Hotel Ihusi Goma

So woke up early in the morning and headed to the border. Right from the start you could tell this was going to be a country like no other I had visited. There were two UN vehicles at the border and a Docteurs sans Frontiers truck. The border wasn't too hard although it certainly took a while to get my permit. I got a motor bike into town and my first impression was that there were the haves and the have nots. Along the lake close to the border there were some really nice ...

... was a little expensive). I got a night bus to a border town called Gisenye and I planned to cross the border to Congo at night. Now I was a little nervous going to the Congo for two reasons...firstly there had been some rebel activity just outside of Goma (where I was going). The second reason was that in the Lonely Planet there are huge sections on all the countries in East Africa but for Congo it was three pages saying the history and ...

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The people I have met in Rwanda have been invariably friendly although I've found relations slightly hard in a predominantly Francophone country. Individuals like Emmanuel and Biziman showed me real hospitality and went out of their way to make sure I enjoyed my brief visit in their country.

While it is understandable, the country's hostility to France and Belgium seems somewhat ironic in a country that has an undeniably ...

... town to get some money exchanged and bumped into a boy who offered to take me on the lake. He (Biziman) agreed to take me to a few islands and do a spot of fishing for the day so after sorting the money I stocked up on a few beers for the two of us and we set off. The fishing wasn't particularly successful - we used a cane and line but every time I got a nibble there seemed to be too much slack to strike in time. Biziman was very ...

... a lovely hotel on the hillside by Lake Kivu. For $10 a night we got a very comfortable room in a small house separate to the main hotel and whilst we missed the lake views, we had clean hot showers; to me that was an enormous plus! All in all it was an incredible setting: it was such a joy to walk down to the lake on that first day and lie in the sunshine reading. Everywhere I looked I felt that I was drinking in a draught of beauty. And ...

Hello all, I left you in Jinja. From there we drove to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. It was a short drive and a very relaxing day. The city of Kampala is pretty big and modern. Everyone had a relaxing night. Michelle, our tour leader prepared a traditional African chicken dish that was tasty. We also picked up two more passengers that are only spending 6 days with us so they can see the gorillas. They are both Australian and seem to fit in with the group ...

Jambo, I just returned from an incredibly challenging journey to. The last thing the DRC needs is more sensationalism, so I want to choose my words carefully and deliberately. I have come away with far more questions, confusion and determination than when I entered. I get so frustrated at the state of our world sometimes-why a country blessed with an unbelievable abundance of resources (gold, diamonds, copper, tin, cobalt) has been cursed with greed and corruption to such an ...

It has been the most incredible day. I'm having trouble sleeping, with the past 24 hours playing in my head over and over again. Goma is a special place, HEAL AFRICA specifically, full of special people doing very special things. But let me start from the beginning. Crossing the border this morning was as simple as simple can get. Matt had this whole speech rehearsed in his head, and was geared up to recite it to the customs official, at full volume. No bribe was going to ...

Whilst I was in Rwanda I deciced to pop over to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I had been planning on going whilst in Rwanda and want to check out the security of the country before I went. I meet 3 American girls who were quite keen on the idea and we reserched the security system and although every government website told us not to go we spoke to locals and they said we would be ok, so we decided screw lets do it and we took a caculated gamble. We organised ...

Did I mention that it rarely if ever rains in Goma, this time of year. But since Sunday morning, it has rained at least twice and day and every nite since. That is a lot of rain. Fortunately the ground is so dry that the water is soaked up in a few minutes or hours. One of favorite things to do is to attend an African Graduation. In most nations this is a huge celebration and there is lots of music ...