I'm sitting here right now in an internet cafe in my favourite Nairobi hostel saying: HERE I AM AGAIN, IN KENYA, FOR THE SECOND TIME IN LESS THAN A YEAR. I never thought that I would be sitting here again, this soon anyways but in a way it feels very right. Everything is the same here, the people are still bargaining hardcore, the weather is still beautiful, Safaricom is still amazing and the mangoes are still so sweet. This time though I'm getting ready for a new challenge, the challenge of leading two teams of 14 people through Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. I'm stoked to see this trip from the perspective of Jo and Ronan last year. Am I afraid: YES!, am I nervous: YES! Am I confident: YES! and am I excited: HELLS YES! But I am ready to go, and in 24 hours our team will have arrived, and we will get to start this journey all over again! This year I am leading with the ever so amazing Rachel and Emmanuel, who you hopefully recognize from posts last year and over the past 2 weeks we have been on the ground, zooming through East Africa on planes, cockroach infested busses and pikki pikki's trying to plan out the craziness which is the next 3 months! AHHHHHH 3 MONTHS!!! It sounds crazy, least year I was thinking that 6 weeks was a long time, now I am looking at 3 months and thinking: THIS IS CRAZY! I know that it will fly by though, this last 2 weeks feels like it began 2 days ago! Anyways, Since last year this blog was apparently well followed, I have decided that instead of tiring out my hand in a journal, I'll continue the blog (because it also gives me an excuse to check facebook, and twitter: my new guilt pleasure!) Check back often for updates about the new jokes, the new TIA moments and memories from last year as we step in the footprints from last year, and forge new ones along the way.
I guess with that said we'll get started with the unbelievable journey which has lead up to this very minute! I can't believe that I have been to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and back again in 2 weeks, but we did it (and I hope after looking tonight, that we did it within the budget).
Anyways we arrived into Nairobi at night, just like last time, except this time we were alone! No Nandi's screaming: "DAMMNNN", No Krisses mumbling: "PASS!", No Ryans playing guitar, No Jo's keeping everyone in Check, No Ronans with a budget book, No lovebirds(Mtoto, Amelia, Jenn and MERC's A bitch), No leah's screaming (I'll miss that scream), NO MJS and her insightful insights, No muneebs yelling "NAIVASHA NAIVASHA NAIVASHA!", No Nayeons for deep relationship conversations, No Lukes for funny African quotes....Needless to say it was surreal. I came to know this place as the place where I met some of the coolest friends I know today, now it is time to make that family all over again. It's funny that everything that has happened thus far has reminded me of one of the 17 epic people from last year though!
Anyways there was Emmanuel waiting to pick us up, and we sat down to wait for Rachel with a cup of Chai and some samosas! It was such a relief because on my plane ride over I was conveniently sat beside a missionary preacher who made his beliefs known about every 10 minutes....ugh...whyyy??? Before we knew it we were asleep in the hostel, with 17 empty beds around us, ready to dream TIA dreams and wake up ready for an adventure! And an adventure we had: From Nairobi-Kisumu-Maragoli-Jinja-Kampala-Kigali and then the worst 26 hour bus ride of my life from Kigali to Nairobi, where event after event added up to the biggest TIA ever!
We met some awesome new friends and luckily had some amazing friends from Canada to stay with! (THANKS LIZZ and KIGALI FRIENDS!) We soaked up the sun in Kisumu with blue cross, made our way back heaven with Ahuga and Alice back in Maragoli, Went through Uganda SOOOOO fast that we didn't get to see too much, excpet for the Immigration Department...let's just say I hope to never run into any immigration officer again from Uganda for as long as I live! SOOOOOO RUDE! Anyways to get a multiple entry visa to Uganda you need to hand in your passport to them with all of these documents....anyways if you look in that office there are passports sprawled all over the tables, the chairs, the floors...needless to say we said HELLS NO! and got on the next bus to Kigali! It was probably a good thing as Kampala isn't the best place to be right now, so many police, and some protests but hopefully that will change soon! Anyways I have made it a goal to make every immigration officer smile from now on, because if Uganda taught me anything it is that people who work for immigration spend most of the day saying FML!
So we're on this Akamba bus ride to Kigali, Rwanda and it stopped literally every 15 minutes to pick up SO MANY RANDOMS!!! Mamas carrying chickens, Men who looked as though they hadn't showered in 3 years (I didn't shower for 5 days and felt very proud, I think that's my max though!), people who felt the need to blast music from their mobiles instead of using headphones...all of this was happening along the bumpiest road of life, and I had quite a few bruises by the end! Anyways we arrived into Kigali at night and hit up the fantastic restaurant (AHHHH FANTASTIC!) Same shiny uniforms, non english or french speaking staff as last time, but no internet cafe! This resulted in the fantastic restaurant losing a few points and not being so fantastic anymore....I think the internet was the only thing it had going for it as the food....well....yea. We then hopped a taxi to Rachel's friends house where we chilld for the next 3 days! We walked and walked and walked in those 3 days, building up a nice tan and also HELLA HUGE CALF MUSCLES (KIGALI IS SPREAD ACCROSS MASSIVE HILLS) Being back in Kigali made me realize how much I love Rwanda, besides from being beautiful it is just so safe and has a bustling nightlife! It also has a huge Nakkumatt! We spent our time there traveling to Kimoronco to see the Widows of Ubuntu Edmonton, a new organization that we will work with this year. They are so epic and I think that my french will really improve this year! (P.s. another rwanda story! So we didn't know that Canadians apparently have to register for VISAS in advance for Rwanda now, and Pay $60!!! Last year it was free and didn't require registration) Needless to say we spent another 2 hours being interrogated by immigration, the bus waiting for us, Mamas and chickens going crazy. This time the officer was nice and let us through, but a 12 hour bus and 2 immigration run-ins in 1 day and we felt like criminals or something! We are praying for a smooth process when the team gets here because that WOULD SUCK!
Anyways internet is running out, buttt bus ride from Kigali to Nairobi: TIA 1 by 1 (AKA DO NOT TAKE KAMPALA COACH! EVER!):
1)Book 2 tickets in Advance, need to get the other one on day of travel
2)Of course no seats are left Emmanuel gets left behind
3)Rachel and I end up at 2 seats where the people in front of us from Brundi are eating rotten chicken (we think) and Ugali....I can't handle the smell and the guy beside us is rude so we move to the very back of the bus..
4) Luckily the back of the bus is 100X more bumpy than the front of the bus
5) That would be okay if the seats were attached to the frame....of course they were not
6) It starts to rain
7) The windows become waterfalls onto our seats
8) The mosquitoes come in
9) Puffs of dust come in and turn us black
10) Waka Waka comes on someones mobile and we start to have a dance party on Kampala Coach
11) Arrive in Kampala for a meal (nice touch) and Brundi people get off
12) We decide to snatch 2 seats in the front of the bus where it is much less bumpy
13) A few hours into the ride we realize, we are sitting in a nest of cockroaches
14) Snakes on a plane is one thing...coackroaches on a bus is another...."HELLS NO I AM NOT SITTING HERE!"
15) We finally move to the middle of the bus where there is 1 cockroach and a few bumps...we settle...
16) 26 hours we arrive in Nairobi!
AND HERE WE ARE! TEAM ARRIVES TOMORROW!
Anyways gotta run! Peace and Love
Any if you need to contact us the digits are:
+254711811625 (in Kenya)
and +250784602012 in Rwanda
PEACCCEEEE
JD
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The life of a Pirate
So right now i am a shade of orange...why:
So this morning we travel yet anothe bumpy road from the Lake Vicotira islands in Tanzania towards Sangarama, where we caught a ferry over to Mwanza, Tanzania. Luckily we were able to get a sweet ride in a land rover, however we took a shortcut, a very dusty shortcut towards the ferry, with the windows open. Needless to say it nopt only looks like I have been airbrushed y a professioanl photoshopeur, but it also looks like I have spent just a little bit too much time in a spray tan machine. I look forwards to a nice and chilly bucket shower tonight. All in all the ride was very fun, although a few bags fell off of the roof along the way...This is Africa, c'est la vie!
So lets recap what was once again a speedy ride in a time Machine.
So a week ago or something like that we leave uganda on a 11pm bus (and after the best warm boiled eggs of my life) to Kigali, the BEAUTIFUL capital of Rawanda. The bus ride was pretty sooth although there were some pretty rude muzungu's on the bus from wat looked like Sweden. I only say that because they all looked terribly hot and all had blonde hair and blue eyes (I suddenly just thought of IKEA and felt very happy). anyways so we arrive at the Rawandan border, where I got ripped off Royally exchanging some money on the street (if only my paitence allowed me to reach a bank), I was also excited because I was able to get past immigration by using French, which also made me happy because it proved to me that french class does pay off, however annoying it was to attend. So we drive through Rawanda through seriously the most beautiful African landscape I have seen. It was like a Zoom Zoom zoom commercial through the largest tea covered hills, mist as though we were in a Harry Poter movie, and the slightest bit of warm sun peeking through. There were gorilla's on those hills, although I never saw one (bus stil, gorilla's...HOW COOL!) So we arrive into Kigali, and almost immediately we run into coffee shops (so here all they drik is tea...a.k.a. CHAI...which is crazy sweet....and other than that thee is no coffee) Rawanda had plenty of fresh coffee however, and we took serious advantage! There were also fresh baguettes, the best pizza i have ever had, and fresh pasteries everywhere. C'est bien! It also looked along the lines of what I imagined france to look like, except there were no mimes or french people with curly moustaches. Except for Mark, who discovered what he looked like with such a doo.
We arrived at St. Paul's church/hostel which was actually really neat because it was a safe haven for 2000 people during the genocide back in 1994. It was also neat because there was another group of professors and students there from Canada and it was nice to see some friendly faces (although the Rawandan's were very nice as well), except for the lady who washed my clothes for me. I would have done them myself but my once blue jeans were now brown and I knew that my hands and a bag of OMO soap would not even put a dent into the job at hand. She did a really good job though, well worth the 200 Franc. We got into our rooms, had nice showers, and basked in our rare encounter with flushing toilets (something I have truly come to appreciate in Canada). With squeeky clean bodies we headed out into the city which was awesome! We did soe internet and I booked some flights to Mombassa for Independent Travel Time, Emmanuel got a shave (one which did not include a complementary rub down with a cow tail) and we headed into Nakumat (the only grocery store company ion East Africa), where Nandi broke down and bought a pastery, as did I with a cadbury chocolate bar. Following that we went out for a delicious meal at FANTASTIC RESTAURANT...which we ended up going to every day for the next 3 days, and ate the same meal every day (at least we pointed to the same thing on the menu every day) but got something diferent each time. It was exciting, sometimes nerve racking, but always fantasssssttiiicccc (Right now I am saying this word in my head as though I have heard it on an OCXYCLEAN commercial, or some TV show many times in a rather annoying voice. It might have also been Janice from friends but now I can't stop saying FANNNTTASSSTIC). Anyways we went to bed that night and had an amazing sleep although that ight I had to go to the bathroom a few too many times from the enormous bottle of water I drank befopre bed (Now i am asking myself why I made that choice), but anyways every time I went I heard children screaming. Finding this strange I asked Rachel, our Rawanda expert on the team what happened at St. Paul's during the genocide, and she said that 8 children were killed out of the 2000 that stayed there. I freaked out a little bit and told the group what had happened, and Nandi had heard the same thing. I was filled with intense emotion (fear and sadness), the city causes a lot of it, and also went to bed thirsty that night with hopes of not having to wake up and go to the bathroom.
The next day we woke up early and a few of us headed out towards the Kigali genocide memorial. It was definitely necessary to learn as much about the genocide as possible and the memorial did a great job of it. I learned so much, but also took a great deal of time to walk through the mass graves and pay respects. What happened in Rawanda in 1994 was terribly horrific, and I still find myself asking how humans can be capeable of so much destuction, but I am glad I had the opportunity to see and experience this place. It was emotion-ladden and in some parts extremely hard to get by withought breaking down in tears. After 4 hours at the memorial I came out with a better understanding of what had happened, but it really felt like a tourist attraction to me. It didn't feel very real, and I was craving more. The next day I decided to head off with only a few members of the team to Nyavata, about an hour away from Kigali, where we went to one of the churches that the Tutsi people (those opressed in the genocide) went to, thinking that a holy place would be a safe haven from the Hutu attacks. In the tiny church we went to, it was like the genocide became real. There was no reading, there was no headphone tours, there were no information posters. There was just a small church, where in 1994, 10,000 people crowded into and lost their lives. Walking in you could see where the welding had been broken on the doors, you could see bullet shots in the walls, the roof was still covered in blood and holes from grenades. I couldn't imagine how 10,000 people could have fit into that place, but it became real when the clothing of 10,000 people was piled onto ever possible surface. This was the mose emoinal experience I think I have ever had in my entire life. I couldn't speak, I didn't want to look, I felt sick and cold and just angry that this had happened. I felt angry that the world did nothng to help, and I felt angry that humans could do this to other humans. The place was chilling and just indescribable. We also were able to pay our respects at more mass graves and the headed back to Kigali. I am eager to learn more about genocide when i return the Canada, and seriously NEVER AGAIN!
We decided to cheer our spirits up by practicing our barteing skills in the market, where I was able to get some good deals (I have now become comfortable bargaining here which will become very useful when I return to Kenya, TOMORROW!) We spent the night eating at a nice restaurant (not as fantastic as fantastic) but prety awesome! We then headed to Hotel Mille Colline which was also a safe haven in the genocide. Pretending to be guests at this very expensive hotel Kris and I spent the night swinging in a hammock uner the stars, and talked about everything we had seen over the past 3 days! Although the genocide was such a hoprrible event in history I was really happy to see how they had recovered as a nation. It now seemed as though it was the most developed country of the ones I have been too, and it actually reminded me of Toronto. I could see myself living there one day (donm't freak out mum)!
Before I knew it I was once again on a long bus ride to Tanzania. So if you want some exercise, forget the bow flex because all you need to do it cross the Tanzanian border. Seriously it felt like a 2km hike up a hill (yep this was a walk, with a 50 pound pack on your back) in like 400 degree heat! I also had a cold which didn't help, but once we ot to the top I felt as though I had never even touched a blue band sandwich because I must have lost 3 pounds from bottom to top. Either way we got our visas (sadly again just a stamp, which we were dissapinted by because they were 100 bucks) . Form here we borded a matatu (because we missed our bus) and settled in for an 8 hour drive, with 16 people in a van made for 12....SO COMFORTABLE! Ayways it turned out to be a mad stunning drive (my new york slang...thanks Nandi) along the flat and savanah like land of Tanzania until we settled into Mwanza. We chilled at a hotel, I ate a chip omlette (a little bit of england came rushing back to me), slept, and by 5am i was on a bus to Sangarama. We did the same again and were finally off to The islands, afer a 3 hour ordea with a truck diver who ripped us off, making us 3 hours late. (P.s. this trip was suposed to take 1 day...it took 3) Fun filled though! We arrived into our guest house and within the hour were sailing to an island in the middle of what I called Ocean Victoria (seriously this lake is MASSSSIIIIVVE). The island was beautiful and we listened to how the ilegal fishing industry (all of these islands have these illegal fishing villages on them) which was really cool form a planning perspective, was having negative impacts on beach erosion, pollutin and overpopulation. This was cool because it really related a lot to my studies, and also because I was in charge of mapping GPS points which made me feel once again happy that going to GIS class was not a complete waste of time! We sailed back, ate some amazing talapia (so talapia took the role of Matoke on this leg, but I was just fine with that) and headed off to bed.
the next day we also headed to some oslands to make a docuentary about the stuff we had seen. It also gave me a chance to spend some time with some island kids (there are no schools on the islands so they're just everywhere) and we ran around the island singing (a.k.a screaming) WAKA WAKA! I caught it on video and I am sure it will get a very good response in Canada! I also climbed this huge hill with Ryan and we saw the most amazing views over Lake victoria and the islands! We then spent some time skipping stones into the lake, and I don't know if this is some world campion stone skipping location but every single stone was perfect for the task!
We followed up the day by snuggling up with Neyon and Kris ontop of the boat, and watched the most amazing suset and stary sky. I saw my first shooting star and just had an amazing night! This leads me up to now, where my orange skin sits wondering how i wrote so much in one hour!
Tonight we are spending one last night as a team before ITT begins. Now I have the chance to try and not get questioning looks with the swahili I have learned (my dictionary would be proud --> It no longer gives me puzzled faces), try to avoid cow tail haircuts, get squished into tiny matatu's with way more than there shopuld be sweaty african men, eat copious amounts of ugali, try to navigate Kibera and make some more connections, avoid malaria by remembering to take my pills without friendly reminders from Ariel as he swats millions of mosquitto's, try to manage money without the help of Ronan and Jo and Just expeience Af
rica in a whole new way! Tomorrow morning I will be back on a bus to Maraoli to finish the polytechnic project and to fix us Mama Alice's roof! Then it's off to Nairobi for some Kitime, and to speak with the district planning office, and then it's off to Mombassa and Lamu on the coast. 11 Days, a million things to do Hakuna Matata!
Ready for another crazy adventure!
JD
p.s. donning in west c next year, biology living learning community! And got a position as a design TA!
So this morning we travel yet anothe bumpy road from the Lake Vicotira islands in Tanzania towards Sangarama, where we caught a ferry over to Mwanza, Tanzania. Luckily we were able to get a sweet ride in a land rover, however we took a shortcut, a very dusty shortcut towards the ferry, with the windows open. Needless to say it nopt only looks like I have been airbrushed y a professioanl photoshopeur, but it also looks like I have spent just a little bit too much time in a spray tan machine. I look forwards to a nice and chilly bucket shower tonight. All in all the ride was very fun, although a few bags fell off of the roof along the way...This is Africa, c'est la vie!
So lets recap what was once again a speedy ride in a time Machine.
So a week ago or something like that we leave uganda on a 11pm bus (and after the best warm boiled eggs of my life) to Kigali, the BEAUTIFUL capital of Rawanda. The bus ride was pretty sooth although there were some pretty rude muzungu's on the bus from wat looked like Sweden. I only say that because they all looked terribly hot and all had blonde hair and blue eyes (I suddenly just thought of IKEA and felt very happy). anyways so we arrive at the Rawandan border, where I got ripped off Royally exchanging some money on the street (if only my paitence allowed me to reach a bank), I was also excited because I was able to get past immigration by using French, which also made me happy because it proved to me that french class does pay off, however annoying it was to attend. So we drive through Rawanda through seriously the most beautiful African landscape I have seen. It was like a Zoom Zoom zoom commercial through the largest tea covered hills, mist as though we were in a Harry Poter movie, and the slightest bit of warm sun peeking through. There were gorilla's on those hills, although I never saw one (bus stil, gorilla's...HOW COOL!) So we arrive into Kigali, and almost immediately we run into coffee shops (so here all they drik is tea...a.k.a. CHAI...which is crazy sweet....and other than that thee is no coffee) Rawanda had plenty of fresh coffee however, and we took serious advantage! There were also fresh baguettes, the best pizza i have ever had, and fresh pasteries everywhere. C'est bien! It also looked along the lines of what I imagined france to look like, except there were no mimes or french people with curly moustaches. Except for Mark, who discovered what he looked like with such a doo.
We arrived at St. Paul's church/hostel which was actually really neat because it was a safe haven for 2000 people during the genocide back in 1994. It was also neat because there was another group of professors and students there from Canada and it was nice to see some friendly faces (although the Rawandan's were very nice as well), except for the lady who washed my clothes for me. I would have done them myself but my once blue jeans were now brown and I knew that my hands and a bag of OMO soap would not even put a dent into the job at hand. She did a really good job though, well worth the 200 Franc. We got into our rooms, had nice showers, and basked in our rare encounter with flushing toilets (something I have truly come to appreciate in Canada). With squeeky clean bodies we headed out into the city which was awesome! We did soe internet and I booked some flights to Mombassa for Independent Travel Time, Emmanuel got a shave (one which did not include a complementary rub down with a cow tail) and we headed into Nakumat (the only grocery store company ion East Africa), where Nandi broke down and bought a pastery, as did I with a cadbury chocolate bar. Following that we went out for a delicious meal at FANTASTIC RESTAURANT...which we ended up going to every day for the next 3 days, and ate the same meal every day (at least we pointed to the same thing on the menu every day) but got something diferent each time. It was exciting, sometimes nerve racking, but always fantasssssttiiicccc (Right now I am saying this word in my head as though I have heard it on an OCXYCLEAN commercial, or some TV show many times in a rather annoying voice. It might have also been Janice from friends but now I can't stop saying FANNNTTASSSTIC). Anyways we went to bed that night and had an amazing sleep although that ight I had to go to the bathroom a few too many times from the enormous bottle of water I drank befopre bed (Now i am asking myself why I made that choice), but anyways every time I went I heard children screaming. Finding this strange I asked Rachel, our Rawanda expert on the team what happened at St. Paul's during the genocide, and she said that 8 children were killed out of the 2000 that stayed there. I freaked out a little bit and told the group what had happened, and Nandi had heard the same thing. I was filled with intense emotion (fear and sadness), the city causes a lot of it, and also went to bed thirsty that night with hopes of not having to wake up and go to the bathroom.
The next day we woke up early and a few of us headed out towards the Kigali genocide memorial. It was definitely necessary to learn as much about the genocide as possible and the memorial did a great job of it. I learned so much, but also took a great deal of time to walk through the mass graves and pay respects. What happened in Rawanda in 1994 was terribly horrific, and I still find myself asking how humans can be capeable of so much destuction, but I am glad I had the opportunity to see and experience this place. It was emotion-ladden and in some parts extremely hard to get by withought breaking down in tears. After 4 hours at the memorial I came out with a better understanding of what had happened, but it really felt like a tourist attraction to me. It didn't feel very real, and I was craving more. The next day I decided to head off with only a few members of the team to Nyavata, about an hour away from Kigali, where we went to one of the churches that the Tutsi people (those opressed in the genocide) went to, thinking that a holy place would be a safe haven from the Hutu attacks. In the tiny church we went to, it was like the genocide became real. There was no reading, there was no headphone tours, there were no information posters. There was just a small church, where in 1994, 10,000 people crowded into and lost their lives. Walking in you could see where the welding had been broken on the doors, you could see bullet shots in the walls, the roof was still covered in blood and holes from grenades. I couldn't imagine how 10,000 people could have fit into that place, but it became real when the clothing of 10,000 people was piled onto ever possible surface. This was the mose emoinal experience I think I have ever had in my entire life. I couldn't speak, I didn't want to look, I felt sick and cold and just angry that this had happened. I felt angry that the world did nothng to help, and I felt angry that humans could do this to other humans. The place was chilling and just indescribable. We also were able to pay our respects at more mass graves and the headed back to Kigali. I am eager to learn more about genocide when i return the Canada, and seriously NEVER AGAIN!
We decided to cheer our spirits up by practicing our barteing skills in the market, where I was able to get some good deals (I have now become comfortable bargaining here which will become very useful when I return to Kenya, TOMORROW!) We spent the night eating at a nice restaurant (not as fantastic as fantastic) but prety awesome! We then headed to Hotel Mille Colline which was also a safe haven in the genocide. Pretending to be guests at this very expensive hotel Kris and I spent the night swinging in a hammock uner the stars, and talked about everything we had seen over the past 3 days! Although the genocide was such a hoprrible event in history I was really happy to see how they had recovered as a nation. It now seemed as though it was the most developed country of the ones I have been too, and it actually reminded me of Toronto. I could see myself living there one day (donm't freak out mum)!
Before I knew it I was once again on a long bus ride to Tanzania. So if you want some exercise, forget the bow flex because all you need to do it cross the Tanzanian border. Seriously it felt like a 2km hike up a hill (yep this was a walk, with a 50 pound pack on your back) in like 400 degree heat! I also had a cold which didn't help, but once we ot to the top I felt as though I had never even touched a blue band sandwich because I must have lost 3 pounds from bottom to top. Either way we got our visas (sadly again just a stamp, which we were dissapinted by because they were 100 bucks) . Form here we borded a matatu (because we missed our bus) and settled in for an 8 hour drive, with 16 people in a van made for 12....SO COMFORTABLE! Ayways it turned out to be a mad stunning drive (my new york slang...thanks Nandi) along the flat and savanah like land of Tanzania until we settled into Mwanza. We chilled at a hotel, I ate a chip omlette (a little bit of england came rushing back to me), slept, and by 5am i was on a bus to Sangarama. We did the same again and were finally off to The islands, afer a 3 hour ordea with a truck diver who ripped us off, making us 3 hours late. (P.s. this trip was suposed to take 1 day...it took 3) Fun filled though! We arrived into our guest house and within the hour were sailing to an island in the middle of what I called Ocean Victoria (seriously this lake is MASSSSIIIIVVE). The island was beautiful and we listened to how the ilegal fishing industry (all of these islands have these illegal fishing villages on them) which was really cool form a planning perspective, was having negative impacts on beach erosion, pollutin and overpopulation. This was cool because it really related a lot to my studies, and also because I was in charge of mapping GPS points which made me feel once again happy that going to GIS class was not a complete waste of time! We sailed back, ate some amazing talapia (so talapia took the role of Matoke on this leg, but I was just fine with that) and headed off to bed.
the next day we also headed to some oslands to make a docuentary about the stuff we had seen. It also gave me a chance to spend some time with some island kids (there are no schools on the islands so they're just everywhere) and we ran around the island singing (a.k.a screaming) WAKA WAKA! I caught it on video and I am sure it will get a very good response in Canada! I also climbed this huge hill with Ryan and we saw the most amazing views over Lake victoria and the islands! We then spent some time skipping stones into the lake, and I don't know if this is some world campion stone skipping location but every single stone was perfect for the task!
We followed up the day by snuggling up with Neyon and Kris ontop of the boat, and watched the most amazing suset and stary sky. I saw my first shooting star and just had an amazing night! This leads me up to now, where my orange skin sits wondering how i wrote so much in one hour!
Tonight we are spending one last night as a team before ITT begins. Now I have the chance to try and not get questioning looks with the swahili I have learned (my dictionary would be proud --> It no longer gives me puzzled faces), try to avoid cow tail haircuts, get squished into tiny matatu's with way more than there shopuld be sweaty african men, eat copious amounts of ugali, try to navigate Kibera and make some more connections, avoid malaria by remembering to take my pills without friendly reminders from Ariel as he swats millions of mosquitto's, try to manage money without the help of Ronan and Jo and Just expeience Af
rica in a whole new way! Tomorrow morning I will be back on a bus to Maraoli to finish the polytechnic project and to fix us Mama Alice's roof! Then it's off to Nairobi for some Kitime, and to speak with the district planning office, and then it's off to Mombassa and Lamu on the coast. 11 Days, a million things to do Hakuna Matata!
Ready for another crazy adventure!
JD
p.s. donning in west c next year, biology living learning community! And got a position as a design TA!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Bungee Jumping with Bananans (for real this time) and A taste of Home
First of all I want to appologize! I know..it has been forever since my last blog but I promise that this one will make up for it. Lately it feels as though I have been stuck in a time machine. Time is going by unbelievably fast (A.k.a there are only something like 15 days left), and to add on to this I have for the first time felt that time machine feeling where everything is moving past you in a blur (I don't know why but this is randomly reminding me of a willy wonka movie) as I have been to 3 countries in what seems like the last week. I also was out of internet range for a good 4 or 5 days in Uganda, which add's to my case of bloglessness! Anywho hopefully this blog makes up for lost time and I'll do my best to explain these blurry time machined memories.
So I forgot where I left off last time but I'm pretty sure it was from a somewhat sketchy internet cafe in Kisumu, rather late at night before bording a 6 hour easycoach bus to Jinja, Uganda. I must also mention to you that for the first time in my life I felt as though I was in first class as this bus was epic in many a ways. So I decided to make freinds with some gravol and pass out for the bumpiest bus ride of my life to the Kenyan/Ugandan border where I got my second Africa stamp in my passport, unfortunately it wasn't as cool as the colourful, giraffe laden visa I got in Kenya, but it said Uganda none the less and so I was content. This also marked the splitting of the group from Ryan who lost his passport during the first week (bummer). He had to stay at the border until morning when his passport arrived from Nairobi, but it was a relief to see him arrive with his guitar the next afternoon. This bus ride also represented a new frontier for me in that I got my first migrane of life (which lasted an almost unbearable 36 hours, but I did find a sweet cure). So anyways we arrive at Jinja at like 6am, which is becoming a pretty average wake up call for me (and I hope that it decides to stay that way through the school year). I feel as though I have been missing the best part of the day for my entire life, and so I am going to try my very hardest to not sleep in until 11 every day this year (tough chance) but having hope never hurt anyone. SO...back from my sidetrack...we arrive in Jinja and come to this amazing campsite called Adrift. So I feel as though this is time for another poem because this place was a beauty.
Oh Adrift you make me want to crack a brew unbelievably bad (a.k.a. Nile Special Beer advertisements deck every wall), and your monkeys (a.k.a wake up call) make me feel as though falling asleep on the couch overnight with a bag of chaveda in my hands is a terribly bad idea. Your trees are lush, your banannas sweet and your view is like no other. The sound of nile rapids crashing below me and (1....2.....3.... bungee are terribly addictive),the weird mashup accents of your staff (new zealand-zimbabwe) and american food calm me (after a month of ugali). You are a magical place, cheers to the nile.
So crappy poetic attempts once again, but Jinja was seriously sweet. It is an adventure resort on the nile river with monkees (HOT SHOWERS which I took serious advantage of), a sweet camp house and just a reall lax atmosphere. Anyways back to what I was doing there.....BUNJEE JUMPING INTO THE NILE RIVER BABY! Yea no big deal. So this is how it had happened,...I was essentially paralized by this migrane for an entire day (thanks to Neyon's secret T3 stash I was able to at least open my eyes) and I though hey, I'll sleep outside tonight, get some fresh air (and a rather scarry monkey wake up call) and then bungee jump in the morning. Well, the whole feeling better in the morning thing didn't happen and I was 100% sure that the jump was not going to happen. One by one the team went down, and then I decided, "When will I ever have the chance to jump head first, from a huge platform, into the NILE RIVER?" After a inner debate liek no other I talked to ronan who assured me that after I jumped and all of the blood rushed to my head he would rush me off to hospital.
So I'm on the top of this tiny platform, waves crashing below me, my feet tied together with a cloth, some guy with a weird accent asking me why I didn't play hockey, a bar above me that I was holding onto for dear life, a man suddenly screaming 1...2...3...Bungee (which this time was not so conforting), and then me plumeting into the nile river head first. It WAS AMAZING and it cured my migrane which was amazing and something I will look to in future head pumping situations. So after this we jumped back onto a matatu in the scorching heat (UGANDA IS CRAZILY HOT) and moved onto Kampala. mY ADRENALINE WAS RUSHING LIKE A BULLET TRAIN!
So apparently in Uganda police do their jobs unliek in Kenya, and so while crammed into this tiny matatu Rachel decides to stick her feet out of the window to make some space. MISTAKE, some really mean looking police woman in a very white dress (a.k.a she looked like Mr. Clean, which I don't know how that is possible considering the unbelievable amount of dust in these countries) stops us and pulls us over. It results in 3 of us having to get into another Matatu and some of us taking a picture of her mean face. (p.s. for future, taking a picture of a police officer = a very bad idea), so avoiding a ugandan jail sentence we moved on to Kampala which was a very modern city which was really cool to see. It was so much cleaner than Nairobi and the people are mad attractive.........it's kind of like god decided to put every good looking person in Uganda. So anyways we did some grocery shopping (bought some ingredients for humus which went over really well with the team) and headed off to this really sketchy restaurant with very sketchy restaurants. Luckily I had one of the best veggie burgers of my life and then that night we headed off to Rural Uganda in another crowded matatu to go work with SLINT UGANDA, an organization which promotes sustainable livelihoods.
I realized I said the bumpiest matatu ride of life before, but this was actually like 400 times bumpier! So bumpy in fact that our bags kept falling off the roof, and then on one massive bump caused the entire roof to cave in and all of the supporting bars to bend and break. This is where we inser the phrase BLANK, something which has become common place on this trip. (It may be accompanied by an awkward turtle). So we end up arriving in this rather nice solar powered house (our home for the nest 3 days) at 4 am, and then sleep in quite late the next day. So in an act of forshadowing we are served Matoke for breakfast (mashed bananas that are not sweet but surprisingly good with ketchup..something which was not available at the time). Anyways so the next 12 meals of my life were Matoke and I think I have now decided that bananas will be ssomething to avoid for the next few months.
So we spend the next 3 days here, working on a bee-keeping project, touring the farmlands, helping children get water from the pumps, seeing cows with MASSIVE HORNS, and building two tree nurseries for local schools. I took to a machetti, where I cut really thick tree branches for the nurserie. I felt like a warrior.
OK...this internet cafe is closing (p.s. I'm in Kigali Rawanda, one of my favourite places thus far on the trip and have a HUGE blog to write about it). I leave for Mwanza Tanzania tomorrow at 6am, but I will get to the internet to write about Kigali soon. P.s. I can also communicate in Rawanda because the official language is french!!!!!!!
aNYWAYS, UNTIL NEXT TIME....
jOSH
So I forgot where I left off last time but I'm pretty sure it was from a somewhat sketchy internet cafe in Kisumu, rather late at night before bording a 6 hour easycoach bus to Jinja, Uganda. I must also mention to you that for the first time in my life I felt as though I was in first class as this bus was epic in many a ways. So I decided to make freinds with some gravol and pass out for the bumpiest bus ride of my life to the Kenyan/Ugandan border where I got my second Africa stamp in my passport, unfortunately it wasn't as cool as the colourful, giraffe laden visa I got in Kenya, but it said Uganda none the less and so I was content. This also marked the splitting of the group from Ryan who lost his passport during the first week (bummer). He had to stay at the border until morning when his passport arrived from Nairobi, but it was a relief to see him arrive with his guitar the next afternoon. This bus ride also represented a new frontier for me in that I got my first migrane of life (which lasted an almost unbearable 36 hours, but I did find a sweet cure). So anyways we arrive at Jinja at like 6am, which is becoming a pretty average wake up call for me (and I hope that it decides to stay that way through the school year). I feel as though I have been missing the best part of the day for my entire life, and so I am going to try my very hardest to not sleep in until 11 every day this year (tough chance) but having hope never hurt anyone. SO...back from my sidetrack...we arrive in Jinja and come to this amazing campsite called Adrift. So I feel as though this is time for another poem because this place was a beauty.
Oh Adrift you make me want to crack a brew unbelievably bad (a.k.a. Nile Special Beer advertisements deck every wall), and your monkeys (a.k.a wake up call) make me feel as though falling asleep on the couch overnight with a bag of chaveda in my hands is a terribly bad idea. Your trees are lush, your banannas sweet and your view is like no other. The sound of nile rapids crashing below me and (1....2.....3.... bungee are terribly addictive),the weird mashup accents of your staff (new zealand-zimbabwe) and american food calm me (after a month of ugali). You are a magical place, cheers to the nile.
So crappy poetic attempts once again, but Jinja was seriously sweet. It is an adventure resort on the nile river with monkees (HOT SHOWERS which I took serious advantage of), a sweet camp house and just a reall lax atmosphere. Anyways back to what I was doing there.....BUNJEE JUMPING INTO THE NILE RIVER BABY! Yea no big deal. So this is how it had happened,...I was essentially paralized by this migrane for an entire day (thanks to Neyon's secret T3 stash I was able to at least open my eyes) and I though hey, I'll sleep outside tonight, get some fresh air (and a rather scarry monkey wake up call) and then bungee jump in the morning. Well, the whole feeling better in the morning thing didn't happen and I was 100% sure that the jump was not going to happen. One by one the team went down, and then I decided, "When will I ever have the chance to jump head first, from a huge platform, into the NILE RIVER?" After a inner debate liek no other I talked to ronan who assured me that after I jumped and all of the blood rushed to my head he would rush me off to hospital.
So I'm on the top of this tiny platform, waves crashing below me, my feet tied together with a cloth, some guy with a weird accent asking me why I didn't play hockey, a bar above me that I was holding onto for dear life, a man suddenly screaming 1...2...3...Bungee (which this time was not so conforting), and then me plumeting into the nile river head first. It WAS AMAZING and it cured my migrane which was amazing and something I will look to in future head pumping situations. So after this we jumped back onto a matatu in the scorching heat (UGANDA IS CRAZILY HOT) and moved onto Kampala. mY ADRENALINE WAS RUSHING LIKE A BULLET TRAIN!
So apparently in Uganda police do their jobs unliek in Kenya, and so while crammed into this tiny matatu Rachel decides to stick her feet out of the window to make some space. MISTAKE, some really mean looking police woman in a very white dress (a.k.a she looked like Mr. Clean, which I don't know how that is possible considering the unbelievable amount of dust in these countries) stops us and pulls us over. It results in 3 of us having to get into another Matatu and some of us taking a picture of her mean face. (p.s. for future, taking a picture of a police officer = a very bad idea), so avoiding a ugandan jail sentence we moved on to Kampala which was a very modern city which was really cool to see. It was so much cleaner than Nairobi and the people are mad attractive.........it's kind of like god decided to put every good looking person in Uganda. So anyways we did some grocery shopping (bought some ingredients for humus which went over really well with the team) and headed off to this really sketchy restaurant with very sketchy restaurants. Luckily I had one of the best veggie burgers of my life and then that night we headed off to Rural Uganda in another crowded matatu to go work with SLINT UGANDA, an organization which promotes sustainable livelihoods.
I realized I said the bumpiest matatu ride of life before, but this was actually like 400 times bumpier! So bumpy in fact that our bags kept falling off the roof, and then on one massive bump caused the entire roof to cave in and all of the supporting bars to bend and break. This is where we inser the phrase BLANK, something which has become common place on this trip. (It may be accompanied by an awkward turtle). So we end up arriving in this rather nice solar powered house (our home for the nest 3 days) at 4 am, and then sleep in quite late the next day. So in an act of forshadowing we are served Matoke for breakfast (mashed bananas that are not sweet but surprisingly good with ketchup..something which was not available at the time). Anyways so the next 12 meals of my life were Matoke and I think I have now decided that bananas will be ssomething to avoid for the next few months.
So we spend the next 3 days here, working on a bee-keeping project, touring the farmlands, helping children get water from the pumps, seeing cows with MASSIVE HORNS, and building two tree nurseries for local schools. I took to a machetti, where I cut really thick tree branches for the nurserie. I felt like a warrior.
OK...this internet cafe is closing (p.s. I'm in Kigali Rawanda, one of my favourite places thus far on the trip and have a HUGE blog to write about it). I leave for Mwanza Tanzania tomorrow at 6am, but I will get to the internet to write about Kigali soon. P.s. I can also communicate in Rawanda because the official language is french!!!!!!!
aNYWAYS, UNTIL NEXT TIME....
jOSH
Monday, July 12, 2010
asante sana squished BANANA
JAMBO!
So I realize that it has been quite the amount of time since my last post, pole, but let me tell you I have been getting my hands down and dirty, and well (burnt while making a massive bot of sukuma) but all in all my time here in Maragoli has been outstanding. SO here is the breakdown of the past ninish days (which have seriously felt like three months) but have also been unbelievably fun and meaningful!
SO we leave Kisumu which was seriously awesome after being stuffed into our sardine like appartment for a week. Imagine Big Brother except with no running water, toilets or electrisity and you can imagine the time we got up to! Kisumu was seriously awesome though, in many, many ways and I came to quite enjoy my frequent matatu trips into the united mall or the nakumat grocery store! The last night in town we went out for pizza which tasted like heaven, you seriously don't realize how much we miss food from home here (However we did find a place to buy cadbury chocolate bars in maragoli and we have been shovveling them in by the boxload). We also went out dancing at this seriously sketch underground club where we took over the dance floor and danced to the constant replay of Shakira's waka waka and michael Jackson. Our Matatu's were also pimped out with flashing lights and lil' Bowow kareokee videos! P.s. So in my week in Maragoli I have been constantly traveling to the government offices at Sabatiya where there is a mechanic who blasts the old school backstreet boys and N'sync tunes all day long. I am often tempted to return to my pre-teen days and start singing along, but then I wouldn't just be a mazungu, I would be a seriously crazy mazungu.
So fastforwards to Maragoli. I am eagerly sitting in a matatu with Kris and Emmanuel trying to brush up on some last minute swahili before arriving at Ahuga's house. Ahuga is like the man everyone should get a chance to meet in their lifetime, I think I am confident in saying that he is one of the wisest and down to earth people that I know. He also has a seriously nice house and a hugely kind heart. Anyways we arrive, I mess up my greeting (but pull out a quick asante sana, which seems to be my go to word whenever I get stuck) and am instantly surrounded by what seemed like a see of chilren screaming Mirembe, Mirembe. 3-thousand high-fives later we are dancing as a team with SOOO MANY PEOPLE and so many drums and being greeted by the Kiritu community! It was probably one of the most emotional times that I have had in Kenya thus far and it really said a lot to the welcoming spirit of this community (I have video to show when I get back)! We spent the night eating beans, potatoes and ugali prepared by the outsanding william (our chef) and settled into bed. I finally was able to use my mosquito net, which made me happy and prevented me from being eaten alive like some of the other members on our team. On a side note I am thanking malarone for not only keeping me safe, but for also providing me with happy dreams unlike my first night in Nairobi where I could have sworn beatles were crawling all over my pillow.
To describe this town in short I have written a small poem:
OH Maragoli you are so green with your banana trees that make me feel as though I am in Paradise. Your huge rocks that remeble space eggs make me feel as though I am wandering through the set of Jurassic parks and your sunsets make me feel warm, like the three thousand cups of chai that I am offered every single day. Your people are like no other, so unbelievably kind and SOOO FAT (that was a joke (which our team makes often), the people here are not fat but surprisingly thin considering the amount of food that I am offered everywhere I go). Fin.
I realize that my poetry skills have not been as fine tuned as I would have liked in Kenya, but let me assure you that this place is so beautiful and so opposite to anything that I had ever imagined for Afrika. I have been spending a lot of time in the community meeting people, making new friends, eating endless amounts of bananas and avocados, drinking copious amounts of tea, going to the bathroom from the copious amounts of tea and working my buns off on projects. P.s. so I don't know where bananas or avocado's come from in Canada but they should come from here because they are crazy sweet, like you would not even be able to begin to imagine how good they are. Also, blue band (which is like margarine but 4000 times more unhealthy) and bread have become a staple of my days, I must eat like 40 blue band sandwiches a day! I have also been spending every spare momnent that I can riding on piki piki's (motor bikes) and coming into the market to eat mango's and practice my bartering skills (which are seriously necessary here).
Back to the note of amazing people, I have had the chance to meet some of the most kindhearted people on this planet. Maragoli feels so good to me because everyone here in the community is seriosuly passionate about making a difference in the lives of everyone around here. Everyone volunteers endlessly to help improve the community and it has been an incredibly inspiring place that I know I will return to one day. Well actually I will be returning for a few days in August, but I know next summer I will hopefully be back! Ahuga has been our amazing host and a seriously awesome person. I have had the amazing opportunity to have late night talks with him and he has given me such useful and encouraging advice which I am carrying close to my heart as I try to help Kibera. Emmanuel has grown to become a very close friend and it has been amazing to come and see where he lives and meet his family. He is doing SO MUCH, and I mean SOOOO MUCH for this community, it's hard to fathom. Alice, my Maragoli mama has stuffed me to the brim with boiled bananas (which surprisingly taste life potatoes when you add ketchup), and I am going to return in August and use my non-existent roofing skills to help fix her roof and paint it a highly fashinable shade of lime green. Lousie, a fellow Canadian who has been working here for years with the Mongano foundation(check it out) has also become a good friend with some of the most hillarious advice and stories, she will be traveling with us to Kibera on ITT. Her team is also awesome. I have also been becoming closer to my amazing team especially as we stuff our face with blue band (I will attempt to sneak this past security in Canada).
Maragoli has also been amazing because we have been able to get our hands dirty and start some community development projects. We went to a community meeting called a baraza where we listened to community proposals and have used some of our fund-raised money to build a new community spring, revamp the community center and pay for memberships for all of the community children, we have been working on the special needs school and Emmanuel and I have been working to get the North Maragoli Youth Polytechnic in Mutambi registered. This is my first time in such leadership role and we are so far in the midst of constructing toilets and a fence in order to have the school up to standards for government registration. It has taught me a lot about how the government in Kenya works (a.k.a how corruption works), such as in my 9 hour wait to meet with the education minister the other day which didn't end on such a bright note. I have also been learning about how to keep money in order and deal with community members. It has been awesome though and we have decided to skip out the the Kakamega rainforest to ensure that this project gets done. I have sent Kris armed with a camera to take another million pictures to add to my already extensive collection. I am also in the midst of painting a few sign for the polytechnic which is looking SWEEEETTT!! Right now Emmanuel and I are also working on a new pilot project to sponsor children from Maragoli to come study at University in Canada. The children here are so smart and so passionate and I cannot thing of better candidates for university, I know that one day these youth could change the world if only given the opportunity.
Anyways, it is time to jump into the market for some ingredients for dinner. As the team is in Kakamega I am provided with the perfect opportunity to fine tune my chapati making skills, and learn to make mandazi which I promise to make when I get back. Ohh... funny story so in Kenya oven's aren't really the norm. Instead you cook over a fire. So the other night, community party, hundreds of people, josh cooking ugali (a really...really thick mais paste to scoop up stew with), hella amounts of smoke, HUGE spoon, smokey tears, stirring, smokey tears, stirring, rose yelling STIR HARDER STIR HARDER. Lets just say that ugali, not so good and a little salty (from my sea of tears), but ugali none the less.
Peace + Love from KENYA (off on a 10 hour bus ride to Jinja for some bungee jumping and white water rafting in 2 days). Also remember that , Backstreet's back ALRIGHT!!!! ( an ode to the seriously retro tunes here)
-JOASH (my Swahili name),
Kwahari!
So I realize that it has been quite the amount of time since my last post, pole, but let me tell you I have been getting my hands down and dirty, and well (burnt while making a massive bot of sukuma) but all in all my time here in Maragoli has been outstanding. SO here is the breakdown of the past ninish days (which have seriously felt like three months) but have also been unbelievably fun and meaningful!
SO we leave Kisumu which was seriously awesome after being stuffed into our sardine like appartment for a week. Imagine Big Brother except with no running water, toilets or electrisity and you can imagine the time we got up to! Kisumu was seriously awesome though, in many, many ways and I came to quite enjoy my frequent matatu trips into the united mall or the nakumat grocery store! The last night in town we went out for pizza which tasted like heaven, you seriously don't realize how much we miss food from home here (However we did find a place to buy cadbury chocolate bars in maragoli and we have been shovveling them in by the boxload). We also went out dancing at this seriously sketch underground club where we took over the dance floor and danced to the constant replay of Shakira's waka waka and michael Jackson. Our Matatu's were also pimped out with flashing lights and lil' Bowow kareokee videos! P.s. So in my week in Maragoli I have been constantly traveling to the government offices at Sabatiya where there is a mechanic who blasts the old school backstreet boys and N'sync tunes all day long. I am often tempted to return to my pre-teen days and start singing along, but then I wouldn't just be a mazungu, I would be a seriously crazy mazungu.
So fastforwards to Maragoli. I am eagerly sitting in a matatu with Kris and Emmanuel trying to brush up on some last minute swahili before arriving at Ahuga's house. Ahuga is like the man everyone should get a chance to meet in their lifetime, I think I am confident in saying that he is one of the wisest and down to earth people that I know. He also has a seriously nice house and a hugely kind heart. Anyways we arrive, I mess up my greeting (but pull out a quick asante sana, which seems to be my go to word whenever I get stuck) and am instantly surrounded by what seemed like a see of chilren screaming Mirembe, Mirembe. 3-thousand high-fives later we are dancing as a team with SOOO MANY PEOPLE and so many drums and being greeted by the Kiritu community! It was probably one of the most emotional times that I have had in Kenya thus far and it really said a lot to the welcoming spirit of this community (I have video to show when I get back)! We spent the night eating beans, potatoes and ugali prepared by the outsanding william (our chef) and settled into bed. I finally was able to use my mosquito net, which made me happy and prevented me from being eaten alive like some of the other members on our team. On a side note I am thanking malarone for not only keeping me safe, but for also providing me with happy dreams unlike my first night in Nairobi where I could have sworn beatles were crawling all over my pillow.
To describe this town in short I have written a small poem:
OH Maragoli you are so green with your banana trees that make me feel as though I am in Paradise. Your huge rocks that remeble space eggs make me feel as though I am wandering through the set of Jurassic parks and your sunsets make me feel warm, like the three thousand cups of chai that I am offered every single day. Your people are like no other, so unbelievably kind and SOOO FAT (that was a joke (which our team makes often), the people here are not fat but surprisingly thin considering the amount of food that I am offered everywhere I go). Fin.
I realize that my poetry skills have not been as fine tuned as I would have liked in Kenya, but let me assure you that this place is so beautiful and so opposite to anything that I had ever imagined for Afrika. I have been spending a lot of time in the community meeting people, making new friends, eating endless amounts of bananas and avocados, drinking copious amounts of tea, going to the bathroom from the copious amounts of tea and working my buns off on projects. P.s. so I don't know where bananas or avocado's come from in Canada but they should come from here because they are crazy sweet, like you would not even be able to begin to imagine how good they are. Also, blue band (which is like margarine but 4000 times more unhealthy) and bread have become a staple of my days, I must eat like 40 blue band sandwiches a day! I have also been spending every spare momnent that I can riding on piki piki's (motor bikes) and coming into the market to eat mango's and practice my bartering skills (which are seriously necessary here).
Back to the note of amazing people, I have had the chance to meet some of the most kindhearted people on this planet. Maragoli feels so good to me because everyone here in the community is seriosuly passionate about making a difference in the lives of everyone around here. Everyone volunteers endlessly to help improve the community and it has been an incredibly inspiring place that I know I will return to one day. Well actually I will be returning for a few days in August, but I know next summer I will hopefully be back! Ahuga has been our amazing host and a seriously awesome person. I have had the amazing opportunity to have late night talks with him and he has given me such useful and encouraging advice which I am carrying close to my heart as I try to help Kibera. Emmanuel has grown to become a very close friend and it has been amazing to come and see where he lives and meet his family. He is doing SO MUCH, and I mean SOOOO MUCH for this community, it's hard to fathom. Alice, my Maragoli mama has stuffed me to the brim with boiled bananas (which surprisingly taste life potatoes when you add ketchup), and I am going to return in August and use my non-existent roofing skills to help fix her roof and paint it a highly fashinable shade of lime green. Lousie, a fellow Canadian who has been working here for years with the Mongano foundation(check it out) has also become a good friend with some of the most hillarious advice and stories, she will be traveling with us to Kibera on ITT. Her team is also awesome. I have also been becoming closer to my amazing team especially as we stuff our face with blue band (I will attempt to sneak this past security in Canada).
Maragoli has also been amazing because we have been able to get our hands dirty and start some community development projects. We went to a community meeting called a baraza where we listened to community proposals and have used some of our fund-raised money to build a new community spring, revamp the community center and pay for memberships for all of the community children, we have been working on the special needs school and Emmanuel and I have been working to get the North Maragoli Youth Polytechnic in Mutambi registered. This is my first time in such leadership role and we are so far in the midst of constructing toilets and a fence in order to have the school up to standards for government registration. It has taught me a lot about how the government in Kenya works (a.k.a how corruption works), such as in my 9 hour wait to meet with the education minister the other day which didn't end on such a bright note. I have also been learning about how to keep money in order and deal with community members. It has been awesome though and we have decided to skip out the the Kakamega rainforest to ensure that this project gets done. I have sent Kris armed with a camera to take another million pictures to add to my already extensive collection. I am also in the midst of painting a few sign for the polytechnic which is looking SWEEEETTT!! Right now Emmanuel and I are also working on a new pilot project to sponsor children from Maragoli to come study at University in Canada. The children here are so smart and so passionate and I cannot thing of better candidates for university, I know that one day these youth could change the world if only given the opportunity.
Anyways, it is time to jump into the market for some ingredients for dinner. As the team is in Kakamega I am provided with the perfect opportunity to fine tune my chapati making skills, and learn to make mandazi which I promise to make when I get back. Ohh... funny story so in Kenya oven's aren't really the norm. Instead you cook over a fire. So the other night, community party, hundreds of people, josh cooking ugali (a really...really thick mais paste to scoop up stew with), hella amounts of smoke, HUGE spoon, smokey tears, stirring, smokey tears, stirring, rose yelling STIR HARDER STIR HARDER. Lets just say that ugali, not so good and a little salty (from my sea of tears), but ugali none the less.
Peace + Love from KENYA (off on a 10 hour bus ride to Jinja for some bungee jumping and white water rafting in 2 days). Also remember that , Backstreet's back ALRIGHT!!!! ( an ode to the seriously retro tunes here)
-JOASH (my Swahili name),
Kwahari!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
OH CANADA
Just wanted to say OH CANADA to everyone back home! Today we got all spirited out and celebrated Canada by sailing out to the middle of Lake Victoria, getting neked, jumping in and screaming the national anthem! Pretty epic if you ask me! I'm off to Maragoli for the next nine days where we will be doing a bunch of community development projects, as well as staying with our mentor's who will likely teach us a lot! This place is a little bit out of internet range so I should be back on in about 9 days! Happy red and white celebrations!
Adios!
Adios!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tusker under the Sunset
So this post might be short....first of all because I am suposed to be writing an e-mail to Ronan my trip leader about my goals for the trip (but i think that it can wait a few minutes) and also because this internet cafe is about to close, and a woman that works here is passing me quite the pair of evils which is making me feel just a tad bit uncomfortable and...rebellious! So today was awesome! Had 12 hours of sleep last night which was amazing and especially good as we preapre to go out tonight for some booty shakin' (sooo going out at night in africa is kind of risque) but our 17 strong wzungu team will hopefully get by ok! We have played quite the few games of ninja (today we even did it in a pool) so I think we are pretty adequately prepared! Today we went to the slum in Kisumu where I made my theatrical debut in front of a crowd of kenyan youth about the upcoming constitution referendum on august 4th. It was amazing to see a country try to give more rights and freedoms to citizens, and follow the same paths that Canada once did many years ago!
P.s. this was all done with the help of Blue Cross, an amazing organization which helps youth stop using drugs and cigarettes in slums through drama. (Also through talking with them I think that drama would be an excellent way to help build hype and educate poeple in Kibera about my project and I will keep in touch with blue cross as an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge in the upcoming summers) oh yea...so I pretty much decided that next May come schools end...I will be back on a KLM flight to Nairobi! No big deal! So after our play and debate I had quite the conversation with an aweosme 19 year old named Kennedy who is working all over the slum to pay for his post-secondary education. It's unbelievable how expensive university is, but his drive and determination really encouraged me and had given me the final push to stick it out back in Waterloo (school can get ya down after a while). We talked about my project and both decided that if you put your mind to it, literally anything is possible. He also fixed my horrendus swahili accent (a.k.a. my attempts to respond to the thousands of "How are you's?" by the children always ended up with a puzzled look on everyone's face....Kind of like the incident with my swahili dictionary...but after his help I was able to get a mzuri sana (very good) which made me happy...so i poped open a coke to celebrate). We also talked about schol in Canada and spirituality and tommorrow he is going to show me around town, as we get into an adventure which I'm sure I will never forget! P.s. the other day we ate a fresh fried talapia fish caught from lake victoria....EPIC!
So then we went swimming where after many failed attempts at the "triple chicken game" we formed a huge pyramid, a.k.a. HAVEN'T SHOWERED IN 5 DAYS....ALSO HAVE NOT SHAVED (Can anyone say YEHTTI)! I am becoming known as the gingerbeard which makes me somewhat worried as I don't have a mirror, but I am just going with the idea of becoming a youthful santa clause. After swimming we all went to the top floor of some ranom hotel in Kisumu to watch the sunset together...insert awwwwww here...
Right now we are going to double up on bugspray and head into town for an apparently very fancy dinner with James (We are going to have a huge talk about development) and then out on the town to do some dancing!!! ( SOOO STOKED, p.s. I love to dance!)
WE head out to Maragoli on Friday but until then I am preparing my strength for an chin up competition with Emmanuel and a flight planning session with Luke, who is slowly becoming quite the ladies man in the OGEA 2010 group!
I am having a truly amazing time here in Africa, you all seriously need to come and experience this place. In all of the poverty there is so much hope, and beauty and inspiration...it is really amazing! I'm glad to get away for a bit on my own tomorrow because sleeping in a cramped appartment with 17 people can get a bit stuffy....ohhhh So i forgot to tell this story! On our way from Nyvasha to Kisumu we arrive at this tiny little appartment....with KIDS CHASING US WITH STICKS SCREAMING WAZUNGU WAZUNGU (white poeple white poeple) and then they came up in a mob with sticks to our door! Terrifying, but I am thankful to Bomortrito who calmed us down with some jason mraz on the guitar!
Miss everyone back home immensley (this place makes you appreciate the relationships you have like crazy) but also can't think of a more amazing place to be!
Until later days
gingerbeard
P.s. this was all done with the help of Blue Cross, an amazing organization which helps youth stop using drugs and cigarettes in slums through drama. (Also through talking with them I think that drama would be an excellent way to help build hype and educate poeple in Kibera about my project and I will keep in touch with blue cross as an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge in the upcoming summers) oh yea...so I pretty much decided that next May come schools end...I will be back on a KLM flight to Nairobi! No big deal! So after our play and debate I had quite the conversation with an aweosme 19 year old named Kennedy who is working all over the slum to pay for his post-secondary education. It's unbelievable how expensive university is, but his drive and determination really encouraged me and had given me the final push to stick it out back in Waterloo (school can get ya down after a while). We talked about my project and both decided that if you put your mind to it, literally anything is possible. He also fixed my horrendus swahili accent (a.k.a. my attempts to respond to the thousands of "How are you's?" by the children always ended up with a puzzled look on everyone's face....Kind of like the incident with my swahili dictionary...but after his help I was able to get a mzuri sana (very good) which made me happy...so i poped open a coke to celebrate). We also talked about schol in Canada and spirituality and tommorrow he is going to show me around town, as we get into an adventure which I'm sure I will never forget! P.s. the other day we ate a fresh fried talapia fish caught from lake victoria....EPIC!
So then we went swimming where after many failed attempts at the "triple chicken game" we formed a huge pyramid, a.k.a. HAVEN'T SHOWERED IN 5 DAYS....ALSO HAVE NOT SHAVED (Can anyone say YEHTTI)! I am becoming known as the gingerbeard which makes me somewhat worried as I don't have a mirror, but I am just going with the idea of becoming a youthful santa clause. After swimming we all went to the top floor of some ranom hotel in Kisumu to watch the sunset together...insert awwwwww here...
Right now we are going to double up on bugspray and head into town for an apparently very fancy dinner with James (We are going to have a huge talk about development) and then out on the town to do some dancing!!! ( SOOO STOKED, p.s. I love to dance!)
WE head out to Maragoli on Friday but until then I am preparing my strength for an chin up competition with Emmanuel and a flight planning session with Luke, who is slowly becoming quite the ladies man in the OGEA 2010 group!
I am having a truly amazing time here in Africa, you all seriously need to come and experience this place. In all of the poverty there is so much hope, and beauty and inspiration...it is really amazing! I'm glad to get away for a bit on my own tomorrow because sleeping in a cramped appartment with 17 people can get a bit stuffy....ohhhh So i forgot to tell this story! On our way from Nyvasha to Kisumu we arrive at this tiny little appartment....with KIDS CHASING US WITH STICKS SCREAMING WAZUNGU WAZUNGU (white poeple white poeple) and then they came up in a mob with sticks to our door! Terrifying, but I am thankful to Bomortrito who calmed us down with some jason mraz on the guitar!
Miss everyone back home immensley (this place makes you appreciate the relationships you have like crazy) but also can't think of a more amazing place to be!
Until later days
gingerbeard
Saturday, June 26, 2010
So Africa...craziest place ever
Sorry for the short post last time, I was in a rush as we took a matatu off to Nyvasha where we are now camping in this paradise of a campsite! (Just did laundry today by hand ...and I'm pretty sure it is still crazy dirty) Anyways so an update on the last few days:
So in Nairobi we took a day to head down on Matatu #8 to Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa. This is one of the main reasons why I came to Africa in the first place and let me tell you: IT FUCKING ROCKED MY WORLD!!!!! So we get to this place and it is nothing like I could have ever imagined! Houses are literally made of steel siding, the streets are made of compacted mud and garbage and waste, drinking water runs through all of this and kids were running through all of this is bare feet. It was shocking to say the least, but the one thing that stood out about Kibera was that there was a sense of community in this place of dispair which was incomparable to Canada. Although millions of people live there, it is as though everyone knows eachother which blew me away! The othiner thing which blew me away was the flying toilet on the railroad, where you need to dodge bags of flying poo (ewww). We started our stay off by visiting an artists co-op run byy this cool guy names solomon saba, who teaches children how to paint and how to express their lives in kibera through art. His work was truly inspiring and he actually designed all of our t-shirts for our OGEA trip, each shirt was different and mine said I LOVE KIERA which fit very well! We took a tour of the slum, had some amazing beans and ugali and then I met someone who is bound to change my life forever. Her name is Pamela, and I went to their house for a few hours in Kibera for a long talk which was more emootional than anything I have ever been faced with. She has now been dubbed my "African Mama," and she has found a way to take in orphan children (115 of them) and raise them, put them through school and feed them with a goal of making more consious minded people who will be able to give back to the community one day! They are really trying to build a university right now in Kibera and I am going back for my independent travel time to hopefully stay with her and her family because my project fits in very well with the initiative she is currently working on! We had a big debate the other day on Kibera and Emanuel seriously opened my eyes to the complexities of the place, because he has lived there, and I see massive challenges ahead but those are coupled with massive opportunities!
Yesterday went on a bit of a lighter note (well....emotionally, but not in terms of the unbelievable amount of excersisse we got!) Se we're staying in Nyvasha, our campsite is on a lake full of hippo's and there are hot showers (LUXURY LIKE NO OTHER!). We rented a bike and went down to Hells Gate National Park (yes Where tombraiser was filmed) and seriously went nuts. We split into group and I went with Kris and Emanuel and we pretended as though we were in amazing race as we biked our bums off to see every animal we could. We saw herds of zebras, warthogs, giraffes and all sorts! at one point we jumped off of our bikes to chase some giraffes when Amelia, Rachel and Ariel started running with like crazy herds of zebras and gazelles screaming CHEETAHH!!!! IN the end it was a buffalo but it was cool to see our team members as part of a stampede! And seeing thos animals in real life is like......AHHH INDESCRIBABLE!
We then went on a HUGE hike (p.s. this was a 12 hour bike/hike) through the rift valley, hot springs, volcanoes and finally ended up in a massai tribe! They were so nice and explained to us the traditions, they danced and sang, we covered the kids in Canadian Tattoo's and bought some jewellery. We also donated some of our fundraising money to help them keep their schools running! Mum I got you some really cool Massai jewellery, all of course has spiritual meaning and it was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! I have the same blanket as the chief and suprisingly enough the blankets used in massai tribes were a tradition taken form the scottish (HAIL UK!). Later in the night we went up to a bar where we had some sukawiki and potatoes with ugali and of course warm tuskets (beers) which cost here...less than a dollar for half a litre (AHH PARADISE). Today Ronan is taking us to crater lake, where we will have milkshakes before heading off to Maragoli to start our projects tomorrow!
This place...Afrika is seriously like no other. It is not like all of the world vision TV ads we see, and it is a truly inspiring place where poeple are finding a way by! There is so much culture and family ties and community like no other that I can't really explain it, but it is very inspiring! It's taking some time getting used to the stares, but the poeple here are so friendly and full of life and love!
Anyways,
WAKA WAKA (Ghana passed on to the next round)...and we are all singing waka waka like a religion
Until Later Days,
Savanah Joe
(there are probably over a million spelling mistakes in here but I don't even care!)
So in Nairobi we took a day to head down on Matatu #8 to Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa. This is one of the main reasons why I came to Africa in the first place and let me tell you: IT FUCKING ROCKED MY WORLD!!!!! So we get to this place and it is nothing like I could have ever imagined! Houses are literally made of steel siding, the streets are made of compacted mud and garbage and waste, drinking water runs through all of this and kids were running through all of this is bare feet. It was shocking to say the least, but the one thing that stood out about Kibera was that there was a sense of community in this place of dispair which was incomparable to Canada. Although millions of people live there, it is as though everyone knows eachother which blew me away! The othiner thing which blew me away was the flying toilet on the railroad, where you need to dodge bags of flying poo (ewww). We started our stay off by visiting an artists co-op run byy this cool guy names solomon saba, who teaches children how to paint and how to express their lives in kibera through art. His work was truly inspiring and he actually designed all of our t-shirts for our OGEA trip, each shirt was different and mine said I LOVE KIERA which fit very well! We took a tour of the slum, had some amazing beans and ugali and then I met someone who is bound to change my life forever. Her name is Pamela, and I went to their house for a few hours in Kibera for a long talk which was more emootional than anything I have ever been faced with. She has now been dubbed my "African Mama," and she has found a way to take in orphan children (115 of them) and raise them, put them through school and feed them with a goal of making more consious minded people who will be able to give back to the community one day! They are really trying to build a university right now in Kibera and I am going back for my independent travel time to hopefully stay with her and her family because my project fits in very well with the initiative she is currently working on! We had a big debate the other day on Kibera and Emanuel seriously opened my eyes to the complexities of the place, because he has lived there, and I see massive challenges ahead but those are coupled with massive opportunities!
Yesterday went on a bit of a lighter note (well....emotionally, but not in terms of the unbelievable amount of excersisse we got!) Se we're staying in Nyvasha, our campsite is on a lake full of hippo's and there are hot showers (LUXURY LIKE NO OTHER!). We rented a bike and went down to Hells Gate National Park (yes Where tombraiser was filmed) and seriously went nuts. We split into group and I went with Kris and Emanuel and we pretended as though we were in amazing race as we biked our bums off to see every animal we could. We saw herds of zebras, warthogs, giraffes and all sorts! at one point we jumped off of our bikes to chase some giraffes when Amelia, Rachel and Ariel started running with like crazy herds of zebras and gazelles screaming CHEETAHH!!!! IN the end it was a buffalo but it was cool to see our team members as part of a stampede! And seeing thos animals in real life is like......AHHH INDESCRIBABLE!
We then went on a HUGE hike (p.s. this was a 12 hour bike/hike) through the rift valley, hot springs, volcanoes and finally ended up in a massai tribe! They were so nice and explained to us the traditions, they danced and sang, we covered the kids in Canadian Tattoo's and bought some jewellery. We also donated some of our fundraising money to help them keep their schools running! Mum I got you some really cool Massai jewellery, all of course has spiritual meaning and it was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! I have the same blanket as the chief and suprisingly enough the blankets used in massai tribes were a tradition taken form the scottish (HAIL UK!). Later in the night we went up to a bar where we had some sukawiki and potatoes with ugali and of course warm tuskets (beers) which cost here...less than a dollar for half a litre (AHH PARADISE). Today Ronan is taking us to crater lake, where we will have milkshakes before heading off to Maragoli to start our projects tomorrow!
This place...Afrika is seriously like no other. It is not like all of the world vision TV ads we see, and it is a truly inspiring place where poeple are finding a way by! There is so much culture and family ties and community like no other that I can't really explain it, but it is very inspiring! It's taking some time getting used to the stares, but the poeple here are so friendly and full of life and love!
Anyways,
WAKA WAKA (Ghana passed on to the next round)...and we are all singing waka waka like a religion
Until Later Days,
Savanah Joe
(there are probably over a million spelling mistakes in here but I don't even care!)
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