Today would be the day I was looking forward to the most out of my entire time in Uganda – tracking the extremely endangered, wild mountain gorillas. Despite placing our breakfast order the night before and requesting a specific time to eat, the chefs still work on African time, so we ended up being the last group to arrive at the trek site. No huge deal though, the only downside was we got divided into two groups: myself, Heather and Ursula in one group, and Leandra and Thea in the other. My group met up with our guide and the other trekkers, and after a brief intro on safety instructions, we hopped in the car and drove to the point where we start the hike. I think we missed most of the safety tips because we ... read more

After our night of clubbing at The Mist, the MUST crew woke the next morning bright and early, with a nice little hangover, so we could be ready for the bus when it came at 8am. At around 11am, we found out that it's running on African Time – you'd think we would have learned to give up on “Muzungu Time” by now. I tried explaining to Ivan that we were always ready when we were told to be, just in case it's the one time things are actually running on time here. Without hesitation he responded, “that time with never come, my friend.” And so far, he's completely right. Since we had no food left and didn't have breakfast, Leandra and I fried up the rest of the beaver tail dough for lunch so we ... read more

Leandra and I took one Friday off from Kihefo so we could meet up with the rest of the U of S girls and go to Rwanda for the weekend. The girls, Gena, Thea, Heather and Lindsay made their way to Kabale early in the afternoon where we hired a driver to take us to Kigali, the capital city. The Rwanda border is only a short drive away from where Leandra and I stay so we made it there in less than 45 minutes. At the border, they took all our passports, visas and paperwork at the same time while we waited off to the side. While we were waiting, people behind us in line would come and go, as they were still processing our information. Eventually, after about 45 minutes they started to hand back ... read more

So just a disclaimer, while this is probably the most interesting blog post I've written, it's also pretty long. So make some tea, grab a sandwich and enjoy! Alright, one Friday afternoon, Leandra and I, and two of the American medicine students, Adriene and Marty, all hopped in a van to head to Kisoro for the weekend to climb a volcano and conquer nature! Seems simple enough, right? Well, keep reading. The two hour drive to Kisoro boasts to be one of the most beautiful in Uganda, as it allows us to travel alongside Lake Bunyonyi and through the hilly and mountainous countryside. The volcano we were planning on hiking, Muhavura, is the tallest in the mountain range, and stands along the border of Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. On the drive we passed a section ... read more

This is going to be nice and short, to balance out the last few longer ones! (. . . also the power is out and my battery is going to die.) It's finally time for Leandra and I to have our first free weekend since leaving home, so we decided to take off to beautiful Lake Bunyonyi! Lake Bunyonyi is a short distance away from Kabale and is known for its beauty and having many small islands scattered within the lake (29, I believe). We checked into our oh-so-simple $10 per night room – simple as in it only had beds, and about half a light bulb – and decided to have some lunch and a beer on the patio over looking the lake. My friends know how much I can't resist a chance to have ... read more