Stella Matutina Goma

... wall as possible. The Buffalo is a low rise rock ensemble that keeps gorillas away from the cattle heard and potato fields, as well as keeping other aMinals from heading up and disturbing the SBG&#8217;s. <br><br>It was an overcast and rainy morning with the rocks being slippy and the earth being mud (and the left windshield wiper falling off time after time!), and the 4x4 traction wasn&#8217;t doing so good with the almost slick tyres on Jimmy&#8217;s car. As a Cape ...

... of something but the locals told me it was the lava from the volcano. I have seen volcanoes in Hawaii but never one that had fire and lava shooting in the air. It was pretty cool to see. So the Americans (Logan and Tom) and I headed out with a list of companies. The first one was Lubwe and the second was Jambo Safari. So off we went to Lubwe to find that they had moved so we decide to go to Jambo. Unfortunately we are told that Jambo closed and the owner opened up Lubwe ...

... a terrible tragedy that it was allowed to happen in the first place. That said, the country has taken remarkable steps to rebuild itself and the one country, one Rwanda approach seems, on the surface at least, to be making real progress. It certainly feels like a country looking forward instead of back. <br><br>Rwanda's landscape is amazing - lush green mountains often terraced to eek out as much food as possible for the overcrowded nation. Brown ...

... small islands and the occasional large one. You can see the Democratic Republic of Congo in the far distance though I won't be taking a boat trip that far! I stayed for the first two nights at the Bethanie Centre, a large Presbyterian guesthouse set right by the lake. On my first day I did little other than take a dip in the war waters from the shore of the guesthouse and relax in the sun with my book.<br><br>On Tuesday I had to pop ...

... this place did not remain untouched by the genocide; far from it in fact. On our first walk out of Home St Jean we passed a church that was situated right behind my bedroom. It was the sight of a massacre: 11,400 people were killed on 17th April 1994. Their mass grave was situated within the grounds of Home St Jean itself. My mind boggled to think of so much hatred in such a lovely place; I could not really begin to picture it, though I ...

... Everyone did laundry as we are heading to our gorilla trek. It was a really early night for me...think I went to bed at 9 pm. The following day was an extremely long drive. The distances that we travel really aren't the far, its just the roads are terrible (or adventurous depending on how you see things). We left the campsite at 4 am to avoid Kampala traffic. We stopped on the side of the road and made breakfast about 7:30 am and also made some bag lunchs ...

... special permission to cross by the chief in town. This process can take hours, many many hours and we decided to move on. Instead, we travelled to an IDP (internally displaced peoples) camp. They are the most dire of living circumstances with thousands of people crowded into areas only set to accomodate hundrededs. I have been in many in Northern Uganda, Rwanda and now Congo, and am convinced they are some of the worst places on earth. Security guards routinely rape the ...

... Foxy at Paradis Malahide Hotel, there was no need to stamp our Carnet de Passage - so off we went, into the chaotic streets of Goma, each of us wearing a backpack and carrying a black ammo box full of medical supplies, which, due to some minor miracle, were never ever inspected or even questionned! HEAL AFRICA is roughly one kilometre away from the border post, so we decided to walk there. We tried to call Lyn on her mobile but there was no answer for some reason. At least ...

... the country before. I had only ever really experienced this feeling before the first time is driving around the bad parts of Joburg. Goma itself felt very dark due to the volcano leaving traces of lava everywhere which made it really intersting, there was also a huge UN presence in the town and we saw aid vehichles everywhere. We were the only tourists that we saw in the city on the day we visited which was actually really nice and we definatley felt like we were not ...

... to serve others with such abandon and lack of regard for the cost. Today was the first day I was able to have a small amount of time to return to my room to freshen up and take a nap, it was a rare luxury! The evening was dedicated to a celebration for the graduates at the Hotel Grande Lacs in conjuction with the first ever Cross Style Anti-Corruption Conference or in french the "Programme ...