Greetings Antoinette,

Your referencing the Great Lakes region in our UN CONFLICTING CONGO discussion inspires me to share my recent travels through pages of books.

Lately I've had a great interest in the Nile river and the Great Lakes area of Africa which partially explains why I diligently follow news about Congo and Nkunda and the Kivu area in particular, aside from the fact that I've been to Goma which isn't very far from your Mushaki town.

This past month I was devouring books about the discovery of the source of the Nile - its main source (parent) being Lake Victoria and its secondary source (cradle) being Lake Albert - the two greatest of the Great Lakes (of which Edward, Kivu and Tanganyika are great too). The following map is a good perspective of all the lakes:

I think the fact that I've flown over Lake Victoria and looked down from above on the Nile winding snake-like below (as I was leaving Africa), must have inspired even more my fascination with the story of the discovery of the source of the Nile. See also SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED TO RWANDA

This literary journey has taken me up and down the Nile from both source and mouth including Lake Victoria's main tributary river, Akagera (fed from Rukarara river in Rwanda in Nyungwe Forest, the farthest source of the Nile and near which I've been). Here's the list of books that transported me there (in the order that I read them):

THE WHITE NILE, by Alan Moorehead, 1960
JOURNEY OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, by John Hanning Speke, 1863
IN THE HEART OF AFRICA, by Samuel White Baker, 1864
4,000 MILES OF ADVENTURE: DOWN THE NILE BY CANOE, by Andre Davy, 1958

I've been especially interested in the Nile's course through Sudan and learning the history of that nation - and its capital Khartoum - which is helping me comprehend and empathize even more with the horror of the continued atrocities being perpetrated on the Sudanese people by its present-day enslavers. See CHINA OILS SUDAN GENOCIDE

I think I'm temporarily finished reading about the Nile for now, but am thankful for the experience of being flashed back in time to 1858 when John Speke discovered Lake Victoria and correctly determined it was the source of the Nile, describing parts of Tanzania and lower Kenya along the way, with a long stop in Uganda staying with King Mutesa, before being the first white man to see the Nile's beginning at the top of Lake Victoria (1862) and then travel down its entirety to where it ends in the Mediterranean Sea at Cairo.

I completed my stint of Nile reading with a book by an expedition of three adventurers - two French and one American - who traveled by kayak down the Nile in 1950.

The description of their attempt to start their journey down the Nile near its furthest source on Akagera River in Rwanda/Burundi is so exciting I'll probably scan the pages one day to share with readers.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

Map of Africa, by Africa Action