Day 5

Taking some fun snaps!!



Who would have ever thought, judging by the pictures, that we were at a lake!?!? It looks so much like the beach! Lake Kivu was interesting in it's own way, words can't really describe what this place felt like. I think the words "eerie" and "illusive" come to mind, but I don't quite know. Lake Kivu kind of felt like an abandoned haven. It was a beautiful location, beautiful weather, but so serene and so very quiet. Some people who have gone there before have told me that they felt the same way, so I don't quite know. It also didn't help that the Congolese border and Congolese city Goma was only 1/2 a mile away and the only vehicles that passed us were Aid workers and army patrols. We decided to go for a walk to see what all the commotion was about and we ended up walking to the Congolese border. It's strange because if you hadn't have read the news, you wouldn't have known that there was war happening just on the other side. We decided that our adventure was a noble one, but our lives were much more valuable. We decided to stop at a posh ( Gem's phrase) hotel to eat breakfast as our options were quite limited. We were once again surrounded by French Aid workers talking on their cellphones and trying to connect to the internet. Let's just say that it was a surreal experience. You hear about these things happening on television, but you never imagine that you'll be in the heat of it. I think we were still there in the beginning stages of the outbreak, so we were relatively safe. The afternoon was spent lounging in the sun. Glorious.

In the evening we finished off our day with a 5 course dinner at the Serena hotel. We kind of made an executive decision and opted for a nice dinner as we were feeling a bit odd from our experiential (?) day . While seated at dinner, I saw an umbrella, bright lights, a news reporter and a camera man on a far porch. Gemma didn't believe me that they were actually filming a live television report, but later our "argument" was settled. Two Channel 4 reporters approached us and asked us some questions. They were just making conversation of course, but they were curious. Were we coming from Goma or were we on our way to Goma?!? When we informed them that it was neither, they kind of gave us a blank stare and just laughed. What could we do?!? We decided to laugh along with them, because honestly, who comes to vacation so close to a raging war?!?!

Our evening ended by entering our $3-a-night dorm and finding every other bed in the room filled with female Congolese refugees. That's when it really hit home for me. Incredible.