In October 2021, I visited Rwanda’s Lake Kivu. My guide, Claude, from Africa Green Tours, made the trip memorable for me, his only client for the weekend.
Our first day, we went Island Hopping. We zoomed around the lake on a wooden motor boat, with Claude pointing out different plants, animals, and sharing island stories.
That night was the Night Fishing tour. Before we boated out to meet the fisherman in the middle of the lake, we stopped at a village, navigating along a trail of concrete bags laid down on the ground through a cluster of houses, where Claude disappeared into a home full of chatter, emerging with a container of urwagwa, a local banana beer, which would be our gift for the fishermen.
Though I missed the singing, the experience was still special. We joined fishermen at night on one of their three joined boat, watching them catch sambaza under the light of kerosene lanterns until Claude and I were too drunk or tired to stay on the boat anymore.
Sipping that urwaga, getting lit by the latern light.
Night Fishing on Lake Kivu - Africa Green Tours
The next day, I went kayaking on Lake Kivu. You could see the DRC on the other side of the lake. The water was calm, so I visited islands and some fishermen hanging out on the lakeshore.
The hospitality I received was heartwarming. Claude invited me to his home, where I met his family and enjoyed a meal with them. His wife had fried up the sambaza that we’d caught the night before. The backdrop to our conversation was pop music videos, playing from DVDs on a small TV.
Inspired by Claude’s kindness, I later created a website for him, africagreentours.com, to help share these experiences with others.
