KENYA
Masaai people
Coming into Kenya for the 1st time from Tanzania, we were bombarded by Masaai ladies at the border, selling souvenirs. They were all in their traditional dress and their energy was boundless. The Masaai tribe lives in both Kenya and Tanzania, mainly near to the border. Their homelands are the Serengeti and Masaai Mara areas (the 2 famous national parks) but due to the modern economic value and importance of conservation, they have been moved from both areas and are less able to continue their traditional ways of life. The governments of Kenya and Tanzania do give a percentage of the income from national park fees to the Masaai a compensation but they would much appreciate the chance to return to their homelands. They are certainly one of the tribes in Africa that is retaining its traditions the most.

For meat eaters...
We arrived in Nairobi, the capital, after just 3 hours. Its a big city (perhaps 3 million people) and expansive. It has many factories on the outskirts as well as an Oxford University Press Office :-) We stopped near to the famous Carnivore restaurant, a huge restaurant that has served huge meals comprising of game meat for many years and has become one of the most famous restaurants in the world. Recently, the Kenyan government has made all consumption of game meat illegal because the system of controlled hunting in appropriate areas was not working as poachers would bypass the rules and sell the meat for a cheaper price. They believe that if they make all game hunting illegal, there will be no confusion over whether meat in shops etc is legal or not. Carnivore is now left with a declining business with just farmed ostrich, camel and crocodile on the menu as "exotic meats".

A rant about passports
First full day in Nairobi...important job to do - get to the British High Commission and get new passports. (small rant coming up so skim read!!) The Embassy was 80's looking and security was strict (the US embassy got blown up here a few years ago killing mainly Kenyans). I had a clean British passport when I left home but pages were running short (due to stamp happy African immigration officials) and so I would not be able to complete the trip without a new passport :-( It cost 100 pounds to get a 32 page (actually just 25 visa pages) passport. The larger (48 page) travellers passport was currently unavailable (what's that about - a paper shortage?!). The three of us signed each other's forms, claiming to know one another for several years and got new high security Big Brother style biometric passports within 3 days. For the British who are interested, the new passports are light blue inside and have images of birds. There are Welsh and Scots Gaelic instructions too. And then there's your silicon chip in the back! The high price is because there's an additional charge for "consular services", i.e. the service to help overseas British expats and get travellers out of jail (remember Cameroon?).

Nairobi city
I spent the rest of the day exploring Nairobi. The centre is built up with many high rise buildings. A lot of Western and African businesses have their East African HQ here as Kenya has been a reasonably stable country since independence. The streets are mostly grid-like and the centre is compact. It's busy with a Western city feel - crowded streets with lots of men and women in suits walking quickly avoiding eye contact at all costs (not very African). I walked through the area where there are many Government Ministries. It was interesting to note that there were many signs referring to corruption including "This Ministry is now corruption free", "Welcome to the friendly checkpoint" and a "Corruption and complaints reporting office" in front of another ministry. President Kibaki has hired Saatchi and Saatchi to run a 3-year publicity campaign to help stamp out corruption in Kenya. He was elected in 2001 I believe. Anti-corruption was one of his main policies. Unfortunately, scores of current and former Ministers have resigned when corruption was discovered. Around $1 billion is thought to have gone missing in 3 years. The Netherlands recently pulled the plug on all of its aid to Kenya. Apparently, Kenya is one of the few countries on the Continent that could actually make ends meet without aid but obviously, the additional income is still very important. Corruption is a major issue in Kenya right now but at least it's being confronted and it's becoming something shameful whereas it was once "OK because everyone is doing it".

As well as the rich centre, there are many poor slums. We walked into a poor inner city area where suddenly people decided to stare as opposed to avoid eye contact, though it wasn't a threatening stare as in one or two occasions on the trip. It was more of a "what are you doing, crazy guy?" River Road is the well known dodgy street in the city centre and is where shoestring backpackers often stay but their seedy "hotels" so often get robbed, often with the the owners being part of the robbery. The contrast from the centre, River Rd and then into the poor inner city area was quite stark!

Nairobi is very multicultural with many Southern Asian people, white Kenyans and Westerners living in the city. It does have an unfortunate nickname of Nai-robbery. No explanation needed! Oasis start many trips in Nairobi. One girl once flew to Nairobi. The taxi driver who took her into town warned her to look after herself and if someone tries to rob her, he advises her to shout "thief" and people will come to help. Indeed, this did happen. She screamed for help. The help was a little too overwhelming...the man was stoned to death on the street. She flew back to the UK the following day as she was so mortified. In Uganda, I heard of how a child was stoned and then set on fire for stealing a bunch of bananas. In the Tanzanian papers, I saw people burning in the streets there. This vigilante "justice" is illegal but the local population is so upset about crime that they feel they have to take things into their own hands. Life is cheap in Africa :-(

Also in Nairobi, we went to the David Sheldrick Foundation within Nairobi National Park. This was set up by Daphne and David Sheldrick to care for orphaned elephants and rhinos. This was a pretty cool outing as the baby elephants and rhinos got fed bottled milk with added nutrients so that it's close to their mother's milk.

Out of Nairobi, we drove along dual carriageways (a novelty in Africa) up in the Rift Valley, which provided stunning views. We stayed for a couple of nights on the shores of Lake Naivasha, an alkaline soda lake home to hippos and visited by a lot birdlife. The hippos come up to the camp at night time to graze. They are the number 1 animal killer of humans in Africa. They are vegetarians but they kill if they feel threatened (like elephants in this respect). Thankfully, an electric fence kept the hippos from us so we could see them from safety! Last year, an Australian woman went over the fence to get a photo. She was gone in 2 chomps.

In the area of the lake, there is a stretch of several kilometres of greenhouses growing flowers for the Western world. It's a big employer and many homes have been built for the workers, providing all the basic living standards. The area is also the sight of a geothermal power station. Geothermal power provides 15% of Kenya's electricity needs and could provide much more. Kenya has all the science and engineering necessary to develop further geothermal power stations.

Here, I cycled into Hell's Gate National Park. There were few animals (antelopes, giraffes, zebra and the sort) and no lions or elephants, hence making it pretty safe for walkers and cyclists. It was mainly a wide gorge with 2 volcanic plugs (chunk of rock sticking up far into the air - great for climbers) and pretty grasslands. It was peaceful and scenic to cycle through. At the end of the cycle, we could walk down into a narrow gorge. We didn't take a guide as we're overconfident and have a "I won't be taken for a stupid tourist" attitude by now! However, the path wasn't obvious and we ended up very lost and found nothing but a dead buffalo (Kenya was suffering from a drought at the time, which needed Western food aid for the arid north of the country). Thankfully, a small 15 year-old Masaai boy, Joseph, called out to us and guided us instead down the gorge and to the "Boiling Point", a pool of hot water where you can boil an egg. The water was so warm - strange to see for the first time.

After Hell's Gate, I cycled along to Elsamere, the former home of Joy and George Adamson of Born Free fame. They were a couple involved in conservation after they killed a lion for their own safety. The lionness was full of milk and so they searched for the cubs and looked after one of them, Elsamere, at their home on the shores of Lake Naivasha. Joy and George studied lions, leopards and cheetahs over the years before they were killed by poachers in 1980 and 1989. People older than my generation will probably have read and/or seen Born Free. We learned about their work, their lives and enjoyed high tea in their beautiful home. Civilised!

On the return visit to Kenya, we visited Lake Nakuru, another soda lake that is famous for its covering of pink flamingoes. It is surrounded by a beautiful national park with a range of trees, rocky areas and grasslands. Here, we saw a rock hyrax, a small marmot-like creature (or rabbit-like) that lives among rocks and is apparently the elephant's closest relative! The view over the lake from higher ground was beautiful, especially given the moody weather not far away.

In Nairobi again, a few of us visited the giraffe centre, a project to conserve the rare Rothschild breed of giraffe (there are 4 breeds altogether). The area consisted of a typically English country manor house with green lawns with giraffes strolling across and many acacia trees. We got to feed the giraffes, sometimes by holding food in our mouths and allowing the giraffe to pull it out, leaving slobber all over our faces. Of course, we were on a platform for this.

On leaving Nairobi, we headed back to Tanzania. Sam had a staple stuck in his gum all day because he ate the staple from the bag he ate his cake out of. Funny at the time!

UGANDA
Gossip
My first time in Uganda started with a stop in the town of Jinja where we picked up brothers Martyn and Paul who jumped off the truck in Cameroon so that they could spend time with their girlfriends. Paul had been planning to propose to his girlfriend, Alpa, for months. He had spoken to her Dad before coming out to Africa, bought the ring in Kampala where her mother was born and all of Alpa's Indian relatives had been invited. Paul had kept the ring in his pocket for that special moment. Trudging through the mud in Jinja market, Paul dropped the ring from his pocket, a lady ran after him shouting that he'd dropped a ring. Alpa was trying to tell the woman that it must be someone else's so Paul got down on one knee in the middle of the bustling market and proposed. And Alpa's response...a maybe...that later turned into a no. Alpa is opposed to the idea of marriage but wants to be with Paul forever. Her Dad was mortified; Paul not bothered.

Alpa, a TV News Presenter on Anglia regional news (formerly a correspondant on HTV Wales regional news) and Bob, a friend of Alpa and Paul, jumped on the truck for about a month. They made a great addition. Bob, also of Indian descent, created a laugh or two. Her family is very traditional and want an arranged marriage for her but they have advertised her on an Indian dating website. She tried to convince her Grandma that she is a lesbian but her Gran didn't understand and thought she was saying that she wanted to be a librarian! Her parents arrange for prospective husbands to visit. Bob has to dress up in traditional address and act nicely but she deliberately spills the tea or picks her nose when her parents are not looking.

More serious stuff
We drove to the South West corner of Uganda via a bush camp one night in a place where Andi and Grant know of a lovely boy called Naboth, who is now sponsored by Nancy who work's for Oasis, running trips through Uganda. He's such a bright boy (about 13) and has the most fantastic smile. We bush camped in his garden pretty much, near to his house. The rest of his brothers and sisters and his cousins spent the evening with us as well as his grandmother who can no longer walk so shuffles around using her hands as feet, lifting herself off the ground and lurching forward to move along. All of the children were lovely and kind of felt at home given Nancy brings new people there every 4 months. They were not as timid and didn't keep a distance unlike most children we have come across along the journey. One of them was Manchester United mad (like about half of Africa's children). I took a photo of him and intend to send it with a player's signature (surprisingly easy to get if you write to them).

We stayed a night at Lake Bunyoni, a beautiful lake high up in South Western Uganda. This is the area where HIV/AIDS was first discovered in the early 1980s and for some time had the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world but thanks to government policy, it's now right down to 6%. The epidemic has left many orphans. I visited a street child centre near to the Lake run by a local man. It runs as an NGO but is small and led by one man and a group of Directors advising him. It is far from professional but I was touched by his work. He does nevertheless, achieve above average primary school exam results for the children at the orphanage/school. Left on the streets of the nearby town of Kabale, children are abused, beaten and sometimes killed. Street children are seen as the spawn of the devil.

From here, several of us headed to Bwindi Inpenetrable National Park. The journey, cramped in a minibus (or matatu as they call them here), went through some beatiful countryside. It was hilly and looked like a patchwork quilt of small brown and green fields on the slopes. The area is quite densely populated and poor - each family can only have a small area of land for their subsistence. Tea is a common crop there - most of it is exported to the USA. We stayed in Bwindi, a village that is surrounded by coffee, tea and banana plantations that go right up to the edge of the rainforests of Bwindi National Park. The people there are very much used to tourism but its sustainable there, the people benefit hugely and are well educated on how to benefit from tourism. They maintain excellent relations with tourists. A lot of orphans get sponsored by tourists coming to this area.

It was here that I saw mountain gorillas, which are found only in the rainforest on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are just around 700 of them left but the population is slowly growing and is exceptionally well protected in Uganda and Rwanda and also well protected in the DRC due to the huge tourist income generated as a result of the gorillas. Of the families that conservationists allow people to visit, just 8 people are allowed to visit each family of gorillas per day for one hour only. Visitors must keep their distance to prevent transmission of diseases. These rules are in place to prevent undue stress to the gorillas and to prevent transmission of diseases. This one hour of fascination was the most expensive activity I have done on the whole trip. I was glad to learn that the majority of money goes to conservation efforts. I was convinced that gorillas are beautiful animals and I am glad that they are well protected. The sheer number of Ugandan Wildlife Authority officials and armed soldiers means that every corner of the national park is covered. The last time someone tried to poach a gorilla had his arm badly damaged by the Silverback and then he was arrested and jailed! Oops!

In Bwindi, I met Moses, an orphan who is sponsored to go to school by a London lawyer. He calls her his Mum because he has no mother! I got the impression that he feels that he can have a life only because of the generosity of his Mum enabling him to go to secondary school. Without a decent education, few Africans have much of a chance of having anything but a life based on subsistence farming or scraping by doing odd jobs in the cities.

Back in the town of Kabale, I met a really nice guy, for the 2nd time, called Jeremiah. He is 18, sells newspapers for a living, making around 70 pence a day. I approached him to buy a paper and asked which paper is biased towards the government, which is independent etc. Most newspaper sellers I have met on my trip have hardly understood English or French. Jeremiah, on the other hand, was able to intelligently describe the bias of each of the papers and tell me why the Government of Uganda is awful and why the Opposition were cheated in the recent elections. I was a little shocked so enquired into his life. He's an orphan too but is really desperate to get a good education and go on to University. He has sold newspapers for a few years to gain money to pay for his school fees. He was not pleaing for help or anything but merely answering my questions. He is also a friendly guy. My heart went out to him. I have had a privileged University education and some great teachers in the past who have inspired me to work hard. For those who are so keen to make something of their lives but have little means to be able to do so, I feel for. For the first time in the trip, I donated money to an individual, to Jeremiah..around 8 pounds in total...he makes this in 10 to 12 days of work so is relatively a lot. He was so very grateful and bought me a watermelon to say thanks, which is really sweet of him! I'm still in touch with Jeremiah.

After this was my Rwanda and Burundi trip. When I came back to Uganda, I was on a ridiculously fast bus with Thoby and Andreas. The coach was overbooked so people were sitting on the floor in the aisle or on small benches. It was dark for much of our time in Uganda, the coach was travelling at almost full speed, 120kph (about 80 mph) on the main road through the country, which has just one lane in each direction. The coach's lights were not as bright as they could be, which didn't allow the driver to see too far down the road. Thoby and I were in each other's laps for about 3 hours. We veered off the road at one stage, passed a petrol tanker that had fallen down a bank and we hit an antelope, smashing in one corner of the coach. Passengers were chanting "pole pole" (slow, slow) and stamping their feet on the floor. The drivers just smiled and the driver at the time turned on the lights to shut them up, carrying on at full speed to Kampala. By some miracle, we arrived safely. Now I know why locals sometimes take valium to knock themselves out on such journeys. I have never been so scared while travelling on the roads and will avoid travelling at night on anywhere with such bad road safety.

We arrived late into Kampala (about 11pm) after a full day's travelling. I fell down a hole while on our way to a hotel. I think half of Kampala's sewage was down there. No real damage. We stayed in a place called the Park Side Inn, which was seedy, reminding me of a disgusting Dutch coffee shop with its bright colours or a brothel.

Thoby and I stayed together in Kampala. The city is compact despite having a population of one million. It's also very multicultural despite all non-black Ugandans being given 90 days to leave the country by Idi Amin not long after independence. This policy led to the collapse of the economy at that time. We visited 2 Hindu temples and a Sikh temple. It also has Africa's only Ba'hai (spelling right?) temple and has mosques and many churches. We visited the impressive colonial 1959 National Theatre, which has encouraged arts in Uganda for a long time. Outside was an educational campaign day. Uganda has a reasonable standard of education from my perceptions (many people speaking fluent English and quite knowledgeable) and primary education is free and compulsory. The President, Museveni, abolished school uniforms as some parents couldn't afford them. The cost of uniforms was the principal obstacle for families wanting to send their children to school and still remains a problem in many African countries. I have seen many children with no buttons on their shirts or huge rips or holes in their clothes.

Kampala is relaxed, very safe given its size, and the people are really friendly, just like in all of Uganda that I saw. The city is full of boda bodas (motorbike taxis). People are all busy trying to make money some way even if they are doing the same thing as so many other people and hence make very little. In some African cities, I have seen so many people doing next to nothing. In Kampala, people are prepared to walk around in the heat to sell a handful of bottles of water in one day or to wait on a street corner to get just 2 passengers on their boda boda.

For the rest of my time in Kampala, I stayed with Alex (French) and Eric (American) at their huge house in the Kampala suburbs. Thoby did work experience for them at the Ugandan branch of an African house moving firm. They took us to expat bars, a gorgeous Italian restaurant and we stayed in the guests' wing of their house. The luxury was a shock to the system. The 4 cheese pizza at the restaurant gave me stomach cramps as I had hardly any cheese on the trip up til that point. The chance to watch DVDs and see some British news was welcome :-) I had an interesting insight into the life of expats. Alex and Eric are invited to functions at so many embassies in Kampala and truly have a lot of benefits, especially due to the low cost of living here.

Thoby and I spent about half a day at Kampala's Owino market, which is enormous. One wing is full of food and people cooking food. The central part is crammed full of people making clothes or selling second hand clothes from piles. The other end was home to more second hand clothes sellers. The clothes are from the UK and probably the USA and being sold from 30 pence to 3 pounds. Most seemed as good as new to me and many would cost a fortune in the UK. I made cheap purchases, which I was pleased with. The best thing about the market was the banter we enjoyed with so many people. At each corner, workers would wind us up and us the same to them. I could spend days in that place if I lived in Kampala. A lot of expats go the market too. One health promoter was walking around the market handing out condoms called "Lifesavers". People were happy to take them, which is great to see :-) No obvious stigma here anymore. One guy taught me about the symbolism of a "thumbs up" and a V made with 2 fingers (the peace symbol). They come from the recent General election, the first multiparty elections for some time. Museveni banned multiparty democracy some years ago but allowed all to stand as independents. He believed political parties would result in tribal politics. In 2005, the country voted to reverse this policy in a referendum. Museveni improved human rights, developed the economy and loosened the state's control of the media in the first 10 years of his Presidency in the late 80's and early 90's. The government has also been one of the only governments in Africa to bring the AIDS epidemic under control (ish) from a prevalence rate of over 30% to just 6% today. In more recent years, Museveni has started to worry the West, amending the Constitution, allowing himself to run for a 3rd term and intimidating the opposition in the 2006 elections. His main opponent, Paul Besigye, is on trial for treason and rape, which the opposition says is politically motivated.

During the campaign, Museveni supporters put their thumbs up to show their political persuasion. Besigye supporters, gave the peace symbol.

Back at Jinja, Thoby and I met up with the truck, only to find that Nick had had malaria while we'd been away (no. 13) and Martyn was currently suffering from malaria (victim no. 14). Cheri, a Canadian who had worked for a charity brightening up schools in Uganda, got on our truck here for about a month. She was a friend of Paul and Martyn - they had all stayed in Jinja for some time.
Jinja is commonly thought to be home of the source of the Nile river as the river comes out of Lake Victoria from here but scientists claim that the real source is in Burundi.

RWANDA
I went to Rwanda with Thoby, Andreas and Chris. We took a taxi to the Uganda/Rwanda border with a blind guy about to go to University in Rwanda! Quite impressive I thought. While I get the impression disabled people are respected in many parts of Africa, I think it is quite a hurdle for a blind person to go to University, find a job etc. Not to mention expensive!

Into Rwanda, we took another taxi (cheap) to Kigali, the capital. The car had no suspension so the few places that the road was churned up meant a fair bit of damage to the car. Like Burundi and south west Uganda, the scenery was hilly with small farms in different shades of green. Really attractive! Rwanda calls itself the country of a thousand hills.

Kigali was small given the huge population of this small country (around 8 million). The centre is set on the top of a hill and modern buildings, including some tower blocks, represent the economic growth and regeneration of the city since 1994 (aka, the time of the Rwandan genocide). The rest of the city is spread across other hills and the narrow valleys in between them. The rest of the city is typically African - mostly poor quality housing and shops, bars etc. intemingled.

We met up with Josh on the one full day that we were in Kigali. Chris and I met Josh in Uganda - his Uganda to Rwanda bus was pulled up in a police station due to an accident (and they're quite common). We met up at Hotel Mille Collines (Hotel Thousand Hills), one of the 2 main
superior hotels in Kigali. It was full of NGO and UN workers, which is unfortunate because I don't think anyone NEEDS that luxury and what a waste of money! Josh devotes his time to his business, Cards from Africa, a social business he set up with a British guy in Kigali, providing employment for orphans of which there are many in Rwanda due to the use of rape by HIV positive men as a means of wiping out Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide. I have no shame in encouraging you to
buy cards online from: http://www.cardsfromafrica.com The prices are quoted in pounds (but can pay with credit card wherever you live) and are very cheap compared to cards bought in the standard greetings card chain stores found in the UK and elsewhere. If anyone knows of shops willing to stock cards, please do let me know!

Our day in Kigali was dominated by the genocide! Josh is half Rwandan and half Ugandan and lived in Uganda during the genocide so doesn't have the same scars in his memory as many Rwandans do, allowing him to speak about the genocide with ease. We all went to the National Genocide Memorial. Outside there were attractive gardens set around some of the mass graves for those killed in Kigali. A Minister was giving a talk outside to a couple of hundred people. People still have very fresh, vivid memories of the genocide. Noone forgets the
horrors in 12 years! Inside, the museum displays told the "story" of the genocide and had skulls, personal belongings and photos of loved ones as well as videos of personal accounts, all adding a personal touch to the political history of the 100 day or so massacre. Upstairs, there were smaller exhibits on other genocides of the 20th century including:
*Holocaust
*Armenian genocide (still not recognised by the UK, USA or Turkey but was recently recognised by the EU Parliament. It's quite hypocritical of those EU countries that don't recognise the genocide when the EU together expects Turkey to recognise it as a condition for EU entry!!)
*Kosovo "war"
*Bosnian "war"
*German colonial genocide of nearly all members of one tribe in modern day Namibia.

The most touching thing for me was a display upstairs howing large black and white images of young children massacred and captions underneath listing their favourite foods, best friend, favourite game etc. which ended with method of killing, often "bludgeoned to death with a blub" or "slashed into pieces by a machete". To look at their face and then to method of killing was quite moving. Downstairs, 2 separate people were taken out wailing and screaming as their memories were coming back to them. For many, it's a huge step to go to the
memorial centre but something they want to do to show their respects or come to terms with what happened.

I can honestly say that it's perhaps one of the best "museums" I have ever been to. It was professional, to the point and respectful. I've written a summary of the Rwandan genocide at the end of the email. I strongly recommend reading this. It's shocking - not only what happened but makes you wonder how human beings can carry out such
atrocities and how the rest of the world just turned its back on
Rwanda despite knowing full well what was happening at the time. People can sometimes be so strange!

The newspapers in Rwanda are still full of genocide. We bought several and they all had articles on the genocide - personal stories, articles about the way forward after 1994, articles about investigations, memorial events etc. One article was about the Rwandan Parliament (which has the highest % of women MPs in the world at 47%) voting to open an official enquiry into the negative role of France in the genocide.

In the evening in Kigali, the centre was almost deadly silent, even at 9pm. Josh tells me this is a symptom of the genocide. People rarely eat at restaurants or cafes that are not in their neighbourhood because at one time, food was used as a means to kill off Tutsis or Hutus via poisoning and most people haven't yet rebuilt their trust. This is also the reason that there is very little street food being sold.

Rwanda has a shocking recent history but the current President, Paul Kagame, who has been in power since 1994, has done a lot to rebuild trust between the Tutsis and Hutus and is adored by the population at large. In the most recent elections, he polled around 99% of the vote. People of both ethnic origins like Kagame despite him being a minority Tutsi (the tribe that was on the receiving end during the
genocide) . They fear that if they elect someone else, the
reconstruction efforts in Rwanda will not be continued. Today, it is said that the new enemy is the one who refuses to shake hands when someone offers, i.e . anyone who refuses to make peace with the former enemy is the new enemy of the united people.

Interestingly, Kagame speaks Kirwanda (national language of Rwanda) and English, not French, as he was raised in Uganda. He has made English an official language of Rwanda, along with French, is taught in schools instead of French and it will soon become the administrative language of Rwanda. Rwanda is converting from being Francophone to Anglophone. This made things confusing when in Rwanda.
I often had to ask which language people spoke before going into conversation with them. In general, the older people speak French and the younger, English.

RWANDAN GENOCIDE
-Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi were once all part of the German Empire, together making Deutsch Ostafrika.
-Belgium was awarded modern day Rwanda and Burundi by the League of Nations in 1919.
-The Belgians found it easier to work with more educated people. Those people also tended to be richer. The Belgians classified any family with 10 or more cows as Tutsi and the rest as Hutu. It was with the Tutsis that the Belgians liked to work. Before the Belgians came, the people were very united.
-Hutus became resentful of the fact that they were treated as inferior to Tutsis so tribal hatred grew.
-Before Rwandan independence, the Belgian general in charge put the Hutus in power for fear of an uprising by Hutus. Belgium subsequently encouraged Hutus to establish themselves as the dominant tribe.
-In the late 1980s, the Hutu government introduced heavy propaganda to assert Hutu dominance and encourage hatred of all Tutsis.
-1990 to 1994, Tutsis were occasionally rounded up and killed. In the meantime, the West did nothing other than send peacekeepers. France stood by the Rwandan government diplomatically, politically and militarily. In 1993, France sold arms to the Rwandan government despite the massacres. (This is a direct quote from the memorial centre).
-The Rwandan Hutu government was training Interhamwe militia at a fast rate, planning to use them to slaughter Tutsis. A prominent insider sent a telegram to the UN in New York via UN peacekeepers. The UN acknowledged the telegram but took no action.
-Tutsi rebels shot down the plane of the Rwandan President as he was flying into Kigali airport with the Burundian President. Both Presidents died. The genocide began almost immediately as the Interhamwe massacring Tutsis, as had been planned by the deceased President. The Vice President was shot dead within 24 hours before she even had chance to address the nation. From here on, the genocide was in full swing, killing around 800,000 people in around 100 days. People killed their best friends, family members etc. The killing was relentless and barbaric. Some people ran to churches for safety but many Ministers who allowed Tutsis to shelter in their churches, actually killed the people once the churches were full! People used whatever means possible to kill. There were a number of heroes who refused to kill and instead, hid people in their homes, underground etc. One traditional witch Doctor hid Tutsis in her house and told soldiers who came for them that she would cast a spell on them if they came in!
-The only foreign forces to come into Rwanda before the end of the genocide were French troops who created a safe haven in the south of the country, which served only to shelter Hutu instigators of the genocide. On their way to the south, French soldiers told Tutsis sheltering in hills that it was safe to come out. They did so and were killed!
-A Tutsi, Paul Kagame, led an invasion of Rwanda from Ugandan soil with the support of refugees and Rwandans living in Uganda. They stopped the genocide by force and Kagame was elected President.
-Many countried have since apologised for failure to act in Rwanda. Kofi Annan has claimed his share of the responsibility for the failure to act. The Head of the UN Peacekeepers in Rwanda at the start of the genocide said he needed 6000 troops to stop the chaos. 5500 troops were already there but the UN Security Council ordered their withdrawal despite acknowledging what was happening in Rwanda at the time and strongly criticising it. The Western media described the genocide as "tribal infighting" or "civil war" at the time. If only one side was fighting, that's a little off the mark don't you think? Was the Holocaust a civil war too?

After Zambia, I visited the next 5 countries twice each so to save confusion, I'll write about each country separately but about both visits to the county. After Zambia, we transited Tanzania, then went to Kenya and Uganda. Myself, Thoby and Andreas together went to Rwanda and Burundi before turning back to Uganda via Rwanda, then Kenya and Tanzania again. One big loop. I'll start from Burundi and work my way forward.

BURUNDI
Burundi is a desperately poor, small country, just out of a civil war where over 300,000 people have died. All sides have signed up to peace except one rebel group. The British government advises against travel to Burundi as although there has been a peace agreement and former rebels have been elected into government, one rebel group remains outside the agreement. The British advice was laughable to
the people I spoke to in Rwanda who really did know a thing or two and we took their advice after careful consideration. The British government has to be strict as they can never afford to underestimate the dangers in any country. The night time curfew that used to exist in Bujumbura was lifted in April 2006, when I was there, suggesting an improvement in the situation.

Leaving the truck in Uganda, I hadn't intended to go to Burundi, just Rwanda but when buying our tickets to Kampala when in Rwanda, I noticed a bus to Burundi, which we didn't realise existed due to the civil war there. We quickly rearranged our plans and decided we could squeeze in q brief "taster" visit to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. We were still a little wary of the security situation even when going to Bujumbura so were delighted to see that there was a
Canadian missionary on our bus and 4 foreign missionaries on another, larger bus. This suggests that we not so crazy to go there.

Entering Burundi, there was an abundance of children in filthy clothes who ran to the road on seeing our minibus approaching, energetically begging for money. They really did look poor and while people try it on in most countries, asking for money from white people, these kids did not see that there were any white people on the bus, yet they begged as if their lifes depended on it anyway. Further inland, the begging was less obvious and the children weren't quite as desperate
looking Was an alarming welcome to Burundi where people are poor even by African standards. A little book I bought tells me that the GNP per capita in Burundi was just 90 US dollars as of 2003, the lowest in the world. This doesn't take into account what people get for free though, e.g. food they grow.

The scenery was beautiful and similar to the that of Rwanda and South Western Uganda - rolling green hills with smaller farms marked out by hedges. Going through villages, the people, especially women were very colourfully dressed - fluourescent orange seemed to be a popular colour! As we approached Bujumbura, we descended from the mountains
down to the city, which sits on the side of Lake Tanganyika, a large lake and the second deepest in the world, apparently. In the distance were the mountains of D R Congo. There was not a single police road block (very common in almost all of Africa) on the way to Bujumbura. This shows how different is the reality from what the British Foreign Office describes on its website! The road was churned up in a couple of places to slow vehicles down. Armed soldiers on the side of the
road simply watched vehicles pass by.

First thing to do in Bujumbura was to change money. There is an abundance of money changers on the streets despite the fact there are no tourists at all! I think locals often changed money into dollars for their own sake to ensure their money keeps some value. Others may get paid in dollars and so need to change into Burundian francs for their own day to day use. Burundian francs are quite funny - there are huge notes worth 2 dollars and tiny monopoly money type notes for lower value notes, e.g. - 20 francs (2 US cents).

In a local cafe, we met the owner, Aloys, quite an elderly man who is a teacher and also an advisor to the Burundi Ministry of Education. He is intelligent, speaks fluent French and quite good English too. He took us to the Lake, which was pretty cool at sunset. I can't say the same about the beach, which was pretty dirty and now a home to a few homeless people who have migrated from rural areas to the city. I dare say, they will make themselves some poor quality home some time. Alternatively, they could have been mentally ill people - rejected so often in African societies. He took us to a zoo too, which we didn't go in (don't want to fund mistreatment of animals in poor quality zoos) and some kind of open air museum in the same complex. There, there were some traditional buildings and noticeably, some Burundi drums. I saw Burundi drummers in Scotland last summer - quite amazing energetic performers! I tried to see some performers in Bujumbura too but the practice I did find was cancelled due to rain in the practice hall! Aloys took us to meet his family at his large home. His wife runs the Burundi national lottery and his 3 children go to secondary school or University. All very friendly.

The following day, we walked around the central market - a colourful, vibrant place. Thoby stupidly left money in his open top pocket. Someone pickpocketed 5000 francs (5 dollars) from there. He knew pretty much straight away - untoward behaviour of others is often noticeable at the time of pickpocketing. So Thoby was annoyed that he left an open goal for pickpocketers! We also met an interesting "Cypriot" guy that day. He was perhaps 65, living in Bujumbura with
his brother but was born in Sudan. He is of Cypriot descent but his parents went to Sudan in attempt to make some money. The Cypriot baker as we call him was a friendly guy and the only non-black person we saw working in Bujumbura out of a UN vehicle. He says he loves it in Africa and will never go to live in Europe. The people are far friendlier in Africa, he claims. He cited an immigrant teenager in Belgium being stabbed to death recently for refusing to hand over his
MP3 player, as something that would not happen in Burundi. I bet it wouldn't! Our Sudanese-Cypriot baker gave me a CD of Burundi drumming too. So happy about that!

Bujumbura is full of UN vehicles. There are 5500 UN troops stationed in Burundi as peacekeepers and many UN workers in Bujumbura. This is perhaps the highest concentration of UN workers I have seen in Africa so far, although if I went to Eastern D R Congo, I'm sure I would see far more.

We ate lunch at a local place, primarily for male labourers. The place was dingy, hot, fly-infested and unfriendly. There was no welcome for us there - begging, snarls and unfriendly laughs come to mind. Not the ultimate African experience I am looking for! Nevertheless, beans, sweet potato and some spinach-like green leaf vegetable is healthy, even with the flies.
It rained pretty hard in the afternoon, flooding a lot of the streets as the sewers couldn't quite cope. Thoby and I were walking about just after the rains. At one point, where the entire street was flooded, locals were very excited to see us as they were sure we would not walk through the puddle and therefore willing to pay for a piggy back. How wrong they were!

One another observation about Burundi --> price of imported goods was huge! A box of Weetabix breakfast cereals was 10 dollars! We couldn't afford anything at all in the "supermarkets".

ZAMBIA
As I explained, we got a visa waiver for Zambia, saving us a lot of money! The immigration officials pretended not to know of the fax as usual in an attempt to take our visa money but not give it to the government. They can just put the visa waiver form on the books! Interestingly, the first billboard in Zambia read "Welcome to Zambia. Join our fight against corruption". We drove through Mosi-o-Tunya (meaning "smoke that thunders", referring to Victoria Falls) National Park - more animals visible from the road.

We spent most of our time in Zambia in Livingstone. Stopping there briefly, I met a guy who I was later told had HIV/AIDS. I think he was suffering from malaria and perhaps TB as well (hence keeping a rude distance due to the latter).

We stayed at a campsite called Grubby's Grotto, the former house of the British Governor of Rhodesia. Grubby is so called because of his appearance. Grubby, the owner, is not the smartest of people and has a voice that has become croaky due to a few thousand cigarettes. Nevertheless, he is a really kind-hearted chap and took a liking to us. He let us get our own drinks from the bar and mark our own tab. This site is popular with trucks (we're on the tourist trail now :-( ) and no others were allowed to serve themselves drinks! He told us that he found us different - not like the people on other trucks on shorter trips. The "Trans" mentality is something we have grown.

Victoria Falls is perhaps the adventure capital of Africa. I took a microlight flight over Victoria Falls - that's a small tricycle-like thing with a small engine and paraglide-like wing that somehow flies. From the air was the first time I saw the Falls and the Gorge downstream, known as Batoka Gorge. I was really impressed. The Falls were longer than I thought at 1.7km (1.2km in Zambia, 500m in Zimbabwe). Due to the huge drop, the water creates a lot of spray. The spray plus the sun makes a rainbow in the Falls. During the wet season, as much as 900 million litres of water can flow over the Falls per second!

Some other guys did a 111m bungee jump from the iron bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe. Some others did rafting. I joined them on their jet boat afterwards. To meet them, we drove through some villages, all part of Mukuni tribal land. The King of the Mukunis is Harvard educated former Chief Executive of BP Zambia. He threw in this job when he was called upon to be the King of the 9000 Mukunis. I saw his palace, a modest white-painted small concrete house, which stood out among the traditional homes.

The rest of our time in Zambia was mainly transiting through. We stopped in Lusaka, the capital city, for a short time. It was one of the first capitals where a multicultural presence was obvious. White and Asian people live side by side with the indigenous Zambians. It's a fairly Western city in the centre. Perhaps that is best represented by the glue sniffers congregating around our truck?!

One bush camp was near to a traditional home. I visited the people there with a couple of others and spent an hour or so with the family there. They grow tobacco for income, which they dry in special huts with a concrete tunnel running through and a fire in the tunnel to create heat. Perhaps one of the first rural dwellings I've seen in Africa to have chickens. The family has 10 chickens to produce eggs and occasionally meat. The family also eats a lot of maize, pumpkin and okra as staple foods.