Erick




 It was a Friday and my friends asked my if I wanted to go to this new play that has come out. At intermission there was a raffle to go Africa, for an all expenses paid trip to go anywhere in Africa, for 15 days, and you were also able to take up to three other people to come along. So I bought a ticket. After the show the they announced the winner “ the winner is ticket number 1-4-7-8!” It was my number! I couldn’t believe it!


 * July 23, 2008- Day One __//ALGERIA//__**

We left the airport at about 7:00, 7:30. I slept most of the way. As we were getting off the flight around about 8:00 in the morning, the first thing I noticed was the climate. I was hot, a lot hotter than the United States. There was a couple seated next to us, they said when they had come on a tour here for a festival sometime last year. Their flight was delayed because of the bad rainy weather that comes around in the summer. North Africa has a steppe climate with some rain fall mostly in the summer.        <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(3, 2, 2)"><span style="color: rgb(7, 8, 8)">      As we were driving we pasted many farms. So of them were really big too. They consisted of either wheat, barly,and a lot of citrus fruits. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color: rgb(242, 13, 13)"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(3, 2, 2)"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The people I brought were my long time friends Mosses and Isaac. My first stop was in Algeria. We went to the city Algiers, the capitol of Algeria, I visited The Museum of Arts, just so I could learn about the general culture of Africa. I saw some really weird things to like masks and outfits made of animal hides. Africa is strongly influenced by there arts, music, literature and crafts. The most common music is called "Rai". Overall it was fun and exciting to be there.


 * July 23, 2008- Day Two, The Sahara Desert**

I was awoken to an alarm at about 6:00 at our hotel, we wanted to get the day started early. Today we are going to go to the Sahara desert. We had to drive about 23 miles to get to the starting point of the trail, that only toke about 10 minutes. When we got there their was already other people waiting to go. WOW was it hot. Our guide was just talking about some facts about the desert, and one of them was about how hot it can get. We brought lots of water so nun of us would dehydrate. Than we were off. On our way to the camp, our guide had also brought lots of water just in case someone needed it. I saw some cool things and learned a lot too. He said that the highest recorded temperature it has ever reached was 136 degrees Fahrenheit! We rode on camels to the camping ground. We would then spend the night there. The temperature didn't get any cooler, just stayed the same.




 * July 24, 2008- Day Three, Heading back**

We took a different route back, but saw pretty much the same thing, sand. We did stop at one oasis, that was cool. I have never seen one of those in person, just pictures. We took about ten minutes just looking around and listening to our guide talk about them and how they form. He said that water from the ground, like a spring could help grow the trees and plants. This oasis was small but our guide said that some get really big, and there are some people settle there, and that's were they live. On our way back Mosses didn't feel good. Our guide said that its probably from the suns radiation. Good thing that we were only 15 minutes away from the arrival camp. When we got back we were all sweaty but overcame that with excited to go to our next stop, Nigeria. We will be flying out of Algeria at about 10:00 tonight, so I'm going to take a nap.




 * July 25, 2008- Day One __//NIGERIA//__**

We slept in today till 10:00, and stayed in our hotel till noon. We were going to go to a Wild life park, The Yankari National Park. We left the hotel at 2:00. It was about a half hour drive. We took a major highway that goes over the Niger River. The river flows through the countries only fertile area. Nigeria is surrounded by seven other countries. It's land size is 356,669 square miles, but we had to only travel a couple square miles. When we got their there was a big gate at the entrance. We all went into the zoo, and went right for the elephants. Issac really likes elephants. The next couple of animals we saw was a zebra, some monkeys and a couple of birds. They didn't have a sign by it so we couldn't find out what kind of bird it was. We saw several other wild animals and plant life. Than after we came back from lunch at the local "fine dinner" we drove back to the hotel.




 * July 26, 2008 Day Two** **Nigeria**

I was looking through an African newspaper, and saw that on October 1, 1960 Nigeria gained it's Independence. I also saw that today was the celebration of the 58th Mallom Bello ya'u Argungu amazing 65.95 kilogram fish. I researched more about it. I found out that it was a contest and involve about 1000 other participated. Mallom's fish was the winner. This event is supported by over 3000 tourist, and watched by many African government officials. Like governors, ambassadors and the Sultan of Sokoto. Nigeria has a Multi-party rule. This event since the year 1934 has been a promotion of peace, unity and culture. The festival was tomorrow so we all decided that we would go to it.


 * July 27, 2008 Day Three Nigeria**

The festival started at noon so we got to sleep in**.** The festival was only a little ways down the street, but we still brought a map. Mosses was reading all of these "fun facts" as he said they were about Nigeria. West Africa's Sahara desert is 4/5th the size of Alaska, and Nigeria is 1/3rd larger than Texas. We were almost there. When we got there, their was dancing, parties, and a lot of people. It was a lot of fun. We ate our lunch there. We also joined in on some of the activities. Issac won one of those big stuffed animals, it was a giraffe. When all of the fishing part of the celebration started we watch a little of it. We left about a little past half way and picked up some take-out on our way back to our hotel for another fun filled day.




 * July 29, 2008- Day One** **__//CAMEROON//__**

Today we woke up at about 7:10, we were going to go to Mount Cameroon. We were talking to the guide, about the tour around the mountain. He was saying that Mount Cameroon is one of Africa's largest volcanoes, it reaches up to 4,040 meters or 13,255 feet. The last time the mountain erupted was March 28, 1999 and May 28, 2000. Our guide said they have an annual Mount Cameroon Race for Hope. That goes all the way to the peak, and takes about Four and one half hours. He said we were going in about 10 minutes. We started to hike up the mountain and it got a little colder almost right away. There was some plant life and a lot of really cool scenery. We went past the first and second checkpoint to the third were we stopped. We took a short break to rest and catch our breath. Then we headed back down the mountain.




 * July 29, 2008- Day Two, Cameroon**

Our next stop in Cameroon was a guided tour of Cameroon's rainforest. Africa's rainforest is in a way endangered. It has many illegal cutting and poaching problems, and loosing a lot of wood. The tour was a two day camping trip in the woods so we brought extra cloths everything else was provided. Many different ethnic groups live in there rainforest. There are four different rainforest levels. Starting at the floor to the emergent layer (top floor). As we were on the tour we saw many wildlife, and many tropical birds. We took a three hour trip into the forest to our camping ground.




 * July 30, 2008- Day Three, Cameroon**

We woke up at just past sunrise, that's when all the animals are out and about. All we had to do is look up and you would see all sorts of animals, mostly birds and monkeys. It took about the same time to get back. When we got back to the campground we ate our lunch there, and than left for the drive back. We got back to our hotel at about 4:00. We ate out at some restaurant that I couldn't pronounce, but it was still good food. We watched T.V. for the rest of the night, and went to bed a little early, because we had Kenya to go to next.




 * July 31, 2008- Day One __//KENYA//__**

We went on a three day camping and game sighting trip. Cents it was a camping trip we had to bring lots of thing with us, like sleeping bags, money, blankets, light source, water, bug spray, and Issac brought a camera. That day we drove to Kampala. Which would than take us to the Murchison Falls National Park, that is the camp ground. As we were driving I saw a lot of poverty, Mosses said it was because of one of Kenyas last rules, Moi, he didn’t help. He left A little more than 40 percent of people in unemployment. As we drove to Kampala you could tell we were getting close, wildlife. Finally when we got there we were able to go almost right away. We just stopped for a bathroom break and some food. We got our own group “safari vehicle” or jeep, our guide was driving and telling all about what we were seeing we didn’t see lots of animals and our guide said that was because we were to close to the cities, that would make cents. By the time we got to the camp it was lunch time. We had lunch there and than an evening game viewing drive around 5:00-9:30. We went to bed around ten o'clock. Tomorrow we were going to a different camp site.




 * August 1, 2008, Day two- Kenya**

The next morning we got up early in the morning. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast over the fire, all of our meals were over the fire. Our first place we went to was through Victoria Nile. A river that forms the upper part of the Nile River. We saw many animals drinking and walking by the river. Our camp was at the top of the falls so we had to ditch the jeep in garage at the bottom of it. As we were hiking up the mountain a rock broke from under me and I slipped, and scraped up my knee preaty bad, but our guide patched me up so I'm good now. There was a "trail" or thats what it was suppose to be. I took us about an hour to hike up including some breaks. When we got to the camp there were showers, and real bathrooms, so we had a rest break. We saw some other game on top of the falls, but looking over the falls, that was cool.




 * August 2, 2008, Day Three- Kenya**

We got up early that morning so we could travel in daylight we went back down the trail and got back on our jeep and started to drive back to the starting camp. We took different trails and saw other animals we got to Kampala around 4:00 we gathered our things and headed on home. That was the most exiting thing we've done all of this time, the beautiful landscape and animals. Kenya lies on the Earths equator, so it has fairly hot weather. It has many ethical problems. More than 1000 people have died because of ethnical problems. Because of Moi's rule a couple years back Kenya faces many job losses. When we got to the hotel we just stayed there for the remained of the evening.


 * August 3, 2008, Day One __//ZIMBABWE//__**

Today was the begining of the end, we only had three more days of African fun. We decided to go game hunting, only in a different spot than in Kenya. Our hotel in Zimbabwe was the best one out of all the places we've stayed. The only down side was that Zimbabwe is land locked, so there is no major bodies of water we could stay by. We were really close, like only a couple of miles away from the game spots. We got there and had a jeep to drive in. Our guide said that we could hunt for a small type of deer. We did see what we were looking for but none of them were big enough, thats what our guide said. So it wasn't a complete waste because we saw some lions, one cheetah and a herd of elephants. We went back to our hotel and just messed around there.




 * August 4, 2008, Day Two- Zimbabwe**

This was thing we have all been waiting for, the trip to Victoria Falls. We had to drive about a hour and a half to the trail up to Victoria falls. When we got there it was just amazing. Victoria is the worlds largest waterfall in some measures, the height is about 360 feet high and the base is about one mile long. It was just amazing. We got to take a helicopter ride around the falls. We spent the whole day there, but finally went back to the hotel. We had to pack for the fly home.




 * August 5, 2008, Day three- Heading home**

We woke up at about 8:00 that morning to go to our flight. We had no problems with our flight and it was a easy fly back to the U.S. Zimbabwe had many problems through 80% of there population is unemployed, without an actual job. There culture is based on arts, pottery, textiles, jewelry, and carvings. Up to 40 to 50% of the popu lation go to Christian churches. Well I'm done with my trip.