Traveling Spree

We have done so much in two weeks, I don't know where to start. Currently I am in Kigali, Rwanda and we had the day off because of International Women's Day. I didn't do anything specific to celebrate, but it was a great day of exploring Kigali. It was also a good day to catch up on sleep. Our entire group is pretty tired from all the traveling. In the last week and a half we have gone from Gulu to Kampala, Jinja, Mbarara, and now Rwanda.

In Kampala we did a ton of site seeing which was great. We got to learn about the Bagandan people, which is another tribe like the Acholi. We saw their parliament building and their king's palace. I was also able to visit the National Mosque which was beautiful.

In Jinja we saw the source of the Nile and took a boat ride to where Lake Victoria stops and the spring to the Nile begins. There was also a large grouping of rocks to signify the start of the Nile that we were able to climb to, it was one of my favorite excursions so far.

On the way to Mbarara we crossed the equator. I got to stand with one foot in each hemishpere. On Monday we visited a refugee camp, and it was not what I expected at all. We spent most of our time there listening to refugees from Rwanda. There are about 160,000 refugees in the camp from a lot of different countries (Sudan, Somalia and the Congo to name a few). It was a good experience, but difficult  to get a clear picture of the camp when we only spoke with Rwandan refugees. There was also a ton lost in translation during our conversation, because there were three or four different languages being spoken, so it felt a little like a missed opportunity to hear people’s stories.

Now, like I said, we are in Kigali. The city is beautiful and incredibly developed. There are traffic lights and crosswalks and paved roads, all of which feel like luxuries. We have our first excursion in Rwanda tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not sure what to expect, but it will definitely be a learning experience.

I have a ton of great pictures from all of the traveling, but after waiting 40 minutes to load five of them, I tried to post them and everything was lost. We'll just have to wait on photos for now and hope for better luck next time.