Clarifications...

Hello,

Apparently, according to my mother, a couple of clarifications about my last two posts are required.

1) Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim and burkas are quite common in the town. Therefore, we were careful to dress respectfully when walking around the town. However....it is appropriate to wear swimsuits on the beach. The beaches of Zanzibar are very touristy!

2) I was not riding a turtle in that photo. I was merely standing above the turtle for a photo opportunity!!

You are so funny Mom!

Trip Update #2 - Tanzania

We only saw a small part of Tanzania, but it was beautiful! I would have loved to do some more of the inland things, but time did not allow so we stuck to the coast. Regardless, this entry is gonna be big... lots of pics to share.

We had a little bit of a rough start in Tanzania, our bus took way longer than we thought, so we were forced to stay overnight in Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam is a pretty scary city. After staying overnight in the city, we were able to get the ferry to our intended destination, Zanzibar.
Zanzibar is a fantastic island! We stayed in a hostel in stone town. Stone town was so cool. It was definitely touristy, but it was kind of nice for a change. Stone town is a big huge maze of narrow streets, with tons of neat little shops and restaurants.


One thing that Zanzibar is famous for are the carved doors. They were just beautiful.



The doors, narrow streets and women in their burkas make it a really interesting atmosphere.
We met a really nice German girl on our way to the hostel, she was on a break from doing a medical internship in Rwanda! So, we decided to all head out together for some food. This is what we found...
There is a huge seafood bbq market type area near the waterfront. You just pick the things you want and they add it to a big fire in the centre of the courtyard. Yum! We may have gone a little crazy. I needed two plates to carry all my food. The worst part was.....I ate it all!! It was so good.


We took our massive amount of food and went to sit by the water. A great start to the Zanzibar vacation.


We decided to do a little snorkeling in Zanzibar, so we booked a tour which took us out to an island off of Zanzibar where you visit some giant tortoises then snorkel. The day didn't start of very promising, it was pouring rain. After a little bit of a rough boat ride we took shelter at the hotel on the island to wait it out.

Luckily, the storm cleared and we were able to visit the turtles. Before going, we weren't so interested in the turtles, but they turned out to be pretty fun to hang out with. Very good for photo ops too!


Look how cute this guy is. I love the greens around his mouth. What a messy lil kid (I know, not little or a kid, but still).


It actually became quite sunny and we were able to snorkel too. I don't think the snorkeling is anything like great barrier reef, but I was able to see most of the fish from finding nemo. That's something right?


Here is the view of the island on our way back...

That night, we went out with our new German friend (whose name I forget) to hear some traditional music.


The next day we needed to make our travel arrangements to leave the island. For a variety of reasons, we decided to scrap our overland travel plans and to just fly somewhere where we could hang for another week. We decided on Cape Town, South Africa. There is an airport in Zanzibar, so we didn't think it would be too complicated. I think we may have forgotten that this is Africa....nothing is easy! We thought we would quickly book a flight online and be off to the beach for the day. First off, Kenya Airways website kept crashing. Argh! So we called Kenya Airways, and after being put on hold forever, we got cut off because it was so expensive to call Kenya and we ran out of credit. Oh boy! Then we found out that there is a Kenya Airways office in stonetown....perfect. We got to the office at 11, to find out their hours were 9-12 that day... phew. Unfortunately the Kenya Airways employee wasn't in yet. Someone else had been waiting since 10! Do they know where he is? nope, but 'he's coming'. Then, while we were waiting, we overheard that they don't take visa at this office. DON'T TAKE VISA FOR BOOKING FLIGHTS!!! Who carries that kind of cash around with them!!??! So, we asked them if we could just use their landline to call kenya airways to book over the phone. We were told that 'they weren't authorized to do that' . What?!?!?! they Kenya Airways office can't call Kenya Airways??? After a VERY long morning, when the Kenya Airways guy finally showed up, he let us use his phone, only to find out that the reason the website kept crashing was because the flight we were trying to book was canceled. We were back to square one. Essentially we had to go back to the internet cafe were we started to book another flight. ARGH Zanzibar is great, but they definitely don't make it easy to leave!

So.. since we were no longer able to head out of town to the beaches like our original plan, we learnt a new phrase. 'Sundowners' are drinks you have on a patio watching the sunset. Not bad eh? We sat at this pub, sampled some Tanzanian beer and watched an impromtu soccer game on the beach infront of us. I think we may have had extended the meaning of 'sundowners' to include before and after sunset.....


We were finally able to get up to the north end of the island the next day. We took public transit to get up there, which is essentially a pick up truck outfitted with a roof on the back and seats all around the back that everyone piles into, and I mean PILES into. I got stuck in the corner and my feet were pretty much numb by the time I got there cause I was squished so much. Well worth it though....look at these pictures!!!



Not a bad place to spend the afternoon reading on the beach.



Fantastic seafood restaurants along the beach! Here I am rocking the windswept beach look, I think I could get used to this.


After a fantastic day at the beach, we went back to Zanzibar for more 'sundowners'. We were treated to a lightening show on the water that night. Perfect since it didn't even rain on us.


That's it for Tanzania, we flew from Dar es Salaam the next day. I have one last picture to share.... I saw this at the market..... they are cutting up a shark!! A whole shark, how could I resist a photo.

Trip Update #1 - Kenya

Hey Everyone,

I am back in the village. It was a pretty long trip, big ups and downs, but amazing overall.
Now I just need to post the pictures and remember at least some of the stories.

Our first destination....was Kenya!
We stopped at Naivasha to visit Hell's Gate Park. It was pretty cool. There are no lions or rhinos there, so you can actually rent a bike and go though the park. Through Rachel's fantastic haggling skills we were able to get a super cheap rate for our bike rental......unfortunately this meant that the bikes were terrible, just awful. I pretty much biked standing up the whole time cause the seat hurt so much to sit on. I suppose that's what you get for $3.


What was well worth it however, was the park. It was beautiful, and we even saw a bunch of animals!



I took a fantastic photo of Rachel and the zebra, then when it was my turn....I watched it run away. Nooo!!!


Not a bad view for an afternoon bike ride....


My favorite was seeing the giraffe's run, they are so awkward!




In the middle of the park, there is a huge gorge that you can hike through. We met 3 couples who were interested in doing some hiking, so we hired a local guide to take us. The route is a little hard to find and involved a little climbing, so it was good we had him with us.

There were also some hot springs in the gorge, hence the bright green algae in this photo.


At the end, the view was amazing. This park not as much on the main 'tourist route', I think that made it even better.
That night, we stayed at a place called 'fisherman's camp' which was right on the lake. There were tons of animals around....look at this guy I saw up a tree!


I saw this flag and couldn't resist a photo, Harambee is the closest town to the village I am staying in in Kenya.



The place we stayed was really nice, it was a camp with a big lodge that served food. It seemed so fancy after being in the village for so long! Real Showers! Rachel was pretty excited about the Savanna Dry Cider that was available. While we were sitting on the patio in the evening enjoying some dinner and drinks, the owner of the lodge came up to us and said 'sorry to disturb you, but if you are interested there are hippos on the lawn if you want to walk down and take a look'. Sorry to disturb! Are you kidding! We were able to go down to the lake and see about 7 hippos grazing. I tried to get pictures, but since it was so dark none of them worked out.

The next day we were off to Nairobi. It was a very quick trip to Nairobi because we book the overnight bus to leave that night for Mombasa. We were able to get in a quick visit with Amanda, the director of the organization though. Here I am with her super cute daughter, Malaika. Finally a child that doesn't cry when I am near them!


The next morning we arrived in Mombasa. I never should have complained about the heat in Western Province....it was SO HOT. We hung out by Fort Jesus in the morning, just enjoying the view of the fort and the water.



After a very short visit to Mombasa, we decided to go to Diani beach in the afternoon. Before I left Canada, I lost my swimsuit, so I was in need of a new 'swim costume' as they say here. The selection is somewhat limited......and now I have a swimsuit that is a little more 'bejeweled' than I might normally wear. Kinda funny I guess. The beach was beautiful, it was so nice to just relax and hang out for the day. Rachel also accidentally purchased us a camel ride on the beach. These guys came along asking if we wanted a ride, and we asked how much. They gave us a ridiculous price, so just for fun Rachel responded with what we thought was a ridiculously low price. After a very short negotiation, they agreed. oops! Oh well, it was fun.

The next day...we hopped on a bus for Tanzania.

Village Happenings

Last village news before I start talking about travels!

As I mentioned earlier, the last few days in the village were just crazy. On top of chicken house and planting, we also moved! Plus since Rachel isn't coming back, we had a few fun going away things as well.

First off...the move! Although we loved our little house, it was time to move. I'm not sure how well I explained things within the organization before, but basically there were two organizations in two separate villages. Amanda, who is half of the time in Nairobi and half in Canada is the director of the Tumaini part in the village of Eshibanze. Since she is not in the village all of the time, she decided to partner with another local organization in Khalaba. Khalaba is the village where our house is and it is one the project site of the local organization. Unfortunately, there have been some problems with this local organization and with the local director. I am trying to set up some systems of accountability for donations received through Amanda and it was just not working with the other organization. As a result, most of our volunteers efforts have been focused on the Tumaini side in Eshibanze. SO...we decided to rent a house in Eshibanze. The eventual goal is to buy a piece of land there and build our own house in Eshibanze. For now, our new house is a mud house with two bedrooms and a main room. How does one move furniture in Kenya......by motorbike! Yikes... we had two sets of bunk beds, all our kitchen stuff, all our bags and us. It took 3 motorbikes only two trips each to move all that stuff!! It was insane!

We even brought our little puppy over by motorbike. This little guy's name is Maximus. We found him with 3 other puppies and they were not in a good state. We tried to take care of them, but 3 puppies died and only Maximus survived. He has since become our little pet and we feed him our leftovers and even made him a little house.

Look how cute he is! He is way bigger now. I wonder how big he will be when I get back from this trip!

Nakupenda Maximus! (I love Maximus)

I have an awful lot of pictures of Maximus now. Our first orphan sponsorship case.

And now...some more fun events! Here is a picture from St. Patty's day. We decided to bring Rose into town for a nice meal as a thank you and a good bye party for Rachel. It was a great day. Rose was pretty excited about ordering chicken, something you don't eat very often in the village.

Here...as a special last creative art project we did Paper Mache. I think they may have liked the balloons even more than the paper mache.

And finally, before we left, we invited all the teachers over to the head teacher's house for a little going away party. It was pretty fun, I even tried my hand at making chapati. I have no idea how they get them to be so round...mine were ....unique shapes?

So much food! We were really full after.

Best part of the party was that it turned into a spontaneous dance party. Everyone laughed at me attempting to dance like a lua. Lua is the tribe that most of the people in the village are from. Many of the tribes have traditional music and dancing styles.

And here....is Rachel's very last night in the village. We had ugali, meat and sukuma wiki, traditional kenyan food. I think she is gonna miss the village very much!

Posting this has really made me look forward to heading back. I'm excited to get into village life again and see how things went while I was gone..... I love Kenya!

Agriculture at Tumaini

Hello, As I mentioned earlier, one of the things we were working on at the school was setting up a parent teacher association. The aim is the get more of the parents involved with the school and helping with new initiatives around the school. The parents are super enthusiastic and elected 6 people to be on the PTA. One of the many things that the PTA is to work on is the agricultural program for the school. After a couple meetings, we determined that we would like to have two parts to the agriculture program. Part 1 is an income generating project which is meant to sustain Part 2. Part 1 is growing maize and soya beans. Right now, they are planning to just sell the maize and the soya beans, maybe sometime in the future they can look at other things like grinding the maize into flour or making soya milk etc. Part 2 is to grow vegetables to be used in the school lunch program. Right now, maize and beans are donated by each parent who can for the lunch program. This allows all the children the have at least one meal a day. If the PTA is able to grow some more vegetables, more variety can be added to their diet which will be good. We have started with growing sukuma wiki (kale). In the last couple weeks before I left the village, it was finally planting season. We were busy busy busy! Here we are planting the maize and soya beans. Here I am getting right into it! Planting is way easier than mudding. We had a good team working on the planting, so in no time we had planted this whole field. Here is our planting crew...we decided to go into the market for some lunch when we were done the project.

hehe... I couldn't resist taking a photo of the menu on the wall. Beans and chapati for 20 ksh... that's about 25 cents!

I can't wait to get back to the village to see how these crops are doing!