Internet, I've Missed You So!

So far this trip, I have been to 3 different countries, received 9 stamps in my passport, seen monkeys, wildebeest, zebras, and baboons in the wild, and have covered over 1300 km on the road.

And I'm only about half-way done!

I started writing this on an absolutely gorgeous afternoon in Bukoba, Tanzania, on March 5^th, my sixth day since traveling from Nairobi. At the time, I didn't have any internet, but I had a rare bout of free-time, and got some pre-emptive blogging done. The journey has been phenomenal! We took 3 days to drive from Nairobi to Bukoba, spending our first night in Sirari (where I heard about the plight of the Albinos), and our second night in Mwanza. We first descended into the Rift Valley via a road constructed in 1942 by Italian POWs; those men also built a small church, nestled right at the bottom of the escarpment, a perfect pocket of peace and tranquility. From there, we drove through Maaimahiu, which means “hot springs/water”, then Narok, then past 3 gates of the Masai Mara Game Preserve, Sotik, Kisii, and finally to the border to Tanzania. From Sirari, we drove through Tarime, stopped for lunch at the newly appointed Cathedral of the recently formed Diocese of Bunda, drove across the western tip of the Serengeti where we saw Wildebeests-a-plenty, and on to Mwanza, the “City of Rocks” on Lake Victoria. After Mwanza, we took a 30 minute ferry to Busisi (saving approximately 6 additional hours of driving- and this is a brand new ferry!), through the gold/mineral mining town of Geita, drove along the southwest rim of Lake Victoria and arrived at our destination- Bukoba! Much more on that later, I promise.

This is the first time I've had internet access since our brief stay in Mwanza, so I'm going to post a lot of updates from the Nairobi-Tanzania leg of the journey before delving into my adventures in Uganda, the Pearl of Africa!