July 8, 2007

Last weekend was incredible. I, along with two friends from work (Sabriya and Tyronza), went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to climb Mt. Nyiragongo. Mt. Nyiragongo is a volcano that erupted in 2002 killing 46 people and destroying approximately 20% of Goma, the city at its base. It’s roughly 12,000 feet and remains one of the only active volcanoes in all of Africa.
I was convinced to go on short notice, which I think was a good thing. If I actually had time to think about what I was doing, I might not have gone…Ok, I still would have gone but I would have been a hell of a lot more scared than I was at the time. The trip was organized through a company called Jambo Safari. It’s a very small company. It’s run by a couple of guys from Uganda. I’m not even sure I would call it a company. Anyway, the guy who runs the whole thing is named Alex. He’s a very nice guy (albeit a bit aloof) who is basically trying to get the tourism industry in Congo up and running in order to improve the local economy (which is impoverished to the nth degree) while making a buck or two himself.

We left Kigali at about 7 in the morning, and made our way to Goma via minibus. Goma is east of Kigali and about three hours away. I suppose that the time really depends on how nuts your minibus driver is. Ours enjoyed honking at everything under the sun, and drove, I would say, with “a purpose”. We arrived to Goma at about 10:30 or so, making some stops in between. Alex and his assistant met us at the border with a land rover. In Goma, there are UN soldiers everywhere. I can’t really describe it, but the gut feeling you have in DRC is very different than that from Rwanda. Everything feels edgy and precarious. You cross the border and move from day to night. Eventually we arrived at the base of the mountain, where we met our crew; Richard (the guide), three porters, and a man with an AK47. While we are all “geared out” in our North Face and REI the porters and guides wore plastic sandals and only light clothing. They carried our tents and charcoal. We would overnight at the summit.

It was by far the hardest hike I have ever been on. I’ve heard it described as strenuous, but I think debilitating is a more accurate description. This first part of the walk is through dense rain forest. I’ve always wanted to walk through rain forest! It was incredible, although a little bit scary, because you never know what’s behind the plants or in the trees, etc… Once you break through the rain forest you begin the most painful part of the walk. The mountain is covered with lava rocks from the 2002 eruption. These rocks are very difficult to walk on. It’s basically like someone’s twisting your ankles...and then stabbing them. So after three hours of walking uphill on lava rocks, we reached a small post below the summit. We thought we were finished and felt very relieved to have made it, given it was just about to get dark. Much to our disgruntled surprise, however, we found that we still had an hour left of the hike. By the way, we only had two flashlights, one of which was dead. The last part of the hike was brutal. Slippery lava rocks, straight up hill. There was one moment where both Sabriya and I just about started to cry (I did cry on the way down!).

As awful as the 5 hour hike was, the summit was incredible. We arrived to the top just as night fell. My porter, Zach, called me to the edge of volcano…and there below was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The center of a live active volcano! A bright bubbling lava lake! I honestly have never seen anything so brilliant, so magnificent, in my entire life. Suddenly, all the pain was worth it. The sounds were also amazing. It was almost as if there was a crashing ocean below. We spent the night 10 feet from the summit, freezing and petrified it might erupt.
The walk down was equally as terrible. I must have slipped about 30 times because my legs were shaking and I had almost no balance. It was good to finally make it to the bottom. We were greeted by some music and 20 Congolese children. Although it was hands down the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, I don’t think I’d do it again. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

Besides the volcano, I’ve been keeping busy. I spent the 4th of July Holiday at a US Embassy retreat house on lake Muhaze. This lake is beautiful! I went with a bunch of people who work for the embassy and some US marines. I’ve been hanging with this group and my running friends. Everyone is really great. Kigali is finally starting to feel like home, I guess.

Work is also very busy, but as I’ve said before I’m starting to get a handle on things. I’m also working on turning my thesis into a publication. My French is getting better; still atrocious though. That’s all for now! It’s time to catch up on some work. My fun appears to be getting in the way ;)