We’re just back from five night camping beside Lake Kivu at an annual Missionary Conference (running since the 1940s!) called Kumbya. It was great to get away on our first real break since arriving in Rwanda 6 months ago, and equally good to get home to our own house, in our own car, afterwards to find Nepo had taken great care of everything in our absence!
Kumbya is about 4 hours drive from Butare, down a progressively deteriorating road that heads towards Congo. About an hour from Butare, you enter the Nyungwe Forest, a large and pristine National park that the road runs through for 90 minutes or so, going over a mountain pass about 2500m above sea level. We stopped for lunch at the roadside and went for a little stroll into the forest.
Kumbya is a special place. Gifted to the Protestant missions in the 1940s, it juts out into Lake Kivu on an isolated promontory and is now an amazing bird sanctuary, being one of the few stretches of lake shore not subject to clearing and intensive farming. Over 100 bird species have been spotted on this one tiny peninsula, less than a square kilometre in size. We set up our tent in one of the few remaining spots (about 130 people attended the conference) and explored our home for the week.
Both William and (especially) Hannah thrived: camping, exploring and playing with the many other children attending the conference. They both loved the lake “beach” where they spent many hours playing in the sand. Catherine and I both enjoyed the teaching and fellowship of the morning and evening sessions, catching up with a few old friends, and making new ones. While we only stayed five days, half of the total conference length, it was a great time of rest and spiritual refreshment.
On the way home, we stopped at the Nyungwe Forest Lodge, a five star resort, for a cup of tea! The kids loved running and jumping all over the place, and Catherine and I both enjoyed some respite from the travelling. The setting is beautiful; in the midst of a tea plantation on the edge of the Nyungwe Forest, so I took even more photos!
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