Blogs from Province du Nord, Rwanda, Africa - page 7

Sardines Let us begin with a word on Ugandan taxis. They are not called 'shared' for nothing. To get to the border with Rwanda we took one of these cabs to save time. Inside the regular saloon car there were 4 adults including Big Dave in the back, 2 adults in the front passenger seat and 2 more on the drivers seat. The driver somewhat impressively managed to change gear even while half sitting on another man's lap! The border crossing was fine. We even managed to avoid the 'give the muzungus the wrong money because they don't know what it looks like' scam when we changed cash before crossing. On the Rwandan side we found a bus to take us to the capital and as always had to sit for ages before it filled ... read more

The Anniversary This blog posting finds me at a very interesting landmark: roughly one year since I left the United States! My last day in Seattle was the 18th of October, 2006, which in some ways feels like a lifetime ago, and in other ways feels like it was only yesterday. Since that time, I've begun speaking a new language (Kiswahili), visited five countries, held two volunteer positions in two different countries, learned about wildlife (especially primates) thanks to many books and a few safaris, made lots of friends from other countries, hosted a few friends from back home and have experienced all kinds of different cultural nuances - both positive and negative - in South Asia and East Africa. This year has far surpassed any expectations I may have set, and I continue learning and ... read more

Hi all. For all of those who have travelled with us, you will be aware of the travel curse that we often talk about! For those who have not been lucky enough to travel with us, there are always problems/events/things that go wrong to us when we travel. JB and Macca are aware of it, so is Jonny. Well it has not only reared it's ugly head, it has slapped us not only across the face, but also in the stomach this time. Here's what happened since our arrival into Africa. We arrived in Nairobi after a great flight with BA. We had a row of chairs to ourselves so were able to stretch out and enjoy the flight. Our pre organised airport collection was there to get us (so far that's 2 good things, no ... read more