These friends of my sister’s family, in Burundi, are having a TV show made about their move to Central Africa and project fairly buying coffee directly from the growers.  And they’re from Wisconsin/Minnesota.  It’s a small world.

Tomorrow morning at 5 am we’re driving to Tanzania for four days in the Serengeti!  It’ll take about 12 hours to drive to Mwanza where we’ll stay for the first night and then head to the park the next day.  All kinds of animals are expected: zebras, giraffes, impalas, baboons, lions, leopards (hopefully), crocodiles, etc, oh my!

The drive back will have to be split into two parts to avoid driving in Burundi after dark.  This means that we’ll get back to Bujumbura and I’ll have to head to the airport in just a few hours.  So, this is about it from here.  I’ll be leaving my computer in Bujumbura so any updates will be sent from my Kindle; no sweet animal pictures until I get back.  Then there will be a flood.  Or, rather, an Ark full of animal photos.  So, the final, week-long leg of this adventure is starting and will end with the return trip to Portland, OR.

Au Revior!

These long horned cows are all over.  Here, they were on the road on the way back from Ruzizi.

This afternoon we went on a boat ride on the Ruzizi River which flows from Lake Kivu, on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to Lake Tanganyika.  Oh man, hippopotami were everywhere!  We saw one group of 14 and close to thirty during the whole ride.  We also saw flamingos, Goliath Herons, weaver birds, Kinfishers and some other aquatic birds that I don’t know the translated names of.  Supposedly, there are also crocodiles (the longest one seen in this river was 7 meters long!) but they’re not as commonly seen.  My camera doesn’t have a telephoto lens so I didn’t get any animal shots worth showing.  Bummer.

A random shot of the fence around the monument to unity from our walk this morning.  Looked sweet to me.

Another freaking awesome flower that grows in the back yard.  Not sure what it’s called. Anyone know?

The front of the central market and the main hub for the city’s buses.

Downtown Bujumbura, Burundi.

We snapped some photos on the way back from the airport to pick up my other sister, Rachel, and her husband Mitch.  The next few are from downtown Bujumbura.

Lazy afternoon by the pool.