About trees and travel

Again, time (another month!) has passed by and it does not seem to stop running. By now, the trip through East Africa around Lake Victoria has come to an end and I have soaked in as many impressions and memories as a 1.80m large sponge can manage. In addition to the pictures below, I would like to give you a brief look at the cities and countries I have been priviledged enough to see. You will find it below the pictures.

At the moment, I am sitting below a tree in front of the new school in Mpigi, listening to the songs of countless birds. Therefore, I feel calm and creative enough to finally let you hear from me again.

In a few days the new school is opening its doors, so we have planted some more fruit trees (mango, orange, coconut and avocado). Moshin is dreaming of a fruit tree forest in front of the school, where the children can spend their breaks in a cool, calm, peaceful and delicious area. In the future we would like to put up hammocks too. I think there is no child which does not study better in a comfortable area.

At the moment we already have a couple grown trees (jackfruit, passion fruit, Avocado, mango, guave, banana), but also about 30 recently planted ones, as you can see in the pictures below.

If you like to support this dream, feel free to donate one for 2€ (including transport, planting, growing, etc.). You can decide which type it should be and where it should be planted. Just text me for the details. My contact information is on the right-hand side of the desktop version of the blog. Or add me on facebook (Leonard Kehlenbeck).

Felix came from Musanze (Rwanda) to Kampala, we went to Fort Portal, back to Kampala (Luganda Exam with 81 Points), Jinja, Nairobi (Ngong Hills), Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar (Stonetown and westen coast), Dar Es Salaam, Kigali, Musanze (and Mount Karisimbi), Gisenyi, Musanze, Kampala. He, of course, stayed in Musanze.

We wanted to walk into a nearby forest in Mpigi, but there was private land in between. Therefore, we asked kindly. After a bit of talk, we did not have to pay, give them food nor water, just a simple picture.

Swimming in a crater lake near Fort Portal. It should not have any diseases, as it's above 1800m.

Ngong Hills

Ugandan shillings, Kenyan shillings, Ugandan shillings, Tanzanian shillings, Euros, Rwandan franc.
UG: 4200; K: 114; TZ:  2600; RW: 1000; EUR: 1

Hot springs in Gisenyi, at lake Kivu.

Jinja: 40x zoom into the daily work of people living (in this case) directly on the Source of the Nile.

Amazing flora around Karisimbi.

Peeling pees for the wedding in Ngong with short-term- and Via volunteers.

Wedding in Ngong (near Nairobi). We were not invited directly, but people seemed to be glad to have some white people around.

One of the 4 campfires of the soldiers protecting us tourists on Karisimbi. There are buffaloes and Kongolese in the woods.

Moshin with children living nearby in Mpigi.

On the Hills of Ngong with a clear view of Nairobi.

5:00 to 7:00 with 1000 more metres to the top (camp to summit). Surreal landscape. Super strange trees up to 4300m.

Freezing (literally) stormy top of Karisimbi. I could not feel my hands. Aaaand I could walk into the Kongo ... about 5m.

Oasis in between Kilimandscharo and Dar Es Salaam. It takes about 20h with the bus from Nairobi to Dar.

Downtown Dar Es Salaam. Incredible express-bus-system.

Planting incredibly precious trees. The neighbours's kids were happy to help. 

Our group after hiking for two days with about 4000m of ups and downs. Karisimbi is 4507m tall. In the background you see Mount Bisoke, wich is the vulcano nearby.

Permaculture Project on Zanzibar with German volunteers.

Ebbe tide on  Zanzibar. I would call it the tourist hotspot in Tanzania.

Brian and I in town. 

Oliver has arrived in Kampala a couple days ago. Here, his first rollex is prepared. Within the next weeks I will show him my daily life in Kampala.

Expo in the stadium in Musanze. Behind the vulcano you will come to Uganda.

A typical picture in Musanze, as well as in the other countries I have seen in East Africa.

Near Musanze, jumping through tea plantations with random children.

Feel free to ask for more pictures or a more detailed discription of any place or picture.