Last night was, meteorologically speaking, awesome. Around 7:00 pm, we began to get a good, steady downpour. Around 8:30, the thunder and lightning moved in, and what an incredible show! The storm lasted for a good 12 hours, dumping rain like I have never seen before. That, combined with the near-constant rumbling and crashing of thunder and the attendant flashing of the natural pyrotechnics, gave me a much-relished opportunity to sit on my hotel balcony and take in nature’s wonder. I sat there in awe for three hours. I have NEVER seen a show like that before, even from my days back in the Midwest.

Kigali is a lush, green tropical locale, sitting just below the equator. Nicknamed the land of the thousand hills (en français, le pays des mille collines), Rwanda was a Belgian colony until 1961, when it was granted national independence. While the native tongue is Kinyarwanda, English and French are commonly spoken.

The country is very proud of its native gorillas, which are found in the western mountains of the country.

Today it is quiet and sunny, but the forecast is calling for more rain over the next four days. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that it stays dry for my gorilla trek tomorrow, which leaves Kigali at the ripe hour of 4:30 am.