Happy 2025 — with Tom in Musanze!

It used to be our tradition to ring in the new year on Tom’s island in the middle of Uganda’s Lake Bunyonyi. Yesterday, however, we brought Tom Karemire to Rwanda instead. Fulfilling his wish to visit our home in Musanze was a delight and added something fresh to our celebrations.

Alongside the usual New Year’s Eve festivities, we incorporated some very specific program elements. We revived the custom of reviewing photos from the past year — a reminder of all we achieved and the people we befriended — and added a check of our Trello Celebrations Board to acknowledge individual contributions.

In the Ugandan contingent we also had Amos from the Rwamahano Batwa “Pygmy” community; Gerald and Jackline who host our hikers at Lake Kayumbu; our senior guide Owen; and three team members from Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi: Brenda, Levi and Pleasure.

There was a Slovenian delegation as well! You’ve already met Alenka, and joining her were Mojca and Polona, two travellers who had toured Uganda on an overland truck and decided to include Rwanda for a more complete trip.

Rwandan tour guides were represented by Enock and Olivier, and, of course, there was our household crew. (That includes Maani’s friends, who’ve been frequent visitors this holiday season — possibly drawn in by Alenka’s irresistible baking?)

Did you take a good look at the photos? And the ones we posted on Bluesky in real time? Did you notice something different? Just after midnight, Tom performed his time-honoured every-other-year ritual: shaving off his beard!

photos by Alenka Seher and Miha Logar