New Year's on the Island of the Little Birds

Rebecca, Oren and David helping maneuver the dug out canoe in Lake Bunyoni.

Robin-chat, Common Bulbul, Yellow-backed weaver, Blue-headed coucal, Malachite kingfisher, Cinnamon-chested bee-eater… I watch as Rebecca, putting down her binoculars, reviews her check-list of birds she has seen or is on the look-out for.  This hobby can verge on an obsession when occasion permits.  The occasion that was permitting this indulgence was our sojourn (5 days) at Bushara Island Camp in Lake Bunyoni (Bunyoni translates ‘place of the little birds’). The lake is situated in the Southwestern corner of Uganda, just west of a town called Kabale, about 45 minutes past the Rwanda border.

We arrived actually about 9:30 pm on Tuesday night.  We had intended to arrive quite a bit earlier, having left Bujumbura about 8 am that morning.  We had heard about this hideaway ‘resort’ from some missionary friends as well as others in the past years.  It sounded like a perfect place, accessible by road, to get away for some comp time vacation. We estimated that the drive would be about 2 hours beyond a trip to Kigali that normally takes about 5 hours. We had not counted on unusually long border crossings which we did in fact encounter that day.

The first delay, at the border between Rwanda and Burundi, was typically and humorously African. This is a crossing we do once per month on the average and usually takes less than half an hour.  Things were going as usual upon our arrival, but at the last window where I needed to get a signature from the Rwanda customs officer to enter the country with my vehicle, I found the desk vacant.  I asked the immigration officer where the customs official went and after he made a brief call on his cell, he told me he had gone to a restaurant to get some food and would be back shortly.

I was not comforted by the assurance of a hasty return as, in my experience, one would use the same expression “shortly” whether the ETA was 10minutes or up to 2 days.  I knew for a fact that this Kirundo border is very remote and at least 25 kilometers from the nearest town with a restaurant.  I hoped he had not taken a bicycle taxi or hitch-hiked.  I was also a bit surprised because generally I have found the Rwandans to be quite efficient, usually doing better at ‘customer service’ than other countries.  I even noticed they had a little complaint-compliment-suggestion box next to the customs window.  After about 45 minutes of waiting I vented my passive-aggressive annoyance by ‘politely’ suggesting on one of the cards provided, that they have 2 customs officials working at the border so there could be a way to keep the border open during lunch hour (12-2).  No sooner had I written the note when a pick-up truck came speeding up to the border and 3 uniformed officials jumped out.  Lo and behold it was, in fact, the not 2 but 3 on-duty customs officials who had, quite naturally, gone to lunch together!  (Eating alone is terribly anti-social here.)  I mused that while it is easy to change structures within institutions, it is far more difficult to change the culture. We left the border about an hour behind schedule.

We headed to Kigali where we planned to meet up with Zachée, Bridget and Timmy, who were going to join us at the island.  We were hoping we would not be too late to connect with them.  We got to Kigali about 3:30 and they arrived about 10 minutes after us.  We continued north to the Rwanda-Uganda border, about 1 hour 45 minutes away.  I was hoping it would not be a problem to cross, as it is one we have not crossed before.  Things went smoothly but very slowly!  There was a great deal of replication in the paperwork and, in fact, at three entirely different desks I gave the identical detailed information about my truck including serial and engine block number.  (None of this is entered into a computer; everything is logged manually into very wide hand-drawn columned notebooks.)  I can’t imagine how this information is used, even to try to track down some information from a past date.  But everyone involved in the logging is dead-serious about meticulously performing their function, and do not seem in the least bit inquisitive about why they are doing their job, even when it replicates the exact information as the person in the office next to them.

We did finish the crossing in about an hour and a half and proceeded into Uganda.  The change is striking for several reasons.  Uganda is Anglophone so suddenly all the signage and billboards on the road are in English rather than French.  More importantly, you change the side of the road you are driving on (from right to left).  One would think this might have been easier for me since our jeep steering wheel is already on the right, but I had several moments of remembering that I was in the wrong when a double container truck was bearing down on me.

By this time it was after 7pm and we were driving in complete darkness.  I would have been considerably more worried if we were not driving behind Zachée and Bridget.  None of us really knew where we were going, but we had directions from MapQuest.  It was supposedly about an hour into Uganda.  

Driving after dark here is nothing like driving in the dark in the US.  There are no streetlights or really any electricity of any kind where we were, so it was really pitch black outside the range of our headlights.  We got to the town of Kabale, but after that, we had turn off the paved road onto a dirt road that went down to Lake Bunyoni.  There were very few signs, but we did eventually find our way to the edge of the Lake where the boats for Bushara Island docked.  We dropped off our many suitcases and parked the cars in a secure parking area provided nearby.

I was glad in some ways that they ran the boat after dark since we had no other place to stay, but I was nervous about going out on the inky black lake in a boat that looked like a largish canoe with a small outboard motor.  I wondered about its seaworthiness once loaded with 8 large suitcases, other bags, and seven passengers.  

We did get everything in and I was relieved to see that we did not sink the boat with our group. Just before we left, 5 more locals from the island joined us on the boat to the island.  All told, there were a dozen of us and 8 suitcases on the boat.  

The lake is the second deepest one in Africa, but unlike Lake Tanganyika (the deepest) the water is very placid, and we glided along in the light of the stars.  I am glad the driver knew where he was going because I could see virtually nothing.  In fact, after about 30 minutes the only sign of the dock we would arrive at was a single dim kerosene lantern.

Rebecca and I were not really aware that there was no electricity on the Island.  But when we arrived at the dock, what was lacking in light was made up for in hospitality.  About 10 of the hotel staff were there to greet us and carry all our bags up to the reception which was at the top of the hill on the island, about a quarter mile walk from the dock.  This was all done in kerosene lamp light.  We arrived to the reception pavilion with an awaiting fireplace, and hot dinner, as well as hot tea and cocoa.  The only thing missing was Mr. Roark saying “Welcome to Fantasy Island”.  

I should add that among the welcoming committee was fellow MCCer Jodi Mikalachki who had preceded us by about a week for some retreat time.  We all sat and had a nice curry dinner together then made our way to our ‘tents’ where we would stay for the night.  (The tents were large safari-style affairs that are set up under a thatched awning with a nice floor and 2 full-size beds inside.)  The only difficulty was that the tents are not particularly near the reception/restaurant pavilion, so we had to walk gingerly in extreme darkness, another quarter mile to the tent. Although we weren’t carrying bags, Rebecca was piggy-backing a sleeping Oren and David was perched on Paul’s back in the hiking backpack. Unpacking and getting ready for bed by candlelight was also a bit of a challenge.

One thing that was immediate apparent was that this is a chilly place at night. We had to wear jackets and sleep under some heavy blankets at night.  But it was a welcome change from the warmer weather of Bujumbura, especially during the Christmas season.

The next morning, early, it became apparent why this Lake is called Bunyoni--the place of the little birds.  The calls started at the light of dawn and the variety of songs was remarkable.  The kids were up early the first day and we made our way as a family to breakfast, well ahead of Zachée family or Jodi.  (We found in future days, that zipping up all the tent windows fooled the kids into sleeping later, a boon for us.)

It was good to finally be able to see the island and lake by the light of day and discover some of its offering.  Bushara Island is small: one could cross it from one end to the other in about 15 minutes on foot.  There are no roads or vehicles on it, just foot paths. The lake is actually quite irregular in shape and is dotted with the islands, as if it were a hilly area that was flooded, leaving only the summits sticking above the water. (This is actually what happened as the result of a volcanic activity many years before.)  

Activities on the isle were varied and gave one the sense of retreat, rather than being entertained.  One could go on bird watching tours, dugout canoe rides (self or guided), there was a small playground area with a slide and 2 swings, hiking around the island, and swimming.  We were excited about swimming because it is a lake that does not have hippos, crocodiles, or shistosomiasis (at least that is what the guidebook says.)

Despite the overall rustic feel, there was something very progressive about the place. They boasted an eco-friendly tourist experience.  This was evident at our campsite where we had a modern ‘composting’ toilet: a bit like a latrine but not nearly as smelly.  (Basically one pours a cu p of ash into the hole after doing one’s business.)  There was no hot running water but our outdoor shower, which was a bucket mounted on a stand with a showerhead on the bottom, would be filled with hot-water on demand.  (This meant that the job of the friendly staff was quite labor intensive, carrying water to campsites all over the island from the main reception area, cleaning campsites, even serving meals at campsites if that is where one wanted to eat.) You could even gaze at the stars while bathing!

We did most of the activities that were offered, but the kids seemed to enjoy playing in the little fort at the playground and at the campsites the best.  It was such a blessing to have Timmy along as it gave Oren and David a friend to play with. Zachée and Bridget enjoyed canoeing quite a bit, Jodi and I enjoyed swimming, and Rebecca was enamored of bird-watching on such a rich island. The Camp offers a varied menu, with interesting dishes featuring local lake crayfish (crayfish wraps, crayfish masala, crayfish chowder…). The cooking was a little inconsistent, but we found several delicious things to re-order.

Rebecca and I did take Oren and David out one day in a dugout canoe, but even with our past experience with canoeing, we found the dugout very hard to control (it has no keel whatsoever) and keeping it going in a straight line was quite tiring.

We did enjoy swimming in the afternoon and for the ambitious, the next nearest island was about a quarter of a mile away and a good swimmer could swim to it and back relatively easily  (there are no strong currents in the lake).  I did so on our last day there, and despite the fact that it is not a very ambitious swim for me, I was surprised to find myself feeling an anxiety verging on panic on the way back, almost like vertigo, when I thought about the fact that the dark clear water probably went down 1000 feet where I was crossing.  (I also had the irrational fear that I would see some dark form like the Loch Ness monster swimming in the bottomless depths below me.)  As I said though, the lake was remarkably calm and easy to swim in and I got back across without any real problem.

The 5 days seemed to pass all too quickly, even with the slow pace of life on the island.  It was refreshing to not look at a computer or hear a cell phone, even though we were not expecting to be quite so inaccessible.  We had an interesting New Year as the adults, (Rebecca, myself, Zachée, Bridget, Jodi) decided to stay up playing ‘Carcasonne’ until midnight.  (It was a new game to all but Rebecca and me.)  We let the kids fall asleep on some couches by the fire at the restaurant then played until midnight and carried the kids back to the tents afterwards.  It was a fun evening.

We played a rematch on our last night on the island then left the next morning about 7:30 am.  The boat ride back did not offer much more by way of visibility as we found ourselves in a deep mist on the lake.  It was actually quite intriguing and beautiful in a King-Kong movie kind of way.

We decided to be less ambitious on our way back and our family stayed the night upcountry in Burasira with Jodi rather than try to drive all the way back to Bujumbura in one day.  (I feel less secure about driving after dark in Burundi than Uganda.)  We spent a nice evening with Jodi then headed back to Buj around 10am.  We got back home around 2 pm to find that all of Bella’s puppies were in very good health and growing up fast.

The kids were thrilled to be home, but like us, very exhausted.  Oren even said, when we asked him about a play date tomorrow, “No, because the problem with the best-Christmas-ever, is it makes you too tired.” 

It was a great break and I tried to take some time to reflect on the year.  (Although this stage of our children’s lives makes reflection time a real luxury.)  I am happy to say that 1) I actually remember a resolution I made last year, and 2) that both Rebecca and I kept it.  We resolved last year to fast 2 days a week as a spiritual discipline, and actually did so the entire year.  The hardest month, quite honestly, was the one we spent this summer in the US.   We are going to continue this discipline this year as well, as it seems fitting for the place we are living in and the struggle against poverty we see everyday.

I did go through the Bible in a Year again and read the last chapter of the Book of Revelation on Dec. 31 and Genesis 1 on Jan 1^st, another discipline that I enjoy and has given a rhythm to the year the past 6 years.

Bonus Photo by Oren:  The whole gang at Jodi's tent-- Rebecca, David, Paul, Jodi, Bridget, Tim, Zachee.