Today is Saturday, February 7^th it’s 7am, we’ve been up…well, let’s just say most of the night, lol. We left the Accord hotel yesterday about 930am, late start to say the least. By the time we reached the border it was almost 3:30pm. Our driver, Theo’s phone wasn’t going through so we kind of just waited around, got our exit stamps and then we were greeted by a young man named Levi. He said he was the one waiting for us to take us to Uvira. The guards wouldn’t let any one car go across the border so we hired a bike pusher or a ‘kinga’ to take some of the luggage and we all walked across with the rest of the bags. Upon saying goodbye to our driver Joseph, we tried to pay him another installment but he wanted more money, so sadly we said we would just give what we owe to his boss upon our return. It was upsetting because we really got to know him over our 6-hour drive and shared stories etc… We will most likely take a bus on our way back as we won’t have as many bags and we will be in no rush.

 

Once we crossed the border it was more or less smooth sailing to the Fizi hotel, it took just under 2 hours of driving that would bring my mom to her knees lol. With the occasional stop for roasted corn and bananas to help with our hunger, it was a straight shot. Oh, and we had to pass through a river- literally through a river lol, not over a bridge.

 

As soon as we got to the hotel I asked for some hot water, Rocco and I shared a cup of noodle and showered (with cold bucket water!) and fell asleep. Ethan and Kaka went downstairs and waited about two hours for fish and foo foo. Once he came to the room we were out cold, all three of us. Until about 2am….then the electricity went out which means the fan went which means we all started sweating throught the sheet. So Ethan got up to open some windows (we were securely under the one mosquito net!), and the rain started down. It was pouring, thundering, lightening, we all woke up including Rocco. We watched a bit of the storm show then fell back asleep till about 3:30am when a very loud car pulled up off the main highway and started yelling, music blaring etc. We had a laugh and summed it up….T.I.A (this is Africa). Not even 20 minutes later Ethan jumped up in a fright and turned on his flood light only to find a cockroach about three inches long- 3 INHCES, that was IN OUR BED! He felt it crawling on him and well; let’s just say its life was short lived after that. Rocco and I have been up since just before 6am and we are awaiting hot water so mom can have some coffee before getting our day, i.e., long journey part two, started!

 

The boat will leave later this afternoon and arrive in Kalemie tomorrow early morning, around sunrise.  Today is a lot of organizing, admin computer work!

 

And as I sit here looking out into the streets of Uvira, smelling the rainy wet streets and surrounding fires burning, I can’t be any happier to be exactly right here, right now. 

-k