Safari

"Do u wanna climb kilimanjaro?  Not very technical...good exercise commitment, vastly different part of the world to explore, one of the 7 summits, and a great opportunity for us to reconnect"

This was the g-chat message I got from my good friend Dave in early October of last year.  Dave, a fellow poker player, and I met in London in November of 2009 and have been good friends ever since.  We've only hung out 7 or 8 times but have done so in global fashion, in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Las Vegas, and Lake Tahoe.  I probably hadn't talked to Dave for 3 or 4 months before getting this message, but it wasn't altogether surprising either.  In 2010, we'd planned a Southeast Asia trip that had fallen through, and I think both of us wanted to do a non-poker travel trip at some point to make up for it.  Poker players typically love to travel, but they also tend to love to travel for poker.  Dave and I share the mentality that sometimes it's nice to get away from poker for a little bit, especially when travelling.

At 5AM on January 25th, Dave stumbled into our hotel room in Arusha, Tanzania, delirious from a day of travelling from Tel Aviv, where he's been living for the last year.  In 3 hours we'd be embarking on a 4-day safari in the area.  In 5 days, we'd be beginning our 7-day climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  An innocent 190-character g-chat message had become an intense 12 day reality.

After getting a couple of hours of sleep, we awoke at 7:30 AM to have breakfast at the Oasis Lodge.  The breakfast was tasty, but the real treat was viewing the hotel's very own peacock wandering around the premises.  Roughly 4 feet tall, and sporting a rainbow-like plumage, this particular bird wasn't the least bit deterred by the overwhelming presence of humans, and seemed to want to interact with the guests.  I was in the bathroom at the time, so I can't be sure, but Dave tells me he even saw the bird standing in the buffet line at one point, waiting for an omelette.

After finishing breakfast, and saying our farewells to the peacock, we went to the front of the hotel, where a safari truck was waiting for us.  As we approached the vehicle, a short man with a wry grin hopped out of the driver's seat, held out his hand, and introduced himself in a soft-spoken voice: "I'm Gabriel [pronounced Gabrielle].  I'll be your driver for the next four days."  As we drove to the company's office to fill out some paperwork, we became acquainted with our guide, who at first glance appeared shy, and a little shaky with his English, but warm and friendly at the same time.  After 30 minutes of filling out forms and getting briefed, we were ready to hit the road for the first leg of our safari, Arusha National Park.

The park was about a 90 minute drive away, so Dave and I spent the car ride fooling around with a high-end camera that his roommate had lent us for our travels.  Just taking a few pictures with the camera's zoom lens was enough to confirm a suspicion I'd been developing over the course of the trip: that the $150 camera I'd bought out of a vending machine in the Montreal airport was, in fact, a piece of shit.  Eventually, we arrived at the park, ready to peruse a bunch of jungle animals in their (semi)natural environment.

One of the best things about arriving in the park was being able to open the roof of the safari truck and stand up in the truck.  Not a huge fan of the claustrophobia of long car trips, standing up and enjoying the fresh air was both freeing, and the best way to take in the variety of sights.  Some of the first animals we saw in the park were Colobine  monkeys, which I'd seen previously in my trip to Nyungwe Forest park.  A strange looking animal, they have dark skin, but reddish faces, and prominent white beards.  They look like they would be the sage, knowledgeable ones in a congregation of various monkeys.

As we continued the tour of the national park, we saw many more animals, including giraffes, zebras, and a large congregation of flamingos on a lake.  The giraffes were easily my favourite, and we spent about 20 minutes watching them and their bizarre habits.  The tallest animals on earth, giraffes have an awkward, yet seemingly contradictory graceful way of moving that reminded me of extremely tall basketball players.  Vegetarians, the giraffes seemed to enjoy eating, constantly snacking on various types of foliage, and particularly fond of tall-growing plants, that didn't require them to awkwardly bend over to graze.

After several more hours at the park, which would prove to be the least interesting stint of the safari, we headed out on the highway for a 3 hour drive to the Bougainvillea Safari Loge, where we'd be spending the night.  The road conditions in Africa, as I've alluded to a bit, are extremely erratic.  Even when the roads are paved, highways are nearly always only one lane in each direction, which leads to a lot of congestion, especially in an area like Arusha, which is highly populated and dense.  Many of the smaller roads are poorly maintained dirt roads, which the locals refer to tongue-in-cheekly as "African Massage Roads."  Our journey to Bougainvillea featured all of the above, and
as such was a colourful, though painfully long, journey.

Dave and I had signed up for mid-range accommodations, which were supposed to include some campsites, and some smaller hotels/lodges.  We ended up being pleasantly surprised by how nice the accommodations were at every stop, starting at Bougainvillea.  A small complex on the side of the highway, the rooms were in separate, individual huts (standard for Africa), but were extremely nice and modern on the inside.  There was also a large outdoor pool that we took advantage of.  Dinner was absolutely delicious - a fusion between traditional African and more Westernized food.

We got to sleep on the early side, and woke up at 6 AM, which would be typical for the safari.  That day, we'd be exploring the Ndutu conservation area, a large area of wasteland / grassland featuring a slew of animals in a fully natural setting.  We arrived at Ndutu around 7:30 AM, after a particularly bumpy ride through a portion of highway that was under construction and had been replaced with temporary dirt roads.  Along the way, we passed through a touristy town that featured several stores that sold various African art.  We went into the biggest of these stores, and were simply shocked at some of the listed prices - several large sculptures were listed in the $20,000-30,000 USD range.  

We refrained from making any purchases, since we'd be stopping at the same store on the return trip, and got back into the vehicle.  As we continued to drive through the small town, we were bombarded by several highway necklace salesmen, who were extremely aggressive in their tactics, reaching in the truck to show us their products, and constantly lowering their prices in an effort to make a sale.  Eventually, when the prices were so low that it would seem foolish to resist, Dave and I each bought a few necklaces, which featured black and white beads with different African animals on the bottom.

At around 10 AM, we arrived at Ndutu, and immediately began taking in the scenery.  A contrast to anything I'd seen in Africa so far, this area was extremely barren; trees and plants did exist, but in much more scattered fashion, and several small lakes provided the only water in the area for the vast number of animals who called Ndutu their home.  The first animals we spotted were a massive pack of zebras, who would end up being the most plentiful animal we'd encounter on the safari, by quite a wide margin.  The zebras were somewhat intermixed with wildebeests, though the two groups seemed to mostly ignore each other, both being vegetarians, and both fearing the king of the animal kingdom, the lion.

After several hours of watching zebras, wildebeests, and giraffes graze and socialize in their natural environment, it was time for a picnic lunch.  We ate under a massive tree in an otherwise barren section of land.  This seemed to be the consensus lunch meeting spot, as there were 4 or 5 other safari vehicles there, and the lack of animals in the immediate vicinity made it safe to get out of the vehicle and mingle with the other humans.  After chatting with a few French gentlemen, and consuming an extremely subpar packed lunch, it was time to get back inside the safari truck, and head to a different part of Ndutu, where, if we were lucky, we'd be able to see some lions and elephants.

Much of the time in Ndutu was spent looking for animals, because unlike Arusha National Park, which is much more regimented in terms of where to find animals, Ndutu was a larger and more wild environment.  As such, Gabriel spent a lot of time on his radio system, conversing with other guides as to where the animals were.  That day was a particularly slow day, meaning guides were having trouble tracking down the lions, many of whom were presumed to be hiding and sleeping, since they often rest during the day and do their hunting at night.  

After a couple of hours or so of hunting around, we finally came across a single elephant, who seemed much larger in person than I'd guessed based on pictures.  It's unclear what this lone warrior was up to, but he was marching triumphantly across a plain of land not too far from our car, holding his trunk high in the air, with a bit of a smug expression emanating from his oversized facial features.  Just as we were finishing gazing at this marvel of a mammal, we got more good news from the radio: one of Gabe's colleagues had discovered a pack of lions not too far from where we were.

The drive took only about fifteen minutes, but by the time we got there, the news had clearly travelled quickly, and there were a pack of 5 or 6 other safari trucks, eager to snap pictures.  There were four lions in total lying under a small tree, all females, and stunningly beautiful creatures.  We asked Gabe why there were no males, and he said that they might be out hunting, even though a lot of the hunting was done at night.  They might also be simply scouring the area devising plans for the hunting that they'd be doing that night.  Typically, male lions like to wander around on their own, looking for food or simply asserting their dominance, while the females tend to stick together in packs, nursing the young.  

Unfortunately around this time, my stomach started acting up, something that would remain constant for the rest of the safari.  I'll avoid too many gruesome details for those mid-meal readers, but lets just say we had to make numerous pit stops in the wild throughout the course of the safari.  While Gabe would always attempt to scour the area to make sure there were no animals nearby, getting out of that safari vehicle in the middle of a wild area was always a slightly unnerving experience.

After snapping a bevy of photos of the lions, it was time to head to our lodge for the night.  As we were exiting the area, we discovered, not too far from that pack of female lions, the mostly eaten body of a recently killed zebra.  We asked Gabe if it was definitely a lion who had killed that zebra, and he confirmed that it was - in truth the lions are some of the only large predators in the African animal family, and the only ones in that area of Ndutu.  Most of the meat had been consumed already (Gabe guessed that the lion killed that zebra the previous night), but there were still some remains.  As we pulled up to the spot, we noticed a series of vultures circling the area, picking at the bones and little bits of meat that remained on the zebra.  Throughout the safari, we'd often see vultures, and it was always the sign of a dead animal nearby.  What a truly bizarre habit.

Forty-five minutes later we pulled into the Angata Campsite, where we'd be staying the night.  Having seen this listed on the itinerary, Dave and I were both expecting fairly basic tent-like accommodations, which we figured would be a good experience, and a transition into what would be a week of camping on Kilimanjaro.  How wrong we were. The Angata Campsite consisted of luxury "tents," that while they were technically tents, were the size of a hotel room, and included a full bathroom with functioning hot water.  Two common tents, a lounge area, and a dining room, were equally impressive and spacious.  A husband and wife were the only two other guests on the premises, so we pretty much had the place, which also consisted of a large outdoor firepit, to ourselves.

At around 6:30 PM, we sat down for dinner with Gabe.  The food was first rate, although unfortunately I was not able to enjoy a full portion of it, as my stomach problems had not slowed down, and my body was having a hard time taking in food.  Nonetheless, what I was able to consume was delicious, and the staff at the restaurant were great, and entertained us with a few stories of the African lifestyle.  After dinner, Dave and I played some cards (Big 2 - a Chinese card game that combines aspects of two other card games - poker and "presidents and donkeys") in the lounge, and then took in an unbelievable sunset around the fireplace.  

The next morning, we woke up at 6AM for a sunrise game drive, which ended up being a bit of a disappointment.  It seemed that most of the animals were either sleeping in or hiding well, as we were struggling to find new animals, and mostly just came across packs and packs of zebras and a few giraffes.  Perhaps the highlight of the morning drive was coming across the same dead zebra we'd seen the previous night, which was now nothing but bones.  The vultures had clearly gone to work - absolutely decimating the remains of the animal, eating everything that the lions deemed inedible.  

At around 9AM, following a mostly uneventful morning of animal-searching, we began the long drive to the Ngorogoro conservation area, where we'd be staying the night, and visiting the world-renowned Ngorogoro crater the following day.  After about 2 hours of driving, we entered the gates of the conservation area, a massive piece of land that featured not only the crater, but many small Masaii villages, and open rural areas.  As we continued the drive through the area, Gabe mentioned to us that if we wanted to pay $35 each, we could tour a Masaii village.  He explained that the money all went to the village, which they'd use for things like school supplies for their small school, food and water.

We agreed to tour the village, and after a quick bite to eat en route, arrived there around 1PM.  We were immediately introduced to the youngest son of the village's chief, Nuru, who would be showing us around for the afternoon.  Immediately, a group of Masaii began singing and dancing for us, wearing their traditional garb.  Towards the end of their performance, they had us join in, and we took photos and videos of each other participating in the celebration.

After that, Nuru guided us through the village.  First, we went into one of the traditional huts.  Tiny huts, they were segmented into two small bedrooms (which really just consisted of a small twin bed), and one common area, which consisted of a fire pit, and a little bit of space to sit.  Nuru explained that the larger bedroom was for the husband, while the smaller bedroom was for the wife and children.  Further complicating the situation was the fact that each of the Masaii men had multiple wives - some had as few as three or four, while the chief (Nuru's father) had 11 wives and 64 children.  Presumably, this meant that the husband (and his bedroom) was frequently absent from the hut, and the women had 100% of the domestic and child-raising responsibilities.

[Note: The photos from Ndutu and the village appear to be missing but I will search for them]

As Nuru finished the tour of the village, which included a small schoolhouse with several enthusiastic children who wanted us to take photos, I couldn't help but wonder how much the traditions of the village had been compromised by the influx of tourism.  Certainly 40 years ago, the village would've been more self-sufficient, not being aided by an influx of cash from tourists.  While everyone we interacted with in the village was extremely friendly, I wondered if some of the village elders were upset by these changes, and to what extent the traditions were being slowly whittled away.  Then again, change is inevitable in any society - and perhaps it was only more noticeable to me in the village because their traditions were so different from what I'm used to.

At the end of the tour, I suppose I did my part to further this incorporation of western culture.  I was interested in buying a small wooden giraffe, that was made by one of the women of the village.  Nuru and I were negotiating the price, and we were at a deadlock between his proposed $25 and my suggestion of $20 (Gabe and others had informed me that bargaining over things like this was a necessity, and that we'd be badly ripped off if we didn't -- Nuru had started the bidding at $40).  Throughout the tour, the Masaii people had seemed very intrigued by the iPhones Dave and I were using to snap photos and videos.  

So I decided to introduce Nuru to an app on my phone called iChoose, which flips virtual coins and dice, and is very useful for making decisions like this.  I told him he could pick either Heads or Tails, and if the virtual coin landed on his preferred pick, I'd pay $25; if not, I'd pay $20.  A wide grin broke out on Nuru's face as I suggested this, and his pick of tails ended up being a good one.  While I felt a tinge of guilt for having indirectly exposed the Masaii people to gambling, it was clear that they were eager to experience Western culture, and it seemed unfairly self-righteous of me to deny them of that.  Plus, I always love a good opportunity to use iChoose (also useful for settling bills, deciding between multiple desired activities, picking your next vacation destination, deciding which religion to convert to, etc.)

After concluding the tour, thanking Nuru, and saying goodbye to several of the other villagers, we headed to our hotel for the night, the lavish Ngorogoro Sopa Lodge.  Easily the most luxurious of our accommodations on the trip, the Sopa lodge featured an incredible view overlooking the crater, a large outdoor pool, and a delicious dinner buffet.  After gorging ourselves with food (I'd been taking some pills that were helping with the stomach issues), Dave and I lounged around by the pool for a few hours, chatting with fellow guests and fully appreciating how lucky we were to be able to afford this type of experience.  

We were met at 7AM the following morning by Gabe, and we'd be heading to the crater for most of the day, before beginning the 3-hour drive back to Arusha, where the safari would conclude.  As we entered the crater, it was clear to us that this was going to be a far more impressive and expansive experience than anything we'd seen thus far.  Clearly, the schedule was built to save the best for last.  One of the largest craters in the world, the Ngorogoro crater was formed naturally as a result of volcanic activity, and the hills that surrounded it were steep enough that most animals didn't even attempt to leave the area.  

Instead of describing all the animals we saw at Ngorogoro, I'm going to simply include a series of pictures that paint the picture.  Needless to say, it was an awesome experience and completely different from seeing animals in a zoo.

Towards the end of the afternoon, just as our time in Ngorogoro was wrapping up, we had by far the most interesting and intense experience of the safari.  We began simply by flocking to an area where 10 or 12 safari cars had piled up - an almost sure sign that something interesting was going on.  Indeed, as we arrived, we saw three lions coming closer and closer to the cars - one female and two males.  We noticed that the males seemed to be at odds with each other, and indeed eventually the larger of the two chased the smaller one away.  Gabe explained that the males were fighting over the female, and that the older one had scared the younger one away.

Furthermore, he explained, it seemed that the female was more interested in the younger male, and that she was fairly unimpressed with the older male, who was pacing up and down in a nearby vicinity, apparently waiting for any indication that she was interested in mating.  As the buildup intensified, more and more safari trucks pounced on the scene, like a group of paparazzi swamping a celebrity as they exit a club.  That part of the experience was a bit weird for me, and made me wonder how the animals react to having all these trucks and humans intruding on their space.  For the most part, the animals seemed to ignore us, clearly used to these conditions at this point, and likely happy to simply avoid us.

Eventually, perhaps on some sort of signal from the female, or perhaps out of a pure bout of unrestrainable horniness, the male lion started running towards the lioness, and began mating with her, an experience that lasted all of about 3 seconds.  He then exited the scene quickly, with a triumphant gallop, while the female lay down with her head to the ground, perhaps embarrassed by all the attention she was receiving from the audience.  Perhaps 3 or 4 minutes later, the lion returned for round 2, and in an impressive 67% improvement of stamina, managed to last about 5 seconds this time, an experience which Dave was able to capture with a series of rapid-fire photos.

It was now about time to leave the area anyways, and we couldn't have asked for a better conclusion to the safari, particularly as, being one of the first trucks on the scene, we'd been positioned extremely close to the act and able to take many photos of these beautiful creatures.  After a quick bite to eat by one of several lakes on the crater, we began the 3-hour drive back to Arusha.  Along the way, we stopped at a smaller gift shop, where Dave and I each ended up buying several trinkets.  While both of us bargained our way down from steep original prices, the fact that two of the legs have by now fallen off my supposedly ivory mini-elephant, makes me think we were still hosed by quite a bit.  Either way, supporting the local artists seems like a good thing to do.

At around 7PM, we pulled into the Ilboru Safari Lodge, where we'd be staying for the next two nights.  The following day would be our day off, and the next morning we'd start the Kili climb bright and early.  We said our goodbyes to Gabe, gave him a generous tip for his hard work and long hours, and settled into our home for the next couple nights.  The intermittent day of rest and relaxation the following day would prove necessary with Kilimanjaro just around the corner.

Rafting the Nile

Disclaimer: This entry is being written as I'm well into my 4th Baileys and coffee, having already consumed 3 beers with dinner (I was joined for dinner by one of my mother's colleagues if that makes me any less of an alcoholic).  For the first time since I've been here, I don't have to wake up early in the morning, so I'm indulging myself as I prepare for a 12 day trip to Tanzania that ends with a 7 day summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

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One of the beauties of the internet age is that keeping up with acquaintances is much easier.  While this can occasionally be a bad thing, it is for the most part a positive that allows for experiences like the one I'm about to describe.  Because of Facebook, I saw that my friend Tonya was going to be in Uganda at the exact same time I was going to be in Rwanda.  When I say my friend Tonya, I use the term loosely, because in truth, Tonya and I had only hung out once before, on St. Paddy's day in Madrid.  Nonetheless, it turned out she was going to be in Jinja, Uganda, which is also the hotbed for white water rafting in the area, an activity I'd never tried in my life and was eager to attempt.

Like myself, Tonya was looking for a fun day away from her volunteer work in Uganda, so she and I, along with her friend Theresa, agreed to meet up and go rafting last Wednesday.  It looked like it was going to be fairly easy for me to get to Jinja - a cheap 45 minute flight to Kampala, followed by a cheap 90 minute cab ride to Jinja.  Turns out things don't always go as expected.  The flight went smoothly, and I landed in Kampala at 6:45 PM, thinking I had plenty of time to meet Tonya in her hotel lobby at 8:30 PM as planned.

At 11:40 PM, I rolled into the hotel, having been delayed by: absurd rush hour traffic in the Kampala area, massive potholes, dirt roads, my cab driver who barely spoke English getting lost in the Jinja area and first taking me to the wrong hotel, said cab driver stopping for 25 minutes at a convenience store to have an 8-minute snack and do God-knows-what in the bathroom for 17 minutes.  The drive was also a frightening experience; it turns out that, when we weren't stopped for 20 minutes at a time in heavy rush hour traffic, everyone was driving 150km an hour on roads that look like they were built in the early 1980s, and making extremely aggressive (read: life-threatning) passes on a 2-lane highway.  When I arrived, Tonya laughed and informed me that automobile fatalities are the #1 cause of death for foreigners in Uganda.

In any event, I was happy to have survived the journey and at least arrived safely at the hotel.  I almost instantly passed out in my room, which at $20 a night was a steal.  I woke up at 7:30 AM and immediately called the rafting company to confirm the details, which was a good idea as they were having a hard time locating this hotel on a map.  We agreed that they'd pick us up at 9 AM and we'd head for the river right away.  Sure enough, a massive truck full of people arrived right on the nose at 9, and proceeded to whisk us away to the starting point of our adventure.

From the beginning, I got a great vibe from this company, one that is owned by foreigners but mostly employs local Ugandans to man their rescue kayaks, take company photography, drive the truck, etc.  We arrived at the site and were introduced to our guide for the day, a New Zealand native named Reuben who has been working in Uganda 6 months of the year for the past 12 years.  A long with a kayaker named Bob from upstate New York, they formed the non-Ugandan part of the team for the day.  Then there were 4 Ugandans who, while very friendly, didn't speak much English.

Reuben led us down to the start of our journey, where we hopped in the raft and received our safety training in a small lake that feeds into what is essentially the beginning of the Nile River.  Tonya, Theresa, and I were joined in the boat by Reuben and by another tourist, a Romanian-born living in Rome who also happened to be named Alex.  I'll call him Ming for the rest of this article to avoid any confusion.  Ming had made the questionable decision to bring his passport on board the raft, a fact which he made public to us as we were about one-third of the way into our safety demonstration, at the juncture where we were supposed to practice jumping in and out of the raft.

"You brought your...passport...on board the raft...haven't heard that one in a while," remarked Reuben with a tone of mixed exasperation and comic disbelief..."Omar, run this guy's passport back to the lodge would you."  Omar shook his head and followed his boss's orders as Reuben proceeded withe the safety talk.  We practiced falling in and out of the boat, paddling in various directions (normally the boat has more than 4 guests so we were told we'd be forced to do quite a bit of paddling), and various positions we'd need to adopt as we hit the rapids ("HOLD ON", "GET DOWN", "FORWARD HARD" were just several of the possible commands)

Due to the time we lost from Ming's hiccup, we were drifting dangerously close to the start of the rapids before Reuben had complete the safety talk, so we were forced to hold onto some reeds as Reuben expedited the remainder of the talk.  Eventually, we started drifting towards the first rapid, titled WATERFALL.  I'm not sure if this was the result of the termination of the safety talk, or a sudden gust of wind, but in any event, here we were heading towards a 15 foot waterfall with an absent-minded Romanian-Italian named Ming sitting in the most important seat of the raft.

From right to left: Tonya, Ming, Alex, Theresa, Reuben

Somehow, some way, we survived the waterfall, and I got a taste of the adrenaline rush that would mark much of the rest of the day.  Certainly my self-diagnosis as an adrenaline junkie was not being disproved.  Each of the next set of three rapids was a little bit different.  In one, Theresa somehow fell out of the boat, and I may have inadvertently caused that mishap.  In another, we seamlessly paddled through the rapid without incident.  In the final pre-lunch rapid, we completely flipped the boat, resulting in being caught under the boat for several seconds, followed by a helpless drifting through the end of the rapid.  Around this time, Theresa apparently caught me with a scared-shitless look on my face, one that may or may not have been caught on camera by the professional cameraman employed by the Nalubale rafting company.

Halfway through our journey, we beached the boat, climbed 3 minutes straight up hill, and took our lunch break at a small elevated gazebo, overlooking the Nile.  At this point, Tonya and I fully acknowledged the (wonderfully) absurd sequence of events that had transpired: A Canadian and an American meeting at an Irish pub in Madrid and now eating mediocre cold sandwiches in beautifully crafted wooden stools, sunburnt from head to toe, overlooking the largest river in the world.

The four of us at our lunch destination

The afternoon rapids offered at least as much variety as the morning session, and possibly more.  During one rapid, we all fell out of the boat, and literally drifted down about a 1.5 km stretch of the Nile, a thoroughly relaxing experience.  Another involved us paddling harder than we had yet to keep the raft afloat, an accomplishment we took great pride in.  Going into the final rapid, Reuben informed us "this is a pretty easy rapid, nothing can really go wrong here," a phrase which easily made us all suspicious.  Our suspicions heightened when Reuben said, "if we do hit this 20 foot 'wall' of water, throw your paddles out the boat and hang on tight."

Of course we smacked the 20 foot wall head on, paddles went flying, somehow avoiding contact with any of our faces, and we were immediately, and violently, thrust out of the boat at high velocity, with the raft simultaneously flipping in a violent frenzy.  Easily the most thrilling rapid of the eight, it was the perfect conclusion to a day of tumultuous, variable, and unexpected circumstances.  Throughout the experience, Reuben and his staff at Nalubale were phenomenal, and none of us felt unsafe at all, even though we were rafting Class V rapids, which, according to the ultimate source Wikipedia, are "for those with advanced whitewater experience."

Unsuccessful attempt to prolong the inevitable

Eventually we clamoured back into the boat and paddled to the Nalubale company campground, which also marks the end of the 25km journey down the Nile.  Once ashore, we were immediately given beers, which had never tasted better.  For the low price of $125 per person, the company was phenomenal from start to finish, and I highly recommend them, should you find yourself in the Jinja area in the near future.

The hour-long truck ride back was filled with beers and laughs, as we triumphed our successes, mocked our initial concern at attempting class V, and patted ourselves on the back for surviving the trip injury-free.  About 40 minutes into the drive, we made a quick pit stop on the side of the road, so I could relieve my weak bladder, which had been filled with Nile River beer, roughly the Ugandan equivalent of my college favourite, Natty Lite - relatively tasteless, but easy to drink in high quantity.  As I jumped off the truck, my right food landed squarely on an ill-placed rock, and I heard a loud cracking sound that would've been out of place at a chiropractor's convention.

After stumbling my way over to a small bush and relieving myself, I meekly hobbled back over to the truck, as my comrades made sure I was ok.  Even in my pain, the irony was comical: I'd survived a brutal 25km of the Nile without so much of a scratch, but couldn't successfully complete a three-foot hop from a truck to the side of the highway.  I took my shoe and sock off to reveal a massive plate-shaped bump in my ankle that made everyone squirm a bit.  Nonetheless, Nalubale continued to do the right thing and peppered me with an appropriately heavy dose of painkillers, ice, and alcohol, that allowed me to mostly take my mind off the immediate pain.

We arrived in Jinja, gave many well-deserved thanks to the fine folks at Nalubale, and prepared to get ready for the evening's festivities.  Tonya gave me a couple unknown heavy-duty painkillers, and within 15 minutes we were ready to head to our destination, a large celebration in the nearby town of Mesene.  Mesene is the town where Tonya and her organization, HELP international, had been working, and the party was to promote the success of a decade-long battle to secure government funding and land to expand the existing school in the region.

Likely one of the largest parties Mesene had experienced in years, this was a big deal for the area, and several of the hotshots in the Ugandan government were on hand to attend.  By extension of Tonya, Theresa, and their group, I was considered a VIP of the event, and was able to sit in the same tent as a woman who works directly under the Ugandan president.  The party featured a series of speeches, chants, dances, and songs, and the head of Tonya's organization was called out several times and recognized as an important guest of honour.

Easily the most moving part of the ceremony for me was seeing the children of the school, who were so genuinely happy with what HELP had done for them.  These children wanted nothing more than to receive a proper education; going to school was a privilege for them, and they were extremely thankful to receive such a privilege in such a small town.  The faces on these children absolutely radiated with happiness, thankfulness, and joy.  I couldn't help but think about the contrast to Canada/the US, where many children resent going to school, or refuse to appreciate the opportunity they have.

Certainly, the cliches imparted on me going into Africa have proven true; the experience has made me thankful for so many things that I absolutely took for granted.  Things that I considered a right I now see as a privelege, and things that I considered a privelege have become a luxury.  It's easy to forget just how big the world is sometimes.  While I wouldn't want to live in Africa full time, and am thankful for having been born into the circumstances I was, the experience has been eye-opening, and not only makes me appreciate what I have back home, but opens my eyes to the things the people here do better, and fully appreciate the complex relationship between money and happiness, or even money and freedom.  As poor as these East African villages are, their sense of community, of looking out for each other, of familial responsibility, is one that we should be envious of.

Once the sun fell, I was quickly informed by Tonya that we had to immediately leave the area.  Uganda is not safe like Rwanda -- unfortunately the government is extremely corrupt, and such, crime is allowed to thrive.  While nearly all the Ugandans I encountered were extremely nice people, the country as a whole is more dangerous, especially when you're a white person in a remote part of the country.  We quickly piled into a car and headed back to the hotel, where we decompressed in an engaging and intellectually stimulating conversation over a beer or two.

The conversation centred on the difficulties in attempting to make a change in Uganda.  For every several steps forward, it seemed there had been a step backwards, whether it be a disloyal Ugandan who had been trusted, difficulties in cooperation from the Ugandan government, an overzealous American trying to make too much of a difference, or simple accidental bad feelings caused by cultural differences.  Tonya's leader Jean has been coming to Uganda for the past 10 years, and has fought valiantly for the result that was celebrated by the party that Wednesday night.  Her insight into the many difficulties facing her organization was fascinating, and sparked a variety of interesting questions.  I've been accused of arguing for the sake of argument - and there might be some truth in that - but I found myself genuinely going back and forth on the stances to a number of open-ended questions.  Such is the sign of an engaging conversation - one that makes you second-guess your own beliefs constantly.

Eventually it was time to go to bed, and I got a brief sleep before waking up in time for a 5AM cab back to the airport.  All in all, a throughly enjoyable and exciting - while brief - visit to Uganda.  If and when I return to Rwanda, as I plan to do, I certainly plan on including a white-water rafting trip in Jinja as part of my itinerary.  Now on my 7th Baileys and coffee - really a delicious beverage - , I hope that I've remained mostly coherent.  It's now time for bed, as I prepare for my trip to Tanzania tomorrow.  I'll be in communicado for 11 days, as I observe zebras in the wild, and begin my ascent of the Southern hemisphere's largest mountain.  Here's to hoping I make it to the top - ankle be damned.

Nyungwe Forest

Rwanda is a small country, only about half the size of Nova Scotia, or the size of Maryland in landmass.  Yet it is highly dense, with 11 times the population of Nova Scotia and nearly double the population of Maryland.  Around 10% of Rwandans live in Kigali, where I'd spent the first week of my trip in Africa.  At this point, I was ready for something different, so along with my mother, Faye, and Emmy, I headed to Nyungwe forest, the largest rainforest in Rwanda and the furthest point geographically from Kigali in the country.

The four of us left around 7 AM to ensure we arrived at the forest in time for the final canopy walk of the day.  The drive from Kigali to Butare gave me my first glimpse of Rwandan life outside of Kigali.  The scenery was an interesting mix of rolling countryside and farmland, broken up by busy small towns.  One thing that remained consistent was the huge number of people walking along the side of the highway.  Most Rwandans cannot afford a car, so their options for tr ansport are to take moto-taxis (fairly dangerous but also quite cheap; $2 USD gets you a 20 minute ride across Kigali), or to walk. 

Emmy explained to me that most rural Rwandans will walk great distances to school or to the markets where they sell their harvested fruits and vegetables.  Many of these people, who covered the whole age spectrum, were carrying things on their heads, ranging from baskets of fruit to long pieces of wood to axes.  Emmy explained that rural Rwandans look down on most Kigalians as being lazy, as they cannot carry 100kg on their heads.  Many of the

Two hours into our drive, we arrived at Rwanda's second largest city, Butare.  My mother and Faye had some work to do briefly at the hospital, so Emmy and I headed for the National museum of Rwanda.  While I'm not a huge museum person, this one was quite well done, and worth the forty-five minutes or so I spent exploring it.  Of particular interest was a scaled down model of the type of straw-made palace that the King of Rwanda would have lived in the 1800s.  It didn’t hurt matters that the tour guide who showed me around the museum was the most beautiful woman I’d seen in Rwanda.

After exploring the museum, Emmy and I reconvened with the doctors and headed straight for the forest.  The three hour drive from Butare to the canopy walk at Nyunge forest was even more remote, as small towns and rolling hillsides were replaced with narrower roads, a dearth of people, and tall, increasingly dense trees.  About two hours into the drive, we reached the beginning of the forest proper.    We were delayed a bit towards the end of the drive by construction.  Emmy explained that just five years ago, the entire road system surrounding the park was dirt, but by the end of 2013 it would all be paved.

Of particular interest to me was the fact that Rwanda uses Chinese companies to do their construction (though all foreign businesses operating in Rwanda must employ a minimum of 60% Rwandans).  Apparently Rwanda is one of the easiest countries in the world to set up shop in as a foreign business owner.  Since Paul Kagame took over seven years ago, he's been trying to stimulate the local economy, so taxes for business owners are low, and entry restrictions are limited.  Hearing this made me consider moving to Rwanda full-time and opening some sort of business.  I have a small ownership share in a pizza restaurant in Toronto; we've considered expanding, so perhaps Kigali could be North of Brooklyn's second location.

Eventually we arrived at the start of the hike to the canopy walk just in time.  Everyone had done the walk at least once previously except me, so it was just me and my mother who set out on the quick 2.5 hour hike.  As we embarked on the descent towards the canopy walk,  our guide, Antoine was quick to identify and describe the different types of flowers, trees and plants we saw along the way.  After 40 minutes of slippery, mostly downhill hiking, we arrived at our point of interest.

My mother and I at the midpoint of the canopy walk

The canopy walk itself is a 90 meter long walkway, suspended between three cylindrical towers, 70 meters (240 feet) above the ground.  Built just two years ago, it offers an absolutely fabulous birds-eye view of the Nyungwe forest, though it took me several minutes to get past my fear or heights to fully enjoy it.  Interestingly enough, I felt much more comfortable jumping out of a plane 9,000 feet above the ground than I did traversing this clearly well-built ropewalk at just 240 feet.  By contrast, my mother would never in a million years jump out of a plane, or bungy jump, or do any such extreme activity, but felt quite peaceful being so high up, saying that the presence of nature made her feel at ease.  

Clearly terrified

We posed for some photos, and Antoine did a good job pointing out several groups of jumping monkeys and unique birds that called this marvelous natural castle their home.  After about 30 minutes of traversing, posing, and soaking in the mind-blowing scenery, we began the ascent to the starting point of our hike.  It's amazing how a 40 minute hike downhill can turn into at least a 1 hour hike uphill.  We finally made it back, limbs more or less as attached as they were several hours prior, and had Emmy drive us to our accommodations for the night, the Nyungwe forest lodge, situated in the middle of a tea plantation.

The lodge was, by all accounts, one of the nicest places I've ever stayed.  It was surprisingly luxurious for the surroundings, but at the same time not tacky or obtrusive.  The main building housed a substantial lounge area and a full-service restaurant (all meals were included with the accommodation).  Then the rooms themselves were situated across the tea plantation, in separate villas.  My only complaint was that the bathroom had a non-closeable window in plain view of the sleeping area, which is fine if you are a honeymooning couple, but less suited towards a mother and son sharing a room.

The dining room at Nyungwe lodge

In the morning, Faye, my mother, and I embarked on a 4 hour hike to see Rwanda's biggest waterfall.  Unlike the canopy walk, which was almost entirely downhill on the way there, this hike featured varying ascents and descents, and winded its way through an even more remote part of the forest.  Our guide, "Julius Caesar" was extremely animated as he pointed out the various attractions along the way, including a narrow river that winded its way alongside us for a portion of the hike.  

The waterfall itself was quite spectacular, and certainly put Niagara Falls to shame.  While Niagara Falls is of course much larger, wider, and more powerful, it has become such a tourist attraction, that it has lost much of its beauty, as it's surrounded by more Applebees, IHOPs, and Comfort Inns than a suburban strip mall in Ohio.  On this hike, by contrast, we encountered exactly 0 other people, and the waterfall and its surroundings remained untouched by man.

Proudly displaying my patch of chest hair

After the hike, we had a delicious lunch at the lodge, then hit the road for the 5 hour drive home.  The drive home was noted by many small children running up to our car as we meandered through the more rural stretches, happily shouting "umizugno!" - a common expression to hear from the children in Rwanda, and roughly translating to "rich person" or "rich traveller."  Apparently the gesticulation is not actually intended offensively, although you rarely hear it from adults.

The trip to Nyungwe forest was my first foray outside of Kigali, but certainly not my last.  As of now, I'm still behind on two more blog entries (white water rafting in Jinja and gorilla trekking in Northwest Rwanda), and have two more exciting adventures planned (a 4-day safari in Tanzania, followed by the most ambitious of my journeys, a 7 day trek of Mt. Kilimanjaro).  I leave for Tanzania in 2 days, so I'll try to knock off one or two more blog posts before then

A Day in the Life

I planned on being much more vigilant about regularly updating this blog, but have been finding, for the first time in a while, that I have very little free time.  Between my morning routine at the gym a 9 hour day at the kindergarten and orphanage, and a long dinner with a couple beers, I usually find myself very tired after dinner.  Lame excuse I know...let's get to the blogging.  This blog post will take you through a typial day in the life here in Rwanda.

Early Morning: Luxury (7:00 - 9:00)

I sure am getting used to my early morning routine.  I wake up around 6:45 AM.  Then it's a 25 minute walk to Serena, 30 minutes in the gym, 5 minutes in the steam room, and then another 30 minutes at the breakfast buffet.  It definitely feels weird engaging in such luxury when you consider what the rest of my day looks like.  But if anything, this gourmet morning routine only fuels my fire, increasing my desire to help the kids at Gisimba and give them my 100%.  Just two short days at Gisimba has helped me fully appreciate that money does not buy happiness.  But it hasn't made me lose my appreciation for a nice plate of bacon and eggs and a hearty bowl of fruit in the morning.

Mornings:  (9:00 - Noon)

In the mornings, I've been helping at a kindergarten that's attached to the orphanage.  Along with a young female Australian volunteer named Jordan, I've been working with 4 and 5 year olds, teaching them basic English word clusters (counting to ten, animals, shapes, etc.), singing songs I forgot existed (Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle), and running around with them outside.  There are about 48 kids in the class, and, without the volunteers, only one teacher responsible for the classroom.

Among the many challenges of working with these little rugrats is getting their attention.  My vocabulary in their language of KinyaRwandan is up to about 15 words, but it's still difficult to get the kids to pay attention with such a strong language barrier.  The kids love the songs, however, especially ones with physical components like "Ring around the Rosy" and "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes."  I can safely say that a year ago, I would never have pictured myself singing "Do the Hokey Pokey" with a bunch four year olds in the middle of Africa.

Jordan surveys the sea of youngsters

On Thursday afternoon, we took the kids outside for an extended time of running around.  Jordan and I tried to teach the kids relay races, an attempt that failed miserably.  Instead, every time I started running to demonstrate, the kids would begin chasing me.  This led to an impromptu game of "Chase Alex," whereupon the kids became increasingly aggressive upon catching me, eventually to the point where I'd have 3 kids trying to hang onto my neck, 3 trying to reach into my pockets, and another 2 or 3 trying to pull my pants down.  Needless to say, "Chase Alex" did not last long.

The early stages of "Chase Alex" - the game became increasingly violent

Overall the kids are a ton of fun to work with.  They are for the most part extremely happy, and they seem to genuinely love having Jordan and I around.  At one point, we gave out crayons and pieces of paper and had the kids draw triangles, circles and squares.  Jordan and I were nearly swarmed with kids excitedly running up to us and proudly showing off their handiwork.  Moments like that make working with these kids incredibly rewarding.

Lunch (Noon - 12:45)

For lunch, I head to one of the nearby cafes with the three other volunteers at Gisimba: Anne and Jordan from Australia, and Richard from Minnesota.   The food is unbelievably cheap; 1,000 RWF (~$1.60 USD) gets you a full plate of goat meat, potatoes, rice, fries, and vegetables.  Nonetheless, I've been the only one regularly eating the meat at these cafes; ever since Jordan got quite sick on her second day in Rwanda, the other three have been understandably careful with what they eat.  As a professional gambler, I feel it would be sacrilegious to not take some risks with what I eat.

On Thursday, we headed to the local market, a very typically Rwandan experience.  The market is broken into a food section (largely consisting of fruit, with some rice and beans), and a non-food section, with everything from handmade tapestries to electronics to shampoo.  After eating a delicious mango that cost me only 250 RWF, I stumbled across a small butcher shop just across from the market.  Immediately, I noticed a huge number of flies and other bugs hovering around, and picking on the meat.  One of the butchers aggressively tried to sell me on a cut of goat, but I politely passed, desperately hoping that the local cafes we've been eating at get their meat from another source.  Hopefully cooking the meat would kill off any germs put in place by these pests, but the experience just highlighted the (likely financially necessary) more lenient health laws in place in Rwanda.

Early Afternoon: Downtime (1:00 - 3:30)

After lunch, I switch my focus from the kindergarten to the orphanage.  The early afternoon is traditionally a period of downtime at Gisimba.  The kids often gather in the cafeteria, watching their favorite movie (a completely ridiculous Rwandan zombie movie that uses a mix of live actors and animation), or sitting in the computer lab playing games.  The computer lab at Gisimba was apparently donated by a Korean group, but is now in very rough shape, operating on something like Windows 95, with many of the programs not working and constant error messages popping up.  It's better than nothing, however, and some of the older kids have even been using the computers to write resumes.

I brought four chess sets to Gisimba, not really sure what to expect.  The reception from several of the older kids has been overwhelmingly positive.  They enjoy not only playing full games, but sitting down and learning tactics like pins, forks, skewers and mate-in-2s (chess nerd speak).  I've been spending this portion of the day mostly playing chess, which serves as a nice break between the energetic youngsters in the morning and the athletics in the afternoon.

Jean-Paul tries to remember proper theory in the Winawer variation of the French Defense

Late Afernoon: Hoops City (3:30 - 6:00)

My goal for the year 2016 is to coach the Rwandan national basketball team to relevancy in the continent of Africa.  For now, I'll settle for being the coach of the Gisimba basketball team, an eclectic group of 12-18 year old youngsters who favour hoops over the much more popular football (soccer to us Canucks and Yankees).  Unfortunately there isn't a basketball net at Gisimba (one of several areas I'm considering donating to at the orphanage), so we head to a nearby public court where a myriad of streetballers of varying skills congregate in the afternoon, donning Lebron James jerseys, ready to strut their stuff.

Basketball has always been one of my favourite sports to play and watch, and despite my mediocre athletic abilities, I've played enough organized ball to know the fundamentals pretty well.  Before heading over to the court, I've been practicing dribbling and passing drills with the kids.  We've been to the court twice now, and walked into two very different scenarios.  The first time, there were some kids already there, but we were able to work ourselves into a couple competitive games of 3 on 3.  A The second time, we walked right into a pretty competitive full court 5 on 5 game, complete with a referee and about 50 fans sitting on court-side benches.  We weren't able to take to the court that time, but enjoyed some pretty entertaining streetball, and did more passing and dribbling drills.

Core members of the Gisimba basketball team.  From Left to Right: Olivier #1, Sebastien, Danifique, Coach Alex, Debra, Olivier #2

Dinner: (7:30 - 9:30)

Dinner can be anywhere from grabbing something easy and quick near the apartment to extravagant dinners out with my mother and her work colleagues.  Wednesday January 9th, which happens to be my mum's birthday, proved to be the most enjoyable dinner to date.  A total of 10 people attended: my mum, her colleague Faye from Atlanta, another colleague named Sophia from the UK, three local Rwandan anaesthesiologists (Bona, Paulanne, and Christian), Bona's wife, my mum's friend and former tour guide Steven, our friend and driver, Emmy, and myself.

The venue was a downtown Indian restaurant that is a favourite of ex-Pats and local Rwandans alike. For just $200 USD, the ten of us ate an absolute feast, with a mix of spicy and non-spicy dishes, meat (mostly chicken and goat) and vegetarian dishes, and several types of bread and other accompaniments.  The highlight of the dinner happened around 9:00 PM when the lights all of a sudden went out.  Naturally, I assumed this was a power outage, until I heard a bunch of music come on, and the entire wait staff began parading around the restaurant singing happy birthday for my mum.  

The entire parade went on for nearly five minutes, and included 3 songs and culminated in the presentation of a delicious cake.  While I've seen this sort of thing happen from time to time at restaurants back home, the effort and extent of the celebration by the staff was truly A+ and the cake didn't taste too bad either.  

So there you have it...a typical day in the life here in Kigali.  By the time the dinner bill rolls around, my eyes are usually beginning to close, ready to get back to my apartment and fall into a deep sleep, optimistic that it will be undisturbed by the mosquitos who have taken a fondness to my skin.  It's the first time in quite some time I've been on such a regulated routine, but it's a good change of pace, and the experience has been extremely rewarding so far.

1st Day at Gisimba

At 6:30 AM yesterday morning, I headed to the Serena hotel on foot.  It's about a 25 minute walk that winds through a huge number of small businesses, mostly in shacks.  At this hour, the streets are not super busy, but several hours later the sidewalks will be filled with people, the streets will become a chaotic mess of cars and motorcycles barely following any rules, and the shops will be bustling with people bargaining, bartering, and earning their living.

Upon arrival at the Serena, I headed straight for the fitness centre where I put in a 30 minute workout, then headed for the pool/hot tub area looking to cool off and relax.  It turns out there is no hot tub, and the massive outdoor pool was absolutely frigid, so I decided to head for the steam room instead.  A tradition preached often by my uncle and seconded by one of my roommates, I've discovered the steam room to be an excellent post-workout experience.  This particular steam room was particularly awesome, as they filled the room with delightful scents - the kind you'd expect to smell in a high end spa.

I followed my workout/steam with a delicious gourmet breakfast buffet, complete with one of the oddest selection of juices I've seen in my life:  avocado juice,  tree tomato juice, cucumber juice (?).  It definitely feels odd to be describing these luxuries in a blog about Rwanda, a country that has so little.  At the same time, it makes me appreciate these luxuries that in some contexts (think high end Vegas hotel complex) I would absolutely take for granted.  The hotel is also a great boom for the Kigali economy, and creates many jobs.

At 8:15, Emmy picked me up from the hotel lobby, and we headed to the local market to  pick up some supplies to bring to the orphanage.  I had brought with me from home two soccer balls, a basketball, two tennis rackets, three tennis balls, four chess sets, and two pairs of shoes.  But what we needed now were basic school supplies: notebooks, pens, pencils, and - a reminder to my elementary school days - pencil sharpeners.  I was a notorious pencil tip breaker in my youth, so I formed a close relationship over the years with those colourful little devices.

Emmy did the bartering at the market, because he explained that if I went alone or tried to do all the negotiating in English, I'd get a worse rate.  I tried to tell him that I didn't mind paying a little more to support the market merchants -- they are much poorer and charge way less for comparable products than the people in the proper storefront shacks -- but Emmy insisted on bartering, and we ended up spending about 16,000 RWF ($25) on 60 notebooks, 50 pens, 30 pencils, and 24 pencil sharpeners,

We then headed around the corner and arrived at the orphanage.  It was the first day back from holiday break, so things were extremely hectic and disorganized.  Everyone stays at the orphanage during the holidays, but some of the kids go to nearby boarding schools, or other secondary schools.  Some kids had just completed their schooling, and still others were starting at new schools for the first time.  As such, I only had a few minutes to meet with Ildephonse, the head of the orphanage, to learn what role I would play in my 3 weeks of being there.  He gives me a brief tour of the orphanage, and then hands me off to a couple of the older kids who can show me more of what to expect.

I spend the most of the day getting to know the kids, who range in age from 2 to 22.  Many of the young ones are quite shy, but others smile when they see me and run up to give me a big hug or shake my hand.  Shaking hands and greeting one other is extremely common in Rwanda, even among people who have never met.  There is a real sense of community that is pervasive throughout the city.  This is even further magnified at the orphanage, where, as Ildephonse explained, everyone is part of a big family.

As the day goes on, it really dawns on me just how happy all the children are.  It sounds cliche, but these children who have absolutely nothing, who have never known their parents, who are underfed and live in cramped quarters, are absolutely beaming with happiness and joy for life.  In fact, since I've arrived in Rwanda I haven't encountered a single act of mean spiritedness, and the bar brawl was the only violence I've seen.  It occurs to me that this joy and love for one another helps keep the children happy and content - much in the way many of us rely on our close friends and family, but on a larger scale, and in many cases, a less superficial scale.

Around 1PM, the orphanage breaks for lunch.  I head down the street to a small cafe, with a fellow volunteer, Richard from Minnesota.  Richard is between careers (about to start a technical school to become a technician who operates MRIs and other medical machinery) and has been unemployed for a little over a year.  He decided that he wasn't being productive enough on a day to day basis, so he linked up with a volunteer organization and got a placement in Rwanda.  There were two Australian girls in the same organization as him, but one of them got sick from the food the previous day and the other was taking care of her.  He told me to avoid the samosas, which I did.  I also realized I needed to be more conscious of constantly washing and/or sanitizing my hands.  Getting sick in Africa is something I definitely want to avoid.

After lunch, all the kids gathered in the cafeteria room, where there were several special guest speakers, representing an organization called RIGHT TO PLAY.  The organization, headquartered in Toronto of all places, tries to help disadvantaged youth by using sports and games to shape their lives positively.  One of the representatives delivered a powerful speech in French (somehow my days in grade 6 french with Mme. Danford came back to me and I understood most of it), which was translated in equally emphatic fashion into the local language of Kinyarwanda by Ildephonse.

After the speech, I taught chess to the older kids.  I wasn't sure whether they'd be completely uninterested in learning chess, or have moderate interest, but I certainly didn't expect the widespread joy for playing the game that the kids seemed to display once they fully got a grasp on the way the pieces moved.  Pascal, one of the older kids who I'd been talking with quite a bit, as his English was very good, played 3 games against me and got markedly better with each game.  Most of the kids were content to just watch, occasionally offering opinions on moves in Kinyarwandan.

After an hour or so of playing chess, many of the kids wanted to go outside and play soccer (or football as the rest of the world, including Rwanda, calls it.  I started by playing a big game of monkey in the middle with a bunch of the young kids, where we all pass the soccer ball around in a big circle, and one guy runs around in the middle, trying to deflect the ball or take control of it.  After this I did some running races with these kids - first a normal one, then backwards, then one-legged.  Around this time, the bigger, older kids decided they wanted to have a more competitive soccer match.

I watched the first few minutes of the math - which was actually a very high level of skill, especially for a bunch of kids that had no organizational structure or coach - then headed to the office to talk to Ildephonse, as I was running late for dinner with my mother and a couple of colleagues.  I thanked Ildephonse for the opportunity, and told him how impressed I was with the happiness of the children in spite of their circumstances.  We talked for a few more minutes, and then I started on my way home to the apartment.

Towards the end of the walk, an intense rainfall began and I hopped inside a taxi and headed straight to where we were meeting for dinner.  Just as with my experiences in Cuba and Australia, when the rain starts here it takes almost no time to escalate into an absolute downpour.  We are actually in a dry season right now (Rwanda has two dry and two wet seasons, and the temperature is nearly the same throughout the year), but I've experienced several brief bouts of rain, and without an umbrella, they are quite intense.  After a brief meal and a large beer, I was ready to fall asleep.  This 9PM-5AM sleep schedule I'm on is not one that I'm used to, but it actually feels quite good.