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Wanna-be resort town Gisenye

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Staff at Malahide Paradis, Gesinye, Lake Kivu

If it were not for the lake, Gisenye would be another non-descript African town with dusty streets and battered buildings. At least the very center looks exactly like that. But this ugly duck became incredibly beautiful through the friendliness and helpfulness I experienced.

In order to go online with my laptop in the packed Internet café, I would have had to set up an account with a Rwandan mobile company. Confused and frustrated, I was about to pack up, when a young guy set up an account on his own mobile phone. I was so touched - and he so proud that he could help! I had to push my money onto him, 50 cents for the hour I spent online…

A few hotels dot the lake. The two luxury ones are hardly noticeable from the road, nestled behind thick vegetation. Although it was the midst of the holiday season, there was little activity. Most likely it will take a few more years until Gisenye gets back on its feet and Rwandans are able to pay for a holiday on the lakeside.

Besides the few hotels, the road along the lake is where banks and government offices are found. Not because of the lake view, but because it is the only paved road in Gisenye, which extends all the way to the Congolese border. Searching for a bank, I first got it all wrong. After going through intensive security procedures with heavily armed soldiers and filling out endless forms, I was informed by a friendly clerk that this was not a commercial bank.

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Heidi getting IT help in Gisenye

Next was Access Bank. A young employee with a nametag saying, “I am JACQUES, How can I be of service?” truly lived up to the question. Efficiently he produced three forms for me to sign, plus the front and back of a check. It was the most modern facility I ever entered in Rwanda - the only place where I ever saw a printer.

More friendly encounters were in line as soon as I was back in the streets. Outside a group of charming young students from the school for tourism enthusiastically interviewed me. How I liked the country, the hotels, the food, the people, the lake? Naturally I was full of praise, but used the opportunity to let future hotel managers know that there was one thing that should be avoid at all costs - the omnipresent blasting TVs in restaurants and hotels.

I never got around taking a tour through Rwanda’s largest brewery, right in Rubana. I just hung around, watching the workers leave and arrive for the shifts.

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