While in Kinigi to see the gorillas we met Albert, his wife Jill and daughter Savannah. They were showing Albert's mum and dad about. Albert worked in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) for Mercy Mission as a water engineer but lived in Rwanda at Gisenyi which is a few kilometres from the DRC border town of Goma. Albert invited us to contact them when we got to Gisenyi so we did. We met for a drink and a pizza snack at their friend's restaurant on the lake.
We stayed in a guesthouse that looked like it had been decorated in the 70 s. We were the only guests and the place was on the side of a hill overlooking the lake and town. The town was a dusty place with potholed roads and only one sealed road in the shopping area near the market, and it had only been put down a couple of months ago.
The peninsula in the photo is actually in the DRC. We could see planes coming and going from the airport in Goma several times a day.
We didn't have a map of the town so just wandered around the lake front where children were swimming and families sitting under the trees. There were some luxury hotels along the waterfront where the rich Rwandans like to come and relax away from the diesel fumes of Kigale.
Lake Kivu is one of only three known 'exploding lakes' caused by limnic eruptions; exploding underwater methane pushes a huge cloud of CO2 above the surface of the lake. It triggers a tsunami and the carbon dioxide, being heavy, sits on the water surface or ground causing animals and people to asphyxiate. In the middle of the lake is a methane extraction plant. This is piped out of the lake and some of it is used to power the boilers at the Bralirwa Brewery. In theory the use of methane gas for electricity could increase Rwanda's energy production by 2000% and allow it to export some to its neighbours.
The electricity was erratic all the time we stayed and it rained on and off. One day the rain was so heavy we had to get pots from the kitchen and put them under the leaks in our room and in the lounge. One bedroom completely flooded.
From our patio we could see the Nyriagongo volcano in the DRC, in the day it would let off a steady puff of steam and at night there was a large glowing red ball. I tried several times to photograph it but there was too much cloud or rain. The volcano erupted in 2002 and buried much of Goma in the DRC in lava. With so much volcanic activity the soil is pretty fertile and every where where crops can be grown they are thriving.
We watched this sign go up from our patio.
These guys worked all day digging sand silt from the river and tossing spadefuls onto the bank, while others then shovelled it onto the back of a truck. It was taken around the corner to where they were building a large two storied building near the hospital. We could hear lots of cheering and chanting and saw lines of men and women passing cement in trays, made from plastic jerry cans cut in half, up to the top of the building. This went on for two days and the singing and chanting motivates them to get the tedious job done quickly, even in the rain. No truck pours here.
We were quite a walk from the town centre so had to hire motorbike taxis to get us to and from the bus station with our bags but we were lucky enough to be next door to a nice hotel where we could eat reasonably priced meals in the evening and enjoy the night lights of Gesenyi.
