Wow, instead of writing everything up, I should have just made a video of all my photos. Luckily, Joshua Bruce, one of my fellow servants did so with his many vids and photos. This pretty much shows it all.
In addition to his video, all my videos and photos are also viewable here. The whole collection is there, but I've also made a few "highlights" albums to speed of the browsing process. Look at whatever interests you!
Enjoy!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Front Fell Off
I think I mentioned that I traveled with 8 other people (7 of whom I'd never met). One of the cool things about meeting new people is being introduced to new things, and well... I was introduced to my new favorite Podcast The Best of YouTube. Ok, truth is - I haven't watched it yet (aside from the one video Joshua and Melinda showed me on the bus-ride from Nairobi to Machakos). Thereafter, it became the quotable for the whole week.
This is "An Australian spoof interview from the early 90's.. an oil spill occurred off the coast of Western Australia due to the front of the boat falling off. Senator Bob Collins is played by John Clarke and the interviewer is Bryan Dawe."*
Another site I was led to by my travelling companion Joanne is like unto my favorite spam confirmation site: snopes.com. She prefers truthorficiton.com. I guess it matters which you use - just use one of them, and stop forwarding me emails about Bill Gates wanted to give me $100 for my email address - or little Betsy and her fight with cancer (since she's no longer little or fighting cancer).
Funny how 9,682 miles from home (and technology) things like that come up. I guess we're not all that different after-all.
This is "An Australian spoof interview from the early 90's.. an oil spill occurred off the coast of Western Australia due to the front of the boat falling off. Senator Bob Collins is played by John Clarke and the interviewer is Bryan Dawe."*
Another site I was led to by my travelling companion Joanne is like unto my favorite spam confirmation site: snopes.com. She prefers truthorficiton.com. I guess it matters which you use - just use one of them, and stop forwarding me emails about Bill Gates wanted to give me $100 for my email address - or little Betsy and her fight with cancer (since she's no longer little or fighting cancer).
Funny how 9,682 miles from home (and technology) things like that come up. I guess we're not all that different after-all.
Never Forget? Will they remember me?
On our way out of Nairobi, we stopped at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Here, they take elephants left in the wild (orphaned for one reason or another) and raise them - hoping to return them once they are old enough to fend for themselves.Ranging in age from a couple months to a couple years - the elephants are available daily for one hour to watch, pet, and generally gawk at. The center is always willing to take donations (surprised?) and you can even "adopt" an elephant for a mere $25.
It might be worth it - if you're heading to Nairobi (and you like elephants). If you're the "parent" you can arrange a one-on-one visit and you'll be able to feed your elephant during your visit. Plus, hey - who wouldn't want to be a foster parent to an orphaned elephant?So yeah, I guess this shouldn't be a surprise, but there was plenty of wildlife on this trip (dur - it's Africa). As for the elephants, as you can see in the video, no one was really quite sure how to predict them. You gotta be on your toes with them, unless you want them on your toes. Ouch.
They guys in green are the trainers (there's probably a better wor d than "trainer" - maybe "keeper?" Since they're not training them per-se), and the elephants get really "attached" to them. Raising elephants is no easy task. They have 2 or 3 trainers per elephant and no elephant is ever alone. They even sleep with their trainers. True foster parenting!They eat (among other things) insects from the dirt. Who'd-a-thunk it? What about peanuts? And the milk? 3-gallons, twice a day... I think. My memory isn't on par with an elephant, and it's been 2 weeks, so maybe my details are a bit fuzzy.
Speaking of elephant memory. It's true, they don't forget. Some have recognized their trainers years later. And they're very emotional animals. There are several reasons each elephant has multiple trainers:
1) Not only does the trainer need time off - you know, to do laundry, and send emails; but
2) If the elephant only had one trainer and it was sick or otherwise unable to work - the elephant would react emotionally to the loss. Having multiple trainers helps the elephants not be too attached to any one person too much, and they can rotate as necessary. Cool, eh?
The rest of the elephant videos are here.
Gorilla Safety
Before trekking into the wilderness to follow a family of gorillas, it's probably a good idea to learn how to avoid irritating them. This is how:
Notice the gun in the background. Yeah, just in case... Oh, and to fend off poachers. Plus, if you're paying as much as we did for the experience, there ought to be guns involved!
The gorillas were amazing, huge, peaceful, cute, strong, playful, etc... You know - your average primate family! Assuming you want to see a video - I picked this one of two children/babies playing in the trees:
There is another post about this experience here. And the rest of the gorilla videos are online with all the other stuff on my server.
Notice the gun in the background. Yeah, just in case... Oh, and to fend off poachers. Plus, if you're paying as much as we did for the experience, there ought to be guns involved!
The gorillas were amazing, huge, peaceful, cute, strong, playful, etc... You know - your average primate family! Assuming you want to see a video - I picked this one of two children/babies playing in the trees:
There is another post about this experience here. And the rest of the gorilla videos are online with all the other stuff on my server.
Slippery When Wet
Motorcycles are cool. Period.
So, when Jen noticed the best taxi's in Kigali were motorcycles, we couldn't resist. Granted, there's probably someone somewhere saying, "those roads look slippery" and I'm happy to say "we never found out for certain." We rode said moto-taxis twice while in Kigali and loved it both times.
I suppose it doesn't really work with luggage, but there were plenty of times when we'd stash our things at the hostel/hotel. That gave us freedom to walk, run, ride, skip... whatever.
So, when Jen noticed the best taxi's in Kigali were motorcycles, we couldn't resist. Granted, there's probably someone somewhere saying, "those roads look slippery" and I'm happy to say "we never found out for certain." We rode said moto-taxis twice while in Kigali and loved it both times.
I suppose it doesn't really work with luggage, but there were plenty of times when we'd stash our things at the hostel/hotel. That gave us freedom to walk, run, ride, skip... whatever.
VOD: Why read a book?
Is is me, or is the person in front of me reading a book? OK, I suppose that's allowed (but only because the entertainment system's VOD (Video on Demand) hasn't been turned on yet.This may not be a big deal to all my international traveling friends, but things have changed in the world of in-flight-entertainment since I last flew abroad (or maybe it's just because these were MUCH longer flights. Anyhow, point is - instead of just giving you 10 movies to pick from, and insisting that you watch your selection at the same time as everyone else on the plane... Our flights had mini-individual-TiVo-esue units for every passenger. I think there were 200 program choices and we were able to pause, rewind, restart at will. Pause live TV is now right there in the seat-back in front of you!
Now, lest you think my brain turned to mush watching 18 hours of TV and movies - I will admit that I read some on the plane as well (so I suppose I'll let my fellow passenger off for doing likewise). Of course, my book was about Rwanda, which when added to in-flight versions of The Last King of Scotland and Blood Diamond. Actually - maybe my brain did turn to mush: too much media-style tellings of strife on the African continent.
To balance it all out - I watched Sliding Doors on the way home. See - I have a sensitive side!
Ooops, did I just admit that?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Rwanda and that Hotel
Moments before leaving LA, I considered all the time I'd have on the various flights and decided to bring some "light"reading for the trip. One book I bought was An Ordinary Man. I was heading to Rwanda after-all... and a book about their past seemed like good reading (this book - not actually "light" - is the first-hand account of the Hôtel des Mille Collines... or Hotel Rwanda).Granted, I was also heading to Kenya, which was having it's own current-day mini-version of Rwanda's troubles from 1994. Needless to say, the book got me mildly anxious - wondering if Kenya was heading down the same genocidal path of its neighbor (what do I know?).
In Rwanda, they've come a long way since 1994. We visited the Hotel Rwanda and a genocide museum and talked with people first-hand about the experiences they went through. The end result of their tragedy is a keen awareness of how destructive racial & class distinctions can be (were) - when bred, believed and left to fester. My impression (during my short visit) is that they learned (albeit the hard way) something a large number of people still have yet to learn... Hopefully the learning process won't be so hard for everyone else.
Enough on that... Rwanda was incredible (and not just for the politics lesson and the gorillas). The landscapes are lush and green, and nothing like I was expecting. Overall, I'd say Kenya and Rwanda were both greener than expected (and I didn't even bring a rain coat on the trip - big mistake).
Gorillas in the Mist
Gorillas in the Mist (1988) tells the story of Dian Fossey and her time spent studying and living among the Gorillas of Rwanda. I saw it 10 or 15 years ago... But I lived it (kind of) 10 or 15 days ago. After a short layover in Nairobi, our first stop in Africa was Ruhengeri, Rwanda - to hike with the Gorillas (yes mom - this is safe).The Rwandans strictly limit how many visitors get this opportunity (by charging notable fees, leading only small-group visits, and limiting tourist-interactions to exactly one-hour-per-day). They even place 24-hour armed-guards on the mountain to fend off potential poachers. They're serious about safety (of the gorillas and - thankfully - the visitors).
Travel Companion (and owner of said Nikon D-40) put together a great slideshow of her best images/videos from the day.
I posted a second post about this experience - here.
And all the photos and videos from the trip are - here here.
Here's how it works...
We (our small group: 7 Americans, 2 guides, 2 guards with rifles, and a guy with a machete - who also carried Sara's back-pac) hiked up into the foggy hills expecting, but not guaranteed, to find a family of gorillas. We were not disappointed. After about an hour-ish of hiking we found the Silverback and his many wives and children (ok, so maybe they never actually got "married" but really - what priest is going to "marry" a gorilla, let alone to five different women). Anyhow, I digress.
Point is, there were 11 gorillas (1 male, 5 adult females and 5 children) slowly wandering through the hills eating bamboo and playing in the trees. What a life!
So there we were - for exactly 3,600 seconds snapping untold pictures while quietly stalking these amazing beasts. Anyhow, fun times - and certainly worth the side-trip.
PS Thanks to Adam Sidwell for the head's up on how to do this (who to contact, where to go, how much to pay), and the video that convinced us we had to do it:
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