Part I: “It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.” ( quote from “Butterfly effect” movie)

“Ladies and gentleman, as we are starting our descent to Kigali international, please, return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts” — captain informed us over the loudspeaker.

-That’s it! I’m here! It’s real! What I’ve been thinking? That’s madness — I was petrified. -Pull yourself together, crybaby. — You promised yourself that this year you are going out of your comfort zone and accepting new challenges (except for intermittent fasting though!)- Somewhere deep inside me appeared brave version of myself.



“Welcome to Kigali where the local time is 7pm..”

Time to go!

Oh, let me go back in time a bit and explain what brought me to Kigali and why I was petrified.

I do not recall anymore how I came cross a photo of Nyiragongo volcano in Democratic Republic of Congo (actually the origin of most of my unusual adventures is unknown even to myself!), but the idea of spending a night by its crater was keeping me awake for almost a year. I’ve read everything possible on internet about Virunga National park and the volcano trek, even filled the application form on their webpage couple of times, but the lack of information about the safety, the active cases of Ebola and, have to admit, the reality of going to DRC were stopping me from clicking on that “send” button…

“Whatever happens, happens for a reason”- my mom used to say. — While traveling for work and spending countless evening in a hotel gym to kill time or in bed surfing without any patricular reason the worldwide net, on that evening, in Lagos, I decided to dress up quickly and join my colleagues in pre Christmas dinner by a hotel pool. Conversations about all and nothing (as it happens between people who barely remember each other names and who are just in need of having dinner with someone during that most romatic period of the year), but after couple of drinks one of my colleagues started bragging about how adventurous he was going surfing on his own in Bali or attempting a skydiving in New Zealand (failed, as he said, because of the windy conditions on that day, but we all thought the “conditions” were in his gut!). Soon other colleagues joined in with their heroic stories, so after another rum punch I decided my life was lacking adrenaline, so I excused myself, went to the bathroom, took out my phone and… hit that magic SEND!

Not going to bore you with details that the very next second I regretted my actions, got panic attack that I was trying to treat with more alcohol, but there I was, a day before Christmas, sitting on the flight bound for Kigali, bitting my nails and looking for a credible reason to cancel the trek and claim the refund.

dunechka.simplesite.com