Rwanda, DR Congo and now Uganda

WOW what a crazy week its been!


Day 1- Kigali, Rwanda

I arrive at the airport by the skin of my teeth because if a massive
police check point from Moshi to the Kilimanjaro airport. I clear
customs, meet an awesome group from UNC going to Rwanda to study
genocide and off I go!

You arrive over lush rolling volcanic hills, its अमज़िंग.



I get to थे airport and no clue where I am staying so I grab my gear and take bus to the center of Kigali for ten cents. I get off and take a motorbike taxi to with my pack and all my gear to hotel Des मिल्ल्सCollines which is what the movie Hotel Rwanda is based on.

I decided to stay at hotel Gloria which the guide book says is cheap
and good. Two things that are important to me. I arrive and walk
through what seem like an abandoned hotel. I unpack in my room with no
running water pull out my hostel sheets cause my mattress smells reeks
of Urine. Reminds me of Tom Hanks hotel in Big.


walk out and grab another moto bike and head to the
genocide memorial.

The memorial is insane. When you see what really happened its hard to
comprehend how over a million people died in 100 days। I spend a few





hours there they grab a bike back to the “hotel” grab some grub and
call it an early night so I can get going early tomorrow.

Day 2- Kigali to Ruhengeri

I wake up early and make my way to the tourist office where you pay
and book your trek to see the endangered mountain gorillas in the north
near the Congo. Turns out hey only accept local Rwandan Visa’s or
cash. Here the thing, Rwanda does not have ONE international ATM. No
joke! You can only do cash advances. So my lovely mom comes to the
rescue and wires me money via Western Union where I meet my travel
buddy, Alexa!

Alexa is awesome, South African girl who just got to Rwanda as well
and is looking for cash. I share what I have learned over the last 3
hours looking for it and we start talking about Tanzania where I just
came and she is going and next thing you know we are on a bus together
north to Ruhengeri. Funny how you meet people :o)



The town exists soley to see the Gorilla’s it seems. Its is that of an
abandoned upstate NY town that you wonder how or why anyone would live
there. We eat and have dinner with a local we met named Stella then
head to bed early since we have to be up at 5:45 am

Day 3 – Moto bikes, Ted Turner and Gorillas!

We wake up and walk in the rain to the bus station where we grab moto
bikes to take up to the park office. It’s a fun 20 min ride in the
morning rain.



We arrive have some tea and hang out. Alexa came and was
gonna try and hike but t he weather was to bad so we chatted with
people as we waited to go.

I started chatting with Mr Ted Turner who started and owns CNN. He was
very cool and nice. Asked what we were doing, asked him the same. We
talked for like 10 min or so then went with our groups.



I hitched aride to the base of the trek with two very nice girls which saved me
$100 so I was stoked. I was going to see the Sabynyo Group which has
the LARGEST silver back on the entire mountain!

We trek through the mud and rain for a few hours. The gorillas move
every day so they can be close or far.


We talk up on them circle infront and WOW! The are massive and we are within a few feet of them.They are eating and playing. They walk towards us as we move and make
way. We trek a bit more and follow them to a clearing where we get to
see something that was truly amazing:











After we hitch a ride back to town Alexa and I pack up and head on a
bus to Gisenyl which is on lake Kiva and where you can cross into the
DR Congo. Buses in Rwanda are awesome btw. Nice change from Tanzania.
We arrive at out lodge which is surprisingly nice and meet Sara. A
brit from northern England and hit it off. We chat all night the 3 of
us and plan on meeting up in the morning.

I decide I am going to the venture into the Congo in the morning. I’m
super excited!


Day 4 – The DR Congo and Kibuye

We meet Sara at her place. Her and Alexa decide to go to the lake.
Sara walks me to the boarder as adrenaline rushes over me. The DR
Congo is one of the most dangerous places in the world at the moment.
The rebels who left Rwanda fled to the Congo and violence is still
very real. I found out from someone after I had left that the day
before rebels attacked the boarder and were killed I’m glad I found
this out AFTER I had made it back safe.

I cross over into Goma , get my visa and grab a bike. I spend some time
exploring. Its much like the rest of east Africa but with TONS of UN
soldiers and NGO workers.








I only spent a short bit of time there since there is not a ton to see
since it is involved in civil war and not very safe. After a bit I
grab a bike back to the boarder, cross back to Rwanda then head to
find the girls.

I find them at the beach on the lake. Sara and Alexa are planning on
going to Uganda together later in the week. Alexa and I are going to
grab a bus to Kibuye that day so we say a quick goodbye and head to
off.

The roads are bad and it takes 4 hours or so but its fun. We arrive
grab bikes ( Yes we take them a lot) to Hotel St Jean which is a cheap
hostel run by the catholic church.




It is also the site were a church
lies that 11,400 people were murdered in 94’.






We get a bed for $4 andcrash. We are waking up at 5 to watch the sunrise

Day 5- Kibuye, our new German friend and Kigali


We wake up and watch the sunrise which is beautiful.


We have a nice breakfast and meet Fillip who works for German government working
with NGO’s. ts Sunday so he joins us. He’ll bee in Rwanda for 2 years.
We explore and find a great hotel


gli
We grab a soda then go swimming in the lake. Its great! Fillip strips
down and jumps in naked. Have to love Europeans. We have food, relax
then walk around exploring the town.



Fillip has offered to drive us back to Kigali. SWEET!

Sara called Alexa and said she wants to go to Uganda the next day. I
decided why not! I’m gong to! We ride back to Kigali with Fillip, Sara
meets us there we go to our rooms near a mosque and crash. Tomorrow
should be exciting!


Day 6- Bye bye Rwanda, Hello Uganda

We wake up, grab some food, I change my flight and we head to the bus.



The bus takes 8 + hours to go to Kampala, Uganda which is the main
city. The bus is long and as we pass the boarder I get my head phones
stolen by customs, oh well. Sucks but what can you do?







The ride is insane! The roads in Rwanda are amazing and Uganda they
are horrible. It was a white Knuckle ride the whole way!



We pass over the equator, arrive and take a ride to the Red Chilli where we stayed
the night. It’s a backpacker lodge, very cool and very cheap, good
combo.


So now I’m off to explore Uganda, raft the Nile then Head to Kenya!

Off to Rwanda!

Off to Rwanda!

Tuesday May 19th is my last day in Tanzania which is for sure bitter sweet. Moshi is a very special place to me. It’s where the kids at Matumaini are. This is the Orphanage that I have been with here. During my time here I’ve got to work with Kim and Michelle with the building and architecture planning of the new care facility that is being built. Its been awesome to use my building background for something as awesome as this. You can read more about the Knock foundation here. Its truly awesome.

I’ve had an amazing time here. Time has flown by! Two months seem like two days. I’ve also been really privileged with a lot of amazing experiences. Here are a few pics of some of the people and things that made it that way.

Lil bit on Rwanda

Rwanda is west of Tanzania, North or Burundi and is a I historic country to say the least. Many have seen hotel Rwanda but the quick snap shot is this. There were two groups, the Tutsis and Hutus. It was colonized by Germany which gave power to the Tutsis to help them gain power in the country.

It was later taken over by Belgian and increased the racial divide. This would explode in civil war in 1994 which would end in the death of over a million people. There is a genocide museum which us supposed to be life changing. Cant wait to see it.

Machete marks from an Rwandan who lived through the Genocide

The country has made a come back and no longer are there Tutsis and Hutus but Rwandans. It is much safer. One of its biggest attractions are the silver back mountain gorillas. You are able to trek into the mountains with Escorts and armed guards for protection to see them in there natural environment.

This is one thing I’m SUPER excited to do :o)

Stay tuned for details. I’ll be there for one week then I head to Kenya! WOOHOO!

Top of the world!

My Kilimanjaro- 19, 333 ft, the largest free standing moutain in the world and the highest point in Africa I summitted on May 5th 2009 at 6:20 am using the Machame aka Whiskey Route. I could not be happier. Was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Here is a quick 6 day recap of the climb with pictures.

Day 1: We reach base camp of around 9,350 ft. Climb is through the rain forest. Start to get above the tree line. Camp is cold and I'm feeling sick. The night sky is like nothing I have ever seen. Feel like you are in the stars with being so close and no light pollution.

Day 2: Managed not to throw up last night. Was freezing cold. Eating was hard. Today is a steep climb day. We break above the tree line and the landscape changes drastically. Feeling much better at night. Reach Shira camp 12,500 ft

Day 3: We are climatetizing today. We make our way to Lava Rock around 15,000 ft. Air is thin. Hard to breath. It starts to rain as we decent to camp at 13k to help get ready for the day from hell tomorrow. Summit day.

Day 4: We are up at 7 am. Mussa (The guide) Tells me we have to climb Barranco wall aka breakfest wall. I think hes joking. Hes not.

Barranco Wall


This looks insaine but we do it. Climb is hard. We get to Summit base camp, Barafu, which is 15, 331 ft up at around 4pm. We set up eat and rest for a few hours. Then we wake up at 11PM, dress and start the hardest climb to make it up to the summit after climbing all day at night with the wind howling. So hard its knocking you over almost. Its now midnight.

Day5: Summit continued. Its now around Midnight. We are climbing by headlamps. I stop and I start violently vomiting. The issue here is that altitude sickness can be bad. It can causes swelling of the brain and vomiting is a sign but I think its just food. Mussa asks if I wanna keep going and I say heck yes! I am not stopping. We reach Stella point at 5:30 am which is where Machame and the Marangu meet. Mussa says we have 1 hour more and hugs me. I start ballin. I cant tell you the feeling of pride I felt. I'm pushing to the summit as the sun rises. The glaciers light up as we summit at 6:20 am. We are the first people to reach summit. Its amazing. Words cant descripe so hopefully the pictures below can

Glaciers











Glaciers


Landscape



UHURU Peak- 19,333 ft Highest free standing Moutain in the world



We stay at the top for maybe 10 Minitues. Its freezing. I have on more layers then I care to count. We start to desecent and pass other climbers making the final trek. Its around 4 hours back to base camp.

Summit Base Camp- 15,331 ft

We get there at 11 am, rest for 1 hours time then have to go another 4 hours to the next camp. So we are going for around 22 hours now on a few hours sleep. We get down and crash! Its around 6 PM to the lower camp, same day as we summited.


Day 6: Its a quick trek down. We get back and I sign the book that I made it. Happiest and most proud I have felt. Back in Moshi Kimmy takes me out to an awesome Dinner in town . Get home, shower for the first time in a week and crash.

It was a good week :o)


Machame route