South Africa

[simply_angelic]

Um...the DRC is the warzone one....the republic of the congo is the safe one, so yeah spending the night there was pretty bad-ass in my personal opinion, especially since I visited the East which is pretty hung up with rebels at the moment. Wanted to climb the volcano & look into it and the only way we would have been allowed would have been accompanied by a UN peacekeeper but apparently they've stopped that service since a chinese woman fell in last year (dumbass). So we didn't get to climb it...

[worldwidemike]

Shit...you'd think as much reading as I've done about The Congo that I would have remembered that! I guess I just assumed that there is no way you'd be going to the "bad Congo"...

So, you went to The Congo, eh? I am impressed. In my opinion, that is even more dangerous than Adam's heading off to Kurdish controlled Iraq! The territory of The Congo has half a dozen different nations' armies and twice that many factions and warlord claiming control of it. That is one baaad place, and one that I would not have considered going to! You are a bold one.

worldwidemike

[simply_angelic]

SO I figured it's about time for my update! Here are some of the highlights
of what I've been up to these past couple of weeks...

(1) Sat Night I partied it up in the DRC! We (Larissa and I) had to get up
early last time (and had no idea where to go) so decided not to go out. Then we became really good friends with Steph, a congolese woman I mention in my last letter, and decided that what we most needed was a party night! Gisenyi is booooooooooring.

Steph was quite the host. When we arrived she began to cook dinner. I
thought she was cooking it for her entire family, but apparently they had
already eaten and it was simply for her daughter, Larissa and I! The meal
consisted of traditional Congolese food: fried fish with a tomato sauce,
chips (aka french fries), and a small salad (basically coleslaw). Very good.
All this was accompanied by some deliciooous Amarula, as she knew Larissa
and I are big fans. Steph, however, stuck to the drink of africans: beer.

When it was time to get ready, she sent us outside in the enclosed veranda
where she had her sister prepare hot and cold water for us in a couple of
buckets with some soap on a chair. Shower time! Us, grimy north americans
hadn't even considered taking a full bath right before going out...we
thought we'd be good with the one we'd taken in the morning, but we didn't
want to be rude...She had said "we will go out one at a time" but Larissa
and I went out together because we wanted to brush our teeth...So after
brushing our teeth, I left larissa to wash her arms, lol and when she was
finished I came out and washed my very dirty feet...That was pretty much the extent of our washes but we just had to pretend we had washed really fast.

Then the night began! We hit up 2 bars/clubs last night. The first was more
of a pre-drink bar and the second a true discoteque. I know that there are
1000s of NGOs here, not to mention MUNUC, but you really don't see the expat community until you hit the town. It was crazy! I'd say 30%-50% of the people at the bar weren't congolese. It was great! For the first time, since my initial night in Jo'Berg I really danced like a North American again! It was really cute too, because Steph's 16 y.o. sister came out with us and it was her first time to a night club. She's a very conservative Johovas
witness girl so it was crazy for her to see all the people packed into one
place...haha she even had her bible in her purse! Love her, she's a really
sweet girl. Amazing night, so glad I did it!

(2) Friday morning I walked in the National Parc de Volcans and saw the
infamous "gorillas in the mist". Oh man, what a trek! We saw the SUSA group which is the largest of the groups in the park but also the farthest away at this time of year. It took us a whooping 3 hours to find them and since it rained the day before and intermittantly on the trek, it was hazardous!! At some points you just had to succumb to the mud, sit on your butt and slide down the volcano. I cant even describe how crazy the trek to find them was. When we did, eventually get to them though, it was soooo worth it.

When we arrived they were all huddling from the cold, and the mist
surrounded them so all my pictures look faded. Then about 5 minutes in it
began to rain for a couple minutes pushing out the mist so that everything
was clear. The gorillas all started rolling around on the ground to dry
themselves and then the main silverback signalled for all the gorillas to
move. They all got up and started moving into the bushes, while another
silverback stayed behind with some ladies. Apparenbtly he wanted to mate but he couldnt do it unless the main silverback was gone (no, unfortunately, we didnt see him mate). Then about 5 minutes before our time was up, the mist began to roll in and we took our last pictures. We were ready to leave though, as the guides had taken our bags and most of us had left our warm clothing inside them!

(3) A week and a half ago I did a little trip down to Butare, the main
university hub of Rwanda. With Butare as my base, I made day trips to
Gikongoro and Nyungwe national park. The main attraction in Gikongoro
is a genocide memorial site by the name of murambi. This is probably
the most graphic memorial site in all of Rwanda and is not recommended
for the faint of heart. The site is a technical school used as refuge
during the genocide. There are about 2600 bodies, all of which have
been preserved with limestone dust. It's pretty intense to see all the
bodies in the positions that they died…the expressions on their
faces…where they've been hit with a machete/club/etc…the imprint of
boots in children's faces…I'm actually getting a little emotional
thinking about it now. It's sick. (And the smell…)

The next day when I went to walk in Nyungwe National Park it was
little more pleasant/less scarring. The park is the largest straight
shot of montane forest in (central?) Africa. It was beautiful.
Reminded me quite a bit of the forests we went to in South Africa with
GVI. Unfortunately, I have very few pictures from the day because a
little of the ways into the walk, it began to POUR. Silly me, I was
wearing my birks, shorts, a tank top, and my very thin waterproof
jacket. I didn't really expect it to rain like that…I told the guide
that I had wanted to do the walk relatively fast because I had
arranged for my minibus taxi to arrive back at 3, meaning that if I
was to finish the walk (an expected 3 ½ hours) in 3 ¼ hrs, I would
have to blitz. Well, no need to worry about that! Due to the rain the
guide didn't really want to stay out so we managed to finish in only 2
hours! I loved the rain during the walk though. It was an awesome
downpour….really, really nice. I just wasn't as fond of waiting in the
COLD under a tiny shelter, soaking wet for 1 ½ hours for my minibus
driver as they were later than anticipated. I was shivering all over
the attendant of the minibus had to get some lady to let me borrow her
fabric…man I was cold!! Ah well, C'est la vie!

I have to go now…catching a flight to Uganda in a couple hours! Love
and miss you all,

-Laura

[simply_angelic]

Starting my long trek home today! Fly to uganda tonight...uganda->South africa tomorrow morning, SA-> JFK tomorrow night! On week with the bf then home. Ay!

P.S. The reason I considered staying with my friend in the DRC safe, was because (1) Goma is considered one of the safest places to travel to in the DRC (2) her house is right by the general's and (3) apparently there are a lot of white people in her community who all have their own security. She's sacrificed a lot of ammenities within her house just to have security for her and her 3 y/o daughter

[worldwidemike]

That is so cool you got to see the gorillas. When I was in S.A., I talked to a British girl who had just done that and she said it was a powerful experience. As for the DRC, well, apparently it's another one of those cases that you can't believe everything you read. And that even in countries that others may consider "basket cases," life does go on. And people do have some sort of normalcy. Plus, having contact and being taken in hand by the locals is probably the best way to navigate a place like that.

Have a great trip back! I'm sure Canada will be quite the culture shock at first...

worldwidemike

[freespiritz]

Amazing stuff, been loving it all laura. Have a great trip back to North America (even though I'm not there, WELCOME home and good luck readjusting. )