Here I go again

So, I am about 4 hours from departing on my 4th trip to Rwanda in as many summers.

In some ways this trip will be the same as the other 3 (spending time in Ruhengeri with my good friends like Greg, Hassan, Bosco, Delphine, eating my favorite goat brochettes with a cold Primus or a Coke or Fanta Citron, wearing pants in 85 degrees and sun, getting red dust everywhere, hot, stinky bus rides, moto taxi's, and taking in the beauty of a countryside and people that cannot be matched).

In other ways this trip will be extremely different (for the first time I will be traveling without my good friend and fellow Rwandan native Dave Kuntz, I will be traveling to Northern Uganda for 4 days to learn about Joseph Kony and the LRA, meet-and hopefully interview-child soldiers and brides and see an area that has seen civil war for over 25 years. I have a bit of a heightened awareness of safety on this trip since the bombing that took place in Kampala this past weekend. I will be careful. I will be planning the Benilde-St. Margaret's Rwanda 2011 trip, visiting a diamond mine in the Congo-I hate the Congo, and of course, bring back my new son from another mother and father, Bright! (We are not adopting, Bright is the 13 year old son of our good friend Greg Bakunzi and he will be living with us for the next 4 years).

I am not very exciting and I don't foresee providing hours (or even minutes) of entertainment for you. I will describe what I see and what I do (I will even describe barfing in 2, yes 2 12 hours bus rides from Kigali to Kampala to Gulu and back).

(I wonder, if someone blogs and no one reads does he really blog?)

See you in 11 days.

Amahoro,

James