We got the gear ready and that included some ski’s for doing water skiing. I had only tried that twice before and then I only managed to actually ski for about 5 minutes on one of the trips.
We steered out in the lake and a friend of Benoit’s who knew how to water ski was the first one in the water. being an expert she of course only needed the single ski and was doing tricks in the water. As usual things look so easy when you sit at the side.
After about 15 minutes it was my turn. I jumped in the water and got the two ski’s on to my feet and got straightened out with the rope. IT took about 3 attempts for me to get up and out of the water I was already tired in my legs by then.. It is quite a lot of power to get out of the water if you are not used to it. Anyway up and away I went.
Faster and faster while I was holding on for dear life with both my hands. I kept going for a few minutes until I was really tired in my legs and arms. In theory I should have let go with one hand of the rope to signal that they should slow down. In practice I just realized that If I loos grip then for sure I would be falling anyway. I tried to wiggle my head to show them to slow down but who on earth would know that meant slow down. In the end I just thought If I just try to lean back a bit and let go of the rope then in theory I should slow down and keep the balance while sinking in to the water. Well that was the theory!
what happened was that one ski went left, the other one right with one of the tips going under. Thus me doing some kind of -10 point somersault in the water. the ski design was made so that they would fall of if this happened to avoid breaking any legs.. If just my big toe had read the instruction book then maybe this would have worked. Well my toe was not broken but it was badly twisted. It was about double size and completely blue by the time I got out of the water.
As usual I kept telling the guys I was OK while holding on for dear life not to start screaming out in the air. It took about 20 minutes then the pain had settled down a bit so I could enjoy the ride anyway.
After another hour cruising around Benoit told us it was time for lunch. He had arranged with some more friends to meet up in the middle of the lake. We saw about 5 boats approaching fast and we just sat there in the middle tying the boats together in a perfect place to enjoy the sun and the lake. There was not a cloud in the blue sky and it was about 28 degrees C.
The newly arrived friends had packed a well equipped lunchbox with cooled French white wine, Champagne and beer. Food wise we had a selection of nice pate’s, salads and barbecued chicken.
While we were enjoin our lunch on the lake we started hearing and seeing the mortars flying from the hills around Bujumbura toward town. With loud bangs echoing on the lake when the mortars hit the ground. We had heard them while we worked in the office but this was the first time we could actually see them hit town. They normally hit town about 5 kilometres from our office.
It was just a surreal feeling. Here we are sitting having a very nice lunch on the lake with a war raging between rebels and the government troops. Even though I knew we were in country at war it was like it was still so far away yet we could see and hear the mortars and shooting.
We continued our lunch on the lake as if nothing had happened. The mortar-fire was a daily occasion since several months and since the curfew had just been lifted it was like holiday for the guys who had been there during the worse period… 6 months of not being able to go anywhere but home before it got dark around 1800.
We swam a bit more before heading back in to town again. At least we had been able to see something other than the office and hotel..
The next morning me and JJ took a small flight over to Ngozi in the north of the country, but that is another story.