Getting to Kibagora

On Tuesday we set out to spend the week at Kibagora on Lake Kivu. Normally it's about a 5 or 6 hour drive from Kigali, but in our case it took 12 hours. We left Kigali at 11:00 AM and at 1:30 (20 minutes past Butare) we heard a funny noise, lost the power steering, and the temperature gage shot up. We pulled over, lifted the hood and discovered a broken serpentine belt. Brad called the Thomases who connected us with a mechanic from Butare. He came out and said that a bearing had broken and shredded the belt. He was able to fix the bearing, but we had to get a new belt from Kigali. The Thomases connected us with Marth who lives close to Kibagora and had gone to Kigali for the day. She would be leaving to go back home around three. We contacted her, she agreed to pick up the belt for us, and all that we had to do was wait in the car until she arrived. We all settled down with our books, prepared for a couple hour wait. What I didn't plan on was becoming the center of attention for all of the Rwandans passing by. Some asked about our car, some asked for money or food, some practiced their English and many just stood watching us through the windows. The day was slightly warm so all of our windows were down and there never seemed to be less than two people at each window for the whole time we were there. I told Michelle that it gave a whole new meaning to having people read over your shoulder. At 6:30 it was getting dark and we were very glad that the mechanic finally arrived with the belt and bearing; however, it took him several times before he was finally able to figure out how to put the belt on. We were finally ready to go at about 7:30. Martha had brought us some food and she followed us to the turn off to Kibagora to make sure that we got there fine. At almost 11:00 PM we finally arrived at the gate; a full 12 hours after leaving Kigali.