Churchill's Pearl

Winston Churchill once said that Uganda is the "Pearl of Africa". While I haven't seen the entire continent (yet), I can't think of any reason to correct him.

My first stop in Uganda was Jinja, home of the source of the Nile River. And some of the best white-water rafting in the world. I must admit, I was terrified. One girl I talked to said that her boyfriend had done it the previous day and that he hated several "fights for his life". My rafting friend Daniel and I looked at each-other, and I seriously contemplated wussing out. But no. Ten minutes in the truck, and we put in just past the dam on Lake Victoria. Our guide, Jamie, taught us what to do when the boat flips, and after a warm-up swim through a Class II rapid, we were ready for our first big one. We had four Class V rapids of the day, and I ended up getting thrown out of the boat during three of them. The longest swim was on a rapid called "Silverback" (after the gorillas...see below...and the froth); lots of water in the lungs. The craziest "what-did-I-just-do" moment came after we went sideways over a 15-foot waterfall. So much fun; the pictures barely do the day justice. I would definitely go again.

Over the weekend I went on a gorilla tracking safari in Bwindi National Park, in southwestern Uganda. The ride there from Kampala was an incredibly long ten hours, the last three of which were over the bumpiest dirt road I have ever been down. Or up. But the views were worth it- Uganda's Switzerland. Rolling hills, rain forest, villages, farms. So beautiful. Sunday morning we got up early for our a briefing by the park rangers. I was assigned to track Group H, made up of 18 individuals including a Silverback ("the boss"), three blackbacks (other large males), and several females, juveniles, and babies. Back into the cars for a bit. Then we had a 4 hour hike through the jungle: up and down hills, our guides were literally hacking our way through the jungle with their machetes.

When we finally came upon the gorillas, they were resting in a thick briar, so the pictures didn't turn out very well. But we were crazy close and got to see eleven gorillas. So beautiful. They were mostly just lounging around. Eating some leaves. The baby kept jumping up and down pounding his chest. At one point one of the younger males decided to remind us whose house we were in and came charging right up to us; he literally passed three feet in front of my face. And let me tell you, getting thrown in the Nile is nothing compared to being charged by several hundred pounds of showing off gorilla. I almost peed my pants. Not really. But I really did almost ran away, which is the worst thing I could have done- making him want to chase me. Good thing our guide reminded told us to freeze on the spot. Later on, though we couldn't see it, one of the other males tried to make a pass on one of the females; this pissed off the silverback (the only male allowed to mate), so he went lumbering over there and started scolding the youngester. Two gorillas fighting 10 yards away is another scary sound, especially when all you can see is bushes falling by the wayside.

What a day. What a country.

With which animal would you least like to play cards?

A cheetah! (Ba-dum ching.)

Over the weekend I did a three-day safari in Masai Mara, Kenya. It was incredible. We left Nairobi on Saturday morning and drove out to the Mara. I must say, these Kenyans certainly have the tourism thing figured out: lunch at an all you can eat buffet; budget camping with beds, blankets, electricity, and toilets; and plush seats in the safari van. I feel like I'm cheating.

Our game drives were fantastic. We got to see just about everything we wanted to- lions, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, zebras, buffalo, wildebeest... It was pretty neat. And we got up nice and close to almost all of them. The first evening out we came across a small family of lions munching down on a zebra. We watched them from literally ten feet away. So big and powerful. And the cubs were off playing on the side. The next day we came across a group who was just about finished eating- already the jakals and vultures were beginning to move in. As the pride left, the three females, one male, and six cubs walked right in front of the van. I could have reached out and petted them. Or not. We also managed to get a great sighting of a mother cheetah and her little cubs. Unfortunately she didn't run for us. I think my favorite, though, were the giraffes we saw silhouetted at the top of a hill against the twilight sky. So cool.

Yes, there were tons of vans, all with drivers trying to get their clients in for the best photo op. And I did feel a bit ridiculous knowing that my camera was just as eager as everyone else's. And it's unfortunate that the animals are all so used to humans that they barely even flinch when the vans drive up. But it's way better than a zoo, and so, so cool to see them all in their natural environments.

Next stop: rafting the Nile in Uganda!

Karibu Kenya

Greetings from Mombasa. After spending three days in the bustle of Nairobi, I'm now in Mombasa, on my way to the beaches of the Indian Ocean. Cars, tall buildings, people, matatus, and surprisingly few (in fact, barely any) motos...Kenya has already started to grow on me. If only it weren't so cold.

I got my first taste of the cold in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. My flight had an overnight layover, so the airlines put me up in a hotel. Nice. But my room's windows were all open, and there was no heater. I had to turn on the hot shower for ten minutes to let the steam heat up the room. Then I huddled under the blankets to sleep. It was probably 65 degrees.

I got to Nairobi around noon on Thursday. The lodge I'm staying at sent a taxi for me, and I met the driver after going through customs. The ride to the lodge was probably less than 15 miles, but it took just over an hour because of...traffic! Nairobi has mad amounts of cars. I couldn't believe it. And narrow, windy streets made it impossible to move at times. Also, they drive on the left side of the road (which threw me off while crossing the street on more than one occasion). But the craziest thing is that there are no motorcycles. We're not in Ouaga anymore.

Friday morning I went over to the National Museum. They had several neat exhibits, but my favorite was the hall of mammals. A stuffed elephant, zebra, and giraffe were the main display. All around them the animals were grouped by eating habits. They had everything from a lion to a flying squirrel, all nicely annotated and explained. And the bathrooms were crazy clean. I spent the rest of Friday afternoon wandering around central Nairobi. I saw the House of Parliment, the National Arhives, the Vice President's office. I just could not get over the number of people, all well-dressed and rushing around on their lunch break.

Saturday I hung out with Patrick, a friend of my brother Nick's. Patrick works with a group that helps AIDS-affected children stay in school, and on Saturdays they have group activities. I spent the afternoon reading books, playing frisbee, and tossing a football. Lots of fun. We then had a birthday party for one of his co-workers. Grilled goat...yum! Just like Burkina.

And now I'm in Mombasa. I took a seven-hour ride on one of the "not so nice" buses yesterday. It was actually pretty nice. No AC, but we got Kenyan music videos for about half of the trip, and the rest stop at the halfway point was clean and had several restaurants with no hawkers. It's pretty clear that tourism is an important part of the Kenyan economy.

Hope all is well. Pictures soon...hopefully. Viva Espana!

Niger

For the first leg of my COS (Close of Service) trip, my friend Elsa and I spent five days in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. Niger is Burkina's neighbor to the east, and we immediately noticed both the differences and the similarities between people, culture, and resources in the two countries. See the pictures here.

Our first day was spent traveling. I got on the bus in Ouaga at 6am, and we got off the bus in Niamey around 7pm. Good times. But the taxi driver didn't rip us off too badly, and we made it to the PC's Niamey hostel sap sap. Food. Showers. Sleep. Best part: their hostel has a huge roof, perfect for sleeping. And that was good because, it was quite hot, despite this being the rainy season. And since it was the rainy season, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to be woken up at 2am to a thunder storm. Back inside with the mattress. At least the temperature was pretty moderate the rest of the trip.

We spent most of our first day exploring Niamey. Got to check out the grand mosque and the grander marche. Both were quite impressive. The mosque was built courtesy of a 500 million CFA donation from Libya. Located away from the heart of town, its matching green-topped minaret and dome were pretty snazzy. We then checked out the grand marche downtown, and spent sufficient time wandering around, getting lost, asking directions, and being led to the "best place for..." (fill in the blank with just about anything you can think of). Niamey is noticeably smaller than Ouaga, the people speak much less French, and there is a stronger Arabic influence, but all in all, Niamey definitely has the same feel as Ouaga.

The next day we decided to check out the Niger National Zoo. First stop: two giant hyenas behind some iron bars that seemed much too weak to do the job. I never knew how huge hyenas were. And we were only a couple feet away. We also saw a hippo (very fat), some baboons, an ostrich, and five lions! All within touching distance; a little scary. Interesting: one of the Niger PCVs works at the zoo. I asked her about feeding the lions. She said that they cut up animals and throw the pieces at the cage bars; the lions reach out and swipe in the meat. The tricky part is that the zoo worker doing the feeding is standing right next to the cage as well. Better hope the dead donkey looks more appetizing than you.

The highlight of the entire trip was definitely the giraffes. Niger is home to the last herd of wild giraffes, and the government has done an impressively good job of preserving their environment while still allowing tourist access. We rented a car to get us out to Koure, about 50km from Niamey, where we picked up a guide. Within five minutes, our guide had us in the midst of a family of four or five giraffes. And we just followed them around on foot for about an hour. They're completely harmless and seemed just as curious about us as we were about them. Did you know giraffes aren't yellow and black? They were brown and light brown. Also, they immediately reminded me of long-legged goats: similar eating habits, same environment, and movements. Turns out they are distantly related to the mountain goat. Cool.

Aside from a quick pirogue ride on the Niger river, that pretty much does it for our trip. A couple of PCVs invited us out to their sites, but that involved another 14 hour bus ride to the east- opposite the direction to Ouaga- so we had to decline. Someday I want to go back, though. Check out the rest of the country. And if security ever improves in the north, I have heard Agadez- home of Tuaregs, camels, and the gateway to the Sahara- is well-worth a visit.

Happy Fourth of July!