The End of the Long Journey

As the English Proverb goes, "All good things must come to an end". Well, we knew this fun blog and travel adventure was going to have to end at some point and this will be the final entry. However sad it is to be at the endpoint, it also signifies a new beginning. For example, I have just finished my resume updating and will soon begin a serious search for employment. I am fortunate that I can take the time to do a proper search without worry and will, hopefully, be able to find something that is challenging, mentally stimulating and in the location where I want to spend the next few years. Of course, I am already packing for my next trip, but more on that later.

We were planning to return to the U.S. by 5/9 so I could attend my niece's graduation from Penn State followed by my daughter, Marissa's, graduation from Boston University. Since we had a week to ease our way back into Western life, we chose to visit the Cotswold area, west of London and then Bath. We arrived at Heathrow Airport in the early hours of 5/2, rented a car and explored life in England for the week.

The Cotswold area is comprised of small towns and villages in a large area with lots of farms, rolling hills, old buildings, castles and other beautiful scenery. As it was Springtime, many plants and trees were beginning their annual blooming process. Several times, we commented on how nice it would be to rent or own one of these older homes in these quaint villages, of course, the wrong side of the road driving and my inability to understand the locals' version of English are big negatives.

Here are some of the photos taken during our self-guided tour...











Then there's the delightful British sense of humor. I'm sure some of these might be repeats of things seen here but they made me chuckle nonetheless...











(For some reason, I always think of my friend, Karen Coakley, when I read this last one.)

I know they're not Seinfeld quality comedy but that got pretty played out and this is the best I could find in England. I appreciate all of the wonderful heartfelt comments, suggestions and advice you have shared with me during these last 9(!) months and I have been thrilled to share my once in a lifetime experience with you through my blog writing and photos. I will be doing more things with the blog output either in book or professional slideshow format in the coming months.

Of course, once you take this kind of adventure, you get the feeling you want to do more, so fearful that I'll get pulled back into the corporate world soon and not have a chance to repeat this kind of trip, I'm planning another trip right away. This one will take me from Seattle to Boston by car through the Paloose of Washington, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Wild Horse areas in wyoming and Montana , The Badlands in South Dakota, etc. This trip will be with a photography friend of mine, Edmund, whom I've traveled with each of the last two summers. The African trip was 75 days and is a real test of marital harmony so we both welcome being back home and having more personal space.

You just never know where I'll end up. Thanks again for all the support

Steve

Musings and observations about life abroad

Since it has been an unplanned nine month hiatus from life in the U.S., I'd like to share some thoughts about what I have experienced and observed...

China - The economy is on fire. The Chinese are embracing capitalism as though they have been waiting for it for a long time. People are changing jobs very quickly with little to no loyalty to their employer while at the same time being dedicated and tireless workers when employed. I know this seems in conflict but it is what's going on. Automobiles are a big status symbol and everyone wants to drive which has caused a lot of traffic congestion. The Chinese are aware of what's going on in the rest of the world but have particular interest in the U.S. for styles, autos, latest hot things to do or say, sports teams (Kobe Bryant is the most popular). Other than how pedestrians are treated by drivers of bicycles, motor bikes and autos on the clogged streets, Chinese people were helpful and welcoming. The warm welcome at work was quite memorable and other than that Shanghai was like being in most large cities in the world. The cautionary tale for China is my belief that there will continue to be social unrest due to the Communist government's control of communications, freedom of speech and other basic rights we enjoy. The economy will grow but at some point the controls will have to be relaxed or there will be a lot more social issues raised by the youth.

India - With only a month in India, mostly in Mumbai, it's hard to get a full read on everything but I found the Indian people every bit as nice as the Chinese with the added plus that they speak English (once you train your ear to understand them.) The people were very welcoming, extending themselves to do anything that was asked or even hinted about. The difference is that while India's economy is also growing rapidly, it seems there infrastructure is stuck in the 1960s. Roads are clearly unable to handle the vehicular traffic in the large cities. People are experiencing the thrill of travel and increased wealth but it is not as alien to the Indian way of thinking as it is to the Chinese people. The biggest difference I saw was that the poverty in India is not hidden. In Mumbai, it hits you right in the face, grabs you and doesn't let you forget it. The other thing India is facing is lack of control on population growth. this will make India the most populous country by 2030 with over 1.3 Billion people. However, until the infrastructure is improved (schools, roads, transportation,etc.) and the population growth is stemmed, there will continue to be growing pains.

Africa - I know it's not a country, but it would be impossible to analyze all of the individual (ten) countries we visited given the time we had in each. In a case of they don't know what they don't have,the African people seem quite happy. The regions a big mix of good economy and poor. There are many big issues. Aids/HIV effect 50% of the population in some areas with no real progress begin made. Governments are corrupt throughout the region and therefore, a slew of issues emerge. Lack of consistent electrical power, poor or crumbling road infrastructure, lack of schools or teachers, political unrest, overpopulation, lack of employment opportunities, poaching of animals in protected areas, etc. And despite all of this, the people were warm and welcoming wherever w went. Of course, to some people we only represented $ signs and their thoughts were only about selling things to us. To many, we were Westerners from countries that had more than them so they wanted to learn more about our way of life, what we had, how we lived etc.

Some other African "Way of Life" observations from the windows of our vehicles...
1. Police use road blocks to stop vehicles traveling within the same country or area. For some, it's about bribery and others it's about control.
2. In the countryside, people walk everywhere as they have no other means of travel. There were some people traveling around on donkeys.
3.Children play games like all do, but in some places rocks replaced rubber balls, banded plastic replaced soccer balls,
4. Everyone who uses a telephone has a cell phone that is run with purchase cards for connect time.
5. Women haul everything around on their head (produce mostly) or on their backs (children tied in with pieces of fabric)
6. In the countryside, most people don't have shoes.
7. Houses are typically made of mud with thatched roofs. As we got to more developed areas or more affluent countries, the style of roof changed to metal from thatch, homes had more than one big room, people had shoes, roads other than the main highway were paved.
8. It is typical to see lots of young children (under 5) and see lots of men (age 15+) sitting around doing nothing.

Things I learned from my fellow travelers...

As an American, I think our point of view is mentally isolated.
Few Americans know the currency conversion for Canada or the UK or Euro. Many don't even know what the currencies are.
Few Americans know the heads of state of our closest allies like Canada or England, but the people overseas all know who's running our country.
Few Americans understand the UK way of life, but the UK folks get ours.
Few Americans would know the first thing to even ask about life in other countries while the people I traveled with asked lots of great questions about our life.

America is looked upon as the leader in many things like business, politics, policing the world, fighting injustices, Hollywood movies, the rich and famous, etc., but most people don't understand why we get involved in some of the things internationally we put ourselves in the middle of. Canada and Australia are countries of 30 million that are fairly remote and on big land masses so their point of view is interesting.

As the leader, we should be looking ahead at our next challenges but as the world shrinks increasingly through technology leaps, it would be myopic to continue to look in the mirror and smile at our own reflection.

This last thought makes me think of my favorite poem, one that I always print and hang in my office at work. The poem is called, "The Guy in the Glass" and it perfectly reflects the "don't blame others for your problems" attitude I'm trying to impress on my children. It's also interesting to think about when and how people make an impact on you. The first time I heard this poem was at a HS football banquet in Hopkinton, MA where my oldest son was a graduating senior. The poem was read as part of the remarks by the superintendent of schools. I'm pretty sure none of the HS seniors thought about this for a second and probably none of the parents either, but it did make an impression on me.

The Guy in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow 1895-1954

The rafting trip

Near the end of our trip in Africa we went to a town called Jinja in Uganda. This is another self proclaimed "Action and Adventure Capital" of Africa, the third such type of place we visited. During the trip, I ignored most of these places but thought the time was right to try one of these activities. There was a rafting trip on the White Nile which promised level 5 rapids. This is the highest level of difficulty rafting trips go on. Anything above that is not navigable.

On a cloudy but not rainy day we ventured to our drop off point and proceeded to get trained on how to fall out of the boat, how to get back in and what to do if the raft turns over. Our guide was a slightly insane Australian who has guided rafting trips all over the world and his stated goal was to make this trip as exciting as possible. His way to do this was to lead us over a 15 foot high waterfall and through many rough water areas. Our boat did flip 4x during the trip and thanks to the preparation, we were able to make adjustments and get back into the raft (after being violently tossed and trying to drink much of the Nile).

I guess I would say that while I was confident in the safety gear and the three trail boats who would help anyone who fell out of the boat, you're not normal if you didn't feel some fear as we headed into some rough areas sideways with little doubt we were going to be violently tossed from our boat.

This photo essay follows our trip...











Remember the Ali- fRazier fight quote from many years ago?

Down goes Frazier; well, down we go...

Traveling through Uganda and Rwanda

We continued our journey through Uganda and Rwanda. We spent a night in a camp in the middle of Kampala, Uganda and found out days later that the local political unrest resulted in several groups of tourists on vehicles like our getting tear gassed. We continued to experience the standard African power situation where we lost power for hours, typically, in the few hours we had at a location with Internet services.

We did venture to a very nice location in the farming country of Uganda. Uganda is a very green country. It rains and lot and with a temperate climate, it can be ideal for farming. At this location, on a farm, we upgraded to a room inside a house so we wouldn't have to sleep on the ground (again). This was to be the mode of travel for the last leg of the trip as sleeping bags and the set up and take down of tents got really old.

From this location, we set off on a trip to track chimpanzees, which we're told are the closest thing to human beings genetically. On this trip the group is separated into three equal groups and each group tries to find the chimpanzees and then the other groups are called to join them. We are allowed one hour with the chimps. The chimps were located after a one hour walk but because they preferred to stay in the trees the entire time we were there, the resulting photos are not up to my typical standards so please excuse them. I am including them here to record the event and show you what we saw...







Our next stop was in a remote section of Uganda at a beautiful lake called, Lake Bunyoni. One thing we could do on our day of relaxation was visit the pygmy tribe living nearby. So, off we went in the cool of the morning to observe this unique group. Of course, we expected pygmies to be rather short people but they were the same height as many of the women on our trip, which was a bit of a disappointment and we referred to them as Giant Pygmies, which felt oxymoronic, for the rest of the trip. Some photos from the boat ride in and the locals at the Pygmy village...



The pipe smoker is the matriarch of this group...



A scene along the way...



From here, we headed for Rwanda. Of course, since peace has come relatively recently to Rwanda, not many people have been there. Our first event was to go see the Gorillas in the wild but that subject has it's own blog so I will just describe what happened next. After viewing the gorillas, we headed for Kigali, Rwanda, the capital city and the scene of many atrocities during the recent genocide. We visited the genocide museum which is a game attempt by the country to remind everyone of what happened and make sure it doesn't fade from memory. Outside the museum, where many people are buried in a mass grave, there was this sign...



and this one which is part of a wall of victim's names. Unfortunately, it's only partially complete. The whole complex seemed not quite ready for prime time, yet. We did run into the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda.



After this we proceeded to our camp for the night which was in town and gave me a chance to go to the Hôtel des Mille Collines which is the featured location for the movie, "Hotel Rwanda". It has been rebuilt into a very nice, classy hotel. I took the opportunity to go to a shopping area near by wearing my new tee shirt which had one word on it, Mzungu, which means which man who travels around in Swahili. I got lots of great reactions from the locals and was very impressed with the people, the cleanliness and the layout of the city.

The trip was now in the wind down mode as we left Rwanda and headed to our last national park for game viewing before going to an action/adventure location for the last stop on our trip.

On the way, we came across these very strange steers...



Then on the the game park...



Cape Buffalo



Can you see the bird inside this nest?



Here he is on the outside...

The Gorilla Trek

We headed to the mountain area of Rwanda to see the rare gorillas in the wild. There are less than 1,000 gorillas in the mountain areas of Uganda and Rwanda. Over the years, gorillas have been hunted by some of the bands of men who roam these open areas with little or no legal interference. This is also the area where Dian Fossey of "Gorillas in the Mist" fame was murdered for her activism against the poachers.

The two countries governments have gotten serious about protecting these animals and have convinced the poachers that it is there best long term interest to not continue poaching. The former poachers now are scouts who find the troups of gorillas and use radios to tell the guides where the gorillas are so the guides can bring the people to the gorillas.

After meeting in the central gathering point, groups of tourists are separated by difficulty of climb. I was in the medium difficulty group and we headed out in vans to the put in point for our hike. The road to this point was extremely rough, tossing us all around the vehicle and referred to by our guides as an "African Massage"

The hike to see the gorillas starts out in farm land where people live in structures like this one...



We then went over a fence into the rain forest/jungle where our guides used machetes to clear the path. After walking on a rickety bridge, we began ascending on our search. The guides tracked the specific family of Gorillas we were going to see to a point in the middle of a vast open space that was severely overgrown. With the excitement of finding gorillas in the air, we didn't realize how difficult this climb was going to be. We scrambled uphill over mud slicked, tree root and sticker bush paths in the rain. Sounds easy, I know, but this was truly hard work. No remote controls, no tour buses, no paved paths, we were truly in the middle of the jungle. Our guide did have a rifle and the same team of guides visit the same family of gorillas every day so the gorillas are acclimated to the sounds and smells and won't attack or flee.

After an hour, we came upon the gorilla family and had to leave everything but our cameras and binoculars behind as we approached the gorilla family. This walk was now a decent on a slick path which leaves you no options but to grab at the sticker bushes and other growths to stem your forward progress.

So here is what we found...

The first one was truly a gorilla in the mist...



The rest are the best of the most candid shots and close-ups











Visitors are only allowed to send one hour per day with each family so we quickly consumed our time and headed back down the slippery trail and back to civilization. It was an amazing experience to see these beautiful animals in their native environment.

After the Serengeti…

We headed to the famous Ngorogoro Crater. This crater was caused by a huge volcanic explosion thousands of years ago which created a flat area that has become an animal grazing area. This caldera is similar to the one in Yellowstone. Going to Ngorogoro after the Serengeti si like going to the Grand Tetons after Yellowstone. You just continue down the road and run into another natural marvel.

We had several animals ready to welcome us to the area…



A Golden Jackal



Some Cheetahs





After this we headed to Nairobi which brought us to the end of our 2nd trip. We stayed a night in Nairobi, said goodbye to almost everyone who came north from Capetown and struck out on the next portion of our trip heading toward Uganda and Rwanda where would hoped to find chimpanzees and gorillas. Our first stop was a park in Uganda called Nakuru. This location had a lot of water based wildlife, but our greeter here was a rather unfriendly fellow…



The lots of marine life...







We found a very young Zebra…



and another Rhino...



Then we found some hyenas but one of them looks like he should be dialing 911…







Then we found some flamingos near the shore…





The final thing in the park were colubus monkeys…







Now on to Chimpanzees and gorillas...