. The fishermen on board were weaving their own net and one of them climbed on board our boat. We slowly passed the canoe and made it back to the dock. Our boat trip ended and we went to the restaurant. One and a half hours later we got our food, ate, and left to pick up a group we came with that had to attend a day-long meeting.
It turned out that this group did not have lunch, so we returned to the resort and waited for them. This time we were out in 30 minutes after we warned the group of the terrible service. We got to see the sun set over the lake, which was quite a treat. We finally head back to Kigali around 6:30 PM and made it back home around 10:00 PM. Lake Kivu is a beautiful place that I hope to see again before we leave.
Tomorrow is 4th of July, which is also Rwandan Liberation Day, so it should be an interesting experience to celebrate Independence Day at the US Embassy and Liberation Day later in the afternoon.
