Sunday, July 26, 2015

This morning about 3:30 am I woke up to the sound of a loud argument between a man and a woman. The argument went on in several languages, including occasionally in English, I guess because both of them wanted the entire world hear their side. What I heard in English was the woman screaming,"Give me my money!", and the man saying,"Get out!". I also heard snippets in French that sounded like, "Shut your mouth", and "I don't want to talk to you". The whole thing went on for nearly an hour. Fortunately for me, I had to get up early anyway to get ready for this bus trip. So just a few minutes ago, while I was waiting in the lobby for my ride, I saw a middle aged man leave with his luggage in a large SUV, and a few minutes later a young woman leaving with no luggage. 
Mind you, counting travel hours that way is a bit misleading since the 40-60 hours includes about 7 hours at a hotel. Which is where I am right now, with internet connection, a working shower, and drinking cold water supposedly bottled from the 'Source of the Nile' (in fact on the bottle label, 'Source of the Nile' is actually in quotes).

Kigali is in fact in the Nile watershed, and somewhat close to the source, so I suppose a water bottling company could make that argument. In any case, the bus that I get on tomorrow morning, will wind its way through the mountains towards the border, and at somewhere in Nyungwe National Park will cross over from the Nile to the Congo watershed. Interesting thing about Rwanda and Burundi, that both countries sit atop the divide between two of the most important watersheds in Africa. One wonders how that geography is linked to the history of this part of the world.
13 minutes 6 seconds, airport entrance to departure gate. Pearson airport, terminal 3.

Today I head  back to Congo. Just got back this morning from a GIS conference, which was great, and this afternoon I'm at the airport again. So I don't know how to count my journey. When does one trip end and the next begin? And yes, I do mean that in both the existential sense as well as the time keeping sense. Numbers-wise it doesn't make that much difference. If I count from now til I reach my real destination in Congo, it's about a 45 hour trip. If I count since I left the conference last night til I reach Congo it's probably more like a 60 hour trip. This is totally OK, because I got to go to an excellent conference where I learned a tonne, and now I get to visit a really beautiful part of the planet which is the Congo Basin. Everyone should do it.