It had actually been on my mind for weeks now - Bujumbura and especially Tanganyika were too much of drag-names for me to pass on seeing them. And finally last Friday afternoon, after another crazy week, I got together with my Kenyan friend Beth and a new house mate from England - Katy - and started on the long journey south. There we were going to meet a Romanian (clujean, even) guy who works in Congo, and who was going to cross into Buja was well, and this Libyan guy who was flying in from Kigali. I was so tired that all I wanted to do was get great weather, lie at the beach, and sip expensive cocktails.
As luck has it, the day we drove south through extremely lush, green countryside, we ended up in this tornado-look-alike storm, so the first impressions on the shores of Tanganyika were - well, sort of like flooded Musanze. I could not believe I was still wearing my rain gear, instead of some beautiful beach attire. In any event, the welcome was glorious: Stefan, the Romanian guy, was a gracious host (with whom I also bonded immediately - fascinating, actually, to be able to speak your own language and make the same kind of stupid jokes after sooo much time). Later in the night, Issam, the Libyan, also showed up, with a ...shisha. He carried the pipe on the plane (!) and here we were, smoking ourselves into oblivion at the beach - mostly to warm up, actually.
The next day, Buja yielded sun and beautiful waves - so here I was, taking a dip into the world's second deepest lake (for the first, I'll have to go all the way to Siberia...) I started the day with an $8 mojito at the beautiful beach lounge Bora-Bora, and then I joined the group at Club du Lac Tanganyika, for a glamorous day at the pool. Kir Royal never tasted better, actually, than when accompanied by mint shisha and hot weather. Truly bubbly I was :-) I had indeed been given what I had hoped for: lazy day, beautiful weather, exclusive drinks. So mzungu-style, of course; but well, now-and-then this must also be sought after... Who would have thought that I would have my most glamorous, decadent Africa moments in tiny, poor Burundi...
Unfortunately it all lasted too short. The trip back was quit uneventful (OK, apart from 1) the fact that I almost got arrested for taking a picture of Stefan in front of the market (!), and 2) an accident we were in, but when you see how they drive over there, I consider myself lucky to only have been involved in something without human victims...)) To make time pass faster on the bus - I helped Beth undo her hundreds of braids - and I was even GREAT at it! (Next step - to have the guts to have some braided on my own head...)
After coming back, of course, nothing settled down: the first morning I spent with the gorillas and the second I traveled to Congo (and I swam for the first time in Kivu Lake, on the Congolese side). I am now dead tired, with a million deadlines pounding on me. But when I look out of the window of our fantastic villa, right onto the lake, I am just HAPPY :-)
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