I was at a gold party in Connecticut the other evening.

Party goers came bearing their gold bounty in silk jewelry bags, purses, zip-lock bags and mailing envelopes.

Below you will see video footage I shot as guests gathered at Cheryle Podgorski’s kitchen to sip on some wine, taste delectable treats and swap stories behind some of their unwanted, outdated or mismatched gold they were going to sell to Maggie Percival that evening for cash.

Gold parties, that first began to thrive in Michigan amid problems in the auto industry th

ere, have become increasingly popular around the nation as desperate Americans seek  for ways to raise money for personal use, fun or to finance charity projects amid a deepening economic recession.

At the party I attended, guests donated part of the money they got from selling their gold to a Connecticut charity Podgorski runs that provides free prom dresses to high school girls who cannot afford one.

Seating at a dining table, Percival, a representative of a Michigan-based business that has aggressively promoted gold parties, used a jeweler’s loupe, an electronic gold testing kit and a digital measuring scale to test and appraise the jewelry before paying friends and aquaitances on the spot for their gold.

The parties essentially tap onto a hostess and organizer’s social connections to drive up attendance and the presence of friends to reassure partygoers that selling gold may not be a taboo. Their settings, a home of a friend or an acquaintance, set them apart from pawn shops and jewelry stores that also compete for the same business.

 Check out the video clip below that I shot at the party. © Rodrique Ngowi. All Rights Reserved.

America has turned to an extraordinary man to deal with extraordinary challenges. 

Barack Hussein Obama -- whose Kenyan father abandoned him at  young age and watched his mother lose a desperate struggle with cancer -- has been elected the 44th President of the United States of America. He becomes the first African-American to win the nation's highest office.

But he takes over The White House at a time the world's largest economy struggles to deal with the worst economic downturn in more than 70 years,  a slumping housing market, its troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, its rivals around the world looking for opportunities to challenge its leadership and the nation smarting from a bruising campaign season.

Few American presidents have taken over the Oval Office facing such serious challenges.

 The man Obama defeated in the presidential election, Arizona Senator John McCain, acknowledged the significance of the outcome. He called and congratulated Obama for being elected the first Black American to be elected U.S. president. 

McCain also noted that Obama's election will make African-Americans proud.

One of the leading African-American figures, former U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell, said Obama's victory was particularly significant because he ran for office as "an American who happens to be African."

Powell, a former U.S. millitary chief, said he was not ashamed to admit in public that he shed tears -- together with his wife and son -- when Obama was declared president elect.

Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson -- who was twice candidate for the Democratic party nomination for president -- also was seen shedding tears after Obama was elected. 

Obama was elected after an extraordinary campaign that saw him beat formidable political rivals.

He first defeated New York Senator Hillary Clinton to win his party's nomination before taking on McCain, a Republican, in the general election .

Obama also harnessed the power of the internet in ways never seen before, helping him raise more than $600 million from donors around the country to fund the most expensive campaign in U.S. history.

He also inspired millions of young and new voters to register and cast their ballots, a move that ultimately paid off as these essentially made the difference between the number of votes garnered by McCain and himself.

Obama ran a very disciplined campaign that enabled him to focus on his election message, instead of scrambling to put out small fires that could have been sparked by gaffes.

Obama campain's rallying cry was "Yes, We Can." But the president elect's first message to the nation was simple and straight forward: the tasks of rebuilding the economy and delivering on campaign promises may take longer than just one term in office. 

As Americans prepare to elect a new president, one result is very clear -- one of the two candidates is guaranteed to make history. 

If elected, Democrat Barack Obama would be the first African-American to be elected President Of The United States of America. And his opponent, Republican John 

McCain, would be the oldest person taking over the presidency for the first term if he is elected to office.

As campaigning heats up, one cannot escape witnessing the political contest play out on TVs, on the radio, online, in the mail and right in the streets.

I was walking the other day near Harvard University and saw Obama supporters seeking out potential voters, talking to them,  encouraging them to vote and asking for contact details to continue keeping in touch. There was no evidence of McCain supporters in the neighborhood, partly because he deployed fewer resources in Mass

achusetts because the state has a history of voting for Democratic presidential candidates.

Here are some of the photos I shot during my walkabout, including a mannequin  wearing a message promoting Obama.

It's been a while since last I updated this blog. 

There is a good reason for that. I have been working on a new web site that has now gone live.

You will find it at www.ngowi.com I intend to update the blog now and then, but since the web site requires a lot more work to update as compared to a simple blog, that may not happen as frequently as I would like. I am sure, however, that things will change in a short while and updates will again be a bit more frequent. 

In the meantime, please continue to visit both this blog and the web site.

Best regards.

R.

Three African countries that twice were involved in the most devastating wars in the continent have apparently agreed to work together to protect the endangered mountain gorillas.
Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo will share at about $5.8 million in aid to deal with the threat from poaching and human encroachment at the last sanctuary for the world's only surviving population of mountain gorillas.
There are just over 700 mountain gorillas living in Africa's first national park that straddles the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo.
The apes make up a key source of foreign currency from tourists.
Villagers living on the land surrounding the national park, however, repeatedly cross into the gorilla habitat in search of firewood, honey, bush meat and fertile fields to cultivate their crops.
The gorillas -- who roam across the three countries -- have suffered from years of instability first created by the 100-day genocide unleashed in Rwanda, and later by two devastating civil wars in Congo.
The 1994 Rwanda genocide killed at least half a million members of the Tutsi minority and politically moderates from the Hutu majority. More than a million people later fled the country into neighboring eastern Congo, including members of the former army and the extremist Hutu militias who orchestrated the slaughter.
Rwanda and Uganda have twice invaded Congo, in 1994 and 1998. Rwandan officials said they were chasing down Rwandan militias threatening their nation's security. The second invasion sparked a six-nation war in Congo that drew in the armies of six nations.
The three neighbors are now willing to cast aside the history of strained relations and animosity to work together to protect those gentle giants of the highlands.

It isn't everyday that you hear that coffee can help protect chimpanzees.
But a coffee roaster in northeastern U.S.A., working with a pioneering chimpanzee researcher, is hoping to do just that by marketing coffee produced by farmers living near the apes' premier habitat, the world-famous Gombe National Park, in western Tanzania.
The conservation concept is simple -- create an alternative source of considerable and stable income for small-scale farmers to encourage them to protect the forest in which the primates thrive.
Coffee beans flourish under the shade of a forest canopy, as the chimpanzees happily go about their wild lifestyle among broad miombo trees entwined with vines and creepers.
The world's leading chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall promoted the project to counter social and economic pressures closing in around the fertile land in the national park. An expanding human population struggling to survive has cut down large swaths of trees all around Gombe National Park.
But Gombe -- and its verdant, steep hills near the shores of Africa's deepest Lake Tanganyika -- is not the only place where Chimpanzees in the wild are being threatened by man's insatiable desire for more land.
Goodall says at the turn of the last century, about 1 million chimpanzees lived in 25 countries across western and central Africa. Today, their number has dwindled to about 150,000, with significant populations found in only four countries, she says.
Promoters hope that the taste of Gombe coffee will help protect the chimpanzees -- whose genetic make up is at least 98 percent human, making the ape the closest relative to man.
"Gombe Reserve" coffee has floral top notes and vibrant flavors of tropical fruit, according to Lindsey Bolger, director of coffee sourcing and relationships for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that promotes the beverage.
"Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has always had a values-driven approach to coffee, believing that coffee can help the greater good. We're thrilled to work with the Jane Goodall Institute to bring this great coffee to market and, ultimately, protect the chimps," she said in a statement.

The discovery of one of the most brilliant green gemstones in the world involved a charging buffalo, an adventurous geologist, a burning fascination with the stone and a relentless search that took him to a remote corner of Tanzania.
Campbell Bridges was walking in rural pre-independence Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, when an angry buffalo attacked, forcing him to jump into a gully to save his life. The distressed geologist noticed a brilliant green glint in a rock outcrop in the gully while scampering for safety.
He never thought of grabbing a sample during the life-and-death drama. He simply left the area as quickly as he could after the buffalo wandered away on failing to reach him. The brilliant Tsavorite, however, had seared a lasting image in his imagination. Bridges was soon transferred to another area and never was able to go back to search for the glittering gemstone.
That was in 1961. At that time, the gemstone did not exist in record books and was known by local tribes by various names.
Seven years later, he became the first man to record the discovery of gemstone-quality Tsavorite, this time in the charming East African nation of Tanzania -- one of only two countries where fine Tsavorite is being mined.
But what exactly is Tsavorite?
It is possibly the youngest green gemstone in the world and is as hard as one of the oldest, emerald. The precious stones were formed deep in the earth's crust hundreds of millions of years ago. Its rareness of occurrence is possibly one of the reason for its relatively recent discovery.

Tsavorite was formed when tremendous pressure and heat were applied for million of years _ some 7 tons (6.35 metric tons) per 1 sq. centimeter (0.16 sq. inches), at more than 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 Fahrenheit).
The results was exceptionally lively and brilliant stones, even before polishing, and whose color varies from light to dark green.
Tsavorites are much rarer than its look-alike, emeralds, which has been known for around five thousand years, Bridges said in a remote, southeastern corner of Kenya where he has set up mining operations in the midst of some of the wildest animals in Africa.
Bridges says Tsavorites are worth the risk of having elephants, buffaloes and other animals for neighbors in the African bush.
The moments he begins to discuss Tsavorite, it becomes clear that he still has an intense passion for the gemstone.
A perfectly cut tsavorite resembles green diamond, he says.
Tsavorites, however, are also much durable than emeralds because they are much tougher and less brittle. They are also twice as brilliant _ qualities that attract jewelry designers, Bridges says.
Tsavorite has other unique properties, including the fact that it is one of the few natural gemstones in the world, he says.
It is one of the few gemstones that does not need to be treated with heat, oil, irradiation, dyes or coating to enhance color, remove impurities and hide flaws. The same cannot be said for rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, topaz and other expensive stones.
Bridge's gemstone adventure has suffered some setbacks, the most serious of which occurred in 1970, when the then-socialist Tanzanian government nationalized his Tsavorite mines without compensation.
Tanzania has changed, shedding socialist policies in exchange for a market economy. The government also invited Bridges back to his old mines there. He refused and appears uncomfortable discussion the matter in detail.
Following the setback in Tanzania, Bridges figured that the gemstone belt on which he was mining might cross into neighboring Kenya.
He moved to the country, reviewed colonial geological records to search for suitable rock formations and found Tsavorite three months later.
Bridges and Henry Platt, president of Tiffany & Co., named the gemstone in 1974. They named it after two wildlife sanctuaries, Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks, that border the area where the mines are located.
Tsavorite and is among the most expensive of all garnets, a family of gemstone in which it belongs. Its prices are similar to those fetched by fine demantoid, the other green garnet that has traditionally been mined in the former U.S.S.R. and Italy. Like all gem materials, non-gem quality pieces may be available for a few dollars per carat.
Tsavorite's price currently stands at 1/6th and 1/10th of the price of an equivalent quality emerald, Bridges said.
That is far less than their potential value. The low price stems from the fact that retailers are reluctant to promote the gemstone and stock it in their brightly lit stores because they get a quicker return on their investments when they stock better-known gemstones like diamonds.

Still, Tsavorite "is arguably the finest commercial green gemstone in the world today, based upon its physical characteristics, its rarity and uniqueness," Bridges said at his mine.