An Upcountry Adventure Pt 1 - False starts and being like Goldilocks

Saturday afternoon, after a lengthy parent-teacher meeting, we set off, in a little borrowed white van, for Matama, a city located in the interior of Burundi. Our goal was to reach this city and settle in for the night.

This van (we thankfully found out prior to departure) had almost no brakes.

That is a very scary thing when you're heading up into the mountains of Burundi. The roads are winding and the ascents/descents are steep.

Happily, the no-brake-thing was caught the day before we left. It was quickly fixed.

We were in the van, and finally driving out of the city (Buje has congestion like you wouldn't believe!).

We climbed and climbed. The roads were winding and steep. The views were spectacular!

Then we stopped because the engine was getting seriously overheated.

It wasn't like we were driving fast or crazy, but overheat it did, for reasons unknown.

We pulled off to the side of the road and opened the radiator cap, which was [scarily] located under the passenger seat. The radiator hissed, sputtered, and gave off a huge cloud of steam. It gave a whole new meaning to the term "hot seat"!

Looking at the radiator while a giant truck is coming! Happily, it missed us.

We were stuck. The radiator was way too hot to do anything about for a good long while, and we were only 1/3 of the way up the mountains.

What were we going to do?

Well, thankfully, there was someone to call. They had a van we could use that was 4-wheel-drive and much more reliable.

We waited. A large crowd gathered to stare at the van of stranded wazungu (muzungu= white person. wa=plural, yay mini kirundi lesson!)
The people laughed and chattered and pointed at us. They were fixated on the little baby muzungu. There aren't many of those around, I guess.

I couldn't help but laugh at the crowd and the silliness of it all. I'm sure to them we looked a little ridiculous.

Our new van arrived, we traded cars, and we were off [again]!
Van #2.The trusty mazda.

How did I get this shot? Good question...

Here's a map of where we were headed. Google says it should only take 59 minutes to get there. Google has not actually driven this route, I guess. It took more like 3 hours...

There was much singing, photography, and stories to be told. It was a good trip down, and we made ok time, though not google time.

Upcountry Burundi is very cold, as it's ~6,000 feet above sea level. I was very glad to have my coat, as it got down to...

50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Can you say brr? After 3 months of that constant-85-degree-balmyness, it was a definite shock. (and my Northern friends can laugh at me. I'm thin-blooded, and that's all there is to it)
 
We stopped at a hotel and found out it was full, but one of the porters there offered to find us another hotel so long as we ate dinner at his hotel.

Easy enough, I guess.

Now, here in Burundi, hotel rooms are not quite like what you'd get in the States. But the room is clean (at least where we were), there's a double-bed, concrete walls and floor, and a bucket of icy-cold water in the bathroom for bathing, if you're that desperate.

Whitney and I had a time of getting a room.

We were going to share a room. We were both tired and ready to plop down our gear and chill until dinner. It had been quite a day of adventure and activity. The first room we were led to was Room #1. After we had hauled in our backpacks and sat down on the bed, we were told that we actually should not sleep there since the bathroom light did not work.
No problem.
So, we moved our stuff to Room #2.
After setting our things down, and sitting down on the bed, we were told that, in this room, well, the bed was not the best. It was not soft. Perhaps another room.

I was starting to feel like Goldilocks!

We were led back to Room #1, and, glory be, the bathroom light worked when we flipped the switch!

The hotel worker was very kind because he showed us that actually the porch light did not work, and that we were welcome to change rooms again if we liked.
Hm. Lumpy bed or no porch light?
...tough decision...
The porch was a small concrete patio off of the room, and what with the freezing temperatures outside, I had no plans to go bask in the cold night.

We assured him in broken French and Kirundi that all was fine with Room #1.

Here is our room!

We went back to the first hotel to eat, keeping our word to the porter.
Dining out in Burundi is a long process. You put in your order and... wait.

People in the States make jokes about killing the cow and all that when they have to wait, but here, I think they really do kill the cow first! Food takes about an hour or so to come, if it's a "fast" place.

After dining on banana fries and gravy'd meat (with lots of hot pele pele sauce...mmmm spicyness), I fell into bed, worn out from our first day of adventuring and ready for the day to come.

We had exciting spots to visit, and the journey to them was also a big part of it. We were hitting the back roads. Oh boy! Where were we headed? What did we do?

...that's for a later post.