Ok its less than 48hrs till Jaye and i head off, so my next post will probably come from Nairobi, Kenya.

Anyway i ask you this, what were you doing between April and July in 1994?

If my memory serves me correctly I think i had just started going to school in Ballarat after moving with my family from Port Hedland.

These are the dates of one the darkest chapters in Rwandan, if not human, history. The Rwandan Genocide was the cold blooded killing of 800,000 - 1,000,000 men, women and children Tutsi's, and pro-peace Hutus. The two ethnic groups of central Africa have a history of civil conflict. But the question has to be asked, could the powers of the western world been able to prevent this tragedy from occurring.

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire (Force Commander for the UN peacekeeping efforts in Rwanda)

I highly recommend reading this book. There is also a DVD documentary you can most likely pickup form your local library.

genocide survivor, scars from machete attack

How lucky do you feel to live in Australia?

This all occurred 16 years ago.

Jambo Kenya! Well not just yet. Nairobi, Kenya is our first destination on our tour of East Africa and where we fly in and out of the continent. Whilst in Kenya we will be visiting places like the Masai Mara, East Africa Mission Orphanage, Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru.

Kenya is the only country to have a national park within its capital city. Lying just 7km from the centre of Nairobi, Nairobi National park houses all the famous African wildlife. Nairobi National Park is not to be confused with a place like the Werribee open rage zoo, these animals are wild which makes images such as this one so exciting.

The Mighty Maasai! Possibly one of the most well known African tribes, the Maasai are a semi-nomadic group that live in Kenya and Northern Tanzania.

The Maasai herd goats, sheep and cattle and traditionally live on the produce from these animals. However, the Maasai are under constant pressure from governments to adopt a more modern lifestyle which is putting their traditional way of life under threat.

Maasai Warrior

Anyway we are off to Cairns and the Whitsunday's for a bit of a pre holiday party.

So kwa heri for now.

Just playing with some shots of my passport while getting all our things in order.

Tanzania home of the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Mt Kilimanjaro and the home of the Maasai people . We spend 8 days in Tanzania, 5 of those days spent camping in the middle of the Serengeti.

Here are a few images of Tanzania that are acting as a bit of inspiration.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/3310481727/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejdakowicz/2495074217/

Ok, so its three weeks till Jaye and I head to East Africa, well Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda to be exact. So I thought I would do a bit of a blog pre, during and after our trip to keep all you guys up to date with what we see and the people we meet.

So we start with the town I call home (for the moment), and our trips starting point Melbourne. So stay tuned...