My Kigali Diary: Day 8 And 9 - Road To Rubavu

It wasn’t until past 4 am Sunday morning that we arrived back home from K Club; exhausted, tipsy and damn right weary. I jumped on the bed almost immediately without even bothering to take off clothes. Maybe, I could have been taking off my clothes if only I had agreed to Fiona's request. What request?

We got to K Club at about 11 pm. Unlike Tuesday when we just strolled in, we were stopped at the gate and asked to pay a fee. 

'For what?’ was our first ‎reaction. 

Fiona and Emmanuel Hitting It

We were then politely told by the bouncers at the door that it was a club day and there's a gate fee of 5000 RWF - that's about 1500 naira. We then asked why the club didn't ask us for money the other night and we were told it was because Tuesday wasn't a club day. If we pay 5000RWF for entry fee, how much we wan take drink?

We then decided to head to another club. Just then, one of the bar attendants, Diane, came out of the club and met us as we were about leaving. Now, there's a story behind Diane that I had left out from Day 4 of the diary. She's a part 2 student in one of the universities in Kigali. Attending to customers at the bar was a part time job for her to make ends meet. Both of us had been getting along that Tuesday evening. In fact, we had even planned on going to see a movie together ‎before Fiona arrived and more or less stole the show. 

Back to Saturday night, Dianne was surprised we were about leaving. We told her the reason why and then she asked us to wait a minute. She proceeded to talk to the cashier and bouncers at the door and after a few minutes, she told us we were free to come in. E clear say she tell dem say omo these people get money ooo. Wetin dem go spend for inside big pass this gate fee when una wan ask so. 

Emma Enjoy Sha

Anyway, we got in. Took our seats and ordered drinks. There were more people than we saw on Tuesday. Unfortunately, ‎unlike Tuesday, the DJ was playing songs that didn't really tickle our fancy. I tried reaching Fiona cos I couldn't find her in but she didn't pick her calls. At about 2 am, she finally arrived looking all beautiful. She apologised for coming late and then sat down for a drink. We talked a bit and she more or less insinuated she would love to go home with me.  At that point, I had a decision to make. Do I miss out totally on having a good friend in Dianne or take Fiona home? For the next hour or so that we stayed at the club, as the rest of my crew where busy flirting and dancing with the pretty ladies around, I kept wondering what exactly to do. Just then Fiona's cousin arrived. She was amazingly beautiful with hips Shakira could die for. Some of the guys that tried talking to her were met with a brick wall of 'pay me 200 dollars or nothing.'

Eh? 200 Kini? My mind was made up afterwards. I paid for the drinks for herself and her cousin and then opened her bag and dropped a little change for their transport and then our crew left the club. When we got downstairs, I asked Emmanuel to go back up for me and get Dianne's phone number. We were already friends on Facebook and I could chat there with her. But for about 3 days now, my Facebook account was blocked and so only way I could talk to her was getting her number. And I didn’t want to do that with Fiona present. You no women and their wahala. Emmanuel returned with the number and I saved it. Only for me to get to the hotel, dial the number and discovered that it was Fiona's number....

Sighs! I’d have to go to K Club again cos

Acting High Commissioner and I

Sunday morning went by without much hassle. I planned not to step out of the house all day cos I was still feeling a bit of hang over from the lack of proper sleep. Kelechi and Emeka insisted on going to watch the Rwanda vs Morrocco game for that day but as tempting as that was, I decided against it. Nothing significant happened for the rest of the afternoon apart from writing my diary until Nigeria's Acting High Commissioner Ferdinand Nwonye came visiting. Highlights of his visit were him promising to provide a bus for us to take us to Rubavu, venue of Nigeria's next game. We took pictures with him after having an interview session. 

As I got back to the room, I called my good friend Chris Green, the NFF technical and developmental committee chief who was the only NFF member still in Rwanda. He said he wasn't feeling too good and I offered to go visit him. So off I went to the bathroom to have a shower and proceeded to Serena Hotels to see him. I got there 16 minutes past 6 and he jokingly told me he'd give me a red card for not coming at 6 as promised. We watched the Arsenal vs Chelsea game together with him taunting me bout Metersacker's red card and all. After the game, we talked a little about the seeming crisis in the NFF and at about 9 pm, I left for UTC to hang out with the boys. Toyosi, Emmanuel, Kelechi, Rotimi, 2 Complete Sports guys (I don't know their name yet) ‎and I chatted for another 2 hours or so before we all decided it was time to go home. 

MONDAY - RUBAVU TRIP... 

The bus promised by Nigeria's Acting High Commissioner arrived at about 7 am as we were all set to leave. Toyosi came from his own hotel to meet us at Grilla ‎. Unfortunately for him, he left his CAF accreditation tag at his hotel. So we begged the driver to take us through his route so he could get it. TVC's (or is it Nairabet’s) George Essien was nowhere to be seen. So someone called him to find out where he was. Oga dey him hotel dey lounge come dey tell us make we wait for like one hour. We told him point blank if he doesn't get to Toyosi's hotel by the time we get there, he would have to find a way to Rubavu himself.  We set off for the journey at about 8 am. With almost all the Nigerian journalists in the bus, it obviously was never going to be a dull moment. We had Rosemary, a worker at Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Ministry, who volunteered to be our guide. 

The road leading to Rubavu turned out a narrow one way with loads of dangerous corners and hilly slopes. To be honest, I was both scared and excited at the same time all through the journey. I was quite curious about how buses plied that route and avoided accidents. Then someone explained that he had been told the buses have specific time of departures from their terminal. The timing is spaced such that few buses are on the road at the same time. Rwanda is indeed a nation of orderliness. 

George and I

After about an hour, we stopped at Nyirangrama to rest. We took the time to snap pictures and stretch our legs. I went down to get bananas which are sold at 100 RWF that's about 25/30 naira for one piece.  I bought about 4 pieces. Ate one and there was a dust bin by the corner. Orderliness at its highest order!

We proceeded on the journey and got to Rubavu about two hours later. Rosemary our guide took us to a hotel, CAS‎FXN, reportedly owned by Roman Catholic Church, Stella Marris. After settling, we then decided to visit the Lake Kivu which was just a stone's throw from us. In fact, the Super Eagles hotel is just opposite the lake. For the next 3 hours or thereabout we absolutely had the fun of our lives.

Loads To Eat And Drink

Situated on the border between Rwanda and DR Congo, Lake Kivu offered a wonderful tourist attraction. From where we were seated, we could see buildings from a town in the DR Congo. The view was absolutely amazing plus getting to watch people swim. Remi Kisu (of the cable.ng) lamented how she would have brought her swimming trunks to join the swimming part. Toby (LMC reporter) was more interested in taking a drive on a speed boat but needed 9 other volunteers. Nobody even answer am sef. Instead we ordered for all kinds of food and drinks, watched the Congo DR/Rwandan ladies dancing to number of Naija tunes. Some of us even threatened not to go for the Super Eagles pre-match conference scheduled that evening. Somehow, we managed to drag ourselves to the stadium but not before getting our hands stamped (to allow us free entry later after we paid 200 RWF earlier) cos we were told there would be strip dancers later at night. We arrived the pre-match conference of the Guineans just as it was about to end. The CAF coordinator at the Rubavu Stadium, veteran Nigerian broadcaster Aisha, chided us about coming late and proceeded to lecture us about the essence of punctuality (some of us for punch am like say dem give dem chance).

 

Sunday Oliseh arrived 45 minutes later for the Super Eagles presser. Alongside him were his technical assistant, Tijani Babangida and Super Eagles media manager Toyin Ibitoye. After answering about 3 questions, Aisha asked if there were any more. For about 5 seconds, there was a deafening silence. Just then, it occurred to me I had a pre-planned question. I meant to ask that after the Nigeria vs Guinea game. But with the split-second silence, I just raised my hands. And that’s when the presser got a little bit hotter….

To be continued……

My Kigali Diary is an account of my coverage of activities at the 2016 Africa Nations Championship This blog is a recap of Saturday night, Sunday and Monday.

-Ufuoma