We got up early and went to the car and our guide was waiting there and his name was Sammy. He was a very nice guy. Then we drove for a long time. Then we stopped at a tourist overview. There was a lot of people there selling little trinkets for the tourists. The view was awesome. It looked out over a valley that is part of the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is a tectonic plate shift that created Mt. Kilimanjaro and Lake Tanganyika, it starts someplace in Kenya and does not end until sometime in the DRC. It was beautiful. There was some volcanoes and a lot of green. Then, I bargained for a soap dish for Dad. Then we got back into the car. We stopped in a little town a couple of hours out for lunch. Sammy told us to each heartily. It was good food, then we got back on the road. We traveled for about two more hours and then we stopped. There was a clunking in one of the wheels. So Sammy looked at it and then he called a mechanic. Another minibus drove by and Sammy flagged it down and asked if it could give us a ride to the camp. Sammy said I will be right behind you, so we left all our stuff in the car. Luckily I grabbed my camera. The road in was rough, but I was tired, so I managed to stick my head in between the seats and fell asleep. We saw some zebras and giraffes. While we were driving the window I was sitting by fell out of the car, I grabbed it and they put it back in, like it happened all the time. Eventually we got to the campsite. We rested for a little bit, but we had no books or anything, so we decided to get a beer. We ate supper and then we talked to the guy who was in charge. He said that Sammy was coming and would be here in the morning, but if he was not here, we would go on a safari with the overland truck that was there. It seemed all right. We went and sat by a fire and talked with a Massai warrior. Then we were tired so we went to bed. The next morning we went to breakfast and looked for Sammy, he was not there, so we ate and then got in this huge truck and went into the bush. The people in that truck had just flown in the day before, so they were all getting to know each other. We were instructed before to tell them we were with the overland truck company, but we were going with another group, so we would not be joining them. This was so the guide could pocket all the money and it made no difference to me or Dad, so we stuck to that story. The people on the truck wanted to get to know everyone, so they all asked us what we were doing and how far we were going to go. We had to lie at least thirty times within the first twenty minutes of meeting these people. The first thing we saw was a jackal and a hyena hanging out under the shade of some trees. Then we saw a bunch of Wildebeests, Zebras, Thompson Gazelles, Impalas and Grant Gazelles. In that mix we saw another three Jackals who were eating the leg of something. Then we saw a bunch of topaz and hartebeests. Next, three male lions hanging out under some small bushes to get away from Then, we saw a bunch of elephants. We followed them and they led us to a pride of lions. There were around twenty lionesses and baby lions. We stayed there for a long time and took a bunch of pictures. Someone saw some Tommie gazelles and we were hoping the lions would attack, but they did not. We left and went to where the Massai Mara and the Serengeti connect and we got to stand in the Serengeti, it was cool. Then we went to the Massai river. This is the famous river where the wildebeests get eaten by the crocodiles and are chased by lions, during the wildebeest migration. We saw hippos and a giant crocodile that was absolutely prehistoric. We ate lunch and moved on. By mid afternoon we were not seeing very much and most people in the truck fell asleep. Then we saw some giraffes, another lion and an assortment of birds. We then left for camp. We got in and our bags were back, so we showered and changed clothes. Then we ate with all the overlanders. We drank some beer and talked. Then moved down to the fire and kept on drinking, eventually Dad went to bed. Some of the overlanders had bought a box of wine, so I helped them finish it. It was getting pretty late, maybe 12:30, when all of the sudden Sammy showed up. He told me we were going on a morning game drive at 6 the next morning. I told him I wanted to see a cheetah and a leopard, he said he would do his best. Eventually we all said goodbye and I went to bed at around 2am. The next morning we got up early and ate some breakfast and then went in the minibus with Sammy. We drove in again and the first thing we saw was two topaz fighting. They kneeled down and pointed their horns at each other and then ran into each other and stood up. It was a sight. Then we looked for a leopard. We saw a few carcasses of impalas in trees where leopards had eaten them, but no leopard. Then we saw more of the same until we saw a cheetah. They are sleek and catlike. They hung out and we eventually moved on and saw some baboons and an ostrich looking bird that is the national bird of Uganda. The baboons we saw got in a fight also. It must have been fight day in the Mara, because on our way out we saw two impalas fighting. We left and drove for another six hours to Nakuru, a town by Lake Nakuru. We stayed at a hotel and slept well that night. We had said goodbye to Sammy and had a different driver, because it was his car. We got up and went into Lake Nakuru. We saw a beautiful lake full of flamingos. There were hundreds of them. Sadly the lake was drying up and it is only a shadow of its former beauty. We saw a group of hyenas, we found the dens and saw two very small babies. Then we saw more of the same until we went to this lookout. We got to see the whole lake. I was peaking over the edge when I saw what looked like a big groundhog. Furry and small with no tail, I thought it was a rock hyrax and our guide confirmed this after we showed him the pictures. A rock hyrax is the closest looking relative to an elephant. I was very happy to see one, even though they look more like a squirrel then an elephant. We then kept going hoping to find a rhino (that is what Lake Nakuru is famous for). We eventually saw a lone rhino. Took some pictures and moved on. Then we saw a mother and a baby, a really small baby. The baby did not even have a horn yet, just a nub. Dad and I agreed that this was the only animal we had seen that even the babies were ugly. The mother had a large stick in her horn when we first got there, but don’t worry she figured out how to remove it. We then saw another lone rhino and some buffaloes. We then saw three rhinos. A male with two adolescents, the male was HUGE. It was cool to see and they slowly came toward us. We left and went back to Nairobi. We got back and we were tired, so we booked a dorm room and put our bags down. When we put our bags down I noticed a drum that looked familiar. I went back outside to find James sitting there having a soda with our friend Nick. He was there and so was most of the people that I had left when I went on the safari. I walked back in to help Dad with everything and I noticed the two South Africans I had met when I first arrived at Milimanis. We all talked about our adventures and eventually it got late and we decided to go out to eat. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was interesting food. It is all served on a flat sour bread and had a bunch of different sauce stuff for dipping. It was good. Then we all went back to the hostel and stayed up drinking. James and I found out that at four the next morning the Viking were going to be on tv. So we woke up at four and watched them get handled by the panthers. Then Dad and I took a minibus to Arusha. In Arusha we got an nice hotel room and found a place for money and got bus tickets for the next day. Then we had a nice dinner and got a taxi for the next day. We slept well and then got on the bus the next day. It turned out to be a twenty hour bus ride to Mbeya. We got off the bus in the rain and drove around to a bunch of different hotels before we found one that had room. Then we got ripped off by the taxi driver and slept for a few hours then boarded another bus to Subawanga. We arrived in Subawanga and went to my house and slept. Then the next day it was Christmas eve, so we went over to my friend Marianna’s house. The children where there and they got to open their presents and sang songs, it was very cool. It was the best way I could spend Christmas away from my family. On Christmas we went to a four hour mass and then hung out for a while. We did the same thing the next day. The day after that, one of the monks drove us around and showed Dad the town. We stopped off at the orphanage and saw the rest of the town, it was good. Then we relaxed and finally we went to Mvimwa, which is where the monastery of the monks I live with is. We spent a night there and Dad got a tour. The next day we went to Kipili on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. We stayed at that tropical paradise for a day and a half, then returned to Subawanga. I think Dad enjoyed to see where I live and where I have been around. It was fun to share it with him. It was New Years Eve, so we went out to eat with the monks. Then we took a bus the next day back to Mbeya. Then on to Dar es Salaam the next day. We stayed with the monks there for a night and met James there again. The next day we wanted to go to a market, but we went there and it started to rain, so we decided to go to the ferry to Zanzibar. We got on a bus and then a guy said he would take us there and so, James, Dad and I followed this guy. We went to a small looking ferry and rushed on as it was about to depart. The guy paid for us and we got on. Then James texted me to see if I was on the right ferry, so I asked someone and he said it did not go to Zanzibar, but some other place. The horn sounded for it to shove off, so Dad and I jumped off the ferry and found James, we found the correct ferry. On the ferry I called a hotel to see if they had room. They said yes and I booked a room for the next few nights. We arrived and hired a taxi to take us into stonetown and pick up some girls glasses we met when we were staying with the monks. Then we went to a hotel called Kendwa rocks. It took about an hour. This was the place I had booked the room at, but they had no booking. They found room for us and that was good. Dad and I dropped our packs off in our room and went to the beach bar and got a beer and then went to the water and we were swimming around after the beer. When I thought I saw my friend Judith, who volunteers in Subawanga with me. I said her name and she looked at me and then kind of went the other way. So I started talking to my dad and then she said Dan. She did not recognize me, because since I had been away for a month my beard had grown considerably and she did not have her glasses on. Dad and I ended up having dinner with my friends from Subawanga and some people they had met on the island. We went to bed early, tired from six days straight of travelling. The next day we relaxed on the beach and decided to go snorkeling the next day. We stayed up and had dinner at the restaurant on the beach and then sat by the fire. Dad went to bed, but I had to finish my drink and I started talking to two british people who had just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. We talked and eventually I went to bed. The next day we got up and then got into the boat for snorkeling. We went out on this wooden fishing boat that had been remodeled to be a diving boat. We got to the point of the beach where we had to turn right and go across the island parralell to the waves and the captain decided to turn back. We met a couple of people on the way and one of them puked. We then had lunch and relaxed on the beach for the rest of the day, swimming. Then we had a massage and played volleyball. We got dinner and then bed time came around. The next day we went back to town with a shared taxi and got there in half the time. A little scary the way this guy drove. We got ferry tickets and then had really bad pizza in a little restaurant called Mercury’s. It was called this after Freddy Mercury, the lead singer for Queen who grew up on Zanzibar. Then we got on the ferry. We took first class back and it had air conditioning, which was huge. Then we went back to the place of the brothers. Dad left on his plane and we picked up James’ friend Sara at the airport. I was sad to see Dad go, but all good things have to come to an end. We went back to the brothers house. I stayed there with James and Sara for three days, because they were getting a ride to Subawanga from Mbeya and thought I could get one also. We went into dar and found the market we looked for before we went to Zanzibar. I bought a hat and James bought some gifts and Sara bought a phone. It was fun. We met a neat guy named Ahjah. He told me how to apply for a job with the forest service, which is something I’m contemplating. Then we got ticket for the bus ride to Mbeya. We left on a long bus ride to Mbey and eventually got there. Left for Subawanga the next day in a car. We stopped at Liela, which is where Sara is going to be teaching. Then we made it to Subawanga. We were supposed to start teaching the next day, but we found out that there is a week where no one teaches in order to give the students time to get back. So, we hung out at school and prepared things. It was a very interesting trip and I am very happy about how it all worked out. I would like to thank my mom for allowing and pushing my dad into coming and handling being apart for Christmas so well. I love you all.

I woke up early from excitement. I grabbed my packed backpack and headed out to where I was supposed to meet the car. I was worried I would miss it, but those worries were unfounded. The car picked me up and then the British couple and some overland truckers. For those of you that do not know what an overland truck is, it is where a bunch of people get into a huge truck and travel around a continent and camp out, it is quite big in Europe. We arrived at the ranger station. It was just a building in the middle of some fields. We had coffee and I drank tea. I talked with some of the overland truckers and my British friends, then we were separated into groups. I was put in the lucky group, a group that has twelve gorillas, the silverback separated from the Sasa group, which is one of the main research groups of Diane Fossey. We set out in cars and eventually got to the edge of the forest. We hiked for about twenty minutes, it was easy walking. Then the guide told us to give our bags and stuff to the porters, so the gorillas would not smell the food. As he did the first gorilla showed up. It did not even care that we were sitting there and snapping pictures. Then more and more gorillas showed up. They just sat around, eating bamboo and climbing trees. The silverback was off trying to steal female gorillas away from other groups. We were worried we would not get to see him. But with ten minutes to go, he showed up. What a sight. HUGE, he walked in with an air of authority. When he got there all the gorillas came over and greeted him. It was amazing, but you can only have one hour with the gorillas, so we had to leave. We got back to town and my British friends and I went to lunch. It was good and I asked the waiter how to get to Kampala from Musanze. He said there were buses in the morning and at night. So, I said goodbye to my friends and caught a mini bus to the boarder of Uganda and Rwanda. I crossed the border and caught a motorbike taxi to Kisoro. I caught the last bus to Kampala, the only reason it was still there was it was being fixed. It was probably the worst night of my life. I did not sleep and the bus played Celine Dion videos over and over again. I got to Kampala and got another motorbike taxi to the hostel I wanted to stay at. I got there about 5 o’clock in the morning, the security guard let me in and told me to pay for the dorm he put me in when they opened in the morning. I paid and then walked around Kampala, I changed some money and then went to a book store and bought two books and had a little over 5 dollars left in my pocket, so I walked over to the ATM, but it would not work, so I went to another ATM, still nothing. I tried every way to get money, but could not. Defeated and poor I walked back the 2 miles to my hostel. I had taken out too much money in Rwanda and so, I had to wait two days in Kampala in order to be able to use my ATM card again. So, I waited and called my parents for help, I was nervous and hungry, I had run out of water and food by the middle of the second day. I used a guys phone I met at the hostel to text back and forth to my parents. Eventually I got money. I went to a guy’s shop who is from the Congo and talked to him. I talked to him in English and Swahili. His shop was a mini mall where he put out all of his stuff on a stairway. It was really cool. He was interesting, but I needed to check out of my hostel, so I left. I got a bus to Jinja and arrived about five o’clock and went to a hostel. I then talked to the guy about rafting and bungee jumping. I arranged to raft the next day and then I walked to the ATM and successfully withdrew money. I met two Norwegian guys at the hostel. We moved from a hostel in town to a hostel on the Nile River. It was beautiful. I ran into the same overland truck that I had met at the gorillas. I drank with the two Norwegians and they got really drunk. One found a rat, it must have been a foot and a half long. It was huge. The next morning I got up and went rafting. We had an awesome group, the guide was amazing and the river was the Nile, so it was a really good time. We flipped four times and got tossed around the entire day. After the rafting we got transferred back to the hostel and had a great meal. I met some Americans and hung out with them. It was a great day and lots of fun. I asked the lady in the office about bungee jumping, but they did it at a different company, they called over there and booked me three times. They won’t open it up for only one person, so I thought I was going to go, but they figured out the mistake and I did not think I would be able to go. I decided to wait around and see if I could find someone to go the next day. So, I slept and then had breakfast. I met three Australian girls and asked them what they were doing, they said bungee jumping and so I went bungee jumping. I got a ride from some people I went rafting with the day before and I waited at the place for a while and slept. Then I bungee jumped, holy crap was that scary. It was awesome though. I got a ride back to town and walked around by Lake Victoria and took pictures and stuff. It was nice. Then the next day I took a bus to Nairobi, while waiting for the bus I met a Canadian girl and found out that Canada is still part of the Commonwealth. I arrived late at night and got a taxi to the Milimani backpackers hostel. I got there late and got something to eat and started drinking with a couple of South Africans. They were cool and they were here to climb mount Kenya. The next day, I met the Canadian girl again at the hostel and then I met a Scottish guy and we went to the market, holy moley, everyone begged me to go to their shop, but I had no money. It was intense. I left eventually and then took a taxi to my new hotel and watched rugby until about seven o’clock. Then I went to the airport and waited for a plane to arrive. I saw the Kenya National Sevens Rugby team, as they got back from beating South Africa in a tournament. It was cool. Finally my father’s head popped into view and I exploded with excitement. I was very happy to see him and he was exhausted from the journey. We got a taxi back to the hotel and stayed there for two days, because he was not feeling well. Then we went back to Milimani backpackers hostel. We arranged a safari and then went to town for supplies. In town I got a phone call, James was calling. He could not find his friend and so he called me and asked me where I am I said I don’t know, but somewhere in Nairobi and then I told him the street. We were going to try and meet up, but had no idea how. So, we walked some more and saw a guy getting attacked. I think he was a thief, someone was holding him and people were running up and slapping him, it was intense. We got our supplies and then walked back to where we were going to meet James. We ran into him and walked back to the hostel with him. We were going to leave the next day for the safari, but dad did not feel well and I thought I lost my passport. We went to the hospital and I found my passport safely in a pair of pants. It was a neat day I walked around with James and a guy we met named Nick, Nairobi was nice and we hung out with an American guy named Adam who had been traveling around and volunteering in different places. It was a good night. The next day we left for the Massai Mara, not expecting to see any of them again.

Well, its been a while since I have last blogged, but do not fear I am in good health and have returned from my month and a half long trip. It started out a bit rough. First I woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning thinking my bus left for Kasanga, a small town in southern Tanzania. The ticket said 6 o’clock on it, so I showed up at 5:30. The bus did not show up that morning. It turns out that the six o’clock on my ticket was Swahili time, people start counting at 6 in the morning, so seven in the morning is 1 o’clock. So I went back home and tooled around until noon and then caught my bus. It was not like a nice greyhound bus, it was a mini bus. Small and crowded, people in all the seats, with the aisles full of luggage that ranged from clothes bags, fish and the occasional live chicken. It was a seven hour bus ride on a dirt road that is very bumpy. However, the scenery was gorgeous, it reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. Rolling hills of green and small, with small villages scattered throughout the journey. I got to Kasanga at around seven. A bunch of children crowded around the bus and were very interested to me. I found out later that I was not in Kasanga, but a smaller village near Kasanga called Muzi. I found a small cheap guest house and stayed there that night. I found something to eat, walked to the beach and then went to bed, because I had to be up at 5 the next morning in order to catch the ferry up Lake Tanganyika, call Liemba. I woke up the next morning in a pool of sweat and got back on the bus. It was roasting hot. I got to the port for Liemba. I waited for a long time and then eventually asked some locals if Liemba was coming today, they said no, it was in the Congo. The ferry goes to the Congo once a month and I happened to pick the one week that it went this month. So, I started walking back to the guest house, it was about a three mile walk, but I did not know what else to do. I was met on the way by a guy named Peter, he told me about a guest house closer to the ferry port. I decided to stay there. Peter was really nice and he showed me where to get something to eat and I hung out with him and his family. Eventually I wasted that day and had talked to Peter about going to Kalambo Falls, the second highest waterfall in Africa, 732 ft. high. It stormed that night. I mean it stormed like you would not believe, I left the window open and woke up to a puddle on my floor. I eventually got up and got my stuff ready for Kalambo Falls. I got in the car with Peter, I mean I got on the car. The car was a flat bed truck that I stood in the back of holding on for dear life. At one point a bunch of us had to jump out of the car and walk up a hill so the car would make it up the hill. We made it to a town called kasper, got out and paid the guy and started walking, it was 16km to Kalambo Falls. Peter walked and so did a guy I don’t know who he was, but I guess he was a friend of Peters. It was long, but uneventful. I finally got to the village before Kalambo Falls and we talked to the village mayor or something and then we walked across a downed tree with a railing and up a hill and arrived. We had made it to Kalambo Falls, what a sight, it was huge. The storm the night before had made it run even more fiercely. I saw Zambia on the other side of the river with some steps. The river basin opened up with huge cliffs of green on either side. The water ran down crushing anything in its way. We spent some time there and finally went back. We caught the bus back and I slept well that night. I woke up early, because Liemba came today, but no one knew when. I got up, swam in the lake and then went to the ferry landing at around ten o’clock. I then waited for the ferry until four o’clock in the afternoon. I hurried and got on the ferry and got a ticket. Then I ate supper and hung out on the ferry, it was still docked. I fell asleep and have no idea when the ferry left the port, but it was sometime in the night. It was a boring and uneventful ferry ride. I was the only person on the ferry that could speak English, so I mostly read. I finally made it to Kigoma after two days on the ferry. I arrived around three o’clock. I went through immigration and I needed to have a stamp on something, so I had to go to the immigration office. There the guy said he could do nothing for me, just to get my residency permit before I returned to Tanzania. So I left, went to an internet café and went on the internet. Met two German guys and got some info. on Kigoma. I walked about two miles to the bus station only to find they were closed, but if I got there early the next day I could catch a bus. I found a cheap guest house and stayed there. I received a bit of good news, that my father might come and visit me. I got up the next morning and got on the bus to Nyakenezi. Since I had to buy my ticket on the bus I stood for the seven hour journey. I arrived at Nyakenezi and did not really have a plan to get to the border, so I asked around and found a guy named Ben who spoke really good English. He invited me for a beer with him and his friend, so I drank a beer and talked to him. He was very nice, he told me he would arrange a car for me to the border. He invited me to his house for the night and stuff, but I really needed to get going and told him that. Mom you need to stop reading this now. His friend found me a car, I put my bag in the car and got in. We were just about to leave, when Ben came running up to the car and told me to get out and that these guys were bad. I was dumbfounded. Who do I trust the guy I met an hour ago or the guys I just met. I decided that Ben seemed ok, so I got out and got my bag and my money back, then I asked Ben what happened. He said that the people in the car thought I was albino and that if you have the hand of an albino, you can get a lot of money for it from a witch doctor. Ok, mom you can start reading again. We went to the police who had a road block type thing up, in order to find a ride to the border. I ended up finding a ride with a shared taxi for cheaper then the car that was arranged. I got to the border of Tanzania and Rwanda. I crossed the border, there is a waterfall, a gorgeous waterfall at this border. It was uneventful and free to cross this border. It was in the afternoon and I found a minibus to Kigali. So, I changed some money and hopped on the minibus. I met three American guys on the minibus. I traveled with them and talked for a while. Two were volunteering in Kenya, one through Harvard University and the other through Georgetown. It was interesting and nice to talk to people who could speak English well. We got to Kigali late and found the hotel we were going to stay at was closed, so we walked around and found another one which we bargained hard for and finally slept. The next morning we went looking for cheaper accomidations and found that Kigali was really expensive. I went to the Rwanda Board of Tourism to try and get a gorilla permit. I thought I would have to wait for a long time in order to get one, but I got one right away and then found lodging and said goodbye to my American friends. I went to the bank and got some money, the first time I did a cash advance using my credit card, this was a Friday. I got some food in me and bought some good bread and Rwanda Gouda cheese. I went back to my guest house and tried to sleep. I could not and I ate some bread and drank some water, because I was not feeling very well. I then got up and went to the Kigali Memorial Center. It was a memorial for the Rwanda Genocide. It was very moving. It started out talking about how the Belgium had separated the Hootos and the Tutsis. Then it talked about a guy at a UN conference said he was going to create hell on earth and no one listened to him. Then it talked about all the horrors that were perpetrated during the genocide. Then personal stories of people who survived the genocide were presented. A room full of bones and tattered clothes. Upstairs there was a memorial to other genocides, Nazi Germany, Bosnia and Cambodia. Then what they call the hall of children. It is a room that has big pictures of children and plaques for each. On the plaques are information about the child, favorite food, best friend, and then how they were killed in the genocide. I broke down and cried. I finally left and got on a motorbike taxi to a hospital, because I felt like I had Malaria, it turns out I did not and went back home and slept. I got breakfast the next day at the hotel, I met a Canadian lady, an American lady and a Vietnamese lady who I ate breakfast with. We got to talking and it turned out that they were living in Arusha and volunteering at the International war Crimes Tribunal for the Rwandan genocide and they were traveling around. I had an interesting conversation with all of them. Then I left and went to the Hotel Des Mille Collines, with all my stuff after I checked out of my hotel. The Hotel Des Milles Collines is the actual hotel from the movie Hotel Rwanda. Then I walked to the bus station to find a bus to Musanze where I would see the gorillas the next day. I got on the bus and sat with my bag. I met a British couple who were seeing the gorillas the same day as I was. We talked a little, but we split when we got to Musanze. I got off the minibus and a guy on a motor bike actually drove in front of me in order to try and get me to take a ride with him. It was frustrating how many people wanted me to take taxis from them. I crossed the street and started walking the wrong way, because I was so frustrated by all the people. I eventually found a guests house and put all my stuff down, repacked for the hike the next day. I went to look for a ride to the gorillas the next day. You have to have a ride to the place you start hiking, but I showed up there without arranging a ride. I walked around trying to find a company that supplied rides and could not find one. It started storming, rain like you would not believe. I had my jacket on, so no problems. I eventually ran into the British couple from the bus and asked them how they were getting to the gorillas the next day. They had a ride and wanted to share so it would be cheaper. We arranged it and they invited me to dinner and so we started with drinks at their hotel and eventually moved on to another hotel for dinner. We drank Primus, the big Rwandan beer, I was buzzed when I walked home and got a ride form a motorbike taxi. I slept for the big event the next day, GORRILAS.