Lake Kivu and Nyamarugira

The view from my balcony.

Last weekend, after checking Kuryama on New Year's Day (see next Wednesday’s gorilladoctorblog), I went to Goma to assess some chimps in captivity with Eddy and Jacques. I stayed at the Stella hotel, right on beautiful Lake Kivu. It was strange to hear the sounds of water lapping, kids splashing in the water, squealing with delight as they jumped in (sounded a lot like the YMCA!), the occasional motorboat, and Egyptian Geese honking as they flew over, all so familiar, and yet in a place so foreign to me. Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It is HUGE and lovely, and it used to be a colonial paradise. There is evidence of that past everywhere in crumbling grand old homes on the shore and tired but nice old hotels. As I looked out over the lake to the mountains on the distant shores I was awed, honored, and basically slack jawed that I was seeing the same scenes that Roz Carr, Dian Fossey and countless others had seen just 50 years ago. By the way, Land of 1000 Hills, by Roz Carr, is a nice read and a good history of the area.

Lake Kivu is also one of 3 known “exploding” lakes in the world! It is so deep (about 1500 meters) and sits right on a volcanic rift, so there is a build up of methane and carbon dioxide (breakdown of volcanic CO2) sitting at the deepest levels of the lake. At some point there will be enough volcanic disruption that those deep gasses will surface, resulting in an explosion. If it ever blows, the results will be catastrophic. Really. Millions of people live around the lake, and those within a 20 mile radius would be killed almost instantly. One website said in addition to everyone dying from CO2 release, there could be tsunamis spawned by the explosion – amazing! Fortunately the lake has never blown, and life goes on around the lake as if it were a normal, beautiful resource. The Primus factory (local beer!) in Gisenyi harvests the methane to help run the factory, so at least a little is being pulled off the deep bottom of the lake.

The day before I got there Nyamarugira, the most active volcano in the region, erupted. It is about 16 miles from Goma, but people were not worried because the lava was flowing into the national park. There are chimps, elephants, forest buffalo, monkeys and antelope (not to mention the reptiles, amphibians and birds) in that part of the park, but hopefully the lava is flowing so slowly that most animals can easily outrun it. Goma was hit in 2002 by Nyringongo and there are still huge black lava beds everywhere, and that eruption was quite slow so nearly everyone escaped injury. I really wanted to see the lava from Nyamarugira, but unfortunately when we got to Rumangabo it was cloudy, so we couldn’t see either volcano. Rats.


No good photos of Nyamarugira, but we are always surrounded by volcanoes here!

To get to the hotel we drove through downtown Goma, which is a bustling, loud, colorful, dirty town. There were vendors everywhere selling anything you might need from kitchen appliances to lounge chairs to clothes, in small shops along the lava rock “streets”. Since it was only January 2 there were still some Christmas decorations up, didn’t quite compute for me since this was my first Christmas season in a tropical zone! Big white cardboard Santa nailed to a palm tree in 90+ degree heat, and he and I were the only mzungus in sight! Strange. As we drove I got glimpses of the lake to our left, and glimpses of some beautiful homes behind solid walls with cut glass on the top (you either have it or you don’t here). UN presence is still everywhere – white UN trucks with troops of every race, color and nationality. But life is beginning to return to normal with the past 6 months or so of better security in the area.

When we turned into the hotel it was like night and day. No more dust, beautiful gardens with mousebirds playing in the trees and lizards crawling on the walls. A little tired, but the hotel had a bit of that colonial splendor in evidence. While it felt cool and comfortable, I felt a little too privileged. People tell me I say thank you too often here in Africa, but I can’t help it. The people at the hotel waited on us hand and foot, and I just don’t have that colonial mentality. I wish I could give back more to the people in need. It is so very complicated. So I just continue to do my small part – gorilla health, one health. Little by little. Buhoro, buhoro.

That night, in the Stella Hotel, I laid there in my bed, listening to the waves lapping against the shore, hoping to get a glimpse of Nyamarugira tomorrow, wondering at how I got here! In the middle of Africa, on a methane bomb of a lake, 16 miles from an erupting volcano, working with one of the most endangered great apes, and LOVING it!



Here's my bed at the Stella Hotel.


Another view from my balcony.


Ama, at home, getting big and spoiled!