Back to Kigali in Time for Lisa's Birthday Dinner

We left the resort on Sunday afternoon and headed back to Kampala (this time Mark and I were in the same car). We spent the night again with Lyn and I went back to Matoke Inn this morning to wait for the same taxi driver, Godfrey, to take us to the airport. Mark took a Boda-boda taxi (motorcycle) to the other side of town to meet with Chad who worked on the design and site plan of the college. Mark wanted to talk with him about the possibility of the college being required to buy more land and how that would affect the current plans. Mark said in the end they probably could have communicated just as easily over email but it was good to talk face to face anyway. Besides it gave Mark an adventure on the Boda-Boda and an opportunity for him to buy my birthday present.

After lunch at Matoke Inn, Mark and I were picked up by Godfrey and we headed off to Entebbe to the airport. We got there, again, too early, but we walked around a bit and got a drink and walked around a bit – the airport is not much bigger than Long Beach airport so there’s not much place to walk around… We kept watching the screen for our flight but mysteriously, it never showed what gate we were to wait at or what time boarding was to take place. Eventually, the news came over the loud speaker that the plane arriving from Kigali was delayed and they would let us know when our flight would board. So, we waited, and waited and waited. Finally they told us to go gate 2 (there are only 4 gates) where we went through security. We were ushered into a waiting room where we waited and waited… Finally, our plane arrived from Kigali and they loaded us up. It was the same plane that took us to Kampala but this time it was almost full. We took off over an hour late. The hour flight was uneventful. We were served drinks and cashews. Gilles and Zawa Bonvallat picked us up at the airport in Kigali.

When we got home we changed and headed out for dinner for my birthday. We decided to go to a Greek restaurant. After driving around a bit, we finally found it. It was very nicely decorated inside and looked very Mediterranean. We opted to sit outside on the veranda overlooking the city. The tables were set with cloth tablecloths and napkins, a silk rosebud and a candle. There were 2 forks, 3 knives and a spoon at each place! I think we used the correct utensil for the correct part of the meal! We decided to get fried cheese for a starter, hoping it was like the ‘Greek Cheese’ we used to get at the “Greek Club” in Bunia but it wasn’t the same. It was tasty anyway. We also got a greek salad which was similar to the salad they served in Bunia. For the main meal I got a beef kabob that was served with a pita bread and dipping sauce (similar to the sauce they serve at Daphne’s only better) and French fries. Mark got a “Prince George Steak” which was a steak with mushroom sauce. His also came with French fries. Both of our meals were really, really good! Mark got an chocolate ice cream sundae for dessert and I got a pot of coffee. We shared. It was a very nice birthday dinner but we wished we could have shared it with more family...

For my gift Mark found me a book on Birds in East Africa which covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. It has lots of drawings of birds and descriptions to help me identify the ones I see here. We had a similar book in Kenya but we lost it on one of our trips – we think it must have fallen out of the car at one of our stops. I’m not very good at identifying birds but when I do figure out one, I write in the book where and when I saw it.

It was very nice to talk to family on my birthday over Skype. When the internet is working well, Skype is amazing. We are so blessed to feel so connected to family!