Queen Elizabeth Park Adventures!

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for updates throughout our trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park over the next 3 days!

A Day on Mt Gahinga

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for our day on the slopes of Mt Gahinga with the Mgahinga Community Development Organisation! 

Coffee and Lake Mutanda

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for our day of ecotourism!!

Coffee and Lake Mutanda

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for our day of ecotourism!!

A movie theater end to our work at Katarara

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for an update to our work at Katarara Primary School! 

Day 1 of Katarara Primary School

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for pics of our first day at Katarars Primary School! Bad WiFi has limited my photo uploading ability!

God Is Able Nursery School via bad WiFi

Head over to my Twitter account www.Twitter.com/solarium1101 for pics of our two amazing days at the nursery school! Bad WiFi has limited my photo uploading ability!

Finally in Kisoro...aka Home!

With slow WiFi and dinner on the way, we just wanted everyone to know that we are safely in Uganda reconnecting with old friends...and for others...making new ones!

Kigali: Friends, Forgiveness and Hope

Today was an immersion in the life, past and future of Rwanda. We started the morning with a meeting at our guesthouse with two Rwandan ministers: Rev. Dominic, who I met last year  during a terrible layover that ultimately blessed me with a friend, and his friend Rev. Protais- a survivor of the genocide. Before hearing from Rev. Protais, we discussed the poem, The Toursist, given below to get ourselves ready to honor both the past and present. Rev. Protais told us his story of losing most of his family, forgiving the people who took his family from him and how he has created a peace program to bring together perpetrators and survivors. A story of sorrow, mercy, justice, and faith- his testimony made the trip to the Kigali Genocide Memorial even more meaningful and moving. The lessons of Rwanda: redemption, forgiveness, and love took the place of what could have been a day filled with sadness.

Following the Memorial, we headed to Rev. Dominc's nursery school where we met the teachers and his family. Since it is Saturday, only a few children came by but those that did were soon enthralled by us...and our phones. Their smiling faces were the perfect balance for the morning and showed us the bright future. After we headed out for a much needed and very late lunch of some of the best grilled food and countless waters and sodas! Tomorrow- up early and head 3 hours-ish northeast to Uganda, the Golden Monkey Guesthouse and our many friends!

Tourists by Yehuda Amichai

Visits of condolence is all we get from them.
They squat at the Holocaust Memorial,
They put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall
And they laugh behind heavy curtains
In their hotels.
They have their pictures taken
Together with our famous dead
At Rachel's Tomb and Herzl's Tomb
And on Ammunition Hill.
They weep over our sweet boys
And lust after our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool, blue bathrooms.


Once I sat on the steps by agate at David's Tower,
I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists
was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. "You see
that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there's an arch
from the Roman period. Just right of his head." "But he's moving, he's moving!"
I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them,
"You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next to it,
left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family."

Back Where We Started

On our first night, the guesthouse didn’t expect us for dinner and sent the chef home. We ended up driving through the evening bustle that is Kigali on our way to a restaurant. When we arrived, we realized that it was the same restaurant, Heaven, that we had seen featured in the Travel Channel show, Breaking Borders, a few weeks ago. The show follows a journalist and a chef who travel the world bringing people together from conflict zones. In the Rwanda episode, they brought together people from all sides of the genocide.  For us, we sat eating amazing African food getting fuel for our journey to the Genocide Memorial the next day. Day one and things are already new and familiar.

Landed in Rwanda!

After a few long but uneventful flights we finally arrived in Kigali, Rwanda!  Some of us have showered. And some are playing cards!  Tomorrow is meeting with a few ministers to hear about their experiences during the genocide and then we will go to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Sunday it is off to Uganda!

6 Hours to Go!

12 pieces of luggage are packed with women's and children's shoes, donated wedding dresses (for the Women's Centers plan to rent them), books, pens, pencils, frisbees and much more! In less than 24 hours the 9 student travelers and 3 chaperones will head first to Rwanda for 2 day and then Uganda where we will meet with locals to learn about the culture, issues and initiatives and volunteer at Katarara Primary School and the God Is Able Nursery School. Towards the end of our trip, we will head out of the mountains of southwest Uganda and slightly north to Queen Elizabeth National Park to experience the wildlife Uganda has to offer: game drive (aka safari), chimp trekking through the rainforest and a river cruise along the Kazinga Channel.

So far we have raised enough to fund either a new water tank or new bathroom facilities at Katarara Primary School. There are still many critical infrastructure needs...Consider heading over to our crowdfunding campaign to support this amazing school and its student!

Donate Here to Support Katarara Primary School