How can you tell where the expats are?

Just follow the Rav4s...
(This is the parking lot outside of our office. Usually there are more cars there, I swear!)

By the way - everyone asks if I'm used to driving on the wrong side of the road by now. The answer is YES....but perhaps a bit too comfortable. In fact, the other day I had a minor collision with....a cyclist. I was entering a traffic circle (aka roundabout, aka rotary) and looked for cars...but not cyclists. To my defense, in the US people do NOT ride their bicycles around traffic circles! Plus they have these weird window guards on the cars here that are meant to keep bugs out (or rain) when the windows are down but it just makes things harder to see!

But I digress, those are not valid excuses and lo and behold, we just sort of bumped into each other. "Oh hello, person-on-a-bicycle-who-literally-appeared-out-of-nowhere!" Fortunately, I was going very slowly and he was quite the talented rider so he simply pushed back off, never once even losing his balance. He cussed me out while riding away which is a big deal. People don't cuss in Malawi. He also continued looking at me while he rode away which required him to turn around backwards...WHILE RIDING HIS BIKE! Anyway, I was really super shaken up afterward so now I'm back to being overly cautious and I definitely don't think that's a bad thing.... safety first!

Gorilla Trekking = Amazing

Image of the day - is your heart melting? because mine is...

People warned me that gorilla trekking in Rwanda would be an incredible experience. It's not that I doubted that for a second, (I didn't!), but I'll admit that I'd heard enough horror stories to leave me a little bit scared! I mean, after all, these are GORILLAS we're talking about!

There are only 780 mountain gorillas left in the entire world and they only live in the Viringu mountains in Rwanda, the DRC, and Uganda. Gorilla trekking in Rwanda at Volcanoes National Park (the first park in Africa) is an extremely well-run and organized operation. There are gorilla trackers that literally follow families of gorillas through the jungle. The 20 families are split into two groups: tourism and research. On any given day Rwanda sends 7 tourist groups up into the jungle, 8 people per group. We had a tour guide who led us into the jungle along with an armed guard (in case we come across any other dangerous animals) and 2 porters. The guide then communicates with the trackers in the jungle who lead us straight to the family we're meant to be visiting (and by "straight to" I mean a rather strenuous, 2 hour hike!). Then you spend about an hour with the family of gorillas and hike back to the starting point. It is worth every penny of the $500 license fee required to enter the park (yes, today cost more than my entire Maasai Mara safari....but it was totally worth it)!

Volcano (inactive)

Our guide, Fidel, showing us photos of the Amahoro (peace) family who we will be 'meeting' during our trek

We're ready to see some GORILLAS!

...and we're off...

Our armed guard

Fidel showing us some gorilla food - it was like velcro and stuck to his shirt!

Machetes come in handy for jungle walks....

...to cut down nasty pricker plants like this one - look closely!

By the way, THESE THINGS HURT! I mean, they don't hurt really badly - but they do sting and swell temporarily - although the swelling goes down rather quickly, the stinging sensation lasts for a few hours. These plants literally lined the 'path' and I got stung about a bazillion times today. Through my clothes it was noticeable but not bad....but my poor hands just stopped tingling about 2 hours ago!

Taking a breather at a flat point

We kept walking and walking for about an hour and 45 minutes...the hike was gorgeous but painful (remember stinging plants) and difficult since it had recently rained so the path was super muddy and slippery! Then finally we started seeing signs of gorillas! We saw a handprint/footprint/pawprint along with some gorilla droppings. Then we heard some noises from afar. We were told that was the sound gorillas make when they pound their chests.

I won't lie, at this point I was getting really excited (and also really nervous) . I mean - mountain gorillas are LARGE and STRONG! Slowly we approached and then all of a sudden, we found ourselves about 4 meters away from a real-live mountain gorilla. He was simply sitting there chomping away on some mountain celery. Our tour guide motioned to keep walking and I temporarily froze. "You do know there's a gigantic mountain gorilla.....RIGHT THERE", I thought to myself....but follow instructions.

We're told to stay 7 meters away from the gorillas at all times - but we were by far much closer for the majority of our visit. The guides were incredible and made some noises to communicate with the family - we were told they were 'happy noises' and when the gorillas made them, the guides made them in return. It was fascinating!

Ok enough jibber jabber, here are some photos....

just gorgeous!

BABY!

This baby female was born Feb 2 which makes her 16 days old (same one as in the top photo). She was, by far, my favorite because she is obviously ridiculously cute....but also, she was a little but clumsy! She fell over a lot, she rolled around a lot, and she was also really playful! She is currently nameless and won't be named until the annual naming ceremony in June

trying to get some food with Mom

yum, mountain celery

Proof that I was there...

delicious

this expression is awesome

why doesn't anyone care about ME? Geeez!

Look closely at the bottom right corner - there is a baby who is 3 (THREE) days old - she is sort of covering her eyes! The mom was so precious and kept cradling the baby up in her arms and just cuddling with it.

deep in thought....or food coma

16 day-old female trying to climb trees (shortly after this, she fell from the tree)

more naps....or perhaps some sun bathing?

a SILVERBACK!

(Silverbacks are the names given to the adult males since...well, their backs turn silver as they age. This one is the "president" of the family and he is 27 years old)

Here's a better view of his back. He was honestly huge - and so massively strong, it was incredible

16 day-old female playing with mom....biting her foot as a playful gesture...

goodbye Amahoro family, I'll miss you and I'll never forget you!

Honestly, this was an absolutely incredible experience. We were literally feet from the gorillas in their natural habitats and they didn't seem to be too bothered by our presence. Our guides made me feel extremely safe and anytime one of the gorillas seemed even slightly agitated by a group of 8 people staring at it, they calmed them down by speaking 'gorilla'. If you ever find yourself in Rwanda and have the resources to do this, it is simply a must-do.

The shortest distance between two places is....

....a straight line!?!

Unfortunately, Lilongwe and Kigali are not two of the easiest places in Africa to get to. Yesterday a total of three flights left Lilongwe all day (one to Joburg, one to Nairobi, and one to Addis Ababa. Oddly enough, they are all scheduled to leave within a half our of each other... which cracks me up every single time I go to the airport). Anyway, this is the route I would have loved to have taken, had it existed:

Instead, I took the scenic route through the DRC and Ethiopia:

It took 12 hours and 3,040 miles to go a net distance of 862 miles!

But the views were nice and the flights were empty which was a major bonus!

Passing over Zambia

Approaching Lubumbashi, DRC (notice the "city" lines in the background?)

Lubumbashi, DRC

My entertainment while we were grounded and re-fueling in Lubumbashi

So far Rwanda is great and it has been fun listening to (and trying to speak) some French! I'll be in here for a few more days and will definitely take/post some photos when I can. I have something really fun planned for Friday (my first non-work related activity!!) and I am so so SO excited....so, stay tuned!

Brownies, anyone?

I woke up this morning with ONE goal and one goal only.....bake something! I've been wanting to bake for weeks and I honestly have no excuse other than the fact that I got lazy because I didn't have any of the ingredients (or bake-ware) to do so.... but today? Today I followed through....I figured tomorrow was a good opportunity to bring treats into the office since it's a holiday (and we all know that is the ONLY way I can bake...otherwise I'll eat every last bit at home)!

Presenting the most difficult brownies on the face of the planet!

I know what you're thinking - a brownie is a brownie! But trust me, these brownies are the most delicious brownies in the world!
(recipe compliment of B.Brown, RN, CCRN, CRNA)

Ok, ok, ok, so normally they're not actually that difficult to make...but today they required a tremendous amount of thinking...and a pinch of resourcefulness!

Here are the items I needed to purchase (pretty much the only ingredient I already had was....sugar)

$10 for cocoa? $6 for unsalted butter?

Step 1 - Mix butter, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a double boiler
Complication - No measuring cups....must convert grams to tablespoons...no double boiler

clearly, this is the low fat version :-)

Eye-ballin' everything!

Step 2 - Mix in vanilla, eggs, flour
Complication - no mixing bowl.....still no measuring cups

pots work just as well here....

Step 3 - Bake
Complication - Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion.....baking a double batch in an odd sized pan requires extra careful monitoring

Looks good raw (and tasted pretty good too....wait,is there butter in this batter?)

Suggested cooking time for one batch: 20-25m.
Actual cooking time for double batch in odd-shaped pan: 63m

Even though I had to think extra-hard every step of the way, I loved it. There's just something rejuvenating about dancing around the kitchen measuring....mixing...and baking! Not to mention the fact that you really can't beat the aroma or homemade brownies filling the house!

Who wants to go for a ride?

Good news - I finally filled up with petrol (jump for joy!)

Bad news - I am $100 poorer (actually, $101.30 to be exact...and that was only for 3/4 of a tank...I told them to fill it up and then got nervous that I didn't have enough cash!)

Worse news - My petrol tank started leaking (to which I was told "Madame, this is SERIOUS")

Ok news - I immediately went to get it checked out and was told it was fine to drive (it had stopped leaking!) but to bring it back when it was down to about 1/4 tank so that they could fix some gasket or something.

So, in a nutshell - I have petrol, yay!

Almost there!!!

As it turns out, the fuel shortages have caused some major discontent throughout the country (surprise surprise). On Friday I got an email from the US Embassy warning of a 'demonstration' scheduled for Monday but brushed it off for the most part. Then today I got some additional information:

The Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) has organized a civil society action on fuel. This is a Grand March and Peaceful Demonstration against the persistent and continuous fuel shortage in the country and it is also labeled as THE BIG BICYCLE MARCH ON THE FUEL CRISIS.

The civil society Grand March and Peaceful Demonstration on Fuel will take place in the capital Lilongwe this Monday 14th February 2011 from 08:00am outside the PACIFIC HOTEL, City Center. The march will finish at 11:30 am. The protesters will march and demonstrate all the way to the Office of President at Capital Hill, via the Parliament gates. This is a peaceful demonstrations and it is organized on principles of non-violence.

Although I am sort of curious to see how this demonstration turns out, our new office is in City Center so we've been told we can work from home Monday morning....

Petrol Shortage....

Tonight I waited in a queue for $8/gal gasoline. After 30 minutes of inching up in the queue, the pumps ran dry and I was turned away, petrol-less.

I've heard that Malawi only has enough petrol in the pipeline to last a week. To be honest, whoever does the forecasting isn't even doing that accurately since there are regular shortages by the time the weekend rolls around. There is obviously no buffer stock built into the system so if anything happens to disrupt service, major shortages ensue. Lilongwe was completely out of both diesel and petrol from Sunday until Wednesday. On Wednesday evening a few select stations received some petrol. By this morning (at 9:00 am) they were dry.

Dear Valued Partners,

THURSDAY 10/02/2011

DELIVERIES ARE BEING MADE AS FOLLOWS:

PETROL
* MAULA
* CITY CENTRE (By Magetsi House)
* M1 (Bunda T-off)

DIESEL
* CROSS-ROADS
* BP COC DEPOT (For Commercial Customers, Trucks, Buses & Ambulances)

ALL THE SITES THAT WERE SUPPLIED WEDNESDAY EVENING ARE DRY.

Yesterday when I went to lunch, we saw a gigantic queue at a station in the center of town. The strange thing was that all of the cars were empty. We were then informed that people had literally PARKED their cars in a queue so that whenever diesel DID arrive, they'd be in line to get some. How crazy is that?!?

All I know is that I have 1/4 of a tank.... and we're about to see how long that lasts....