Travels and adventures to finish the year and ring in the new one

Friday Dec. 19th I traveled to Kigali and stayed with a friend. Saturday, we went to Gisenyi, a town on the lake in the north by the Ugandan and Congo border. We stayed at a beautiful hotel that night, my room was a circular room that looked like a little hut and it had its own bathroom with hot water. We went out to a bar Saturday night that had a pool and we all jumped in! Sunday, we took a boat out to an island to hang out and we floated in the water with the life jackets and swam to another island. I was the first to get there and they all said it was cause I was white and all white people know how to swim well. We came back to Kigali Sunday evening. I went to the airport on the 23rd to catch my flight to South Africa, only to be told that my flight had been cancelled and I needed to go back into the city to the office to change my flight. The alternative flight for that day was already booked, so I had to wait for the next flight on Christmas Eve. So I had to call my friend and ask if I could stay with him another night. We had a fun night and I got to the airport again the next day. I was sitting waiting to board and the time to board passed, the time my flight was supposed to take off passed and finally a half hour after I was supposed to take off, we started to board. It was a short 2 hour flight on a plane with propellers and they fed me! I was shocked that they gave food on a 2 hour flight. I got into Nairboi with less than an hour to catch my next flight, so I quickly hit the rest room, and then went to the transfer desk where the guy helping me gave a short surprised “eh!” when he saw what flight I was on. He called the flight to make sure I could make it and called and told someone my baggage claim number. I came into gate 1 and left from gate 12!!! Had to run all the way down the airport. I sat for about 3 minutes before we started boarding. I watched a movie and had a delicious vegetarian Indian dinner. I arrived in Jozi after midnight and we just went straight to ryan’s house. His house is awesome, big cushy couches, big flat screen tv with satellite, big hot showers, flushing toilets, washer and dryer and a fridge and microwave. I like the first world. We went to his uncle’s holiday house just outside the city on the river and swam in the pool and bbq’d and sun tanned, it was great! One of his friends came on Christmas day in the afternoon and we all had some drinks and food and then went to bed really early. The next morning, I woke up early and called my mom and realized that the friend wasn’t there. I woke up ryan and told him the friend wasn’t in the other room and he got up and saw that his car wasn’t there, so he texted him to ask where he was and we got a call from a relative that he was in the hospital. He decided to go home that night and flipped his car and ended up flying out the back window and got pinned underneath his car. He broke his knee and got pretty bruised and scratched, but the worst was when he was under the car, the engine burned him. He had 3rd degree burns from the middle of his back all the way down his thigh. We went to see him Sunday as we drove back. He had surgery on his knee and is waiting to get a skin graft. Ryan had to work Monday, so I slept in and then watched hours and hours of TV. Tuesday was pretty much the same story. Wednesday I went to work with him and spent hours and hours on the internet. Thursday I went to work with him again, but it was only a half day so we left early and went to the post office to pick up my Christmas box from mom. I opened it and unwrapped all my gifts in the car! We went to the mall so I could buy a pretty outfit for new years and while shopping someone stole my wallet. I went to pay and it wasn’t there. Had my driver’s license, American credit card and all the $200 that I exchanged. Crap way to start the New Year. We went to one of his friends houses for a pre-funk and then over to another friends where I had margaritas!!! Haven’t had those in a year! Friday, New Years day, we drove back out to the dam and 3 friends came with with their pug! Such a cute dog! We swam and drank and drove out to a little country village type thing with crafts shops and such. Wish I had some money at that point cause there were some cool things. I ruled at beer pong and we set up the basketball hoop next to the dug in trampoline (it was flush with the ground). It was the type of hoop where you put sand or water into the base to stabilize it, but I guess no one put anything in it cause when I went to dunk, I held on and the hoop came with me! Good thing I was on the trampoline cause I just landed softly on the tramp and the hoop extended over the tramp and landed on the grass.

The only way I knew I was still in Africa were the random goats and cows crossing the roads, including the highways! Another strange thing: they have grocery stores in the malls!