Kibogora

My great aunt and uncle are in Rwanda and working at a missionary hospital in Kibogora.. The older kids were home from boarding school, so we all went to Kibogora for Easter weekend. It's on Lake Kivu and is shockingly gorgeous. 

The long car ride was eased by anti-motion sickness medication and an excellent playlist. My cousins are keeping me musically current because, goodness knows, I am so far out of the pop culture loop at this point. When I get home, it's gonna be like the opening scene of Mean Girls. Our major stop on the way there was at the only ice cream shop in Rwanda. It happens to be in Butare and right between us and Kibogora. Ice Cream? YES PLEASE.

This is the gorgeous house where we spent the weekend. The compound was made for missionaries who are working at the hospital, so there are many houses all with incredible views of the Lake. There are many gardens full of produce and herbs and guava trees abound.

Aunt Lydia and Uncle Bill brought us all chocolates for Easter from A Southern Season (I love that place), and I was greeted by this little pig cutie. It actually took me a while to eat it because it was just so adorable!

We had a swing outside.

 

I ate way more than my fair share of guavas. 

Some of them are super pink inside...

...and some are pure white. Both are delicious beyond words.

Saturday night, we were invited to join one of the missionary families who lives at Kibogora for movie night. I had never seen The African Queen, but my mother has often talked about it, and, given the high volume of old movies consumed at my house, it's a mystery to me why I never saw this one. An incredible dirty Humphrey Bogart rescues the tight-lace missionary Katharine Hepburn as the Germans are rounding up Africans to add to their World War I troops. Their escape plan is to float down the river on Bogart's boat, The African Queen. It's a classic, and you should all watch it if you haven't seen it already. I was mainly struck by how dirty and gross Humphrey Bogart is the whole time. I remember him as the suave, fedora-ed, nightclub owner of Casablanca. Let me tell you: this was nothing like that.

The missionary retreat center, Kumbya, is a short drive away from Kibogora, so I got to swim in Kivu every day and spend delightful hours soaking up as much African sun as possible. My great aunt and uncle brought over some of my grandmother's ashes, so we were able to have a small service to commit her ashes to the lake. It is a comfort to know that part of her earthly body has been given back to a place she loves so much. The water carried her back to Zaire. 

On our way back to Musanze, we were able to stop in Kigali and see a movie. This was very exciting for me because I so enjoy movies and haven't gone to see one since the summer. Bright lights, big city. I went with the older kids to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Basically, it was awesome. It was also refreshing to see so many things America to prepare me for my return.