Christmas Eve Update

This morning we went up to the school. It wasn't a normal school day, but the neighbourhood knew that we would be visiting. There are normally about 130 students, this morning there were 245 people at the school. They all got a piece of bread, a glass of juice, the youngest ones got some sorghum and they all got a candy. They were all incredibly happy, it was as if we had given them the best Christmas present ever. What an amazing way to spend Christmas.

Merry Christmas From Rwanda

I really do lose track of time on the road. I got back to Rwanda a few days ago after spending 12 amazing days in Uganda. What a beautiful country, I will go back there again one day to see more of it. After rafting and a few days in Jinja, I headed back to the capital city of Kampala. That is one crazy city. In the downtown core, you can barely move for taxis, buses and people. You have to literally push your way through. Funny thing is people here don't expect 'Mzungus' (white people) to be pushy but sometimes you have no choice. I intended to visit Murchinson falls in the north, but it was a long drive and was going to be costly, so I ended up heading south to Lake Bunyonyi. This was better because I had to head south for Rwanda anyway. Lake Bunyonyi was stunning, I got dropped at the dock and then had to get a ride in a dugout canoe to where I was staying. It was on a tiny island called Itambira Island in the middle of the lake. I met up with a great group of people, an Australian, British, American, Russian and two more Canadians. We had a great time playing cards, even late into the night when the solar power ran out and we played by candle light. Getting from Lake Bunyonyi back to Ruhengeri was a bit of a feat despite the relatively short distance. First there was a boat to the mainland, then a mini bus to Kabale, a 80km car ride with 7 people (four in the back seat... not comfortable) over very bad roads to a Kisoro, a motorcycle ride to the Rwanda border, and finally another motorcyle to Ruhengeri.... whew... I was tired and dirty.

It's hard to believe that today is Christmas Eve. It really doesn't feel the same here. People celebrate with a meal with their families. We have a lamb for tomorrow's Christmas dinner. It's getting 'prepared' today. I did get in the mood a bit last night wrapping gifts for the people I'm spending Christmas with. No colourful paper here though, it was all wrapped in old newspapers. I wish you all an amazing Christmas with your families.

Rafting the Nile

I traveled to Uganda on December 10. It was a ten hour bus ride from Kigali (Rwanda) to Kampala in Uganda. My Ugandan friend Jonathan was there to pick me up from the bus, its always nice to enter a new city with a familiar face. I stayed with him and his girlfriend that night. On Wednesday I made my way east to the small town of Jinga. It's about 80 km from Kampala and famous for it white water rafting. I stayed at a great hostel in Jinga called the Nile River Explorers, they also have a place about 8km from Jinga. I transferred to the place outside of town the next day. The setting was amazing. It was on the banks of the Nile. The restaurant and hang out place was on a huge deck with priceless views.

On Dec. 12 I went rafting. There was a short orientation on land and then more in the water, including flipping the boat and getting back in. Rapids are graded from 1 - 6, rapids that are rated a six are usually only done by kayaks and not rafts. We did a series of 1 - 5. The first few rapids were pretty tame, but even those are a bit tricky sometimes. There was one five called Overtime. We got stuck in the middle on a rock, we got to look over the edge of a eight foot drop before we went down. There were a few anxious seconds. Here is a picture of Overtime, I can't take credit, I found them on Google Images.


The Last rapid of the day was called 'A Bad Place', and with good reason. The first part of the rapid was graded a six, so we had to walk around that part and get into the Bad Place half way down. It was no less wild looking. We had a few girls in our boat, they opted to leave our boat because we wanted to take the 'hard line' down. We ended up with six people. We got part way down when our raft literally stopped on what is affectionately know as a 'washing machine'. We were kind of surfing a wave and not moving, meanwhile we were getting battered. It was kind of what I imagine its like to ride a mechanical bull. Four of the guys got tossed from the boat right away including the guide, with only me and another guy left. We still weren't going anywhere, so I decided that I had to dive into a grade five rapid. I was tossed around like a rag doll and got quickly shot down the rapids. There were safety kayaks all around, so one of them came and got me.
This is the 'Bad Place"


It was an amazing day, so much fun and its very cool to say that I've rafted on the Nile. There were some flat places in between the rapids, we often got out of the boat and swam for those. The water was very warm and it was exceptionally hot for parts of the day, so the water felt great. The guide joked with us earlier that all the crocodiles in this area were vegetarian. There were six people on the boat, three of which were Canadian. Dominic from Toronto and Kevin from Brandon, Manitoba. We ended up staying at the hostel and hanging out for a few day and also returned to Kampala together. Its always fun to bump into a few Canadians on the road.

You tube video

I'm not sure if this will work or not, my connections here in Rwanda are much too slow to ever watch at video. This is a link of a video taken by an American guy that was with me on the gorilla trek. It shows two gorillas running towards us, giving us quite the start. If it works for anyone, let me know how it looks. Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSrhc814Bik

My 'Less Hairy' Friends

William and Kevin showing off their 'Rasta' hats.

At the end of every morning all the kids get together and sing and dance, ending with the Rwanda National Anthem.

Just experiementing with a few settings on my camera.



They call this kid Budda, I thought it was so cute that he had a Canadian Jersey on, so of course I had to get a picture with him.

This is the group that went to Butari last weekend. Cathy on the right is the lady from Maple Ridge that started the school. Kathy on the left is an American Volunteer.

My Hairy Friends

Here are a few gorilla pictures. Enjoy

Museum, university and gorillas

It has been another great week in Rwanda.

I left last Sunday and took a bus with a group to Butari. The group mostly was of young guys, most in their last years of high school and my friend Cathy and another American volunteer. We had a great time. We visited the National Museum and also the University of Rwanda. Some of the guys hope to be attending there in a few years. It was nice to see another part of the country.

I'm heading to Kampala this coming weekend. I'll be spending about two weeks in Uganda, I'm hoping to do some white water rafting on the Nile. That sounds so cool... rafting on the Nile. I'll be heading back to Rwanda to spend Christmas with friends before heading to Mumbai, India on January 7.

This morning was certainly a highlight since I've arrived here in this country. I got to go treking in Volcanoes National Park to visit the Silverback Mountain Gorilla. It was an amazing experience. I got very muddy and stung by stinging nettle, but it was all worth it to spend a full hour visiting the Amororow family of gorillas. We just stood off to the side and they slept, groomed each other, the kids played and the teenagers were a bit rowdy. There was one time at the end of the hour when the teens were screeming at each other and they came running towards our group, the guide said in a very quite voice, 'don't move or run'. When two gorillas are running towards you with teeth bared, it is hard to stay still. We all managed to though, I think some in the group might have needed a change of underwear after. If ever you are in Rwanda it is worth the money.