Weekend Adventures

It was another weekend filled with new adventures.  Just when I thought it would be very quiet, Emmanuel offered to take me to see the rock that commemorates the meeting of Stanley and Livingstone.   This is south of the city but not too far.  It is, as named, a rock.

Emmanual at the Stanley / Livingston rock

  However it is at the edge of a beautiful inspiring plain, very fertile land, not far off from Lake Tanganyika. Bujumbura is a rapidly expanding city and there are many new 'quarters' (neighbourhoods) being built to house the ever increasing population.  As I looked over the beautiful plain, there are the scars of new roads being built for new residences.

 Emmanuel said that the Belgians had protected the plain but no more.  They admittedly did not have the pressure of exploding population Ina tiny land mass.

After eating another goat kabab, we returned to the city and looked for hippos.  I saw a glimpse of one In the lake but it submerged before I could take a picture.  We returned later I the early evening but they darn animals were not cooperative.  Instead, we ate the little fish that are native to the lake.

These tiny fish were incredibly tasty! Easpceially with the Amstel...

Evening fishing on the lake.

We also drove to the order of DRC.   The road there is atrocious on the Burundi side and is being worked on slowly to bringitto the minimum status required of the Great Lake countries (Rwanda, DRC and Burundi).  The border crossing makes the crossings into Mexico look sophisticated.

Very skinny cows on the road to DRC

There are vendors on the road side, on the Burundi side, shacks which are the immigration and customs offices, and a rackety gate.  Lots of police.  We walked a cross the little creek to the DRC side where Emmanuel introduced me as a Canadian.  The DRC agent asked where my visa was.... Emmanuel suggested later that greasing the palms with a little cash would have worked too!

What surprised me was the buildings and landscape on the DRC side.  They were well constructed, clean, not filled with vendors and landscapes as cared for and maintained.  If we were to run a parallel, Burundi side was Mexico and DRC side was like the United States.

Sunday, we went to the centre of Burundi, to Gitega, to an end of mourning ceremony for Anselme's mother in law, who had passed away.  This involved a Roman Catholic church service with a bit of a memorial! and incredible singing.  It was followed with and short gathering with drinks (Amstel, coke, Fanta) and the donation of envelopes to support the costs of the whole process.   There wasa huge crowd there, and I was the only Mzugo.  (However, there was one other person with vitiligo!).