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
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
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!)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
T.I.A. (THIS IS AFRIKA)
So pretty much I am in Kenya...no big deal! Since I've gotten here I have literally been blown away mentally but also by matatu's (busses) which cloud me in black smoke as |I run down the Nairobi streets. This place is epically and unbelievably cool in so many ways I don't even know how to describe it, but it is a million miles away form anything I have known in Canada. We got here on Sunday and our team is unbelievable, so many cool and interesting personalities it is really, really fun! So here is the details of my past four days in waka waka land:
So Sunday, TORONTO AIRPORT, Kris and my attempt to upgrade to first class for my birthday with stories of our professing love for eachother fail and we are stuck in economy class. On our way to amsterdam I tried with not much success to get into Dear John which i had high hopes for but was pretty much a fail, and precious which I also was kind of confused by. I think it may be because only half of my earphones were working and the guy beside me was snoring pretty hardcore. It did help however that when ronan was ahnding out sleeping pills 2 hours before the flight I eagerly popped mine, because I am such a drug addict (well I feel like one with the massive ziplock bag of various pills I have in my pack). Needless to say everyone took their pill when they got on the flight, but I was stuck being drowsy in the airport and for the first half hour of the ride and then awake the entire night! I learned my lesson on the next flight and had a nice cozy sleep! Kris had brought me cupcakes which she somehow managed to sneak past security and we had a nice little birthday in the airport which was amazing! We then went out to visit a little gas station cafe in amsterdam called bonjour, which we agreed was very european and felt as though we were very classy. Then came KENYA!
So we flew in at about 8 at night and the first thing that hit me was how unbelievably dark it was on the grounmd. There are seriously no lights in Nairobi (no street lights, no lights in our hostels when we arrived and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh CRAZY COLD SHOWERS which some say are refreshing but I say are pretty much like a polar bear dip). I have been getting up at 7am (place applause here) to go running with Luke and Emanuel (Our amazing friends form Maragoli who are coming along on the trip with us) and that has been very cool. There is so much traffic, and so many cars here that running is like a game of hungry hippo's with cars but it makes for an interesting run and intense adrenaline rush. We also went into downtown Nairobi the other day and it was seriously like nothing I have ever seen before. They have a central park which is beautiful, palm tree's and people playing soccer and children singing (yes....my favourite thing about africa, which I also did the other day. Luckily they sing very loudly to drown out my well...sounds....sounds which hopefully you will never have to hear). OKKKK HAVE TO GO....fill you in sooonnn!! AHHH KENYA IS AMAZINGG!!!
So Sunday, TORONTO AIRPORT, Kris and my attempt to upgrade to first class for my birthday with stories of our professing love for eachother fail and we are stuck in economy class. On our way to amsterdam I tried with not much success to get into Dear John which i had high hopes for but was pretty much a fail, and precious which I also was kind of confused by. I think it may be because only half of my earphones were working and the guy beside me was snoring pretty hardcore. It did help however that when ronan was ahnding out sleeping pills 2 hours before the flight I eagerly popped mine, because I am such a drug addict (well I feel like one with the massive ziplock bag of various pills I have in my pack). Needless to say everyone took their pill when they got on the flight, but I was stuck being drowsy in the airport and for the first half hour of the ride and then awake the entire night! I learned my lesson on the next flight and had a nice cozy sleep! Kris had brought me cupcakes which she somehow managed to sneak past security and we had a nice little birthday in the airport which was amazing! We then went out to visit a little gas station cafe in amsterdam called bonjour, which we agreed was very european and felt as though we were very classy. Then came KENYA!
So we flew in at about 8 at night and the first thing that hit me was how unbelievably dark it was on the grounmd. There are seriously no lights in Nairobi (no street lights, no lights in our hostels when we arrived and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh CRAZY COLD SHOWERS which some say are refreshing but I say are pretty much like a polar bear dip). I have been getting up at 7am (place applause here) to go running with Luke and Emanuel (Our amazing friends form Maragoli who are coming along on the trip with us) and that has been very cool. There is so much traffic, and so many cars here that running is like a game of hungry hippo's with cars but it makes for an interesting run and intense adrenaline rush. We also went into downtown Nairobi the other day and it was seriously like nothing I have ever seen before. They have a central park which is beautiful, palm tree's and people playing soccer and children singing (yes....my favourite thing about africa, which I also did the other day. Luckily they sing very loudly to drown out my well...sounds....sounds which hopefully you will never have to hear). OKKKK HAVE TO GO....fill you in sooonnn!! AHHH KENYA IS AMAZINGG!!!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Time to do the Waka Waka
So the time has finally come to hop on that little jet for an 18 hour stroll across 3 continents. I'm so excited, nervous, crazy (because of all of the tiny things I have to do which inevitably were left until right now to do) and just unbelievably STOKED! The next time you hear from me I will be sitting in a city that is completely different than the one I am in now, with a vuvuzea in my hand and a team of 14 other incredible people and my best foreign friend (my swahili dictionary)! I CANNOT WAIT!
See you on the flip side,
Savanna Joe
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Blowing Vuvuzela's
t-4 DAYS!!!!!!!
Jambo wote (Hey everyone!)... Still the only word that I can confidently say in Swahili, aside from Poa which means cool, a word which I will probably use about thirty times a day as my jaw will be in a ‘perma-fixed & dropped’ position from all of the out of this world things I am about to see! Good news though, I am becoming quite the best of friends with my Swahili dictionary over the past few days, although it is like one of those relationships where two people don’t speak the same language and you just kind of stare at each other with a puzzled look on your face. I have however managed to string this little winner together:
Sikusema Kiswahili bado, lakini ninajaribu, which is supposed to mean: I still cannot speak Swahili, but I am trying….although based on the puzzled look I continue to share with my dictionary it probably means something along the lines of…”I am a baboon who knows nothing of Swahili!” I will continue to share some special moments with my little friend before I head off to Afrika (Africa in Swahili)!
To prove my devotion my mum was able to pull a quick one on me and snap this shot of me hard at work. I must say this picture makes me proud, as I even colour coded some of the words……it was however a slight illusion as the next picture she got told the real story behind the scene. Actually that little book no longer exists, it was burned in a rage of fury as the three lions (ENGLAND) tied to America. AMERICA!??? Of all the teams they could have tied with…..
Oh well at least the truly important teams (those that come from Africa) are doing an epic job and keeping strong! South Africa plays again tomorrow, and I have made it a goal of mine to find a vuvuzela and bring the spirit of the world cup back to everyone here in Canada! (And because I think I might dress up like a bee for Halloween and I think it would be unbelievably cool to have crazy realistic sound effects). I have also made it a goal to play football (soccer) with as many people as I possibly can, even though I know the kids in Kenya have mad talent and I…not so much. If any East 5er, or Laureena/Sean would know…Intramural soccer this winter + 3 games + 2 days = UNABLE TO MOVE THE LOWER HALF OF MY BODY! I do hope that my hours of grueling bike rides along Baview will have built up the tiniest bit of strength in my legs to prevent such a disastrous effect form happening again!
So since the last update I must say I have been in intense mental preparations for many things, among other, facial hair. I know this sounds crazy, but the thought of growing little curly hairs from my face is more frightening to me than any sort of spider or snake that Africa could throw at me. (Although if I actually did encounter one of these creatures, I might change my mind). I have also packed my things for the trip (well kind of) and even have space left over in my pack which I am truly impressed by! It just means that I may be able to fulfill yet another dream of bringing a baby giraffe back to Canada and keeping him in my bathroom at school! (I would also of course take it for walks around campus, and hopefully one day ride it to work because I never plan on owning a car). I also watched the Constant Gardner with Hayley tonight (a movie you should all see) and it filled me with immense levels of excitement as it was filmed in Kibera, the slum I will be hopefully staying in on my independent travel time! In one of the scenes it showed an airplane on approach to land, and it flew so close to the slum! All I can say is I better have a window seat on that plane because I really want to see that view!
Anyways, that is my little update for Today! Hopefully I can get one last post up before I meet up with the team at the airport on Sunday! AHHHH I’m so stoked to meet them because they all sound unbelievably poa! I have also managed to select my reading for the trip (among many book trades which I’m excited about (p.s. who new how much fun reading was when it didn’t come from a textbook)! “Three cups of tea” and “Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller.” STOKKEKD
P.s. again! I know that I am probably the worst speller in history, so don’t mind what will probably be many a mistake. If it doesn’t make sense, just replace the word that is spelt wrong with ‘poa’ and laugh!
4 more sleeps till Nairobi,
PEACE!
-Savanah Joe (My new nickname)
Friday, June 11, 2010
WAKA WAKA
So right now I am pretty much sprawled on the couch, coke in the hand, Wavin’ Flag blaring in the background and South Africa just scored the first goal of the 2010 World Cup! EPIC! I’m in a tough spot right now because secretly I want South Africa to take the cup (even though most of my friends and family would kill me as England should be top of my list….I’m also getting quite the bit of pressure form the Mexicans too!) All of this just gave me an incredible amount of inspiration to start blogging for my trip to Africa, which is finally, ONLY 9 DAYS AWAY! I’m literally so pumped right now I can’t really explain it, the only thing standing in my way now is this giant red malaria pill staring at me which I’m not really feeling at the moment! I think that the only way this pill is going down is by blasting Shakira’s WAKA WAKA (which I am right now OBSESSED WITH like no other song before, and I am pretty sure from what everyone else is saying that I am the only person on the planet right now who likes this song!)
This final week is going to be a crazy mix of fun, fear (as Brandon jokes about the facial hair of which I am about to have to deal with due to a lack of shaving opportunities), excitedness (yes this is now a word), football (the real word for soccer), and well….big red malaria pills. I just bought my Swahili dictionary yesterday (and have been eagerly studying the one Nathan lent me) and hopefully when I land in Kenya, which is also my birthday (best birthday ever!) I won’t look like a total fool and unable to speak any Swahili! We’re off to a good start, so far I can say hello…..and have a LONG WAY TO GO! I’m also going to do my first video blog this week for the University which is exciting and it should be on the youtube channel soon, I just hope I will be heard over the “OLAY OLAY OLAY’s,” as ENGLAND dominates America tomorrow!
So stoked to go out tonight with Hayley to get all of my last minute gear, like a jacket! I’m asking myself why I would need a jacket, as Africa is supposed to be like a million degrees but right now in Nairobi it’s like 20! Luckily my sleeping bag should keep me warm even though it somehow folds up to the size of a squirrel, which is a random this to compare a sleeping bag to, but I think in this case both work well together! I’m also getting SO EXCITED about the food, aside form a million other things! I went to the East African Café in Waterloo the other night with Diego and had the most amazing stews with this cool sour pancake thing! (I have no idea what it was called) but if food in Kenya is anything like that I think I have already fallen in love with the place! I also hear they have the juiciest mango’s of life and Laureena has warned me that the peanuts are like no other! My mouth is now watering like Victoria Falls so I am going to go eat some much more boring Canadian food.
Just want to say a HUGE THANKS to all of my friends and family who have helped support me so far! Your generosity and support seriously blows me away and I feel so lucky to share this experience with you guys! P.s. also thanks to Hayley who wrote a song for me which I will upload soon!
Cheerio and ‘GO ENGLAND (cough. cough. south Africa) GO!’
-Josh
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