in other news … the border staff on the way into the Democratic Republic of the Congo are by FAR the most friendly i have ever encountered … when i told them i was going to climb the volcano, he (a rather large fellow in uniform) actually SMILED at me .. said “welcome, welcome, welcome … we love tourists” …
i have found the best way to learn about the state of a countries infrastructure is at the border … at the border you can stand and look both ways, doing the ol’ side-by-side … ie. between rwanda and uganda … you can acually stand where the road turns from gravel (uganda) to pavement (rwanda) and look up to see the power lines overhead changing from wood poles (uganda) to steel structures (rwanda) … in the congo … i would say it was like stepping into a war zone … except … it WAS stepping into a warzone …
now, in defence of the DRC, the nyiragongo volcano i was about to climb DID erupt just a few years ago … and when it erupted .. it did so on TOP of goma … i am told the town changed completely … it actually looks pretty good considering … i mean … it looks like bombs have gone off from time to time … and there are peacekeepers in armoured vehicles patrolling the streets … and HUNDREDS of soldiers … but it is still about 1000 years ahead of south sudan … maybe more …
i met with my travel companions … 2 american journalists working in the region … and we were soon off to the base of the mountain … where they of course tried to charge us extra every chance they got …
and then we were off … it took 5 hours to get to the top, and the trek up was actually more beautiful than the volcano itself … though less profound …
i remember learning once in school about ecosystem variation as you move up in altitude … and wow … every 100 steps or so i would look up and find myself in a completely different world than what i was in 100 steps earlier … we started in jungle so dense you could not see 6 inches into the bush on either side (or sometimes above) … i felt like i was in some old novel and wished i had one of those sweet safari hats …
the jungle gave way after about an hour to intermittent fields of loose volcanic rock and solidified lava flows that sucked to climb and sucked worse to descend …
an hour later we were back in the jungle again … now the altitude was starting to kick in, and as the temperature gradually dropped, the humidity cranked up as we gradually ascended into the clouds … because we were in the clouds, everything was wet all the time … so everything we green all the time … no matter where you looked … from straight up to under the darkest shrubs … green green and more green … the only things that WEREN’T green were the flowers on the trees … which came in pretty much every colour you could want to name …
up up up …
about an hour from the top, as we entered thicker clouds our guides said ‘now the climb starts’, and the path got a lot steeper as the temperature started to drop a lot faster … which was really kind of nice after climbing for 4 hours through the most humid experience of my life … here and there we would pass the ‘breath’ of the volcano, as steam poured out of deep crevasses …
again … head down, panting for breath for 100 steps, trying not to fall … look up … totally new world … the last half hour, visibility dropped to about 25m … we were climbing loose volcanic rock again, and all around were small yellow flowers … thousands upon thousands of yellow flowers disappearing gradually into the mist …
and then … there it was … the sound came first … like a plane landing, as jets of gas shot violently out into the atmosphere … at times, the gas and the clouds would fill the entire crater, obscuring the middle absolutely … but the wind would blow … and there .. a pool about 100m down and 100m out of rock … more vibrant than any colour i have ever seen before … blubbling and churning … endlessly … dramatically …
the surface was mostly black, as the rock (i assume) cooled when it hit the air … the black would crack, as veins of molten rock showed through from underneath … and then, slowly, a crack would start to bubble and churn … until soon it was spraying forth orange liquid like a shopping mall fountain … the black slabs nearby would start to gradually sink, as waves of frothy madness devoured them and sent streams of lava shooting up in their wake …
wow …
i sat on the edge … and writing in my journal … my fingers started to get numb … so i warmed them … over the volcano 
because we were basically in a cloud … it was dark by about 6 and freezing cold … we all huddled around little charcoal fires until about 8:00 for one last look at the volcano at night … which was SO much better than during the day … before retiring to our tents to not sleep at all …
worst night of my whole life … i literally shivered the entire night … curled up in a ball, soaking wet, sleeping on shelf of sharp rocks with the wind tearing at the tent …
i have never got up at 5:30 excited before in my life … but this day … i could not wait to get out of bed … and WHAT a wake up … the volcano was 10x better than it had been the night before … as the early morning revealed the entire crater completely unobscured by clouds or smoke … there is really nothing more i can say … except that it felt like i was seeing something people are not supposed to see … mother earth at her most … primordial …
then, the climb down … just as beautiful as the climb up … most people prefer going down, as it is not as physically demanding … i am 100% the opposite … i like physically demanding … i dont like slipping down fields of volcanic rock … but that’s just me …
4 hours and 100 variations in vegetation later, i had shed all my layers and was on my way out …
i returned immediately to Rwanda, mainly b/c it is freaking expensive in the DRC, but i was sad to go so soon … the few locals i encountered seemed as friendly as i would have expected, and i am sure the country has many stories to tell … and really … it’s not as dangerous as you think …
i am now in kigali … spent today looking at 10’s of thousands of dead bodies … but THAT is going to have to wait until tomorrow … peace and love …
soooo … after i finished those last 2 posts … i went out looking for the beach … gisenyi is on lake kivu … famous for its high priced tourist resorts and for having thousands of bodies wash up on its beaches in 1994 …
setting out into gisenyi, i was struck, again, by how NICE it is … hillside mansions and tree lined streets begged me to take a picture … so i pulled out my trusty camera and it made a loud beeping … said ‘overwrite protected’ … if i tired to review the old pictures … it said ‘xd empty’ …
nothing could possibly have made me happier, as this card has my only copy of all the pictures i have taken since the first of july … that is … the journey out of kenya and into uganda … white water rafting the nile … orphanage visits … sipi falls … kampala memories … the most beautiful drive of my life … forest treks … and then that little climb up the volcano …
i was pretty happy to have lost all these priceless memories … so happy i went to the most expensive hotel, bought an overpriced beer, sat on the grass beside the beach and wrote in my journal while rich people frolicked on their private beach all around me … then i looked over and my beer, a 333ml amstel at $2.50 (not a 750ml primus at $1.05) had sensed my inner pain and had committed suicide on my behalf … at least the grass got a good drink …
so it goes …
i am now in an internet cafe attempting to salvage my photos, which it seems have been virused … fingers are crossed …
(that was about 3 days ago … i have since managed to get the lot onto dvd, though my card is still totally effed… one more example of how strange i am … as i thought about how happy i was to have lost all those memories … i felt nothing but love in my heart for the poor soul who created that virus … as i am sure he/she was suffering in their own way … and facing the loss of my memories … i could relate to their suffering … thank you buddha … peace truly is a wonderful thing)
… rwanda is a french speaking country … “hi, is this the line i am supposed to wait in” … “francais?” … “errr … does anybody speak english … i just need to know what line i should be in” … “francais?” … so i just stood … figuring somebody would rescue the lost mzungu before long … and they did … they gave me a paper and i filled it out .. i made it into the room only to learn i had filled out the wrong paper and was in the wrong room … welcome to rwanda …
i spent a day in ruhengeri, about 30 minutes over the border … rwanda is like a new world all over again …it is CLEAN … the streets are spotless, the people are well-dressed, the sidewalks and roads are paved and the buildings are modern …
i came to rwanda mainly to learn about the genocide … something i feel a bit guilty about … ‘hi, i’m a tourist and i would like to learn about the darkest part of your nations history, something which undoubtedly impacted you personally in ways i could never possible appreciate’ … but what can you do … i am trying to be gentle about it …
on my way out of uganda i picked up this book called “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families” … it’s written by a reporter at the New Yorker and is utterly brilliant … i HIGHLY recommend … it tells the story factually, tracing the history back hundreds of years, but also dives deeply into the personal tragedies … woven like a pro … really one of the best i have read in awhile …
terrible idea for me though …
i think it has done me personally more harm than good … everywhere i go and everything i do … i look at the people around me and wonder … who they are? … how old were they in 1994? … what ghosts live in their pasts? …
i have read the stories … i have seen the pictures … 800k-1M people in 100 days … thats between 5 and 6 people every single minute … bodies littered the streets … corpses choked rivers … infants, children, women … murdered up close and personal by their friends, priests, teachers, doctors … we in the west, in our typical self-absorption, focus on how WE let it happen … which is fair i suppose … but really misses the point entirely …
now i look at the survivors … and its TERRIBLE … i can’t stand in line at a bank or sit on a bus without looking at the scars on their faces and hands and wondering if they were caused by somebody defending themselves … i look in their eyes and wonder if they killed … stood over their neighbors with a large knife and swung …
the architects of the genocide really hammered the ‘with-us-or-against-us’ point home … forcing everyone to take part so that nobody could be ‘guilty’ … so really, everyone i meet over the age of 35 either fled to neighboring countries or …………………..
one day i was walking down the road and passed a 45 year old man carrying a machete … i wondered what it felt like, for him, in his hands … if it brought back memories … i wondered what it felt like for others to see it …
how can a people, a country, get over that ??? … how can they just ‘move-on’ ??? …
i have only been here for a day or 2 … and they have been spent in the ex-’hutu-power’ heartland … so it is foolish of me to conclude anything … but somehow … i don’t feel they have … there is a tension … i can feel it on the back of my neck … i can sense it in the looks i get walking down the street and in the greetings in the market … i am told Kigali and other major urban centers are different … but here … i don’t know …. i have never before felt so … uneasy … i pray i am wrong …
now i am in Gisenyi, just over the Congo border … i arrived late friday night, called to ask about climbing the volcano on sunday or monday, and was told that if i wanted to go it had to be saturday … i spent the rest of that night frantically preparing … and only returned to my hotel in Rwanda a couple hours ago … the plan is to hang out here for the rest of the day and then catch the early bus to Kibuye … i will post about the DRC when i get there … as that deserves a post all its own …
oh … random fact … in many places over here, the beer comes in 500ml bottles … but HERE … it comes in 750ml bottles … totally badass
peace and love …
ps i have NO idea what the title of this post is supposed to mean … just seemed … i dunno …
Filed under: Uganda | Tags: Africa, Beauty, Irish, Kampala, Kisoro, One Love, Smiles
One Heart!
Let’s get together and feel all right
you should visit kampala, uganda someday …
really … it’s safe, the people are kind and embarrassingly beautiful inside and out … it’s clean and nice and zips along with an energy all its own … and the pace of that energy is utter freaking madness when it really gets going … safe, orderly … madness …
seriously … it’s a really cool place … the thing you will see most often is ‘the smile’ … seriously … next vacation … kampala … you will love it …
talking among westerners, one fairly common topic is how completely unlike expectations africa really is … and its true in a way that is impossible to appreciate … in the west we get SUCH a distorted view of this world … war and famine and disease and corruption and dictators … the kind of view that leads people to call me ‘brave’ and ‘adventurous’ … just for coming here …
really, nothing could be further from the truth … you learn this about 30 seconds after arriving and the more ‘real’ everything about this place becomes, the more utterly absurd the preconceptions seem …
through ethiopia, kenya, uganda, rwanda and even sudan … the number one most universal feature is the smile (and the kalishnikov, though they had M16’s in Kenya) … not pain or poverty or disease or suffering … but smiles … from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor …
it is not what you expect … it not what we are shown … and its tragic, because this world … from which we all came … is beautiful … simply … universally …
so seriously … next vacation … kampala …
utterly unrelated …
i believe, quite sincerely, that the irish are the greatest of all people … i got a handful of comments re: kampala brothel at 7am … and it must be known that i hold the irish 100% accountable … i was totally ready to leave “Bubbles O’Leary’s,” a strange little irish pub in kampala , at about 4am, but they would have none of that … and lets be honest … after riverdancing with 6 drunk irishmen … who was i to say no … and the ‘brothel’ was not really a brothel … it’s the all night bar that just happens to be 75% hot young women and 25% creepy old men … it should also be noted that uganda has a very unique ‘arrangement’ when it comes to such things … most of the girls are university students who offer their ’services’ in exchange for being taken out to nice dinners and bought occasional expensive gifts … it’s really not all that different than north american society except that the men tend to be a LOT older than the girls (***they have these billboards all over the place that say “Cross Generational Sex Stops WIth You – Say No To Sugar Daddies”***) … regardless … i did not partake … i did tell every girl who gave me the ‘eye’ that they were beautiful and that i loved them unconditionally … but i am strange like that …
i barely caught a 6:30am bus (the only bus to ever leave on time), a day late, out of kampala a couple days ago, and rode all day to the extreme south western edge of the county … the drive for the last 2 hours was hands down the most spectacular thing i have ever seen in my life … times 10 … i was, quite literally, hopping from one side of the bus to the other gawking like a stupid tourist … there are these hills … beautiful lush rolling hills with pristine lakes in their valleys … think ‘the hobbit’ … the ridges have small groupings of buildings, and all down the sides they are terraced in a vertical patchwork of agriculture that is breathtaking far beyond the powers of imagination or words or even pictures …
i arrived in kisoro and spent a few hours trying to shake off the tour guides who seemed to think that saving me $25 on a $625 gorilla trek made it ‘affordable’ … managed to, finally, and walking the streets after dark, wandered into the only store i saw with a light on inside … there i met eric … a local rasta who runs his own arts shop (while i, unlike the rasta, do not think the emperor of ethiopia was the reincarnation of JC, if there was one religion that i would say is doing it ‘right’ … rasta would be the one … peace and love … peace and love … peace and love .. and uganda is swimming with the love of the rasta man)
… within minutes we were talking like old friends … he has a unique combination of brilliance and boundless kindness that i have never before encountered … if you had asked me a couple days ago what my favorite possession was, i would likely have said my mp3 player … eric now owns my mp3 player … i am not sure why i felt compelled to give it to him … somehow i think it may serve him in a way it never could serve me … someday i hope i can offer him a job … in the meantime … i bought a sweet portable cassette player for $10 and am pumped, as they have cheap tapes everywhere here and now i can really start digging into the local beats … (part 1 = Lucky Dube … south african political reggae)
i camped out the night in kisoro (i have bought a tent and plan to now camp as often as possible, it being cheaper and more fun … though the cheap, light ‘kiddie’ tent i found is not what you would call ‘waterproof’ … and i barely fit … but who cares really) … and spent the next day wandering around that wonderland … kisoro was dian fossey’s jump off point for studying gorillas (gorillas in the mist) … and it lived up to its reputation … much to my dismay … the town is ringed by inactive volcanos … and is said to be one of the most beautiful in uganda … i don’t really know … i saw only mist … it still had its beauty though … as everything was damp and lush and alive … even the clothing worn by the people is like another world … vibrant and subdued all at once …
from kisoro to the rwanda border was about 15 minutes on the back of a motorbike … by far the most thrilling ride of my life as the road is not so much a road as a rocky dirt path with many hairpin turns and sharp descents … i spent about 1/2 the journey marveling at the beauty around me and the other half completely convinced that i was about to perish … something, i should note, i have totally come to terms with … its strange how when you are not afraid of death, everything superficial matters that much less …
i got to the border crossing … which was more of a series of small buildings in the middle of the bush … had a lovely farewell to uganda … and realized quite abruptly that …
Filed under: Uganda | Tags: Canada, Joni Mitchell, Lira, Masindi, Matatu, Murchison Falls, NGO's, VCT
Looking for the key to set me free
Oh the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be
I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun
I want to be the one that you want to see
I want to knit you a sweater
Want to write you a love letter
I want to make you feel better
I want to make you feel free
so i basically travelled 2 days out of my way for nothing … though i refuse to accept such non-sense … let’s turn this into a coherent thought shall we ???
i traveled about 6 hours over bumpy roads from Mbale to Lira … Lira is in the North, where many of the street kids i met had fled from, and you could still see a lot of the ghosts of war along the roadside …
uganda is impossibly beautiful, with lush greenery of a million shades stretching off into infinity … the green is punctuated along the roads by the dust, which is a vibrant red … it coats everything, especially those plants unlucky enough to be born at the side of the road … i think there must be a brilliant metaphor there … with the bloody red stoplight of progress chocking and obscuring the vibrant re-birth of self-sustaining life … but i am not poetic enough to capture it … c’est la vie …
i was unable to find a reasonably priced hotel with any vacancies … but i did find one of those ’special’ places frequented by long hall truckers for about $6.00/night … as far as i could tell, the distinction between ‘toilet’ and ’shower’ did not exist, and there was a big sign on the wall in my room instructing people not to use the sheets to clean their boots and to throw used condoms in the garbage and not on the floor … needless to say, i spent many hours just touching as many surfaces as i possibly could …
i peetered around lira for the the morning, trying desperately to find an ATM … they are generally a) out of network contact, b) out of money c) don’t accept my card or d) say i have canceled the transaction for no apparent reason … but did … and was soon on a nice short 4-hour bus ride to Masinidi … this bus ride was also much less crowded … the busses all say on the side how many passengers they carry … the bus from Mbale to Lira held 14 … i counted 26 people in the bus at one point … the bus from Lira to Masinidi held 29 … i am quite sure we broke 40, but due to the pile of people on top of me, i was unable to make an accurate count …
i was hoping to get to murchison falls … masinidi is the closest major center … and once inside the park, you can take a riverboat past hippos and crocs and elephants to the base of the falls … and then climb up them (the falls, not the elephants, though that would also be fun) … the falls themselves cram the entire nile through a 6m wide gap, which is apparently something spectacular … but then … i have no idea … b/c i have only seen the sign that says “Murchison Falls 84km” …
it would seem no public transport runs to the park … and all my attempts to hitch/scam/sell my body for a free ride have failed miserably … so it would cost me 150,000/ to get there ($90) and then even if i got there … the going rate for a night is between $75-150 US … which is just a touch over my $20 limit … so alas … i am left looking at a postcard, which shows the water smashing with great ferocity through the gorge … if i stare at the postcard and concentrate really hard … i imagine i can even hear them … but then somebody yells “hey … muzungu … how are you” .. and the magic is broken …
so i traveled 2 days to get here to take a riverboat up the nile and climb up a waterfall … and i can’t … which might disappoint me … except i am me … and i refuse to be disappointed … b/c really … what is the point of that ??? … i am in AFRICA!!! …
so i made the best of my day … i took a 3 hour walk in the morning (after my first hot shower in what felt like weeks and my longest sleep-in in months (8:30)) … its really funny the looks you get when you are a white person walking down back-roads where, quite obviously, a white person has no business whatsoever … then i just started hunting for NGO’s to visit, and managed to get meetings with TASO (HIV), Noref (Education), ActionAid (Poverty Reduction) and Build Africa (Farming) … all of which taught me things that i did not know before …
AND … i went through most of the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing for HIV) process, just to understand it, and i am sure you will all be greatly relieved to learn that i do not, in fact, have HIV …
yet …
tomorrow i have one more NGO to meet, and then i should be on a 10:00 bus back to Kampala … where i plan to take full advantage of the weekend by drinking more than i should … and, if at all possible, visiting a community education newspaper … and maybe an art gallery …
peace and love …
p.s. everywhere i have been so far … they LOVE Celine Dion and Shania Twain … last night i was kept awake by a room full of middle aged Ugandan men singing “From This Moment” and then “My Heart Will Go On” … confirming my belief that Canadian women are, in fact, the greatest in the world … too bad about the men …
b.
