Democratic Republic of Congo- Take 1

I have always dreamed of going to the DRC for some inexplicable reason it is a Mecca of sorts for me. Now, I know this is not normal and I know it is one of the most dangerous places in the world, but for some reason, I have always wanted to go.
I finally had my chance. I recruited a friend of mine to come join me. Our plan was to climb the active volcano and track gorillas in the Virunga mountains. My friend Ryan met me in Kabale, southwestern Uganda. I had met him in Kampala and he seemed game for an adventure.
We made arrangements to track the gorillas. When we asked what kind of security we would have, "A jeep full of soldiers" was the reply. We exchanged glances and burst out laughing. Welcome to the big leagues.
That night I got into bed and felt the coldest I have ever been. It was bone-shattering cold. I thought I would never be warm again and that my teeth were going to chatter off.
Ryan gave me his sleeping bag. An hour later I was shaking so hard and nothing he could do could warm me up. I was sleeping on the top bunk and he was on the bottom and my shaking was moving the whole bed.
A few days earlier I had gone on a really long hike and somehow my trusty running shoes gave me massive blisters. We figured they went septic (maybe the fact that they were so swollen and pussy and red and I could hardly walk and had shooting pains up my legs had tipped us off, we are almost doctors). So poor Ryan, on his first night with me had to carry me to the "hospital" in the middle of the night. It was closed but he woke up someone in the adjoining house.
I am not sure how far we got with the language barrier but they seemed to get the point once they saw my feet and recoiled in horror. They gave me antibiotics. They got across that I had a really high ever and needed to get into a cold shower to bring it down. This was a slight problem because Kabale suffers from intermittent water availability and that night there was no water.
By this time Ryan was really worried but something shifted in me and I thought everything was hilarious. I was trying to tell him I am not always like this because I thought he might be worried about what he had gotten himself into, but I was laughing too hard at everything.
With an extra body and a sleeping bag as well as a sleeping pill i managed to sleep it off. In the morning I felt like I had been hit by a train. Every muscle in my body was aching. Ryan was great, forcing me to the pharmacy which I wouldn't have done alone, helping me get bandages and beds.
There was no way I was going to miss this DRC trip so we loaded up on pain killers and headed to Kisoro, the border town.
The next day were off to track the mountain gorillas. This is where the problems got big. Had it just been one thing I would have pressed on but with two big things I thought this was a sign from the universe that it wasn't meant to be and I should probably listen to any hunch I might have because going into the DRC is not to be taken lightly.
First of all, my feet still wouldn't fit into my shoes. It was all I could do not to cry as I tried to force them on. Then, we got to the border which is controlled by Tutsi rebels. They decided to up the bribe 100$ to get into the DRC. The money was just too much and we decided to call it off.
Instead, we went on a hike to look for snakes in the Virunga forest- Pythons, Cobras and Green Mambas. It was great to hike through all the Congolese and Ugandan villages. We drank beer and ate food with the villagers. We climbed up and down mountains and got to see a side of their life that was really beautiful and remote. Children ran up to us to hold our hands. Yes, my feet were killing me but I had pain killers and tried to concentrate on the mud homes and corn drying in the sun, women carrying baskets on their heads.
It was only later when were were hiking through the lush forest, ripe with banana leaves shutting out the light and vines carpeting the ground looking for these poisonous snakes and seeing holes they lived in as I tromped through in my flip flops that I realized maybe in the end gorilla trekking would have been safer!