On most trips after I’ve been away from home for three weeks, I just want to get home. Not so in Uganda in 1994. Within a day of this picture, I was ten feet away from a silverback mountain gorilla. Within a few days, I was at Entebbe Airport. Within a week or so, I was married at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Within five years, everyone in this camp was butchered with machetes by Rwandan rebels.

We were in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Uganda. Would I go back to where the cheetahs, lions, giraffes, and elephants roamed? Probably not. Would I go back to Uganda? In a heartbeat. I found the people to be more relaxed, more social, and gracious. My memories of Uganda are of beauty and the lush environment. This was the most real place I’ve ever been.