Virunga

Shannon and Emmy - road to Northern ProvinceMy African dress

After work on Friday, we drove with our friend and guide, Emmy, up to the Northern Province. I'm sure Shannon will write about her impressions of the countryside. We stayed at a funky little place in Kinigi. It was so cold Shannon had to wear fivelayers to bed (I forgot to tell her to bring thermal underwear to Rwanda).

The next morning, I rode Emmy's bike to the Headquarters where people are assigned to the gorilla groups they will visit. It was my first time on a bike in Rwanda and such a great pleasure. Having seen the gorillas on the past two visits, I decided to hike to Dian Fossey's tomb and the site of the Karisoke Camp. Shannon did the gorilla hike (again, I'm sure she will write about that).

I was the only visitor hiking to Karisoke, so headed out with a guide, a porter, and three armed soldiers. The hike was straight up hill and it was very muddy. It was significant physical exertion! We got to the site after 2 1/2 hours. There is almost nothing left, since after Dian Fossey was killed, people took anything and everything. However, the location of the buildings has been marked and there is Dian's tomb, which is right next to her gorilla friend, Digit, in the gorilla graveyard.

We stopped in Ruhengeri at the Muhabura Hotel for some lunch and had a rainy drive back to Kigali.

Sender arrived last night. He is a surgeon who is heading up a teaching program for the surgical residents, much like what we are doing for anesthesia. Ariane and I know him from March. He will be staying in our apartment for a while until the surgical apartment is ready. He's great fun and it's good to see him again.

I've spent most of today working on a talk to present at the Safer Surgery Conference. I did have my early morning two loops of Nyamirambo hill and we just got back from our swim.

On to week two....