Lake Kivu!! and goodbye Rwanda

Oh my gosh, we had the perfect last day in Rwanda. We woke up really early, packed our vans, and drove from Butare to Kibuye. The drive was absolutely beautiful, as usual, and it was so fun just listening to my ipod and thinking about everything that has happened in the past month. The only bad part was being totally squished into the van and sitting in a seat that wasn't even meant to be a seat. But even that was funny, and we all bonded because we were so uncomfortable haha.
So we got to Kibuye, and we went right to our beautiful guesthouse that was right on the lake. The lake is seriously awesome. It is one of the deepest lakes in the world, and it is really the most beautiful one I have seen in my life! Our rooms were really nice too, but of course there was no running water, haha. After we explored a little, we decided to hop on this tiny motorboat and went to a tiny island in the middle of the lake where you can swim, play volleyball, and walk around a little. The boatride took a half hour, and the hole time I was contemplating whether I was going to swim in the water. Of course, the travel clinic nurses before I left told everyone that you will basically die if you swim in freshwater in Africa. But it just looked so inviting, so I decided to go in, haha. If I get shistomaisis or whatever that stupid parasite is that eats your brain, it will be worth it, haha, especially because you can just take antibiotics for six years and you will be totally fine. Of course, my feet really itched the night after we went swimming, and that is a symptom of the parasite trying to get in your blood. Oh well!
It was totally awesome, the water was the perfect temperature and it was soooo blue and gorgeous. I didn´t go too far out, but it was kind of hard to swim with all of the waves! A bunch of us tried to swim together to take a picture, but it was so hard to stay still. It was really funny! That is one of the most awesome memories ever too, it was just pure awesomeness! We took the boat back at sunset, and it looked like something out of National Geographic. I cannot even describe how beautiful it was. There were huge puffy clouds, and the sun was disappearing behind the mountains, which were part of the DRC. But don´t worry, it would be a three hour boatride to get to the DRC, so we weren´t too close and we were safe! But I do want to go there someday. I am going to sign up for Lingala next semester, which is the language they speak in the DRC. They offer it at UNC, yay! ps.There was also a wild cow walking around the island and a monkey tied to a string!
It really was a great end to Rwanda. I cannot even explain how I feel about that country. It is seriously such a wonderful place, and I really wish everyone could go there at some point in their lives. I learned more than I can even comprehend, about life and about the world in general. I have seen how absolutely wonderful, beautiful, and welcoming people can be, and at the same time I saw the effects of how absolutely horrible those same people can be. What happened in Rwanda was one of the worst tragedies in history, and everyone in the world needs to remember that. But it is amazing how far the country has come since 1994, and I hope that my blog has helped people see that, while the genocide is something that has to always be remembered, there is also so much more to Rwanda. It truly is a beautiful place.