Visiting Patrick

If you have been following my blog, then you probably remember reading about my one of my first friends Patrick (aka Soda) who went away to school.

Well yesterday me and my four muzungu friends, along with a Rwandese friend, went to visit him!! And boy was it an adventure!

It was quite cold and very rainy when we first arrived at the bus park to meet Jean Paul. We then walked to find our bus that would be taking us to our destination. We found our small bus and all crammed inside. Luckily it didn’t fill up completely so we had more room than you usually would on these buses. We said a quick prayer for safety and we were on our way!

As we were driving we all were enjoying the amazing view outside the city heading south. Nicole was trying to capture every beautiful mountain but the roads were so bad and the bus so small that we literally were being rocked every other second. We all couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at how hard it was trying to get pictures. Lots were blurry and lots looked the same but we managed! I eventually had to stop because my seat wasn’t even bolted to the bottom of the bus. Once the man beside me got off the bus - every time we turned or the weight shifted I would feel the chair lift, fall to the right, and laugh with Jean Paul who was sitting beside me.

We got to the school and I was so happy to see Patrick walking towards me. He showed us around the school and told me how he was doing and we decided to get some Fantas. It was quite a mission because his school is Adventist and almost all the shops were closed since it was their Sabbath. We finally found a little shop where we could get some drinks and played some cards. They taught us one of their games and in return we taught Jean Paul and Patrick how to play spoons but with bottlecaps.

On the way home we decided to get a bigger bus to have a bit of a nicer ride home. (It ended up taking us 2 hours and 30 minutes in total). It was a little less bumpy but this time the back hatch of the bus kept opening and sent people’s luggage flying out the back. At one point all you could hear was Nicole yelling “stop the bus!!!” when the man ran back to collect the missing things he came back on to ask if anyone’s phone was missing… Sure enough Nicole checked her pockets and somehow her phone had fallen on the ground and out the back of the bus. At another point in our journey we stopped to let a few people off and the back hatch was open. We were all sitting and talking when all of the sudden Nicole felt someone grab her leg! She yelped and turned around to see one of the men laughing! Needless to say Maddy and I had our legs up as far from the back for the rest of the journey.

Well…We bought some pineapple (which is the BEST here!) on the way home, hit up some stores for chocolate, and some chips to have a movie night. All in all it was a very adventurous and fun day!