I woke at 4am to make the first Kalita bus at 5. After finishing some last minute packing, making a final sweep, and then taking a second to soak in one last look at the place that had been home for the last three months, I rushed to the first round-about in town. The spot being the designated location of departures for the Kalitas. Of course I wasn’t surprised to find that no one else had done the same. At 5:10 there was still only two other people accompanying me on the idling bus, a young mother and her baby. She [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at the gates to find the place seemingly deserted. Looking at our watches we concluded that the memorial center would probably open soon enough. We walked up the long entranceway to the main building looking for anyone who might know when the center opened. I gazed around the grounds thinking how normal the school looked. Essentially, it looks the same as it did back in April of 1994. Had I not been told, I would have never guessed that this open hilltop was the sight of one of the worst single acts of genocide in modern day history. After [View Full Entry]

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Janis and I met in KLA. We spent the night there before trying to find the Jaguar bus service to Kigali the next morning. Hoping to catch the 8 am departure we set out early, but were dismayed to see the bus pulling out of the parking lot early as we arrived. This turned out to be good thing when I started feeling incredibly nauseous from taking my Malaria pills on an empty stomach. Janis walked around looking for food as I sat on the side of the road trying not to dry heave. After getting some biscuits in my stomach [View Full Entry]

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Study on Ugandan Transportation: An Outsider’s Perspective The following is a look into the different means of getting oneself from one location to another in Uganda. Some of these options are unique to the country, some to East Africa. While other options are a bit more familiar. The purpose of this essay is to give the reader a perspective into Ugandans daily lives through their use of transportation. If safety is your main concern, as it is often mine considering what I have seen since arriving in this country, then walking is simply the way to go. Sure, eve [View Full Entry]

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Whether due to language barriers or cultural differences the randomness of some conversations with Fort Portal… (ites? Fort Portalans?) is always perplexing, but often times downright amusing. I had just spent the evening at Farrah and Emerald’s house; all three of us crowded around a small laptop trying to hold our breaths - straining to hear the pirated DVD through the computer speakers. Recently, this has become our favored pastime, especially when the power is out. After a few episodes of the Office Emerald concedes she doesn’t understand British humor and we decide [View Full Entry]

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I had been waiting for this day for two years. No, I have been weighed down under complete anticipation of this momentous day for eight long years! It was finally here and I had reached the culmination of my East African vacation, Election Day in Nairobi Kenya. We started the day off taking a matatu from Moshi to Arusha Tanzania. The previous night was spent at a school Emerald had worked at two years earlier at the foot of Kilimanjaro with spectacular views of the mountain. She wanted to surprise the kids so when she showed up they were overjoyed to [View Full Entry]

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Trying to describe the beauty that is Zanzibar is a fruitless exercise in wasted energy. So, I will have to refer you to the pictures… We flew directly from Entebbe, Uganda to Zanzibar on Air Uganda. Overall, the flight experience was extremely positive and I would recommend taking this route rather then overland by bus. Especially, considering the fact that at the same time my friend Emerald’s bus from Kigali to Dar es Salaam was stuck in a ditch with a broken ball bearing and a detached wheel. After spending the night in a field they ended up having to catch [View Full Entry]

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Finishing off a wonderful weekend, I traveled up north with my roommates to the Semuliki National Park. Now, Amanda and Janis are two of the best (and prettiest) housemates one could ever hope to find in the FP greater area, if not the whole of Africa. I say this because it’s true, but more to the point, I say this because they bribe me with amazing dinners and even better deserts. They have literally turned Banana-fritters into an art form. We got an early start to the day leaving at 6:30 am in a privately hired SUV. To get to Semuliki [View Full Entry]

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To me the real enjoyment of traveling is getting to know a place, not just superficially, but really getting to know a place. It’s about the relationships one builds, the ordinary daily occurrence one sees, and pulse of the community one feels. Ironically enough, no matter where you are in the world, there are a few human experiences that afford an outsider a unique cultural perspective, a window, into the world others live in. One of these is a wedding, and this weekend I was lucky enough attend one in FP. It was another great reminder how living in a community [View Full Entry]

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Emerald and I were enjoying lunch at a local restaurant, deep in conversation when a smart (well dressed) looking gentleman walked over from his table to politely introduce himself. A bit jaded from cute children demanding that I give them “their” money, or the shifty characters continually proposing obvious scams that promise to make us both rich, I waited for the next less-then-entertaining business proposition. Instead, he explained how he is a program manager at the local radio station (Voice of Toro) and wanted to put us on the radio. He said he had overheard us talking and th [View Full Entry]

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