Back in 2012, I travelled to Rubavu with a friend from the US who kept referring to what is now Rubavu district as Gisenyi. He had read so many books on Rwanda and that name stuck in his head. He made me walk thousands of kilometres and wanted us to even try the Congo-Nil trail, but I was too exhausted that my feet were hurting. I didn’t know why he was so hyped about it. I had carried my first brand new camera, but I was too shy to take any photos. Everyone was staring at us, so I thought, but they were only looking at him. I was almost invisible and could have taken tons of photos but couldn’t. I feared my own camera. I was wondering if I had what it takes to be a photographer.
On the way to Rubavu, I tried to read the camera user manual, but I didn’t understand a thing. After going through two to three pages, I gave up. The only thing I kept from the manual was a quote stating that “Using a manual mode in photography is like driving a car. Manual mode gives you total control.”
We came back from the long hike and sat down at a bar overlooking over Lake Kivu. My friend ordered for Isambaza and I ordered some beef brochette. As we waited for our orders, which took time to be ready, my friend talked about the history of native Americans. The more he spoke, I realized I knew nothing about the world. While I was asking questions about the Apaches and Navajo; names I had heard in some of the old western American movies I used to watch while growing up, my friend was offended as he was of Native American descent. He knew so much about my country and I felt ashamed of the little information I had about Native Americans, and I promised myself I was going to read about American history.
I started thinking about my life with regret, a small voice told me “maybe if you read a lot of books, your English would be good, and you would be able to understand photography books.” I was manipulating the camera at the same time, trying to figure out the manual mode, then suddenly, I saw the fishing boats, the view was magical I tried to take a shot. The first photo was blurry. I made two more trials, after getting up from my seat, I didn’t want to miss that magical moment. I took the photo, my first focused photo. I had tears of happiness in my eyes. I showed the captured moment on the camera screen to my friend, “I would buy this photo”, he screamed!
Finally, our orders came. I couldn’t stand the smell of the small fish, but I tried one, and it was so delicious!
