Back on the road, home in sight

It's been nearly two months since my last update so I'm going to give you both the short version and the long version.  Actually, I don't feel like writing that much right now, but I want to share some sort of update, so here's the short version and the long version (which is still pretty short compared to my other dispatches).

Short Version

Got extended with Grameen Foundation in Kampala for an extra six weeks (making eight total), attended a wedding, went on safari, spent a weekend in Rwanda, just arrived in Nairobi, going overland to Johannesburg for the World Cup, flying back to DC on June 16.

Long Version

The nice folks at Grameen were please with my ability to get things done without requiring too much assistance or oversight, so they asked me to stay an extra five weeks.  I was happy to oblige and even stayed an extra week beyond that to wrap up a couple loose ends.  Along the way, I decided that whether or not I'm going to continue traveling, it was time to make a trip home to visit family and friends.

After some deliberation, I decided that it would be ridiculous for me to leave Africa just before the first World Cup on the continent and even worse to be in Africa and not at least try to get down to South Africa to be a part of it.  So, I went ahead and booked a flight from Johannesburg to DC on June 16, five days after the start of the World Cup, committing myself to  finding a way to get down there and try to nab tickets to a game or two before flying home.  I don't yet have tickets or accommodations, so if you have any connections that might be able to hook me up, please let me know.

I have exactly one month until my flight, which isn't a whole heck of a lot of time considering the distance I have to cover, but the tentative plan is to spend a couple days in Nairobi, bus over to Mombasa, spend a weekend on Lamu (which was recommended to me over Zanzibar as an island destination by a couple people), get down to Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania for a safari, pass through Dar to say hi to a few people, then travel down the coast of Mozambique (possibly via Malawi) en route to Johannesburg.  It's all very up in the air right now, other than knowing that I want to get to Johannesburg by the 12th or 13th to have a chance to catch a game before my flight.

Once I get back to the states, I'm going to be running around between DC, San Diego, the Berkshires, and Texas, visiting friends and family and hopefully squeezing in a few job interviews.  I'm hopeful about prospects of continuing to work for Grameen in DC, but I'm also considering other employers and other cities and am feeling ready to jump into the right full-time job.  It's been a great trip, but I'm feeling ready to resume "real life."  If nothing comes through, I'm thinking of setting up somewhere in South America for a few months to practice Spanish and try to finally take my foreign language skills to somewhere above "pathetic," so I guess the wanderlust hasn't been completely sated.  One thing's for sure: I definitely want to lead a life that allows me to live or take trips abroad lasting longer than a week or two at least a few more times.

Oh, right, I kinda skipped over the fun things I've been doing the past month or so.  In general, I've been doing a far better job of getting out and taking advantage of the weekends in Kampala than I did in Dar.  On the weekends when I was in town, I played American football with some expats and ultimate frisbee with a club made up mostly of locals.  One weekend, I rode out to Jinja with Shayan (another Grameen consultant) and attended the wedding of one of our colleague's sisters.  It was a blast and I think the other guests were at least as amused by us Muzungu trying to do their traditional dance as we were by the fact that dinner was served on plates covered with menorahs and stars of David, reading "Happy Hannukah!".  Here's a video of some of the other guests dancing:

Another weekend, I went on a three-day safari out to Murchison Falls National Park, where I got to see plenty of gazelle, giraffes, buffalo, hippos, baboons, a few elephants, and even the backside of a lion at a great distance (photos HERE).  (Side note: do not ever buy a Nikon Coolpix.  Sure, the form factor is nice, but the autofocus, color balance, and image stabilization were better on the 2.4 mega-pixel Minolta my grandmother gave me when I started college.)

Last weekend, I took off Friday and Monday for 9-hour bus rides to and from Kigali, Rwanda, to meet up with my friend Maggie, who is currently living in Juba, Sudan.  Maggie and I had major travel chemistry and her knowledge of the history and politics of the region made her the perfect companion for a weekend of exploring Kigali.  The small city was impeccably clean and highly walkable, allowing us to do most of our exploring on foot.  Highlights include dining at Hotel des Mille Collines (the setting of Paul Rusesabagina's heroic acts, portrayed in Hotel Rwanda), seeing the Kigali Memorial Centre, and visiting the church at Ntarama, where the bones and clothing scraps of thousands of genocide victims remain on display.  Yes, that's some pretty heavy stuff, but good company, good conversation, and good food made for an enjoyable weekend that belied the gravity of the setting's recent history.

Alright - 10am (would have been earlier, but uploading photos takes forever), breakfast eaten, blog post written and posted!  I am roaring out of the gates!  Nairobi, show me what you got!