Fireworks on the 5th of July

I don't know how all of you spent your 4th of July, but I hope your time spent with family and friends was enjoyed by all.

It was a bit strange celebrating Independence Day with a bunch Brits in the heart of Rwanda, but an amazing day was had by all.

On the night of July 3rd, it was my cook groups' turn to cook everyone a meal. As I have previously stated, we don't exactly have a huge budget with which to feed everyone, but I had decided that our group was going to prepare as much of an American cookout meal as possible. Mind you, most of our meals are some form of rice or pasta with meat and marginally fresh bread. Our meal wasn't much different but we were able to buy ground beef, which allowed me to make fresh hand made burgers. We splurged on cheese and sifted through dozens of bags of rolls at the local Ugandan bakery in search of rolls that didn't feel like rocks. We bought our onions for grilling, peppers and tomatoes for the pasta salad, and managed to put together a really tasty meal. We cooked this meal in a parking lot of a seminary, where we happened to be staying during our time in Rwanda. Not exactly like sitting at my parent's place overlooking the Chesapeake Bay with fireworks going off down the river, but it was more than sufficient.

That meal was prepared both to satisfy my need for an American cookout, but also to provide all of us with the sustinence needed to go mountain gorilla trekking on the 4th. We left our seminary at 6am and went to Volcanoes National Park. A group of 8 (5 of us and 3 other random people) went on the trek to find the gorillas living in the Sousa group. There were 2 other groups of gorillas to view as well, but I wanted to see the Sousa group as one of the other members in our group highly recommended we see them. The hike to get to the gorillas was the most demanding of the 3 trekking options. It took nearly 2 hours of hiking before getting to the group, but once we got there, the effort was more than worth it. It is a group of nearly 30 gorillas with a 28 year old male, a 3 month old, 1 year old twins and lots of other aged gorillas in between. We were advised before the trek that we probably weren't going to be able to get closer than 7-10 meters from the gorillas. I think they meant to say 7-10 centimeters because we were close enough on many occasions to just about pet them. When you see these creatures you can definitely see how we evolved from them. One of the males was sunning himself in a spread eagle position with arm overhead much the same way my dad and I can often be found watching TV. The babies were swinging on branches as if on parallel bars, and all of them were eating wild celery like it was beef jerky. We got to spend about an hour with them and it really was amazing to watch these creatures in their natural environment just going about their lives as if us humans weren't even there.

The 5th of July is when I actually heard fireworks, or rather the distant rumble of artillery shells. Rwanda borders Uganda and the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). A group of us decided to go for a hike up the Bisoke Volcano on the 5th. At its' peak, it is around 3700 meters. We had guides leading us up the 30-45 degree incline volcano face as well as 3 AK-47 armed guards. The reason for the armed guards initially wasn't clear. We were told there could be buffalos and elephants on the hike, which on our way down from the peak proved to be true in the form of a buffalo. No shooting was necessary though. But the other reason was to shoot potential armed rebels that might be trying to flee into Rwanda from neighboring DRC. You see, as we were hiking up the volcano, were heard about a dozen artillery shells being fired. At no time did I ever feel scared, but it was sort of a Star Spangled Banner 'bombs bursting in mid-air' kind of moment. The hike was amazing though. At the top was a crater lake, from when the volcano collapsed in upon itself, surrounded by lush foliage. It was peaceful in spite the artillery shells, and a great way to conclude my African July 3rd-5th holiday.