Starting the New Year With a Warthog: Akagera National Park

Note: We are running a couple of days behind on uploading the blog due to a busy travel schedule and slow internet service. We want to assure you that we are absolutely fine and will catch up on our blog entries as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience!

Day Five--January 1, 2012

Sunrise over Lake Ihema on New Year's Day. Let there be light!

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 

~Genesis 1.24-25 (NIV)

We arose super early on New Year's Day (4:30 a.m. Rwanda time) so that we could spend the day admiring God's good creation in the Akagera National Park along the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Rather than writing in detail about it, we are simply going to let our photographs and short captions tell the story. Suffice it to say, we had an amazing and inspiring experience on safari. It was a blessing to ring in the New Year with a warthog!

~ Shan Overton, Boston College graduate student

All photographs by Annalise Nielson.

On the van headed into Akagera National Park at about 6:30 a.m.

Cape buffalo grazing beneath Acacia trees.

The buffalo, or imbogo in Kinyarwanda, 

look docile but have been known to charge trucks on safari!

While we were unable to get very close to the giraffes (twiga in Kinyarwanda),

we were stunned by their stately gracefulness. They are so lovely.

These two young bucks are impala, or impara in Kinyarwanda.

Impala are the most common of the 11 species of antelope in Akagera.

This grown impala buck, known by his curved horns, oversees a herd of females and their offspring. 

When the young males get old enough (like the two above), he will run them away from the herd.

Then, we saw the zebras and had to hang out the window to get the best photographs!

The Burchell's zebras, or imparage, were as curious about us as we were about them.

Or were they wary? Or hostile?

But some zebra wanted to strike a pose for us!

Burchell's zebra are a subspecies of the Plains zebra.

Bye, zebra friends!

The vervet monkey, or Cercopithecus aethiops in Latin, 

is one of the three primates of the savannah in the park.

A vervet mother with a baby hanging from her stomach.

While we were waiting quietly in the van to see if a crocodile would surface in Lake Ihema,
a hippo ran out of the bush just next to us. Exciting!

She hit the water and kept on swimming until she was completely submerged.
We watched her bubbles on the water's surface as she walked along the bottom of the lake.

Occasionally, the hippo (imvubu in Kinyarwanda) surfaced to see if we were gone.

Happy New Year, Warthog!
In Kinyarwanda, warthog is isatura.
Umwaka Mushya Muhire, Isatura!

A symbol of hope and transformation, butterflies are everywhere in Rwanda.
In Kinyarwanda, butterfly is ikinyugunyugu.

Beauties by Lake Ihema! 
Episcopal students, staff, and chaplain of Northeastern University.

More lakeside lovelies.
Episcopal students and chaplain of Boston College.

After several hours on safari, we headed back to the game lodge,
tired but still looking good! 
Happy New Year!


Peace to all creatures on this beautiful earth.