RWANDA RUMORS CLEARED UP

Hey Team!

This is going to be a quick update, the details to follow, just wanted to let you know I was alive and well after journeying through Rwanda and Nairobi, then a 4 day Safari at Lake Nakuru and the Masai Mara in Kenya. Kenya is great, Rwanda is great. I Saw a bunch of Lions at 10 feet! Including little 2 week old baby cubs! awesome!

I'll give a better update tomorrow (I hope), when I will enter Tanzania and go to Arusha which looks up at Kilimanjaro.

But before I go, a few words on Rwanda.

1. the roads are great

2. The people are super super nice

3. They speak French, not English, so the language barrier popped up for the first time this trip and I remembered how much harder it is to get around when you have to communicate with signs and smiles.

4. The genocide memorial is sad, touching, disturbing and heartbreaking. However, unlike the Tual Song Prison and Killing Fields in Cambodia, it isn't as horrible. The reason is that it is a memorial built to heal and teach. The mass grave outside of 250,000 (!!!!!) people is covered in a granite slab. In Cambodia you are walking on bones and teeth. The horrors are no less terrible or real, but the experience wasn't as devastating as Cambodia. However, there are churches in Rwanda with clothes and bones and even one where the bodies are all preserved in Lime 14 years later, including hundred of children. So had I made it there I'm sure I would be so fucking disturbed and angry right now I couldn't contain myself. The things that people can do to each other is just staggering...

5. It's a beautiful country of hills, mountains, hills, and more mountains. Kigali is a safe city you can walk around at night (unlike Nairobi).

That's what I got for now, I'll tell you about the Safari in the next update.

Keep traveling and visit Africa, it is amazing.

Rock on

Craigo

YOU AREN'T GOING TO BELIEVE THIS

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So I'm hanging out at the UN base in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo, located in the city of Goma. I'm taking pictures of an active

volcano in the distance and this DRC Soldier marches up to me and asks

very seriously to see my photos. I show him and he looks through and

wants to make sure there are no pictures of him. He's got an AK-47

over his shoulder. I think: don't take the camera, it's got all my gorilla pics on it!

He doesn't. He walks away. And we continue to take pics of the

sunset over the cooled lava field that buried Goma 6 years ago like a

modern Pompeii.

an hour later, after being offered tea and cakes about 5 times in 2

hours, we hear machine gun fire from about a mile away. At that point

I decided NOT to climb the active volcano tomorrow and camp on it's

rim. :)

So you say... is this all BS Craig? I mean, really... the CONGO?

It is not BS my friends. I went to Rwanda, and was sitting in the

rain at a restaurant eating when these 3 Indian fellows asked where I

was going. I said Gisinyi (the resort town where Dan Mirvish made his

infamous phone call from a war zone in 1991 (I got pics of the place

Dan!!!)). I told them this and they said, we'll take you there. So I

sat down, we chat and off we go. Only one vegetable tossed at us on

the way (Rwandan's don't like the UN, go figure).

It's been fascinating. I'm staying at the base and making new friends

(and not leaving the compound, I can assure you. :)

Welcome to Africa!

Craigo

I'M IN FRICKIN AFRICA!!! or MZUNGU MEANS WHAT????

Hey Team!

Still alive and kicking here in the fabulous country of Uganda. I recommend for anyone to come here. The people are friendly in the vein of Laos and Thailand. It's easy to communicate. They love to talk to travelers. It pretty much rules.

Since I last wrote I've rafted the SOURCE OF THE NILE and ridden a bike around villages. I've sat on a bus that runs on Africa time (meaning it left 1 hour later than the 2 hours later that they said it would leave!). And now I’m at a "resort" on the shores of Lake Bunyonyi in southwest Uganda. I'm spending a whopping $20 a nite for a private room with a balcony and a view of the lake. It rules.

So... a few things you should know about Africa. Some rumors debugged. Some unknown points of interest:

1. Rafting the Nile is awesome. It's much class 5 white water with floats in between. So you can chat, enjoy the fact that you are on the mother f-ing NILE, and then hit some wild waterfalls and waves. We even did one with our eyes closed until the guide told us to open them at the last minute and Wammo! Huge wave in our face. Somehow our raft was the only of 5 not to flip, and my record of never being thrown from a whitewater raft continues (though honestly I wanted to be since the rapids are deep and you can swim them. I guess my survival instinct is to strong!)

2. Go raft the Nile NOW. Because as "progress" is coming. A damn is being built across it and will basically eliminate some of the best white water on earth. You have a year, maybe two. So get your ass to Uganda!

3. When you are on an open rafting truck after rafting driving on dirt roads through villages, every single child age 2 to 12 will run out and wave and say "hello! Mzungu! Hello!" They will wave or give a thumbs up. In fact if you ride your bike they will do the same thing. They will be happy as all get out."Mzungu!" So you might ask what that means..... well....

Mzungu means "White Person!" Welcome to Africa! No lies, I was one of 2 white folks I saw all day long today traveling... and that was alright by me. We stand out a little bit, but are wonderfully welcome. Racism doesn't exist in this part of Africa as far as I can tell.

4. Mzungu might also mean "money", because on the way back from town on my bike ride I had many of the same kids run out and say "Mzungu. Money. Give me money". Which was to bad. Makes me wonder if it was always about money. But I don't think so. Still, when the average Ugandan makes about 50 USD a month... it's understandable. Still... it's not wise to give them anything or it becomes worse (rumor has it Kenya is pretty fierce with the money asking).

5. It rained so hard after my bike ride that the returning rafters from that day got stuck in the mud. And they were 2 hours late making our bus back to Kampala late. But really, who cares when you have a deck overlooking the mother f-ing NILE in a rain storm! The restraunt at the camp was awesome and it was hard to leave. And at that point the phrase "This Is Africa" or TIA came to mind. Since then I've heard it half dozen times. You might remember it from "Blood Diamond" and it really is true. Bus is late : This is Africa. Road is muddy: This is Africa. Go all the way back to Kampala to do a tour with some new travel friends the next day and it's full so you find yourself back in Kampala and having to figure out your next couple days: This is Africa.

Love it.

6. Boda Bodas are crazy. Ride on the back of a motorbike with your backpack on as they careen through gridlock traffic and people changing lanes, buses and trucks honking horns. I can't believe we haven't crashed yet. Still.... you gotta do it. After all, TIA.

7. When I got to the bus station this morning I was surrounded by guys trying to get me on their buses. They were all smiles and fun. One guy tried to guess where I was from. "Germany?" "nope". Let me try again: USA" "Yeah!" Then another guy said

"I have one question: Will you be voting for Obama or McCain?"

"Obama all the way" I replied.

The place erupted with CHEERS, people patting me on the back, hugging me, it was hilarious!

8. Fear not Dad and Uncle David, at the resort tonight, the waiter was saying he likes bush for all bush has done for Africa and aid program and education to stop Aids. So they go both ways here as well. :)

9. AIDS rate in Uganda is only 6%. So no, everyone over here isn't sick with it. In fact they have billboards and education all over Uganda to keep the rate down. (the same apparently is not true for other countries here though).

10. I keep waking up at 6am or earlier. What they heck? Oh, and this morning I was woken by a MOTHER F-ING ROOSTER!!!! I HATE ROOSTERS!!!!! :)

Hope all of you are well. I have a Gorilla permit for Friday, which oddly enough will be my first animal/safari type activity. You know, that thing that most people come to Africa for (myself included too.:)

That's all I've got for now. The boda boda ride up here to the lake was on this twisty dirt road going WAY to fast with backpacks. I thought we were going to bite it on the curve, but somehow didn't.

anyway, hope you are all well. I've got a day of canoeing, hiking, biking and swimming tomorrow (no fear... one of the few lakes in Africa with no crocs or hippos or snakes or strange bacteria!)

Keep rocking

Craigo

PS: Brian, the bag weighed 37 pounds. :)