kevin baker

Since I wasn't expecting the following to happen, I didn't have my camera on me, so you will just have to imagine this in your head. It goes like this: Last night I bunked down at about 1030pm (yeah, WAY earlier than my normal bedtime back home, but its up with the sun and down with the sun (ish) here due to my lack of electric lights). I was woken up around 1130 by the sound of music. Yes, the hills were alive with the sound of music! No, I'm not talking about Julie Andrews in her gray dress singing her heart out; I'm talking about loud, awful North American dance music being blared out of a sound system (a good one, I thought) nearby. So I drag my sorry butt out of bed, put on ... read more

“WHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” SPLASH!!!! *gurgle gurgle sputter* “WHHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!” Kevin has now, officially, lost his marbles. After arriving at the Lake Muhazi house on Saturday and unloading the truck (food, mattresses, bags and six people), Kevin empties his pockets, takes of his shoes and flings himself into the Lake, clothes and all. Cr-azy! The lake, however, is so irresistibly warm and inviting that I just HAD to do it! I spent a while paddling around, then decided that my shirt was holding me back to I got out, took off the shirt, found a rubber inner tube in the house that Chris mentioned to me, and jump back in. Once again, all the Africans present were giving me REALLY funny looks. Oh well, just adding to my legend! Irene took a few photos, most of them with me mostly ... read more

One of my favorite memories of Zambia was listening to the rain fall on the roof as I went to sleep. In the rainy season it would rain every day, and usually rather heavy rain, too, and since the roof of our house was corrugated asbestos with no ceiling, the rain was very loud. The loud drumming sound had a calming effect on me, and it drowned out most other noises, making it easier to fall asleep. And so I find myself lying on a mattress in Muganza, looking up at the metal roofing sheets of the Baha'i Center that I am sleeping in, and praying for the rain to fall. Too bad its the dry season and there is no chance of that happening. I will have to seek comfort in the constant sound of ... read more

Kampala, it appears, decided to give me a break for the rest of my time there. The only other "fun thing" that I was offered while walking the streets of Kampala were cigars ("Real Cubans, my friend! Real Cubans!" Yeah, right.) I spent the last two days going through every single art shop and artists' village in Kampala trying to find some "unique" stone carvings for my dad. Sorry dad, but these people aren't that kind of artist. They make pretty trinkets for tourists, and they all look the same. I ended up choosing one or two pieces that I thought that were pretty and interesting enough to make up for the fact that you can find a hundred of them anywhere you look. On both Sunday and Monday the skies opened up in a torrential ... read more

"Doucement! Doucement! Il y a un trou!" "Gently! Gently! There's a hole!" Such was my trip to and from Gikongoro. Washboard dirt roads with potholes, ditches, rivulets and log bridges, all of which I had to go over at no more than 10-15 km/h. Thus did my first village trip without Chris begin. It makes me wish that he was still here because he always insisted on driving. Trust me, I didn't argue against this insistence very much. More like, not at all. But I should start at the beginning. The Days After Chris began at noon on Tuesday July 17th, when I took Chris to the airport to catch his flight home. The rest of the day, nay, the week passed rather uneventfully, mostly taken up by making budgets of the money we have left, ... read more

On Monday, Jacintha's last full day in Rwanda, she and I went to see the Kigali Memorial Centre, which chronicles the genocide here in 1994, as well as several others that have happened in the last century. The Centre itself is a small, nondescript white building on the side of one of the hills in Kigali. It looks like a house from a distance, but it is so, so much more, inside and out. When we arrived at the Centre a guard at the gate searched us, the full bag-digging, pocket-emptying, pat-down type search. It was the first time this has ever happened to me here, even though I have gone into many government buildings, met two Cabinet Ministers, a 3-Star General of the Army and gone into the Canadian Embassy. This indicated to me ... read more