Back to the Centre St. Paul

On Sunday, July 25, after we left Nyarubuye, we returned to the Centre St. Paul.

Upon arriving back in our room, after the relative splendor of the Akagera Game Park Lodge, I could barely stand to even walk in. Our group-mates were a really great bunch of people, and I also didn’t like the thought of leaving them, but the Hotel des Milles Collines was really looking good to me.

Did I mention that there had been a scorpion in the shower? On the day we left for the game park, as we were standing on the walkway in front of our room, one of the women in our group came out of the showers wrapped in a towel and said there was a scorpion in the shower. Then out came one of the other fellows who was staying at the St. Paul, also wearing a towel, but holding a stick with the scorpion on it. He put the scorpion in the garden. I took a picture, and it is posted a little further down the line in this blog.

When we arrived back at the St. Paul on Sunday night there was gecko poop on my bed. I felt like I had kind of had it with the St. Paul. The nuns were nice, but they saved every penny they could by not cleaning as often as they should. There was a man who cleaned up the bathrooms every morning, but there was still a slimy coat on the floors. It was making me feel sick. I do have to say that the toilets were clean. Well, cleanish.

On the evening before we left for the game park, we had been discussing the unsatisfactory nature of the showers to some of the people in our group. Two of the fellows said that their bathroom and shower room was quite nice. We went over to look, and indeed it was much nicer than ours. We resolved to take our showers first thing in the morning, in the other shower building, which is why we happened to not be in the shower with the scorpion. At any rate, in the morning when we went to take our shower in the other shower block, there was no hot water, and no water pressure, so we had an unsatisfactory dribble shower in cold water.

So now I felt that I had a moral dilemma. I understand why these accommodations were booked for us, it was to give us an understanding of how Africans live. The accommodations at the St. Paul were much nicer than what poor Rwandans had, because at least we had showers and flushing toilets.  Even though the showers sometimes failed, the toilets never did. I know how poorly Africans live. I just could not stand it anymore. We were actually going to go the Milles Collines that night just for one night because we were about to embark on another three days away. We were so tired when we came in that we decided to suffer for one more night. We called Leslie and gave her the task of booking us into the Mille Collines.  I was interested in staying at the Chez Lando.  It has very good reviews and was less than half the cost of the Milles Collines.  We would have had to take a taxi back and forth to the St. Paul every morning, but even adding the taxi both ways it was still cheaper than half the cost of the Milles Collines.   Linda wasn't keen on the Chez Lando, nor was she keen on the five star guest house around the corner from the St. Paul.  So off we went on our next adventure, with Leslie doing the legwork back home to get us into the Milles Collines.