hello from the land of hope and hot showers!
got back home last night. if anyone was concerned that I had been killed or kidnapped or eaten by gorillas, my apologies. our travels in rwanda were incredible, but internet access was difficult to find, and when available, our schedule didn't allow for too much free time to blog.
so here are a few highlights from the rwandan leg of the journey:
after flying into kigali and driving two hours to ruhengeri, we met up with the members of the board of the foundation (the people who are overseeing the management and funding of the imbabazi orphanage.) they are amazing people who are doing everything in their power to help not only the kids at imbabazi, but many communities in rwanda. their dedication to the people of rwanda is truly inspiring.
the next day we headed into volcanoes national park for our gorilla trek! after about an hour hike through beautiful hills then dense jungle, we spent an hour with a 25 member gorilla family. all I can say is that it was one of the most awesome (in the truest sense of the word) experiences of my life. you look into the eyes of these gentle creatures and you see curiousity and intelligence, and you can't help but feel a deep connection and kinship too. the gorillas were all around us. at one point I was about three feet away from a silverback (the alpha male gorilla who is the leader of the family) and a mom with a baby on her back almost knocked me over when they passed right by me. one of the young boy gorillas put on quite a show for us, pounding his chest then swinging from bamboo trees and wrestling with his younger brother. I'm telling you, it was unbelievable. you're only allowed to spend an hour with the gorillas, and it went by in a flash. once kevin and I go through all the pictures and video, I'll post a link so you can see for yourself what I'm talking about.
the next day we drove to the imbabazi orphanage (imbabazi means sympathy in kinyarwanda) where we spent five days with the 102 kids who live there. all of them were on holiday from school, so we had plenty of time to talk with them, shoot video and photographs, interview them for our website project, and try to learn a little of their language (which is called kinyarwanda, one of the most difficult languages in the world to master.)
right now, it's really difficult for me to summarize my experience at imbabazi because the kids had such a profound affect on me. they touched my heart in a way I was not prepared for. I met so many wonderful souls, all of them full of love and hope despite the horrors of their past. most of the kids (I say kids, but really most of them are teenagers) were around three or four years old during the genocide and witnessed the murder of their parents and other family members.
a little backstory: the orphanage was started right after the genocide by an american woman named roz carr who had been living in rwanda for 50 years. at the age of 82, after seeing these children who had no one to take care of them wandering the streets, she decided to turn her flower plantation into an orphanage. by 1996 she had over 300 kids living there. it's an incredible story and she was an incredible woman. she passed away two years ago, but during the 12 years she spent with the kids, she gave them nothing but love and kindness. she promised each child that she would take care of them until they were adults and provide all of them with an education. right now, the foundation (which has taken over after roz's death) is trying to raise money so they can fulfill roz's promise. kevin and I will be creating a website and fundraising videos for imbabazi to help the foundation raise money for the kids.
our five days at imbabazi were unforgettable. like most of the people we met in rwanda, the kids were so friendly and open. I have about 20 new penpals now and one of the girls made me a beautiful bag and told me that wherever I go, I will always be in her heart. (if that doesn't make up for the lack of hot water and grilled cheese sandwiches in rwanda I don't know what will.)
after imbabazi, we drove up to gisenyi, a resort town on lake kivu (about 5 minutes from the border of congo. yikes.) there, we spent a few days with the foundation members discussing our imbabazi experience and figuring out the direction for the website. we also got a chance to visit a center for disabled kids and adults that was started by two men who were raised at imbabazi. another incredibly inspiring story.
and now, after 42 hours of plane rides and layovers, I'm back home. I just caught up on all the episodes of the office and friday night lights that I missed. I really love dvr and america.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Sa-fari, so good (sorry)
jambo! mambo? poa. besides "hakuna matata" and the words for "thank you" and "where is the toilet" (choo iko wapi), that's the extent of my swahili knowledge. it's a very cool language though.
side note: kevin and I cannot stop singing lionel ritchie's "all night long." (as most of you soft rock lovers remember, the intro to the song is in swahili. it goes something like this: "something see ya say ya mama. hey! jambo la. something something hey ya jama. hey! jambo, jambo!" I believe these are the exact words.) this supposedly fun, innocuous tune has become annoyingly impossible to get out of our heads. at first we'd implore eachother to "shut the fuck up" when one of us started humming the song, but now we've given in and embraced it. we've even worked out some simple harmonies and take turns singing lead and back up.
anyway...
so this is the first opportunity I've had to blog since, obviously, my last pre-safari entry. since arriving in tanzania, when someone asks where we are from, and we naturally say "America", 95% of the time the response will be, "Obama!", then "you like Obama?" and then we say, "no, McCain!" no, that's not what we say. it's really incredible hos obama has made it respectable to be an american again. I no longer have to say that I'm from canada when I travel.
okay, time to talk safari. but let me first say that before these past seven days, I'd never been a big Animal Kingdom of nature documentary gal. sure, I'd seen a few (usually if someone else was watching it or if I was drunk) but my wildlife expertise was far from impressive. in fact, before the safari, I thought a gazelle was a bird and a wildebeest was a hyena-like creature. but now, post-safari, when I get home I'm gonna watch the shit out of Animal Planet. this safari was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. our first day in tarangire national park we saw elephants, giraffes, impalas, and zebras...all hanging out together! just extraordinary. in the lake manyara area, we saw tons of baboons and vervet monkeys, and hippos. and, in the serengeti, we were about five feet away from a male lion and his lady friend. we also got to check out a couple leopards and cheetahs. but perhaps the most incredible site was seeing thousands upon thousands of wildebeest and zebra migrating to greener environs. the seregeti plain was literally covered with them. it was one of those times when I felt very small; I felt that the world was an enormous place where billions of stories are happening simultaneously. leaving the serengeti I couldn't help thinking, what else am I missing? and then I realized, oh, my leg. damn lion.
our last stop was ngorogoro crater where we caught a glimpse of the endangered black rhino. it was very far away though, so it could have just been a wildebeest wearing a rhino mask.
there's a ton more I could write about: the horrors of camping, how camping is stupid, and how, when camping, spiders the size of a fiat crawl down your leg and force you to stay in lodges the rest of the safari. but alas, I must go enjoy the beaches of zanzibar.
tomorrow we fly to rwanda!
side note: kevin and I cannot stop singing lionel ritchie's "all night long." (as most of you soft rock lovers remember, the intro to the song is in swahili. it goes something like this: "something see ya say ya mama. hey! jambo la. something something hey ya jama. hey! jambo, jambo!" I believe these are the exact words.) this supposedly fun, innocuous tune has become annoyingly impossible to get out of our heads. at first we'd implore eachother to "shut the fuck up" when one of us started humming the song, but now we've given in and embraced it. we've even worked out some simple harmonies and take turns singing lead and back up.
anyway...
so this is the first opportunity I've had to blog since, obviously, my last pre-safari entry. since arriving in tanzania, when someone asks where we are from, and we naturally say "America", 95% of the time the response will be, "Obama!", then "you like Obama?" and then we say, "no, McCain!" no, that's not what we say. it's really incredible hos obama has made it respectable to be an american again. I no longer have to say that I'm from canada when I travel.
okay, time to talk safari. but let me first say that before these past seven days, I'd never been a big Animal Kingdom of nature documentary gal. sure, I'd seen a few (usually if someone else was watching it or if I was drunk) but my wildlife expertise was far from impressive. in fact, before the safari, I thought a gazelle was a bird and a wildebeest was a hyena-like creature. but now, post-safari, when I get home I'm gonna watch the shit out of Animal Planet. this safari was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. our first day in tarangire national park we saw elephants, giraffes, impalas, and zebras...all hanging out together! just extraordinary. in the lake manyara area, we saw tons of baboons and vervet monkeys, and hippos. and, in the serengeti, we were about five feet away from a male lion and his lady friend. we also got to check out a couple leopards and cheetahs. but perhaps the most incredible site was seeing thousands upon thousands of wildebeest and zebra migrating to greener environs. the seregeti plain was literally covered with them. it was one of those times when I felt very small; I felt that the world was an enormous place where billions of stories are happening simultaneously. leaving the serengeti I couldn't help thinking, what else am I missing? and then I realized, oh, my leg. damn lion.
our last stop was ngorogoro crater where we caught a glimpse of the endangered black rhino. it was very far away though, so it could have just been a wildebeest wearing a rhino mask.
there's a ton more I could write about: the horrors of camping, how camping is stupid, and how, when camping, spiders the size of a fiat crawl down your leg and force you to stay in lodges the rest of the safari. but alas, I must go enjoy the beaches of zanzibar.
tomorrow we fly to rwanda!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Oh, perhaps I'm in Africa. No biggie.
well, we did it. after a fairly painless 24 hours of flying, we arrived last night at kilimanjaro international airport, and spent the night at the cutest l'il b&b this side of vermont. no, it's not a b&b at all. it's called le jacaranda hotel, and it's very cozy and very african. which makes sense being that we are AFRICA!!!!! still hard to believe.
interesting observation #1: there are a lot of black people here!
tomorrow we head off on our seven day safari in the seregeti. our guide said we should see a lot of lions, elephants, zebras, wildebeasts, and a bunch of other wildlife. woo hoo!
well, I have 3 minutes of computer time left, so I must cut this sucker short.
off to the wild!
p
interesting observation #1: there are a lot of black people here!
tomorrow we head off on our seven day safari in the seregeti. our guide said we should see a lot of lions, elephants, zebras, wildebeasts, and a bunch of other wildlife. woo hoo!
well, I have 3 minutes of computer time left, so I must cut this sucker short.
off to the wild!
p
Monday, November 10, 2008
That's My Homo Sapien!
leaving for africa in 12 hours. going to the place where it/we all began. kind of overwhelming to think about all that history. I bought a very large book with very small type that will guide me through it. the flight over is twenty-some hours, so I will have plenty of time to pretend to read it.
I need to pack now.
the plan is this: land in kilimanjaro (tanzania, bitches!), do a week-long safari in the serengeti, then over to zanzibar for a little weekend r&r on the beach before we fly to rwanda to meet with the people from the foundation. after we do a trek into volcans national park to hang out with the mountain gorillas, we'll drive to the imbabazi orphanage where we'll spend a week with the kids, taking photos, videos, and such. then it's off to gisenyi, a resort town on lake kivu for a day or two to discuss the plan of attack for the website and fundraising efforts with the foundation people, then back to kigali, rwanda's capital city, where we'll figure out what we want to do with our three or four free days before we fly back to america.
not sure what the internet situation will be like over there, but will try to blog when I can so you guys can follow my adventures and be reassured that I'm not dead.
gonna go get me some africa, y'all.
p
I need to pack now.
the plan is this: land in kilimanjaro (tanzania, bitches!), do a week-long safari in the serengeti, then over to zanzibar for a little weekend r&r on the beach before we fly to rwanda to meet with the people from the foundation. after we do a trek into volcans national park to hang out with the mountain gorillas, we'll drive to the imbabazi orphanage where we'll spend a week with the kids, taking photos, videos, and such. then it's off to gisenyi, a resort town on lake kivu for a day or two to discuss the plan of attack for the website and fundraising efforts with the foundation people, then back to kigali, rwanda's capital city, where we'll figure out what we want to do with our three or four free days before we fly back to america.
not sure what the internet situation will be like over there, but will try to blog when I can so you guys can follow my adventures and be reassured that I'm not dead.
gonna go get me some africa, y'all.
p
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