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| Hey I've moved to Myspace. Not sure if I'll keep this updated or not. Here's the website
http://www.myspace.com/knielsen_
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| Hello again all!!
Well elections have come and gone, and it seems like everything has gone pretty smoothly. The president won
with about 59% of the vote. So it seems as he's the people's
choice or is he? The good thing so far is that not much violence
has occurred. I'll keep you updated just in case.
So Sarah and I spent the week in hiding in Kibale Forest out in the
west of the country. For three days we were in Kibale Forest just
relaxing and taking some nature walks. On the Thursday we went on
a Chimp trek. Well, not sure if I told you about our last time, but we
saw no Chimps last year. Just some old chimp nests and some Chimp
shit! Well this time the Chimps were habituated and used to human
interaction. After about a 45 minute trek through the forest we
started to hear loud screams. It was actually pretty scary.
The chimps were here!! Then we happened upon a group of about 10-12
chimps. What surprised me most was the shear size of them!!! The
huge alpha-male was about the size of me. It was great that we
were able to get so close to them. At some times, we were about
10 feet away!!! We saw one chimp what they call "displaying". He
pick up a 10 foot log and started to circle us to show how strong he
was. And damn, he made that log look like a twig.
After that we spent two luxurious nights at the Ndali Lodge. We had full board, and spent the time relaxing near the crater lakes. I got sunburn. Oh well.
Gotta run, all for now Check out the pics
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| Happy New Year!!!
Yeah I know a bit late. Well on the other website, I posted some
pictures of my holidya trip. Christmas was pretty good, although
it was a bit strange having no cold weather or snow. It's been
hot and about 85 degrees here everyday. Although I'm not
complaining too much.
We had a lovely Christmas. I cooked a whole chicken and stuffing
(my first). It actually turned out all right. Had potatoes
and vegetables and everything. Exchanged some gifts and watched
DieHard (great movie for xmas)
The day after Sarah and I set off for Lake Bunyoni in SW Uganda.
It actually was pretty cold I had to wear long sleeves and
everything. We stayed at this nice camp right on the lake.
The start of our holiday was pretty chill. Just reading by the
lake and relaxing. We did hire a dugout canoe in which we paddled
in a big circle for about 45 minutes before becoming extremely
frustrated and heading back into shore. It's bad enough to have
the adult locals laugh and point at you, but when the 10 year old kids
go whizzing by in their conoes it becomes really sad. For some
reason we just could not paddle in a staight line. It's harder
then it sounds because it's a lot different from a normal canoe.
But I'm probably just making excuses.
Then we headed into Rwanda. I really didn't know what to expect
going to a somewhat recently war torn country with unspeakable acts of
genocide taking place. I was taken aback. First of all the roads
we spectacular. It was such a difference from the pot-holed roads
I'm used to in Uganda (well and Michigan too) Also, the capital
Kigali has a lot of new development (it's probably guilt money from the
west for ignoring them)
We did go to the pool at the Hotel des Milles Collines (of Hotel Rwanda fame) it was nice but totally different from the movie if you've seen it. A lot smaller.
We then drove through the windy roads but and down mountains and came
to the town of Gisenyi near the DR Congo border. This is the time
that we started to splurge. We stayed at an Intecontinental hotel
called the Kivu Sun. It was great after being in Africa for soon
long to have a piece of the west. We had a private beach and a
great few meals. We swam and relaxed looking at a pretty
beautiful sunset.
Our final stay was in Volcanoes National Park at a place called Virunga
Lodge. This was also pretty high end. We stayed here for
New Years' Eve. It was just us and 2 other couples. The
lodge is on top of a hill overlooking all the Volcanoes around the area
and a lake. We stayed in a nice huge cabin and had all of the
drinks and meals that we wanted. We were even treated to local
Rwandan dance by a local dance company. It was such a great way
to end the year. Quiet and overlooking thousands of stars!!
Then we headed home. I guess that's it for me, I'll let you all go now. But check the pictures out.
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| Hey everyone. Well this is my last posting of 2005. Hope
everyone has a good holiday season, and a happy new year. 
For me, it really doesn't feel like Xmas. I know, I hear all of
the songs on the radio and at school we have all the Christmas
decorations and parties. But it's 85 degrees here, and most of
the time I'm in shorts. I guess it just weirds me out a
bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.
Well today is the last day of school, I now have until the 9th of
January on holiday, did I tell you I love the holidays that teachers
get? Well I think I'll spend Christmas at home in K'la, and then
on Boxing Day (26th) Sara and I will be going to the southwest and
check out some more national parks. We're thinking about heading
into Rwanda as well, but who knows I here the border crossing takes a
lot of time (stupid red tape). But I'll let you know what becomes
of it.
See you in the new year
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| Hey everyone. So my birthday weekend was great. It was
probably one of the best birthdays that I've had in a while. And
it was the first time in the recorded history of my life that I
actually got sunburn on my birthday!
My guess was right and on Friday night, Sarah and I went to Jinja to do
whitewater rafting that Saturday. We stayed in a nice safari tent
and the Adrift Nile Camp, and had a pretty good dinner there.
On Saturday we went whitewater rafting. I will deny it if you ask me, but I was scared sh**less. 
We did some training on getting back into the raft, and what to do if
our boat tips over and then we were off. Immediately we started
hitting grade 4 and 5 waves. It was pretty intense. Wave we
coming up at least 4 and 5 feet above our heads. We had a nice
lunch on an island, and then proceeded to the pain of the
afternoon. To be honest a half-day would have been nice because
after lunch we had a lot of still pools that we had to paddle for 25
minutes straight at a time, and there weren't that many rapids
either. The final rapid of the day was nicknamed the "Bad Place"
it was a grade 6 followed by a grade 5 rapid.
For safety reasons we walked around the grade 6 but the grade five was
intense. We had some real pussies in our boat so they wanted to
paddle past the grade 5 section of the rapid and hit it at a grade
4. Of course that required us to paddle hard. To quote the
guide, "Paddle hard ... harder ... harder ... ok stop, GET DOWN"
We hit the grade 5 right at the apex. One wave crashed into us, I
closed my eyes and gripped the rope. When I opened them everyone
was fine. Then I saw the next big wave, closed my eyes
again. When I opened them, NO SARAH. SHe had fallen out of
the boat. In that second big rush, our raft went vertical, and a
few people fell out. You don't really realise what's happening
out there, but it was fantastic!!!! I can't wait to do it again.
The rest of the weekend, we chilled. Hung out by the Nile and had
a great lunch. All in all a really great weekend, and a
great adrenaline rush.
Bye for now.
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