Burundi break

22nd October -25th October

Thursday

Trainings are up and running or rather I’ve given out the letters, made countless telephone calls and will basically see who turns up now. I’ve grouped the schools into 3 clusters with my model school being used as the training centre so it’s not too far for the neighbouring schools to travel to. I submitted the proposal and budget today for the 9 sessions and I’ve also said I’d help Amy who’s planned 3 days in Nyaruguru district- it’s about a 2 hour ride on the moto but worth travelling to the far away schools as they’re often forgotten about and value the input, which makes it all worthwhile.


So where am I? Been a while since I wrote anything or rather was able to post…Someone at the district had ‘forgotten’ to pay the internet bill so just getting it where I can…Anyway, from what I can remember, the evening before our Bujumbura trip we decided to spend at the British Embassy- at 750 francs (about 80p) we just couldn’t resist a few glasses of red. Lots of familiar faces had the same idea and it was a merry evening

 
 
 


Friday Bujumbura
Why do we always do that, I mean drink before a big trip. We tumbled into a taxi around 7.30am and headed for the chaos of Nyabugogo bus park...After a long wait, our massive ‘Gaagaa’ coach comes careering round the corner finally at 9.15…Completely chocca with people and their wares we were actually lucky to have got on. It had come from Kampala so was full of huge cellophane-wrapped parcels containing anything from plastic sandals to PVC window frames…

We spent most of the journey in Rwanda..If we’d travelled through Nymaata which starts from Kigali, it’s the opposite and we kind of wish we’d taken that option . Not only was the journey very windy but because it was travelling from Uganda the customs stop was thorough to say the least.

Anyway, we finally arrived in Bujumbura around 4pm and after a bit of a tussle at the reception desk finally negotiated $25 each per night in the bungalows at Karera beach. Another group of friends had stayed last week and had recommended them as they were situated right on the beach. In fact they were very luxurious. We had 2 of them, each with 2 bathrooms complete with kitchenette and TV as standard. Nice.

Straight out to the bar on Bora bora beach where we had dinner and a few glasses.

The next day we treated ourselves to a huge buffet breakfast before lounging around the pool at Lake Tankanika Hotel. We tried to get away with not paying the surcharge for the sunbeds (weren’t they included with the breakfast?) Anyway, after a sneaking away, back to Bora bora bar we thought we’d got away with it so were a little embarrassed when we were tracked down by the manager of the hotel for the money owing.

The trip was too short. Burundi is definitely less developed than Rwanda, there's still a large UN presence and many empty derelict buildings. Wish we'd had more time to travel around...