Tragedy

As my days are running out, we decided it would be nice to spend one more day in Gisenyi swimming in the lake. We got corn on the way to keep us going - so much tastier in this country... I'm going to attempt to barbecue some when I get home and see if I can recreate it!

Unfortunately when we arrived at the lake one of the beaches was roped off and we started to suspect that something wasn't quite right. When we got to Serena hotel we were told that we weren't allowed to swim in the lake because a boat travelling from the Congo had sunk and they were looking for bodies which were being washed up everywhere. I looked it up and a passenger boat, must likely overfilled so it could take more money from people, and not in a good state of repair had gone down in Lake Kivu (you can see the border from the beach we were on.) Tragically there were over hundred bodies missing - only 37 were rescued... I imagine these were the only ones who could swim, or who maybe found something to cling to - so few people here have learnt to swim, even the ones who live by a lake.

So suddenly we were looking at the view that was so beautiful last week imagining bodies being washed up on the beach, and feeling very sad for all the families that went down, and we decided we didn't really want to say there. We all fell asleep by the pool at the hotel for a while, and then went down the road to get a fresh fish for lunch.

Things change in twelve years. Twelve years ago I distinctly remember a fish arriving with its head and tail on and Pam having hysterics, hardly eating a mouthful and then sloping off to the car for a Mars bar. This time she tucked in, picked the fish off the bone, and even had a conversation with the head of the fish. We ate a whole two plates of this between 3 of us, just using our hands. It was delicious, though I found out today, may not have actually been caught in lake Kivu - many are imported!

As we hadn't had a swim in the lake, we went to Hotel Fatima when we got home, and actually it was an incredible experience, because we happened to be swimming at the same time that a flock of swifts were having their evening bathe! They kept swooping down and skimming their bodies along the surface of the water  and then sitting on a wire and fluffing the water through their feathers! It was like being in a 4-D David Attenborough documentary as they swooped towards your head, then veered off just before they hit you! It cheered us up a bit after the emotional morning.