Ms. Terry's Blog: Nyungwe National Forest Adventure

This past weekend, my mom and my brother came to visit me! They came in Thursday, we spent the night in Kigali, and then we headed to Nygunwe National Forest for the weekend. On Monday, they came to site to visit my school and my village.

So let’s start with the night in Kigali. We stayed at the Radisson Blu and I came in early with another volunteer to go to the spa. And oh my goodness, the Radisson Blu is one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed at, in Rwanda or anywhere else. The lobby, pool area, and restaurant we’re beautiful, and the pizza I had was delicious! And the spa. Oh, the spa. I did a package deal and felt like a whole new person after. It even included food! When I win the lottery or really feel like treating myself, I will be going back.

Moving on. On our way to the forest, we passed through Huye in the Southern Province for lunch and a stop at the National Ethnographic Museum. The museum was very interesting and included a lot of artifacts and information on traditional life in Rwanda. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow pictures inside.

Now, onto the forest. And the monkeys. SO MANY MONKEYS. On the road, at the hotel, everywhere. Whenever we had to drive to a hike or back to the hotel, we saw more monkeys, including a huge group of Colobus monkeys. They’re adorable.

As part of our tour, we did three activities: chimp tracking, the canopy walk, and the waterfall hike. A word of caution to anyone traveling to Nyungwe: you need to be in shape. Everything we did was exhausting, from following the super fast chimps to the 10k waterfall hike. They were all super fun (we saw the chimps climbing trees!) but I’m still sore.

And, of course, it was nice to have my family visit, even for a short time. Everyone in my village, the nuns I live with, my coteachers, my tailor, my students, were very excited to meet them. They both even picked out fabric and are having my clothes made! It was still a culture shock for them though, and as my mom said, she was overwhelmed by the number of people and the fact that they were just walking everywhere. Rwanda has 12 million people in a very small space, and it can be intimidating.

But alas, they’re gone now. I’ll see my mom in August when we go to Tanzania!

Also, shout out to Peter (our driver), the staff at Nyungwe Top View Hotel, and all the park guides and trackers! They were amazing!

Here’s some pictures!