The day starts off with breakfast at Solace before loading ourselves back onto the bus. We are lucky that the bus is quite comfortable and spacious because we do spend quite a bit of time in it. The drives are long and slow going, especially when we get stuck behind some big trucks. Patience is the key.

Our destination today, Huye (formerly Butare), takes us past The King’s Palace. This was stop number one on our agenda. Jason and I had just visited it a few days ago, so we opted to sit this one out at the café there. As much as we loved our tour, we felt like we had a very thorough experience, besides, it was nice to have some down time alone.

In Huye, we went for a big buffet lunch before checking into our hotel, Hotel Sifa. Wow. This hotel was gorgeous, nestled in a bunch of trees, with green grounds stretching out as far as we could see. The rooms were impeccable, the staff were friendly, the food was stellar. Spoiler alert: we all enjoyed our one night here.

But our day isn’t quite over. Margaret had managed to organize a performance at the Ethnographic Museum. Traditional dancers and drummers were there to put on a show just for us. Yes, just like the one we saw at the Chimpanzee Lodge and we enjoyed this show just as much as the first one. The energy they gave to us was so fun and contagious that when they grabbed our hands to join them, they got a lot of takers. We danced and clapped and drummed for as long as they would let us.

It is now supper time, but we had a late lunch so weren’t quite ready to eat. Hmmm. Planned activities are done. What do we do now? Luckily, we had Abdoul with us and he had a great idea.

There is a popular Karaoke club in town. We can go there for a drink or two and have a late supper there. Perfect. Let’s go! We didn’t expect much to be happening because it was still quite early – about 6:00pm. Within 30 minutes, the place got packed, the stage was set and people got up to sing. We had front row seats to this amazing talent. There are some great singers and entertainers out there!

Of course, we stood out. Not only were most of us white, so, so white. But we were way older than everybody else there. Huye is a university town. Filled with 20 year old students. We are all a few trips around the sun past twenty.

I’m not sure how it happened, but we thought it would be a good idea to go up and do a group song. None of us sing. None of us know the words to any songs. And we can’t dance. But sure, let’s get up on stage in front of a couple of hundred young people and make fools of ourselves. What could go wrong?

‘Mustang Sally’ was the song of choice. Great song. Catchy. Fun to sing “Riiiiiiddddeee Sally, Ride!”. Unfortunately, that was the only line any of us knew. We were awful. Not ‘but you were actually really good awful’. Nope. Awful awful. We had a great time. We danced. We got the crowd laughing – at us if not with us – and we gave them something to talk about for a very long time. The end of the song couldn’t come fast enough. Time to take a bow.

Exit stage left.