It's a Jolly Holiday....

 Here are the highlights from the 2nd vacation!

My parent's came to visit the village and we went together to see the gorrillas in Rwanda and also to Zanzibar.

My parents after seeing the gorillas

In Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, my Rwandan family was very happy to meet my parents!  My parents generously helped with my 'save the trees project'- which was to transplant all the viable tree seedlings from the nursery at the school to the nursery at the farm.  The school nursery was dry for about a month before my parents got there and the trees were looking very sad.  Some had even reached the permanent wilting point (ie dead). I'm working on a rain water catchment plan for the growing space up there so we will no longer be at the whim of the municipal water.

Tree nursery of acacia, eucalyptus, calliandra, greveilla

After very nicely helping me with my random projects around the village and getting acquainted with village life... we left for vacation!

First to the misty, cold(er) volcanoes of NW Rwanda.  Home of the mountain gorillas.

Silverback contemplating life

Then from there to Zanzibar.  Spice and beautiful beach isle!  wow!  It was so nice to swim in the ocean and to eat food with spices.  My parents left us in Zanzibar and we continued on our way overland (and a ferry) back to Rwanda.

Spices, white sandy beaches, clear ocean!

Most of our time was spent on buses but we did make one side trip to the Udzungwa Mountains.  We saw Mangabeys which are an endemic species of monkey from these parts.  We also met a biologist studying the shy, small, furry forest elephants.  It was a beautiful place to visit, and the streams were clear!  No mud water all thanks to the remaining forest cover on the Udzungwa Mountains.

Udzungwa Mountains

The rest of Tanzania was kind of meh.  We didn't do the northern safari circuit, maybe next time.  Although many people live on less than 1$ a day here, these are not the same people that go on safaris, or go to visit National Parks.  My Canadian sensibilities are insulted by exorbitant park fees, required guides, porters and all the ring-ga-ma-roll around visiting East African Parks.  But hey, this isn't Canada, where camping and hiking is cheap. I can't even imagine how much money goes into people climbing Kilimanjaro every year.  Where does this money go?  Back to the park? To the people?  I don't know.

The train should definitely be avoided.  You only take it twice: your first and last time.

The streets of Stone Town, Zanzibar

I know that some people love Tanzania, but compared to Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya- the people were not helpful, wanted to rip you off most of the time, and were aggressive.  I was so happy to get back to Rwanda where people are nice, more honest and cleaner than Tanzania.  I wonder if this is cultural or if there is also a difference because of the emphasis on lowering corruption in Rwanda.  Tanzania gets many more tourists than Rwanda, but I'm not sure how much of the population actually benefits.

The rest of the time we spent at the village.  When we got back, they were just finishing off a theatre project with the International Theatre and Literacy Project.  The theatre piece that they made was amazing! (see last blog for photos).

And the village lived happily ever after...

We had a month of quiet (kind of in an eerie way), no water -except from the rain tanks, fast internet (well fast for the village) and different projects.  Jack installed a solar shower with some help.  Basically he put a black piece of pipe on the roof which gets hot in the sun. (Think of a garden hose on a hot day).  Our house keeps getting better and better, garden, mud oven and now solar shower!

Sun showers!