noheliz nziza

I'm back from Christmas in Gisenyi. The 3.5 hour ride turned into over 7 because for some reason Jean likes to drive very slow and will just randomly stop for a minute on the rode. What would happen if people did that on the rode in America? Anyway...Here are the things I did this weekend

+ spent the weekend at a nunnery in the north east part of Rwanda, 10 minutes from the border with Congo (the safe border)
+ swam in Lake Kivu several times
+ went to Congo for all of an hour (10 country stamps in the passport now) - definitely worth the $30 for the visa
+ rode on the back of a moped to get back to the border for my ride
+ took a boat ride to a hot spring that is so hot the water boils as it goes to the lake and villagers cook their food but just sticking it in the puddles - it comes from the volcano that erupted 4 years ago.
+ had a Christmas day service with the nuns - no Christmas Eve service
+ no presents for Christmas but I gave some to my family - the only ones they got.
+ saw my family get about 100 text messages on their cell phones - the way people say merry Christmas here - I even got one.
+ got called muzungu more times than I can count but at least there were no marraige proposals
+ got cookies for breakfast - definitely making up for any missed meals this past week


Now it is back to work and my surveys and preparing for the big Christmas/New Years service at Solace on Sunday. I also get extensions put in my hair tomorrow so I don't have to wash it anymore. I take cold showers here with the water coming from a faucet about waist high which is not conducive to hair washing.