So everyone left me for the States or Kilimanjaro or somewhere... but Lily Kruglak, her dad and I got a ride with Stefanie and Apollon back to Rwanda. God, I love them. Best academic directors ever, to use my overused phrase of this semester: "Ahh, this is the best/my favorite/any other superlative (insert object/person/place) ever!!!"
The morning after we got to Kigali, I went to town to get ready for gorilla tracking. I needed a gorilla permit in the first place, then a bus ticket and a camera. I headed for the camera first, thinking that would be the easiest thing to find.
If you want something Western, and it exists anywhere in Kigali, Nakumatt Supermarket is the place to find it. That was my first stop. But the only decent camera I found there was 250,000Rwf, about $500... and it was not worth that much. Used to Uganda's constant bargaining, I asked for a reduced price, but the saleswoman was pretty stubborn. So I walked around the store moping until some random guy found me and asked if I had been to this other store to look for cameras. I couldn't pronounce the store's name, much less find it in the huge city, so he offered to take me there himself.
Well, that store had moved or disappeared, and we ended up hitting about 6 stores looking for a camera and matching USB cord. Finally found a nicer camera than the one in Nakumatt, for less than half the price! But it was unbelievably complicated; you have to test the camera, the battery, the memory card, and the USB cord before you can buy a camera... it took around four hours. And the random guy hung around to help me the entire time.
Next morning the so-called nice guy (his name was Venuste) stole my wallet. We were having coffee, having a grand old time, about to leave, then I turned for a second to pack my backpack. He nabbed my wallet and disappeared. My wallet with my gorilla permit, all my money, my debit card, and my phone.
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