Everyone seems to have a different idea of what they want to see updated first on this site. I think it’s telling that all the people who wrote me emails or left comments asked for sketchbooks or souvenirs but the winner of my anonymous poll was finances. I’m not surprised, “how much did you spend?” is the one question on the tip of everyone’s tongues. I haven’t added up all my expenses yet and I’m not looking forward to it. A year’s worth of bank statements are sitting beside me now and haven’t moved since the day I got home.

I will update the finances, of course, and I know it is always more than I estimate. If you just can’t stand the wait I would guess that it’s somewhere between $20,000 - $30,000 over 14 months. Although that sounds like a lot of money (some people have suggested I should have put a down payment on a house instead) it’s less than I would spend living in Chicago.

After a long rest from this site I finally sat down and sorted through my photos from East Africa. I’m a little disappointed in these photos because the lighting is often overcast and I didn’t have many portrait volunteers. Still, there are some nice atmospheric shots on safari, beautiful stormy ocean scenes from Zanzibar and the much-anticipated mountain gorillas. That’s twenty two photos of gorillas, if you can bear it.

You can start from the top, at the main gallery page, or jump ahead to the following country galleries: Uganda / Democratic Republic of Congo / Rwanda / Tanzania / Zanzibar

The Madagascar gallery was already up back in June but I’ve added a few photos to the Tana Gallery which I took the day before I flew back to Nairobi. There are some nice market scenes and a few others I really like—This girl with a balloon and women selling oranges in the market in particular.

This photo isn’t a favorite because it’s a good photo, but because of how it happened. I was taking a photo of the detour sign next to this man for the Design section, which greatly amused him. He kept warning me to be careful because of the traffic speeding around me. Then, when I finished, he looked at me and pointed to himself… he wanted a picture! It’s sometimes hard to get people to agree to portraits in Africa, but this man thought he was a star once I pointed the lens at him.

Some pictures are not what they seem. These boys hanging out at the Uganda/Rwanda border look greatly offended to be in the photo even though they insisted I take it and were actually really excited. Of course, there’s often a request for money in certain areas of the world. These adorable little girls on Kendwa beach in Zanzibar literally grabbed my camera bag and yelled “photo! photo” until I agreed. Before I would take the photo I told them I wouldn’t give them money. Immediately after I released the shutter the girls circled me yelling “money! dollar!” The mean-looking boys in the first photo were much nicer than those two cute girls, despite how they look through the lens.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been home for a few days now. Thanks for giving me time before demanding more updates! Since I’ve been home I’ve spent my time eating food that I like and staring in dismay at the piles of souvenirs I’ve sent home. I shipped at least eight packages along the way and gave away almost all of my clothes before leaving Africa so I could fit more souvenirs in my checked baggage.

After phase one I came home to the same friends and family. This time things are different. No less than three friends have been engaged and one has gotten engaged and married while I was away—another friend had a baby.

For those of you no longer interested in my trip please feel free to take yourselves off my mailing list. You can do that automatically by entering your address on the subscription page. You can also contact me directly if you need help. Those of you who still want to read my updates, hang in there. I intend on updating all of the content—stories from Africa, Tajikistan and maybe even Tibet, the gallery and all of the
information on the details page.

After my computer gave up on me I didn’t feel comfortable connecting any of my electronics to public computers for fear of viruses. That precaution meant that not only have none of you see my recent photos… neither have I! After downloading my memory cards to my hard drive I did not access my photos at all. I’m just as curious as you to see if any of my gorilla photos turned out.

At the moment I’m contemplating if I should go ahead and update here and there as I wish or if I should take your interests into account. If any of you have a strong opinion I’d love to hear it. For instance, would you prefer I put up the new galleries first or concentrate on blog posts? When I write my stories would you rather hear the very old ones first (for instance, Tajikistan), the newer ones starting in Ethiopia or the new ones starting in London and working my way back in time? Without any direction I will probably just update what I find the most interesting first and then fill in the blanks later.

Other than the gallery and posts, what are you most interested in seeing updated first… finances, maps, souvenirs, sketchbooks? You can vote in the poll on the right hand side of this page if you like. Almost everyone I have met recently wants to know how much this trip cost me and the answer is I just don’t know. Without my computer I will have to go back all the way to March to compile all of the data. At the moment I’m still trying to figure out where I packed my hairdryer so any more coherent reflections will have to wait.

Now that I’m in London I’m a little overwhelmed. Not by the city, I’ve been here before and know my way around. It’s the little things like price tags and the fact that the sidewalks have a gentle slope where they meet roads so one doesn’t need to climb up and down high curbs when walking down the street. There’s also an awful lot of white people here, more than I’ve seen in 14 months. It was quite funny to see them sunbathing in Hyde Park today.

People are staring at me and at least one man said “oh my god…” when I walked by today. I had my arms and feet decorated with black henna in Zanzibar and most people in London appear to think it’s tattoos. It’s not just the henna either, I feel like I look like a homeless person. I gave away as much possible clothes in Kenya and am left with a few t-shirts and some ugly pants. I see that the 80’s revival in clothing has continued in my absence and all the girls seem especially “girly.”

When I arrived at Heathrow the other day I realized that the so-called “airbus” that I was instructed to take into town hasn’t existed for years and finally decided to take the tube. There was an express train to Paddington Station that would have saved me about one hour but at 15 pounds it was no bargain and I would still have to transfer twice. Instead, I took the blue line until it’s connection with the line I needed despite having to backtrack a bit. With two large bags, my carryon full of heavy electronics and a mailing tube I decided the least number of transfers the better.

I haven’t been here for seven years and there are a few obvious changes. I have seen no old buses or taxis and the neighborhood I’ve always stayed in seems a little more classy. My hostel room was full of young travelers with limited English abilities. Traveling in the third world necessitates speaking the local language or English and I haven’t met so many poor English-speaking travelers in a very long time.

My main goals here are to see the Tate Modern, built since I was last in London, and re-visit all my favorite museums and neighborhoods in town. Even though I won’t be paying for any big “sights” just eating fish and chips tonight cost me twenty dollars.

Posting before I left Africa turned out to be difficult and despite writing most of my Zanzibar story I was faced with firewalls and a constantly-busy hostel computer. Since it’s not safe to walk around Nairobi after dark I was confined to the hostel because I refused to pay for cab rides just to use the internet. Before I left I did a lot of shopping, filling an extra huge duffel bag with souvenirs and gifts. My sister and mom had specific requests, which I was happy to meet after getting my brother much better presents along the way (he got a sheesha, aka hookah, from Egypt and hand made knives from Kashgar).

Leaving Africa wasn’t hard and I was in the air before I realized I was leaving for good. East Africa was the least interesting culture I visited on my trip, excluding Ethiopia of course. I feel bad saying that and I wish I could compare the over-touristed countries I visited to places like Mozambique, Malawi or Namibia. I suspect that I will eventually visit West Africa and have high hopes for something more fitting my interests.