UPDATE 2

We are hanging out at the hotel waiting for Mary's laundry to get finished so I thought I would send you a bit longer of an update & the rest of our plans for our trip. On Monday we spent the day touring around Kigali with a bored taxi cab driver. He took us to the Kigali Memorial Center which was a memorial center dedicated to the genocide. It was very well done and really makes you wonder how no one did anything sooner to help. I also didn't realize just how big of a role France played in helping the genocide occur. We have a book that contains the information so you guys can read that when we get home.

The taxi driver then took us to a craft market where Mary & I got swarmed by the artists. Neither of us were good at negotiating so our driver stepped in a few times to help us (while laughing at us of course). We then went and had drinks at a local restaurant/bar while we waited for Mary's co-workers to get off work. Along the way the driver filled us in on Kigali & showed us different locations in the city including the hotel that the movie Hotel Rwanda was based off of, embassies, and where the Chinese are building huge homes.

We had dinner & drinks with two of the national staff who work at the Rwanda office. Both are from Uganda. One brought his brother along with him, who is a dentist in Uganda. He was asking about US politics and it turns out he knew more about it then Mary and I did. He reads the Wall Street Journal & New York Times every day.

We stayed with one of Mary's co-workers that night and then on Tuesday we had our taxi driver friend pick us up and take us to bus station. The bus ride was long, about 10 hours with many stops along the way where people would throw different goods on the bus to have them transported to Kampala. The best part was at about 9 1/2 hours when the assistant to the bus driver came back and goes "phone for you" - and hands mary his phone. Her co-worker in Rwanda had somehow gotten his number and was calling to tell us his 2 friends were going to pick us up at the bus station to take us to a hotel. Everyone really seems to know everybody here... His friends did pick us up, though their 5 minute drive to get us took them an hour due to crazy Kampala traffic, so we hungout at the bus station. We figured everyone was taking bets on whether or not our ride would actually show up. I am sure they were just as surprised as we were when our ride ended up being a Mercedes... Turns out her co-workers friends were a doctor and a lawyer... They took us to the hotel & we had dinner and drinks with them. They entertained us with stories about life in Uganda.

We are now headed to Budongo Conservation Research Station where we will spend 2 days following researchers who are studying chimpanzees. On Friday night we will get picked up and taken to Murchison Falls National Park, where we will camp out for the night & then do game drives & excursions on Saturday. The plan is to stay in a hotel in Masindi Saturday night and then on Sunday Natasha will return to the field station and Mary & I will return to Kampala. We'll have dinner with her co-worker on Sunday night & then visit Jinja (source of the Nile River) Monday before heading to the airport Monday night.

Just a heads up - we probably won't have internet again until Saturday night.

Love you!

Anna & Mary