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.