Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara National Park

A cheetah tries to blend into the tall grass of Serengeti National Park.

The "endless plain" of the Serengeti.

Giraffes in the Serengeti National Park.

A typical scene (especially when spotting a cat) in Serengeti National Park.

The family in front of their tent in the middle of the Serengeti, which they all hated.

An old, solitary elephant in Serengeti National Park.

Wildebeests in Ngorongoro Crater.

Black Rhinos (typically very hard to find) cross the road in Ngorongoro Crater.

Lions try to beat the heat in Ngorongoro Crater.

Babboons in Lake Manyara

            When you think Africa, when you think of safaris, you think of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.  Connected to Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya, this park is home to all the African animals: black rhinos, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, buffaloes, baboons, elephants, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, elands, impalas, etc…

            Tourism continues to flourish at Serengeti National Park due to several reasons: the wildebeest migration, political stability (unlike Kenya), good roads, and a park connected to Ngorongoro Crater.  Most tourists come from the nearby town of Arusha, and take one of the many guides out to see the “big five:” elephants, buffaloes, cheetahs, lions, and rhinos. 

            The Serengeti is Maasai for “endless plain,” which you can tell by the pictures.  However, there are several different types of environments here aside from the classic savannah that we think of Africa.  Most of these animals flourish in the different environments that encompass the park.

            Our family spent four days in Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Lake Manyara National Park.  Enjoy the pictures.

Imbabazi orphanage

In the kitchen cooking with the kids.

Cooking for the Canadian group with the orphans.

The grave of Rosamond Carr.

A view of Mt. Karisimbi from the orphanage.

The orphanage where the children sleep and eat.

Devon (left), the director of Imbabazi, and Ashley (right) a Peace Corps volunteer helping with the orphanage.

           The American Rosamond Carr spent most of her life in central Africa, particularly Rwanda.  She made a living planting flowers for sale or pyrethrum, even at times squeaking out a living as a hotel manager in Gisenyi.  When the genocide happened in 1994, Rosamond left for America to escape, but returned soon after to rebuild her home. 

            Ms. Carr never had any children.  Living out in the farms of rural Africa leaves little chance to find a husband and raise children.  When she returned after the genocide she found her vision, purpose, and finally got her children: the Imbabazi orphanage near Gisenyi. 

Post-genocide, Rwanda was teeming with orphanages and people taking in children that weren’t their own.  Orphanages are a common site here, but Rwanda is moving away from an orphanage based child care to foster care system as the children of the genocide become adults.  Furthermore, Rosamond Carr wanted the Imbabazi orphanage to house orphans from the genocide only. 

            Currently, the orphanage houses approximately 60 children (all above the age of 10).  Imbabazi is not accepting any further orphans but will raise these orphans until they become an adult and leave the orphanage.  It is unknown what will happen to the orphanage after the last child has left, but there is a board of directors debating how it will be put to public good afterwards. 

            I spent a day at the orphanage walking around with the orphans, viewing the gorgeous landscape that sits at the base of the volcanoes.  We cooked for a Canadian group and I got to know the American staff better.  The pictures are from my rainy day visiting a place I had wanted to see for quite some time.

            To learn more about Rosamond Carr’s amazing life in Africa, you can read her book “Land of a Thousand Hills.”  If you want to donate to the Imbabazi orphanage, go to http://www.imbabazi.org/ 

Project 2020

A sign in front of my neighborhood showcasing that this area was built in the Project 2020 vision.

A banner in Gisenyi advertising an upcoming forum on Project 2020.

            In an effort to pull itself from a struggling, third world impoverished, World Bank loan taking country, Rwanda has decided to implement a program to pull itself from the constant cyclical Africa issues and create a middle class.  This is by no means an easy task, but the government of Rwanda has paved an outline of their plan to achieve this goal: Project 2020. 

            Rwanda struggles with a myriad of issues: high population density along with a high birth rate, 90% of Rwandans living off farming along (mostly sustenance), an underdeveloped government, lack of diversification in exports and GDP, low education rates, and high unemployment/underemployment.  (I estimate that Rwanda has an unemployment rate of 80%, so the next time we complain about things in the USA, we can be reminded that we are doing well for ourselves even in a major recession.) 

            The government wants to create a vibrant private sector economy along with a burgeoning middle class.  With the average Rwandan making approximately $300 per year, the economy would have to grow at a rate of 7% per year for the next eight years in order to have the beginnings of a stable middle economy that equates to the average Rwandan making $900 per year.  Remember, wealth lies heavy at the top.  When the average is $300 per year, it actually means that for most Rwandans their income is $100 per year.  To have a burgeoning economy, government and middle class, Rwanda needs to develop these concepts:

1.       Good governance and a capable state

2.      Human resource development and a knowledge based economy (basically, moving away from a completely agrarian economy as Rwanda has today)

3.      A private sector-led economy

4.      Infrastructure development

5.      Productive and market oriented agriculture

6.      Regional and international economic integration

According to top economic analysts in developing countries, democracy and development prospers when people have a livable wage (minimum $1000 per person per annum).  Rwanda believes that it can have a stable, healthy country that can free itself from the typical African cycle of problems if it creates a self-sustaining, aid free government.  Furthermore, this will remove Rwanda from the ghosts of the past where ethnicities and genocidal flare-ups have haunted this country post-colonialism.  Only time will tell if this plan will work.