AFRICAN BONANZA

DIANA and I :) :) :)

2007-10-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

This picture was lost in cyber space for WAY too long. I just got my hands on it last week and it is officially my favourite. I bought this material in Uganda and brought my friends daughter with me to get measured since I knew I would have extra. A week later I got Diana to put on her dress and when her mom saw us matching she started crying and crying and crying! She was SO happy! All the 'white kids' in Kenya were asking me where I got this dress so I gave her mom a loan and we went to Uganda together to buy more materials. Within a week she'd made FORTY DOLLARS. She never had this much money in her entire life. She told me that because of me, she was finally able to put food on the table for her three children. I can't explain how that feels ... when someone tells you that you just changed their life forever. I also helped her husband to get a position as a volunteer with the local red cross since I had connections while I was there. Since I've returned, I've heard that she is still selling the material and that they have used some of the money they've made to start a poultry project. I'm so sooooo proud of them. I could just scoop this little girl up and adopt her!!!! So sweet!

THANK YOU TO MY DONORS!

2007-08-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT DONATED TO THE WESTERN PROVINCE ORGANIC GROWERS ALLIANCE OF KENYA!!!!!!!

Gore Bay Anglican Church, Paul & Lynda Flanagan, St. Peters Anglican of Silver Water, Allan Elliot, Myles & Marlene McLeod, Gordon & Valarie Flanagan, Mary Buie, Marg & Bob Tuomi, St. John’s Anglican Church Women of Kagawong, Hugh & Molly Anne McLaughlin, Terry & Rosanne Olmstead, Dr. Bill Studzienny, Mel Wickett, John Limbeek, Pearl Priddle, Rhea Woods, Lou (Woods) Bock, Phyllis Cook, United Church Friendship Circle, United Church Outreach, Maureen Armstrong, Tammy Rolston, St. John’s Anglican Church penny collection, Terri & Wayne Beharriell, Peter & Lydia Flanagan, Don & Mary Lynn McQuarrie, Jen Buie, Minnie Graham, Doug & Sharon Alkenbrack, Heather Whittle, Gordon Township Women’s Institute, Gore Bay United Church friendship circle & outreach, Alfred Armstrong, Judy Mcutcheon, Steve Doane, University of Guelph Students, Lisa Hannah, Lakehead University Education Student Teachers Alliance, Kim VanDeBoosport, Petra (Demeyere) & Scott Mantle, Ingrid & Bryan Guse, The Anchor Inn Easter Weekend Fundraiser (thank you Melanie Stephens and Dawn Noble for organizing), and continually growing!

Thank you to all of the idividuals out there that donated through the church, Anchor Inn - or whatever else. I know you are many and although I might not know all of you personally, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

WITH YOUR HELP WE RAISED OVER 13,000 DOLLARS!

CANADA

2007-07-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am sitting in my parents house on the computer. It feels weird to be here - that's for sure. Africa certainly was going from one extreme to another. After an 11 hour flight from South Africa to Amsterdam, an 8 hour flight to Detroit, a 7 hour layover, and another hour to Toronto - I'M EXHAUSTED! I have news that I'm going to announce soon but not quite yet. Just to keep you on the edge of your seats. Since I can now take advantage of a quick internet connection I'm going to put up some before and after pictures of my time in Africa. It's amazing what changes were able to happen while I was there. I never really realized it myself until now.

Enjoy :)

One mud room. One teacher.

FIRST THE SCHOOL. The changes here are incredible. We went from no uniforms, sitting on mud floors to cemented classrooms with lots of teaching materials, uniforms, blackboards, meal programs, handwashing stations, toilets, a kitchen, a well... where does it end!?!?!

ABOVE AND BELOW: One mud classroom. Still holes in the wall.... kids sitting on the floor, crowded, no uniforms. This is what I found when I arrived in Kenya... and so I thought, "What can I do now to make some changes around here?"...

PROGRESS: A portable blackboard, cemented floor (and one wall while we ran out of supplies), glass windows.

NEW ADDITIONS: Building new classrooms. Getting ready to mud. Class three and an office.

THREE CLASSES UP AND AN OFFICE: Well it might not be pretty yet but we're functional! Wooden doors, steel/glass window... coming along nicely!

CEMENTING TIME: Fundy's are called in to cement over the mud structure... makes it more permanent (rains can wash a mud house away!) and looks nice too!

IN THE BACKGROUND: the school fully cemented! AND UNIFORMS!

UNIFORMS!

LUNCH PROGRAM: "Look, I need MORE"!!!!

BUILDING TABLES: To eat and learn!

AND WE LOVE OUR TABLES :)

CLASSROOM!: Finally, it looks like a proper learning environment. Hard to believe that this is the very same classroom in the first picture. RECIPE FOR A SCHOOL: Take some mud.... stick it to some branches, add a roof. Cement the floor, and the walls. Add children. Dress in uniforms. Build some pretty tables and benches. Get them some pencils. Decorate the walls. Hire a couple teachers. VOILA!

SEE, It's not SOOOO hard!

Back where I started!

2007-07-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

Here I am back in Johannesburg South Africa! It is strange how this place sort of feels like home since it's where I arrived on December 6th last year. Time flies by. Saying goodbye in the village was tough but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had so much rushing around to do in the last couple of days that it never really had time to get to me. I'm too tired from travelling to write much so this is just a location update for today!!!!! More pictures from my last days to come. I'll be arriving at the Toronto airport this WEDNESDAY!

KAMPALA, UGANDA

2007-06-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

WOW. What a city. This place is pretty incredible. The hustle and bustle of Kampala was totally unexpected. I got to the border and wasn't feeling so well so really didn't want to take the matatu all the way to the city. Lucky for me a nice couple let me jump into their very nice landrover and off I went. We also had a bunch of other local Ugandan hitchhikers needing a ride home. The couple had been driving from the coast in Kenya so after being so tired and realizing I could drive - I was promoted to driver and owned the Ugandan roads for a while. Other than seeing a dead man on the side of the road who had gotten his bycicle in the way of a transport, it was a pleasant experience. We'll just put that memory to rest with the others I don't want to recall about my travels in Africa. It was bound to happen at some point as the main transportation around here is by far the bycicle. I planned to go back to my village on Sunday evening but once again the rush from travelling and seeing new places has already formed a new agenda for me. I've met a girl named Grance from LA who's been travelling on her own for over a year and I just have to join her on a short 'safari'. Tomorrow we are going to the "sese" islands (and I'm sure that's not how you spell it)... we'll stay there basking in the sun for a couple days before retnring back to Kampala on Monday. Monday night there is a big 'jam fest' at a theatre in the city... followed by going to do white water rafting on Tuesday at the source of the nile in a city called Jinja. Afterwards we'll drive together back to my little village in Kenya where she's looking forward to seeing what roughing it in the African village is like. I love showing people that place. I might not have covered numerous coutries all over the globe - but one thing is for sure. I have fallen in love with a community and it's people, and I wouldn't change a moment of it for anything.

BITS AND PIECES OF LIFE IN KENYA

2007-06-21T07:34:00.001-07:00

Babysitting! Baby Shanelle wrapped up in my sarong and sleeping in my bed in Bungoma! So cute!!!! Nutrition presentation day at the school. Local women gather to learn how to make soy milk - which is surprisingly simple and delicious! Mamma Jane mashing the beans... Me... doing... something? Hanging out with Mattea! She likes me, really - she's just pretending not to!

Wendy !! She's 9 !! Me and my directors nephew - Emmanuel :) Christine with her huge hair between braiding! She was my neighbour while I was living in Kabula!!!!! She's also a superstar at basketball so I couldn't but buy her a ten dollar pair of running shoes - she thought she'd died and gone to heaven that day! Me and Habbah from the internet cafe. I'm pretty much an employee here now! A couple of hard working kids on the road to Shibanze. This is actually a very small load on top of her head!!!

Good friends! This is Mamma Jane and her two children. On the left is Ramzy and on the right her daughter Zulfah drinking my leftover soda! Mamma Jane recently gave birth to a baby girl but she died after only three days due to spina bifida - a disease that the healthcare system in Kenya cannot yet tackle. She used all of her small business capital in burrying her daughter but we were able to get her started again with once again - donations! Wow - I'm going to miss these people. My directors son, nicknamed WEPOGA - so cute! In fact, I just realized I don't even know his real name...weird! Junior. This kid definetley has a special place in my heart. Actually his whole family does. And below this picture his his mom and younger sister. Junior was sick recently and needed emergency surgery. To make matters worse the first surgery didn't fix the problem and he was back in for a second only one week later. Being so close to his family, his father wanted me to be there during the entire process so I've spent 12 hour days with this boy beside his hospital bed. He's the most energetic 3 1/2 year old I know and I'm happy to say he's FULLY recovered! Like I said - Junior's mom and baby sister Jennifer! Mom is only 21 years old but Junior's older sister is 6. She started into the mom/married world at a frightening young age but somehow does an amzing job. Her and her husband are incredible people and have been so helpful in my adjusting to life in Africa. My personal project that I funded myself since being here was helping this Mamma to start a small business selling dress materials from Uganda. It's been successful now for 3 straight months. Every time I see them they remind me of how thankful they are. Before this they were begging for food each day - now they are buying it themselves. In fact, I've noticed the kids in a few new outfits lately too! Life is good for them, and getting better! My directors oldest son, Joe. He coudn't resist a picture with me after he saw Junior getting one!

I can't begin to say how much these people mean to me. Although they aren't all present - these are the women I meet with every Thursday. I feel like I have 60 mothers in Shibanze and they are all such amazing people. I think my big smile shows how awesome they are. It's an honour to be in a picture with them. This ones getting framed - that's for sure! Meet Sylvia. She lives on the school compound with her two children - one of which is named Hellen who attends our school and this one in the picture with her, baby Tracy. Sylvia is an example of a young woman who was promised to be taken care of by a man by marrying. Her story tells about a different life - a struggling life where abuse and overall poor treatment is a reality. Food is scarce and the nights are long when they are filled with hunger pains. Boda-boda. This is Ann, another girl that I live with. Here we are returning to Bungoma after I brought her to Shibanze for a day to see what I was up to there. Needless to say, she also fell in love with the place right away - it's impossible not to! Me, Sheilah and her baby Emmanuel. Helping to serve lunch at the school! Today was beef, sukuma-wiki, and ugali! Good stuff :)

Our new cooking 'machine'. Another item purchased through donations from YOU! Three of our four teachers. From left to right is Lillian, Celina, and Emily. Missing is Dorrine because she was sent home to have a baby! Meet some of our new additions. This is what baby class looks like after lunch. It's nap time on top of some blankets that we were able to purchase with more donations! New uniforms for those without are coming soon! More babies! In the background our new school office. We are having a shortage of storage room so for now you can see all of our school supplies piled up behind the desk. Maybe soon we will be in a position to paint the school! Of course there are so many more important things to do that it keeps getting put off! Here's proof to all those who are worried that I do find time for myself. This is a picture of me and my friend Brent from Texas who is here with the peace corps! He's a Kenyan lifer - been here for 13 months and counting - makes me feel like such a rookie! Oh, right - we were out enjoying some Kenyan beer that night - TUSKER :) Highly recommended! I also have to point out how I'm wearing jeans and a turtle-neck.This is how I know that I've adjusted to life in Africa - when I can manage to feel COLD in this country!

Kids chasing my bicylce as I pass by a nearby school. My personal shopping mall. Everything you could ever want and more. Meet Lydia - the reason why I know so much swahilli. The house girl at my home-away-from-home who doesn't speak a word of English - but we get by! Millcent. Wow I can't say enough about this woman. She might be my best African friend. She helps me with SO many projects. She's struggling like everyone else in the village to make ends meet but will never ask you for anything. She lost her daughter when giving birth to her grandson so now take care of him on her own for the past seven years. She's an incredible woman. Clinic day at the Shibanze dispensary. This is me collecting nutritional data for a proposal I've been working on. Cross your fingers that it gets accepted and some money is sent for a year long health project in Shibanze.

update :)

2007-06-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Life has been so good. I can’t believe the date. And that my ticket home says JULY! How did this happen? How did it creep up on me so fast? It can’t be!!!!!! I’d stay here forever if I could. I’ve started some SERIOUS work lately and it’s been so much fun. The cow has arrived, a new house has been built for a widowed woman and her two young children (pictures coming soon), the school is looking incredible, my nutrition program is up and running – what else can I say? Life is good in Shibanze. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours making soymilk from soybeans (obviously) with about 20 locals. I have been trying to promote soybeans for feeding children that are malnourished so I thought I’d try my luck in making some milk from them. It was completely successful and now the women really believe that I know how to cook! We mashed up the beans, squeezed out the milk, boiled it with some sugar, added an orange peel to take away the bean flavor - and VOILA – nutritious soymilk. We had lots of babies present to be the guinea pigs and they actually drank it! I was pretty impressed with it all! Then we used the leftover and added tea leaves and that was also delicious! Now that it went so smoothly, every Friday until I leave we’ll be meeting in the school kitchen to make something else from the local foods that are available. Good times! Today I made a trip to visit the house we built… and with me I brought three beds, some kitchen and other household items, some used clothing, 3 chickens and lots of fun. We had about 50 kids gathering around to see what was going on and even the smallest of the smallest were carrying something to the new home. This woman is always so sad looking and today… finally, she had the biggest smile out of everybody on her face. I can’t wait to visit next week and see how she’s organized everything. I know it’s going to be amazing. I wish I could build a new house for every hurting family in that village but small steps are also a success. Like every time I write, there is always bad with the good. I’m now working with three mothers and their young children because in all seriousness, these kids are on their way out of this world. I’ve never seen such severe malnutrition. How do you tell a woman what to feed her child when she doesn’t even have enough in her pocket to buy a single egg? It’s a real struggle and something that kills me every day. Sustainability is so important but how do I stop from reaching into my pocket and giving her enough for the next week when it’s so little to me… These are the things that I don’t allow myself to do. In the long run it’s not beneficial to our program and it’s taken some time for me to realize this. We need to encourage these people and teach them. If everything is given with no lessons learned, we are in fact leaving them worse off than when we found them. It’s the most difficult thing for me to remember each and every day. I’m seeing each of them three times a week to go over food diaries and come up with a plan for their ‘shambas’ (kitchen gardens). I have two children with severe marasmus and one with severe kwashiorkor. Both of these are diseases caused by malnutrition. All of them are over one year but none have even taken their first step because their bodies are so weak. To look at the oldest one who is almost 2 years, you would think she was 6 months. It’s a horrible thing to see. They can’t even cry in fear of me. It takes too much energy. I’m making it my own personal goal before I leave this place to get some results out of these babies and get them HEALTHY! I know it’s possible… so the only thing left is to DO IT. Last week I found a young girl sitting in on one of my women’s group meetings. She was holding a baby of about 1.5 years so I just assumed she came with her mother. But then I saw her breast feeding. It was hard at that point to concentrate on the lesson I was teaching. I tapped her on the shoulder on their way out and asked to talk to her. I found out she is 16 and her child is almost 2. Her mother was the first of three wives for one man but her father had chased her mother away 4 years ago. The next two wives beat her every day. One day she visited Shibanze where an older man promised to take care of her if she went to stay with him. Now she’s ‘married’ with a child at such a young age. Because she had a baby so young, you would think she was about 11 or 12 years as her body never got a chance to finish growing itself. When I talked to her in our small school office she started crying and told me that she was constantly running to her grandmothers home because her husband beat her so badly. After a short time she would only end up returning because her grandmother had nothing to give her. How do you not cry when you hear something like this? It’s a horrifying reality in rural Africa. It’s the only hope for a young girl motherless and starving with her young siblings. Unfortunately… what they hope to achieve out of marrying is not what they get. The good news is that I have a friend in a nearby community with a project that I want her to get started in. He has a small sewing school which caters to young men and women who never got to finish secondary school. This way they can at least learn a new skill so that they can make a living in the future. On Monday I’ll go to visit the place with her. I’m hoping to find a family that will take her and her young daughter in while she does sewing school. The problem is that there is no money to fund all of this. So… if there is anyone out there that has been considering sponsoring a child through an organization this would be a great place to start. She needs just a small amount each month in order to have food and shelter for her and her baby while she completes this year long course. Please let me know if you want to help this girl. I can get you into contact with her through letters and pictures and I promise you she’s someone we can’t lose hope for. She’s the sweetest thing and I can’t stand to see her continue on the path that she’s currently on. Back in the village, I have to tell you about the strong connection that's been growing between me and these people. I don't know how to put it really - but it's amazing. I can walk down the road and hear a child shouting "Habari Amanda" (How are you)... and it's awesome to have so many poeple knowing my name now. The woman are always overwhelmed with joy to see me and beg me not to leave. I've gotten so many offers from them to marry one of their many sons... it's just crazy! They promise me that I'll have a very nice little mud house right beside theres and that we'll make Ugali together for the rest of the days to come. It sounds tempting, but I think I'm going to have to pass. But honestly, I don't know how I'm going to leave this place. My last day is going to be the most difficult day of my life so far. I can recall other moments in my life that I thought were definetely the worst at the time... but nothing is going to compare to this. I'm planning a party and putting together a slide show so I just need to find a generator and an overhead projector (wish me luck!) so that I can show these people why I love them SO MUCH! So, I will leave things there for today. Within the next two days I will be posting pictures of the house we’ve been building and you are going to LOVE IT! ADIOS FOR NOW and see you in Canada SOOOOOON!

FROM RAGS TO RICHES! A NEW BEGINNING FOR ONE WOMAN'S FAMILY!

2007-06-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Recall an early posting where I described a house as "the world-vision TV like house". I wrote that because it reminded me of the kinds of things I saw on the world vision advertisements when I was a little girl. I always loved watching that show. It wasn't that it was entertaining but somehow it made me equally happy and sad. It's also a big part of why I'm here today doing what I am. Within the first month that I started my work here in Shibanze I came across a woman living in a house that was almost completley fallen over with her two young children. Later I also came to realize that she had a third child that goes to a special school for the handicapped. And even later after that I found out that her first born child (a girl) had died at the age of six years from severe malnutrition. During her pregnancy with her fourth and final child (baby Issah), she also lost her husband. Here in Shibanze women marry with hopes of being well taken care of with food and shelter. They often don't complete half of primary school and therefore have not learned the skills in which to take action for the outcome of their own lives. And they are often very poorly taken care of. It is a tough, sad REALITY. Through my work I am attempting to change that reality and give the people of Shibanze a CHOICE. To educate women about what they can do to help themselves - and how they can bring up their children in such a way as to create a more stable future in the community. It's a struggle each and every day. It's not until now that I see the difference that I have made... and it's taken 5 months for me to realize it. That's one of the reasons that it is so hard for me to leave this place. I feel like I'm just getting started. Gaining the trust of the community and really creating a foundation for serious change. One woman from Manitoulin Island has made changing one woman's reality possible. This is a story I won't forget.

Imagine that this is what your house looked like from the outside...

And when you looked out from the inside, this is what you saw...

And just think... this is how you feed your children.

Your adorable children!

IMAGINE! You can't. And this is why you don't see a smile on her face. And this is why you don't see the child with any clothing. This is an example of the extreme poverty I've found in the village where I work - and that I unfortunately have to see on a regular basis. But, it gets better. At least for this woman!

Now you are about to see what I've been up to for the past three weeks. Time well spent. You are about to witness what happened when one woman decided to donate A NEW LIFE and erase poverty from one family's life forever!!!!!!! Work has NEVER been so much fun.... In fact, this isn't work. Not a single day in the past five months has felt like work!

DAY 1 - THE BIG SURPRISE.

We pulled up in a pick up truck with all the supplies needed to build a new house for one family. Amida had NO IDEA this was coming. It was a priceless moment. She couldn't even show that she was happy because she was in such disbelief.

Above: the lumber we bought to build the frame of the house with!

And that's right. The mud underneath is what's left over of the old house. So good to see it knocked over! Good riddens!

Some of the 26 iron sheets used to make the roof!

Curious neighbours came to see Karima and baby Issah's new house (Karima in her school uniform holding baby Issah in the front right).

Working hard...

Now those are looking like walls... a bit???!!!!!!!

Two of the 'fundys' fixing up the roofing posts.

And voila, a roof over their heads!!!! The building team taking a quick break! Much deserved. Thanks guys! Amida checking out her new house... still in disbelief that it's all hers. Neighbours told me she was asking if this was some kind of a joke or if this was really all for HER when I wasn't around. I SEE YOUR SMILE AMIDA!!!!!!!! And it's getting bigger every day!

Amida works hard for two days... now we have walls!!!!! Waiting for the first round of mud to dry and then to apply some more! Fun stuff!

The building team! Amida standing in the back row with the pink shirt, Karima kneeling with me, and baby Issah on the right...

Last weekend I met Amida early in the morning at the Saturday market in a nearby village. We gave her a 500 shilling (10 dollar) spending limit and she is now the proud owner of a new business. Sure, it doesn't look like much but it reallllllly reallllllllllly is! She's been successful so far and even went back on her own 2 days ago to purchase more goods! GOOD JOB AMIDA!

So you think things are exciting so far? The party has just begun!!!!!! Just two days ago (Saturday) I surprised Amida again - this time with a truckload of new things for her house! Three beds, kitchen supplies, used clothing.... even three chickens which I carried myself since I'm so experienced having been given numerous chickens by local women since I arrived!!!!! Let's go in and check things out!!!!!

The festivities started with me being swarmed by all children within hearing distance. They all ran into the house and started singing and dancing... all in thanks for what was being brought for Amida's new house. I was so amazed to see how much she was supported throughout this entire project even though these kids you are seeing weren't actually recieiving anything... It was truly overwhelming. I don't know how I didn't cry this day. But somehow, I managed. Just try to imagine having about 50 people singing and dancing around you in this rural village setting in Africa!!!!! It's CRAZY. CRAZY I SAY!

Every child... even the smallest of the smallest helped to carry something inside.

I've never seen Amida smile. Never! Look at her now. Who knew three chickens could bring one person so much joy? She just couldn't wait to get her picture taken. The first time I took her picture I think she wanted to die! Beside her is Mamma Jamila (left) who has been absolutely INCREDIBLE in helping me make all of this happen. She's a sister-in-law to Amida and deserves some serious praise.... she was the one who cooked the meals while the fundy's were building, the one who kept the house a secret for 2 weeks, and the one who gathered everyone together for the big surprise! JAMILLA, you are the best!

Once I FINALLY got everyone quiet, I picked each item out of the shopping bags one by one and passed them along to Jamila, and then Amida. After every piece the kids did this celebration clap. It was awesome!

And we couldn't end the day without a group picture!!!!! Look at Amida's bright white teeth showing through her BIG smile!

Now this is what I was waiting for! The picture that made all of it complete! Amida is GLOWING with happiness!

PROJECT DAIRY COW - UP AND RUNNING!

2007-06-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

THE FIRST LITRE OF MILK THE FIRST MILKING! YUM. NEPIA GRASS! COW GIRL HAPPY HAPPY HOME!

LOOKING GOOD FROM A DISTANCE!

I THINK THIS IS EVEN BETTER THAN MY MUD HOUSE! I JUST MIGHT MOVE IN!

LOOKING BETTER EVERY DAY!

THE FUNDY'S BUILDING THE STORE ROOM! ALMOST DONE!

MEET MATTEA THE COW! SHE ARRIVED LAST WEEK AND WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER! EVEN BETTER, SHE'S EXPECTING A CALF IN 7 MONTHS!!!! SHE'S REALLY LIKE A BIG PUPPY DOG AND LETS ANYONE WALK UP AND PET HER!

PROJECT DAIRY COW

2007-06-03T00:12:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE: Leveling the land and putting in posts for the cow shed. DAY TWO: More leveling of the land... adding the iron sheet roof to the structure of the cow shed. DAY THREE: More lelveling and adding stalls inside of the cow shed. DAY FOUR: ABOVE AND BELOW: Adding big rocks to the ground in preparation for applying a cement floor. The cow is going to weight around 600 KG so the floor needs to be STRONG! MORE PROGRESS PICTURES COMING SOON!

CLASSROOM UPGRADES

2007-05-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

STARTING TO LOOK LIKE A PROPER LEARNING ENVIRONMENT! TABLES! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? LOVING THE MORNING PORRIDGE... NO MORE HUNGER PAINS ON SCHOOL DAYS! CUTIES!!! EVEN THE WALLS ARE DECORATED... NOW JUST TO PAINT! ps. NOTICE THE CEMENTED WALLS!!!! FORGET MUD!!!! WE'RE UPGRADING!

KIDDIES - WHY I LOVE IT HERE SO MUCH!

2007-05-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

MY 'HOUSEMATE' NICOLE. SHE JUST PULLED THIS CANADA SWEATSUIT OUT OF NOWHERE!!!!! REALLY, YOU CAN BUY ANYTHING AT THE LOCAL MARKET! TOYS TOYS TOYS! NEW TOYS!!!! REMEMBER BABY LAYLA? HERE SHE IS! NEW SANDBOX AT THE SCHOOL

ABOVE AND BELOW: NEW ADDITIONS TO THE SCHOOL. NO UNIFROMS YET BUT COMING SOON. KIDS IN THE INTERIOR

TERMITES ANYONE? TRY PROMOTING THESE FOR PROTEIN WITH A STRAIGHT FACE!

LOCAL KIDS IN SHIBANZE. FAR LEFT IS DIPLO AND HIS BROTHER ON THE FAR RIGHT IS AKEKO - TWO ORPHANS WE SUPPORT.

CUTEST KENYAN BABY AWARD? I THINK SO!

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE (MAYBE MOST) FAMILIES: JUNIOR, JENNIFER, AND DIANA!

MEET NICOLE. I LIVE WITH AND HER MOM IN BUNGOMA. SHE LOVES WEARING MY SUNGLASSES! COOL CAT!

SCHOOL GIRL WITH HER NEW BACKPACK THAT WERE GIVEN OUT LAST MONTH. THEY NEVER PUT THEM DOWN!

BUNGOMA

2007-05-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

Streets of Bungoma

Buying timber with a friend in Bungoma in my African dress!!!!

Buying seeds and beans in the market

Streets of Bungoma

MY BLOOD TASTES BETTER THAN YOURS!!!

2007-05-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

This title is appropriate since I had malaria AGAIN! These Kenyan misquitos absolutely LOVE ME! This time I'm a little bit smarter with catching it though and it didn't manage to leave me in bed for a week. At this point, having malaria has just become a normal part of life for me and it seems to be entirely unavoidable in this area. It was only one week after arriving back in the village from Zanzibar that I went for a blood test and sure enough, there was a small parasite party going on. This time I caught it in the earliest stages possible though, so it's not really a big deal and now I'm almost finished the medicine for it and feeling normal again. It's SO good to be back here. I didn't realize the impact I had until I saw everyone in Shibanze after my time away. I went straight to the school before even reaching home from the airport and the kids swarmed me, fighting over who could shake my hand to greet me first! Great feeling! It's been a couple of weeks now that I've been back to my work and right now things are more exciting than ever. That's because of YOU and the donations that have been sent. The school is now a complete CEMENT structure. I have a hard time thinking back to that one room mud class that existed when I got here since we've now got three complete classrooms and an office for administration work. It's truly incredible. All that is left to do is paint and you won't be able to tell the difference between these classes and the ones we all grew up in! Last week we started the school food program that I developed and it's been such a success! These kids know how to eat. They will eat until you stop feeding them, and it doesn't matter what you put in front of them either. I've managed to get some protein into them each day with our small food budget and it's really awesome to sit and eat with them all each day. I've been helping a lot with the cooking and our cooking staff couldn't believe that I knew how to cook. They were sure I had a maid back home that did everything for me. One day we have spaghetti on the menu and the cooks had never seen it before so I taught them all about it (as simple as it is) and it's a huge success. Another new thing for them was using a can opener!!! We are even managing to feed the kids fresh fish on one of the days and beef on the other. They MIGHT get these food items every six months where they live. I wish I had of been able to start this program when I arrived to see the impact it made on them in reducing all the malnutrition in the area. I really think it will. Otherwise I've been doing a lot of work in the community with my women's group and a newly formed men's group. There is this sweet old man named Hamisi who is our day time security guard and he's always begging me to join the women's group. Every time I have to remind him that he's not a woman. So one day I told him to go get a list of names for a men's group and I'd do my best to meet with them once a week as their facilitator. He came up with a list of about 20 names and we had our first meeting last week. Just this past Monday I visited a place called Khalaba to see another community project since the director had invited me. They have been doing fish farming and have about 55 ponds now. It's a really cool project so I'm meeting my new mens group tomorrow to take a tour of what they are doing. We have a really big river that passes through Shibanze all the way through Khalaba to Bungoma so it's a perfect opportunity to take advantage of it and build some local ponds. One thing I noticed on the coast was that the kids weren't suffering from nearly as much malnutrition and this was definetely because of all the fish they were eating each day. Maybe in the near future these ponds will be successful and fresh fish will be on the menu in Shibanze regularly. Back on the school compound there are two very exciting projects going on. The first is that we are almost finished building the school play ground donated from the fundaiser that happened in Little Current over the Easter weekend (thanks again guys!). We hired a welder to put it altogether so it's steel and not going to break down any day soon. They are putting the pieces together in another town but will be transporting them sometime this week and the kids aren't going to believe their eyes. The best part is that we only used about $500 of the $4000 that was sent so there is lots left over. We're also going to put in a 'football' (soccer) field since we extended the fenceline a little to make room. Hopefully all these things will be completed very soon. The rest of the money will go towards painting the classrooms, paying the monthly wages of our 4 teachers, 2 cooks, and 3 security guards. I'm sure there will still be left over after that which we'll most likely hold onto to ensure that the food program can continue each week. The second project that I'm also VERY excited about is that we are getting a dairy cow! A lovely family from Chelmsford made a sizeable donation to the project recently and we are so so so grateful to them for that. We have had a representative from the ministry of agriculture working with us for about two weeks now. We are building a proper house for a zero-grazing fully grown, full of milk, dairy cow that will arrive within the next two weeks, if not sooner. FINALLY, some sustainability. I knew we needed a cow ASAP but the money that was coming earlier was in small sums and there were just too many things that needed our attention right away. With the left over of the money that the cow will leave, we will be purchasing school shoes for ALL of our vulnerable/orphaned children in the school which will be a wonderful thing because it'll really cut down on all the problems with their feet that I wrote about previously. And I can't forget.... there is something else. Something REALLY wonderful. Since the newspaper published my blogsite, I've had so many people reading it. I'm really happy about this because I'm able to reach so many people now and let them know what I'm doing over here in Kenya. If you have been keeping up, you'll recall a 'world vision like house' that I saw in the very beginning of my time here. I found a woman in her late 30's living inside a mud house that was barely standing up anymore with her three young children. Her husband had died right after the last one was born. Recently a woman from Manitoulin sent me an email to tell me that she couldn't stop thinking about this lady and her situation and that she'd really like to help. I've been running around for the past two weeks preparing budgets for a new house and ordering supplies and tomorrow... we are sneaking into the compound with a truck full of materials to build her an entirely new house. She doesn't know anything about it yet. I can't wait to knock the one she is currently in over. I've got a video camera right now as well so I'm going to be taping it all and will try to put it on my site (not sure if it's possible). So...... as you can see things are so great here in the little village of Shibanze. As I remind myself right now that May is coming to an end I can't help but feel so sad that my return ticket is for July 10th. I keep asking myself why I'm going back, what the rush is. And I'm not coming up with a good answer. I really don't know how I'm going to leave. I think it's going to be the most difficult thing that I do - maybe in my entire life. Yesterday we had a guest speaker who works as an HIV/AIDS counsellor in the Bungoma District Hospital. I took her to Shibanze to talk to the women and men in my groups and she couldn't believe how everyone knew me and I was like a daughter to all of these people. I never really thought about it that way but it really is true. Wow... going home is going to be very difficult... There are parts of it I look forward to but in all honestly, I really REALLY want to stay here. Even though there are so many great things happening here I can't ignore the large number of problems that I still see every day. I've got so many kids that don't have a proper home and it's heartbreaking to see their living situations. A couple of days ago I went to a funeral for the father of one of our students. He died from drinking too much of the local brew. Alcoholism is a serious serious serious (can't say it enough times) problem here. The huge sugar cane industry has taken over a lot of land by paying local people to grow it at their homes. From that, they use the sugar to create this lethal potion. I didn't know the situation at this boys home as his house was surveyed before I got here. I found that this man had 2 wives and a total of 21 children and he was in his mid-40's when he died. The first wife ran away and left 9 kids behind. Of these, 4 of them were still young - all under 12 years old. I found them living in a very small mud house with their grandmother, who if I had to guess, was about 80-90 years old. She's very frail looking and even though I don't think she can take care of them now, I can't help but wonder what will happen when she's gone. I see this all too often. HIV/AIDS has taken so many people from us now that you will often find young children being taken care of by their grandparents. It's my hope that eventually this organization can build some temporary housing so that we can care for these orphans when there is noone else left to do it. I'm busy preparing a report right in hopes of getting some funding for a health project in the area so I'm going to get back to that. I really want it to be done before I leave so that I can start them off in the right direction, assuming we are given a grant. I'm also going to publish some pictures so I hope you enjoy them. Shibanze is looking like an entirely new place these days! Thanks again for everyone's support. I appreciate it so so much!

ZANZIBAR PICTURES!

2007-05-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

THE NARROW STREETS OF OLD STONE TOWN, ZANZIBAR

Children in the streets in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

AT NIGHT IN STONE TOWN THE SEAFOOD MARKET OPENS. I ATE HERE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. YOU CAN GET A LOBSTER STRAIGHT FROM THE SEA FOR ABOUT $3 AS FRESH AS IT GETS. EVERYTHING FROM A MILLION TYPES OF FISH, CRAB, OCTOPUS AND MANY OTHER THINGS THAT I DON'T EVEN KNOW THE NAMES OF. SEAFOOD LOVERS PARADISE!

LOCAL WOMAN IN NUNGWI, ZANZIBAR MAKING A FISHING NET FROM SEAWEED AND OTHER UNKNOWN OBJECTS DURING LOW TIED ON THE OCEAN SHORE.

LOCAL WOMEN FISHING. THEY GO OUT WITH HUGE NETS AND WALK THROUGH THE WATER (FULLY CLOTHED) AND FINALLY FORM A CIRCLE TO COLLECT THEIR CATCH OF THE DAY. NOTICE THE GIANT METAL HATS THEY ARE WEARING? THEY FILL THESE WITH THE FISH THAT THEY CATCH.

I SPENT A LOT OF TIME DOING THIS!

THESE PICTURES CAN'T EVEN COME CLOSE TO DOING THE SUNSET IN NUNGWI JUSTICE BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO DO! JUMPING OFF THE TOP OF THIS WOODEN DHOW WAS A FAVOURITE PASSTIME OF THE LOCALS. I DID IT MYSELF A FEW TIMES!

VIEW OF STONE TOWN HARBOUR AT SUNSET WHILE HAVING DINNER ON AN OUTDOOR PATIO. GOOD TIMES!

LOCAL ARTIST IN STONE TOWN.

THIS IS HOW THE LOCALS GET AROUND (AND ME). IN TANZANIA (ZANZIBAR) IT'S CALLED A DALLA-DALLA. I KEPT FORGETTING AND CALLING THEM MATATU'S LIKE WE SAY IN KENYA AND EVERYONE THOUGHT I WAS CRAZY. ALWAYS CROWDED TO THE POINT THAT FINDING BREATHING SPACE CAN BE IMPOSSIBLE.... BUT AN EXPERIENCE FOR SURE!

LOW TIDE! WHEN THE TIDE COMES IN THE CORAL ROCKS ARE COVERED WITH WATER! --NUNGWI (NORTH COAST), ZANZIBAR

RELAXING WITH MY TRAVEL BUDDY KERRY FROM NEW YORK ON THE BEACH IN STONE TOWN.

MKOKOTONI TOWN. WHERE I ARRIVED IN ZANZIBAR AFTER A TEN HOUR TERRIFYING DHOW RIDE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN. AND YES, THOSE SMALL WOODEN BOATS OUT THERE ARE EXACTLY WHAT I WAS IN! DON'T WORRY, I FLEW BACK TO MAINLAND!

DRIVING MY DIRT BIKE FROM NUNGWI TO STONE TOWN. RAIN SEASON CAN CATCH YOU OFF GUARD AT ANY TIME SO I HAD TO PULL OVER UNTIL IT STOPPED. THIS IS THE LITTLE HUT I FOUND FOR SHELTER ALONG THE WAY AND I WAS SOON GREETED BY A BUNCH OF ZANZIBAR CHILDREN!

DON'T KNOW WHY THIS PICTURE IS BLOG WORTHY, BUT IT JUST IS!

Other than this horrible helmet I think I'm looking pretty cool on my dirt bike. What do you think? Only had to dodge a couple colobus monkey's in the Jozani rainforest, a giant lizard and some chickens. Definetely recommend renting a dirt bike in Zanzibar!

LOVING LOW SEASON. AN ENTIRE WHITE SAND BEACH TO MYSELF. TALK ABOUT RELAXATION!!!!!!! A BEACH ON THE EASTERN COASTLINE IN A PLACE CALLED PAJE.

THE ENDANGERED GIANT GREEN SEA TURTLE. A LOCAL NATURALLY OCCURING AQUARIAM IN NUNGWI, ZANZIBAR. I ACTUALLY GOT IN AND SWAM WITH THEM AND THEY WON'T BITE YOU UNLESS OF COURSE YOU HAVE A BIG PIECE OF SEA WEED ON YOUR EAR! IF YOU HOLD ONTO THEIR BACKS THEY CAN PULL YOU AROUND WHILE THEY SWIM. THIS ONE IS ABOUT 75 YEARS OLD AND 100 KG!

TOUGH LIFE WATCHING THE SUNSET IN NUNGWI, ZANZIBAR. CHECK OUT HOW WHITE THE SAND IS. UNBELIEVABLE! SEE MY LITTLE HENNA TATOO ON MY RIGHT FOOT THAT A LOCAL VILLAGE LADY DID FOR ME??

THERE AREN'T ANY WORDS FOR THIS. JUST ENJOY!

PROFESSIONAL DIRT BIKE RIDER

2007-04-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

Well I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself. I just got back to Stone Town after riding a Honda 250 dirt bike across Zanzibar to the East Coast, arriving at a little beach village called Paje. I've never even ridden on the back of a dirt bike before but something came over me that day telling me that it was a good idea! And that it was! In no time I was driving like a pro except for the difficulty I had with the kick start and getting on and off since it was so big... but those were just minor details because whenever I was really stuck an African man would mysteriously appear from the bushes and help me get going again! The best part of the drive was through the Jozani Rain forest which is the home of the indigenous colobus monkey. I was 'lucky' enough to see one despite not stopping for any tourist hikes because I almost flattened one with the bike. That, and a chicken... and a giant lizard. No goats this time! But what a beautiful ride. As soon as I entered the park area the rain forest got so thick and green, full of life! I drove like a grandma for about half an hour in awe of it all. Paje was a nice place. Quiter than Nungwi (so very quiet), but it is low season because of rain. The beach was more beautiful than Nungwi because it stretched so far and had a perfect line of palm trees that must have gone forever. I tested out the water which was just as warm as the north coast and got some more sun. I'm looking more tanned than ever right now, just to make you all jealous! So, today I'm back in Stone Town doing not too much of anything. This evening I'm going to go eat dinner at a place called Africa Cafe because it's apparently got the absolute best view of the sunset. Tomorrow I'll spend the day wandering the spice markets buying memorbillia before catching the night ferry off of Zanzibar back to mainland Tanzania. I'm not sure yet but I'm seriously considering going to Malawi for a week before returning to the village. It's somewhere I said I definetley wanted to see before I left Canada and since I'm so close and there's no entry visa until after three months within, I feel like I should take advantage of it. The problem is that my heart is in that little village of Shibanze and I miss everyone there so much. I can almost hear them calling my name and the ones that are lucky enough to have cell phones have ALL called to ask me when I'm coming back since I left. But.... it's not going anywhere and it's also important to see different parts of this beautiful continent so I'm still undecided on what to do. Either way, it will be the right decision! So, I hope all is well wherever in the world you are reading this from and I'll be sure to post again soon! Cheers, Amanda

ZANZIBAR!!!!

2007-04-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

VACATION TIME! I've been touring the eastern coastline of Africa now for just over a week. A much much much needed vacation! I knew I had to get away from the village life to re-group but I could barely tear myself away from any of it! But... I'll be going back with fresh batteries and that can only be a good thing! I left Bungoma on a coach bus and headed for Mombassa. After a lovely 14 hour bus ride with screaming babies I finally reached my first destination! Mombassa is the place to be in Kenya! And was it ever good to eat some REAL food. The kind I'm use to at home! Now I'm really fearing going back to Bungoma for Ugali! I stayed in the Mombassa area for 3 nights in total. The first two of them at a beach area called Diani in a little banda cottage and then the third right in the city. I spent these days with five others who were teachers from Indiana. It was good to be with people but I was looking forward to going on my own down the coast. I packed my bags and got on a matatu by myself to head for a place called Wasini Island which is just off the southern coast of Kenya. I really have not planned anything about this vacation and have literally been waking up in the morning and deciding where to go and what to do. It can be stressful sometimes but for the most part it's great! Wasini Island was looking good in my lonely planet guide that day! I managed to somehow fall asleep on the matatu while sweating buckets with everyone sitting on everyone else. The 14 passenger was so overcrowded it was crazy... 28 people, I counted! I thought I would die but could see the humour in it as I was this little white girl squished between all these sweaty African guys. I guess you have to see the humour in these things or you can't call yourself a traveller! I got to Wasini Island mid afternoon and really had a good time there. Nothing too crazy happened but I left feeling very relaxed. I spent two nights... the second of which I was the ONLY non-resident on the entire island which could have scared me before but I'm so use to this Africa stuff now that I slept with my ocean view veranda door wide open to catch some sea breeze while I slept! I met a lot of the locals and even got talking to a local womens group because I was interested in what projects they were doing in hopes of getting some good ideas for my ladies in Shibanze. I paid $20 per night which was really splurging but that included 3 meals a day plus snacks so it was worth it because I really needed a good quiet rest! I also went scuba diving just off the island where they have the best scuba diving marine park in Kenya. I can't beleive I've never done that before. The water was shallow so you didn't need to dive at all. I saw huge starfish and millions of beautiful colourful fish! So... leaving Wasini Island I got back on a matatu after fighting the urge to go across the ocean to Pemba (island north of zanzibar) on a cargo ship. Few people do it but sometimes they do .... It looked exciting as I'd be going in a big wooden dhow boat packed with cooking fat and ketchup but when they told me that since it's rain season (although still super nice outside and hot) that they might have to stop just offshore part way for the night to sleep if the waters got too rough. I decided I'd better take the land route since it would only be me and 5 guys with no teeth - plus there was no shelter at all so if it rained, all my stuff would have been soaked. I think I made the right decision!!! So once again I was back on the matatu this time to the border crossing at Tanzania called Lunga-Lunga. They have really strange names for places here! So.... because I'm still seem to forget I'm in Africa sometimes, I just assumed there would be a bank at this place.. but NO... and no money to pay my entry visa. I refused to go back an hour to a bank on that crowded sweaty matatu again!!! So.. I sat down on a bench with the border police and took my anger out on a giant orange. The police found me quite amusing. I decided I'd find someone else that was crossing to lend me money and then I'd pay them back when we reached the first city in Tanzania with a bank. Luckily I got someone to agree by the third try. It must have been the orange slop all over me!!! So, I got on a big tourist bus and the driver was the one to help me. Still, I didn't know where I was going.. but decided to stop at the first town called Tanga. The banks all changed name after crossing the border so I didn't know what I was looking for. Next thing you know I'm on the back of a motorcycle with a friend of this driver zooming through the streets of Tanga... It was a fun way to start off. I finally found some cash, paid the driver and checked into a hotel for the night. The following day leaving Tanga was without question the absolute most crazy adventure I've been on so far. Back on a crowded Matatu I decided to make my way to a place more south called Pangani. I didn't really know what I was going to do when I arrived but was hoping to find a way to get to Zanzibar without going all the way south to Dar es Salaam to take the normal ferry across. That turned out to be a very.... let's say, interesting, decision. I got some help from some locals in Pangani who steared me in the direction of a village called Kipumbwe. I got a ride down a LONG bumpy dirt road in the back of a truck (the normal way to travel of course) until I arrived at this village that doesn't even make it onto a map. Then, there it was. A little wooden dhow boat that could carry about 30 passengers that I'd cross the Indian Ocean on at three in the morning. Of course this village had no hotels so I was really doing it the 'local' way and sleeping outside on a giant grass mat in the middle of this village cuddled up with the others trying to stay warm! At about 2am I woke up to someone saying that the boat was about to leave so I made my way down to the beach to board! There were so many people on this boat that we were all sitting side by side and there was no space for another single person to join at all! After about an hour the tide came in enough that the boat was now floating and we set off in the night. Of course I was asking myself every few minutes what I was thinking but somehow I still went. After all, I'd came a long way to get to this village and I was pretty determined to get to Zanzibar! I managed to sleep for a couple hours but then the storm happened. I woke up just as it was beginning to get light outside to rain. Lots and lots of rain. So, we were all holding this tarp over our heads as the boat had no cover at all but the tarp had tons of holes in it so I ended up looking like I'd fallen overboard anyways. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. All of a sudden these 10 guys jumped up and were pulling down the sail as fast as possible before we got taken to who knows where in this storm! I guess this is a normal occurrence because the locals found the look of fear on my face quite humourous! I really thought I was going to die though! What was suppose to be a 2 hour ride turned into 10 and it was not pleasant at all. As I met locals on Zanzibar they wouldn't even believe me that this was how I arrived. I'm just glad I didn't get sea sick. I don't know why I was fine though because everyone on that boat vomitted over the side at least once. Very pleasant experience!!! BUT I'm now on the island of Zanzibar and it was definetely worth the trip! I immediately went to the most northern tip of the island to a place called Nungwi. I planned to only stay one night and then travel down the eastern coast of the island but I loved it so much there that I ended up staying for four nights! This island is absolutely incredible. There are endless stretches of white sand beaches and the water is completely clear. I could stay here forever. Thismorning I left Nungwi and am now in famous Stone Town. I travlled here with a girl named Carrie from New York and three guys from England. It's good to have some travel partners for a short time but again tomorrow I'll be on my own. They will leave the island but I haven't had my fill so tomorrow I'm renting a scooter and driving to the East Coast to spend a few more days on the beach! Although this is all so so wonderful I really miss the village of Shibanze. I get sporatic updates from the director but things have basically just come to a stand still since I left. I really want to get back as soon as possible so that I can get that playground started and finish buildling the school with the new donations that have come in! THANK YOU so much to everyone who's helped out! So... I'm off to get something to eat but will write again soon! Hopefully I can find someone who will sell me a digital camera here because it's killing me to not take any pictures of this place! ADIOS FOR NOW!

MARKET DAY PICTURES

2007-04-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Business people! Market Day.

Can your Gramma do this? Don't mess with her!

Kenyan woman carrying onions through the market to sell!

Maize - getting ready to cook!

Tired baby

Hard working baby!

finally!

2007-04-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

Firstly - sorry for making everyone wait so long for another posting but... bad luck for me, I was sick again. More sick than the last time. This is all new to me because it’s rare that I even catch the common cold back home in Canada – so I’m quite the baby when I’m bedridden for 4, 5, or even 6 days and can barely hold my head up. So, once again I went through all the fun of not having control over any bodily functions - and let me tell you just how fun it really is. But… I’m getting tougher and seem to somehow get through these episodes as my body continues to adapt to all things good and bad here in Kenya. Last time I updated I talked about a woman named Susan who I’d brought to the hospital here in Bungoma. The good news is that she is out after 10 nights of being admitted, and getting better each day. She had a test done for tuberculosis and pneumonia and it was found that she had both which would have definitely killed her if she kept going in the direction she was. I also found out while working with her family that her kids weren’t going for their immunizations so now they are all up to date after some firm scolding on my part!!!!!! I really can be quite mean – well not so mean, but enough to get the job done! It’s important that people understand that if they cannot even take advantage of things that are offered by the government for free that we can’t justify in spending all this money on treating an illness that should have been prevented in the first place. The problem is that the majority of the people I work with have such minimal education that it's a huge struggle to even explain to them why these things are important! As for the other woman with the growth/tumour on her stomach - she will having a surgery on April the 16th (that’s right, in 2 days) so keep her in your prayers and lets hope that nothing goes wrong! Otherwise life has been filled with both very bad and very good news. I will start with the bad so that we can end on a happy note. Last Thursday before I got sick AGAIN!!, I went to my women’s group meeting to find some really sad, bad, terrible news. One of our student’s older brothers was taking the cows to the river for water and somehow fell in and drowned. Here in Kenya you can find a child as young as the age of 6 years herding 4 or 5 cattle and having complete control over them – so it’s not uncommon for a 10 year old like this to be taking them all to the river with no supervision. The next thing to happen for me was that I moved. I have found that I’m doing so many things in Bungoma that I really needed to be stationed there. After all, I put in 9 solid weeks of bucket bathing and no electricity so I think I’ve earned my new ‘city’ life! Plus, I’m REALLY tired of malaria and now I’m in a bedroom that has walls that meet the ceiling which will hopefully help in keeping those little @*#&$&@* away from me!!!! I’m living with a woman named Massie, her 4 year old daughter Nicole, a house girl named Lydia, and Massie’s cousin Anne who’s here until she finds work! So far things are great and I’m enjoying having the organizations laptop PLUGGED in inside my own room. Nicole has been having a great time getting acquainted with all the neat things that this new Mzungu creature has brought to her home too. As happy as I am about the move I’m also sad to lose the surroundings I’d gotten use to at the family’s home in Kabula. I’ll especially miss all the kids and those two kittens who’d gotten use to sleeping in my bed with me every night getting spoiled while I snuck them leftovers from each nights dinner! I won’t be getting any pets either because Massie is not an animal person – but I think I’ll survive. I hope! As for the good news... A young couple completing their last year of medicine with a 3 month term in Nairobi hospital were looking for a new, struggling project to help out with. Lucky for us they met up with the German volunteer that was here (Solveig) and they decided to pay us a visit to see if ours was something they wanted to help with. Basically they collected from doctors and other medical students back in Germany (where they come from also) and had quite a large donation to make… to something. They arrived on a Tuesday morning very early after the 8 hour bumpy bus ride. Early in the afternoon I took them to Shibanze to look around and they decided right away that this was something they wanted to donate towards! So… we rushed back to Bungoma and started shopping at about 5pm. We shopped from the local supermarket that had previously made a donation to our school and bought so so so so many things. As I’m trying to remember them they are going through my head too fast for me to type! We got office furniture, school supplies galore, all the cooking supplies that the kitchen could dream for, and most importantly some toys for the kids to play with as they had nothing. We weren’t able to build a proper play ground with the short time that the couple spent here but we were at least able to buy balls, cars (toy of course!), a sandbox, and skipping ropes among other things. Of course, not to worry since that fundraiser at the Anchor went so amazingly well!!!! After unloading all of these things we asked the children if they thought they’d like to have something for their very own that they could keep and take home. They all got really quiet wondering what it could be and then we had them line up to each receive their very own school bag! Now they all have little backpacks which are absolutely adorable. Between the backpacks and the balloons that I’d brought there was quite a lot of crying… all happy tears once again, of course. Since that, every time I'm in Shibanze I see little ones with backpacks on because they won't let their new presents out of their sight! We had even surprised my director Benson with two truckloads of goodies as he had no idea about these visitors arriving! It was the closing day for the term at the school so the ‘guardians’ were there for a meeting when we arrived. Perfect timing! When the teachers introduced the couple, the parents did some sort of clapping thing that they’d obviously practiced… which was enough to put all Mzungu’s within listening distance into tears – and that it did. I knew there was a good reason that I quit wearing makeup altogether when I got here – because it would be running down my face from happy or sad (far more happy of course) tears every day. We spent the whole day playing games and even had a lunch with fruit juice (which many had never tasted before), bananas, a maize and bean mixture, as well as Chai. This really was an incredible day. We now have enough school supplies to last the rest of the year so we can focus on other important things that we need so badly! I wish I could snap my fingers and you could all have the same feeling I have from this experience so far… it’s something you cannot possibly understand or comprehend until you do it yourself. I hope what I’m writing can somehow allow you to experience at least a good part of it all. Between these entries and pictures, it's the best I can do!! I’m adding a few pictures of the local markets I go by each day and really soon I’ll upload pictures from when our visitors were here so you can see all the fun things that were going on! So.......... now I'm finally on vacation. Here I am sitting in a little internet cafe in the city of Mombasa. It's located on the coast line of Kenya and as big of an attraction as Nairobi. I left at 4:30pm in the afternoon and arrived by bus at 10am the next day! I have been here for two days now and have so far spent my time relaxing on endless stretches of white sand beaches in bath warm water on the Indian Ocean. Life is rough! Now that I'm here and finally pryed myself away from my work for a break - I'm realizing how much I needed it. I was in serious need of some battery recharging. And, I'm looking forward to tackling that playground with maximum energy so that it even makes playgrounds over there look bad! As for my travelling plans, tomorrow I plan to head south along the coast into Tanzania. Within a few days I'll hopefully make it to Zanzibar Island and spend a full week there before heading back to Bungoma! I'll try to update while I'm travelling but otherwise you'll hear from me in about 2 weeks!

FUNDRAISING A SUCCESS AT THE ANCHOR!!!!!

2007-04-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU! You people are awesome. I can't believe what I'm reading in these news articles my mom has scanned and sent to me! Minnie and Dawn you guys are great for organizing the fundraiser and I'm completely blown away by how much has been donated! ! Kelly, Bruce, and Rob - THANK YOU for doing that African dinner which I know from my work experience at the Anchor was absolutely fantastic! And Luke, the plate is looking wonderful as usual! It's making me hungry actually. Wow. I don't know what else to say but that there are going to be some VERY happy little faces in the small village of Shibanze when this playground gets built! On top of that I know that there is going to be enough to really help me get this feeding program started which is SO much needed! So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU... I love you all!

Keep on truckin'

2007-03-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

HELLO! I've not had time to do an update for a while so here goes! Wow I've been busy. Today is Sunday but that doesn't mean that it's time for a break. I was up at 6:30 am and in Shibanze by 8 to pick up some sick people and take them to the hospital. I brought a 29 year old woman who had been sick in bed for 2 weeks, her 3 month old baby, and her sister-in-law who has a very very large growth on her stomach which I've never seen anything like before. The mother was too ill to stand up on her own so I got the job of carrying the baby around since the other woman was quite old. Of course getting to town for the hospital involves a 10 km bike ride so this time instead of a chicken under my arm it was a very small baby that I was just hoping would not wake up and cry for fear I'd have to figure out how to make it stop! Anyhow the mother was admitted and I insisted that the child stay with her because I knew the situation at home... while the other woman was sent away and asked to return on Wednesday when there will be a specialist in to deal with her. I'm just finishing up at the internet cafe now as I had to update the house to house survey that we complete for all the children in the school. There have been a few changes since I last wrote and a lot of stress. I had to run a meeting with the entire village because there was so much confusion about why some people were asked to pay school fees. It was really because I've found out that some were pretending to have orphans who don't so it's either pay the fee or go to a different school which I think is fair... after all, we have to pay the teachers somehow. So, I might not have been on the favourites list for a few days but they couldn't have been too mad because two days later I still had an attendance of 52 for my womens group. As for construction at the school - LOTS has been done but there is still so so much to do. Things are at a stand still right now as we've used all the donations I had in my account so I'm just waiting for some people to deposit the rest. The kids break will come soon in the month of April for 3.5 weeks so I want to implement "Project Play" and have a big jungle gym built as a surprise for them when they return. Right now they just play in the sugar cane fields beating each other!!!!!!! Other news is that I'm trying to find a place to live in Bungoma because things are getting tiresome at the house. I'm finding now that I've finished 2 months there that I'm having to learn about all the families personal problems - and trust me there are many. I just can't seem to cope with all that the project gives me to think about and then feel as though I have to deal with other things at the end of the day. So, hopefully there is something for me in town that will be cheaper also as I'm running low on dough quickly!!!! Yesterday I brought my neighbours six year old Diana to town with me. That was quite the experience itself because she'd never been. They are a very poor family so the mom dressed her up in her best outfit and we went on a kidogo safari (small journey in swahilli). She had never even been inside a grocery store so she couldn't concentrate on anything but thinking 'wow, where does all this stuff come from'. I brought her for french fries and soda after making her sit through my internet session.... and the we went to a dressmaker who's making me something out of some material I got in Uganda. I also got Diana a pair of new school shoes because the ones she has, she has been wearing since 2004 when another volunteer got her some... and obviously kids at that age have growing feet so they weren't very comfortable. When her parents saw that she was wearing knew shoes her mom started crying and telling me how much God was going to bless me. I've never seen someone be so happy over a pair of shoes. Even though I've been here for quite a while some things still surprise me. Right... Uganda. I went there for one day with one of the teachers from the school a couple weekends ago. Her mother and many many many siblings live near the border but here on the Kenyan side. When we arrived we walked across the border and I bought some material that is super super cheap so that I could have a real African dress made! We slept over at her moms house for the night and I got to share a bed with her 4 month old baby which decided to keep me up all night long. Good times. Note to self - babies are hard work. Since the teachers family knew I was coming for about one week in advance they decided what better time then now to invite the entire HUGE family over to meet the Mzungu. After all, they'd never had a mzungu visit, and certainly not sleep over. Also, since the whole family was there they decided it was also a good time to have a remeberance celebration for the old grandfather who'd passed away a few years ago. Basically they go to the grave which is beside the house - I mean approximate grave because they've forgotten exactly where it is... and they build a tent to fill with chairs for the party. So... the next big thing was to make the african brew... this thick beer followed by some concoxion of vodka that if you stood to close to you wouldn't know your own name anymore. All the men sat around in a circle sipping from a giant bucket of it for the entire day. They used these long hollow sticks that they just found on the ground and then they attached some sort of tap to the end and drank away. It was quite the site to see especially since they'd even gotten a DJ and rented a car battery to make music... so every so often one of these very elderly men would randomly stand and start dancing.... which was normal enough except for the fact that nobody else around him seemed to notice that he'd even started and he'd just be doing this alone for up to 10 minutes. Strange world this is I tell you. The next morning after Uganda a woman called me to come see her baby which she'd just delivered a few hours before... so since the hospital was on the way I stopped to see it. She was sad that it was a boy because she wanted to name it after me since I was the first to see it other than her. That reminds me.... the first child in Shibanze has been named after me. As we were doing house survey's one day I poked my head into a house to find that a woman had just delivered twins the night before - a girl and a boy. The mother immediately asked me to name them but I told her I didn't know any appropriate names because they were a muslim family. They settled on deciding that the girl would have my first name and the boy would have my second - which they would refer to as the nicknames which are also quite common here. So... there is a little girl and little boy named Amanda and Flanagan about 3 days old somewhere out there in Africa. Well.... I need to get out of this place and relax at a decent hour today since this week I've got a million more things to do. I'm trying to get a lot done in the next 2 weeks so that I can try to escape for a couple weeks in April to head to the coastline for a much needed break! Hope to hear from you all soon so don't be shy with emailing! Amanda :)

PICTURES GALORE!

2007-03-11T05:10:00.000-07:00

Two chubby babies! Can you find me? It's not exactly as hard as finding waldo!!!!!!! Stealing babies! Most amazing thing to watch. Women in a line bringing water for making mud! Can you carry 20L of water on your head? It's hard, trust me - I've tried! TA-DA. Now I'm officially an African woman!

My good friend Joseph who helps me with house survey's. His wife is the one that does my washing too - God Bless her!!!! This is a picture of the boda-boda bycicle that I must take at least once a day! The men use the water that the women have collected to make lots and lots of mud out of the soil so that the women can make the walls! They seem to know their jobs quite well and there is no sharing of duties between the men and women either! Here are the toilets which we'll be using TOMORROW! Thank you DONORS :) Women mudding the classroom walls... along with Solveig, the German volunteer that I live with here in Kenya! No such thing as a babysitter here! Where mamma goes, baby goes! Patiently waiting for mom to finish the walls of the classroom! Best behaved kids in the universe!

Group of children enjoying thier daily cup of porridge that was donated by the red cross here in Kenya!

They don't want to go to class today because of all the visitors that have come to do the mudding!

My friend Omiele. I think he should be in a sears catalog magazine! Don't be decieved by his innocent face, he's quite naughty!!!!!!!

CHRISTINE! The reason that the kids have porridge each day! Here she is preparing some sukuma-wike (a staple dish here) for the women who have come to mud!

Taking a rest! They put on their best outfit even to come mud! I don't get it!!!!!

I think this picture should be printed and framed!!!!!

My little friend Emmaculate having some porridge!

Great smiles!

How many can squeeze in this picture? They LOVE having their picture taken!

Some children waiting for mom to finish mudding the classroom! Babysitters don't exist. If the mom goes, the baby goes too!

Lining up for porridge served by Christine!

Hungry faces... little Aqram squished into the middle!

They just can't wait! You'd be in a hurry too if a cup of porridge might be your only meal for the day!

Good stuff, happy kids!

Kids on their way back from visiting the primary school across the street!

CLOSE UP!

Three little girls on their way to school. Some of these kids walk for about an hour in each direction. I get tired going to their homes to do surveys and can't believe these small children manage to come all this way!

Some of the women that came to help mud the classroom. They are HARD workers!

A picture of the path I bike to the school each day!

This is what the structure of the classrooms look like. They are made with wooden posts and then the men come and wrap really strong grass around and around and around in order for the ladies to mud! It's quite the experience to watch all of this happen. Sometimes I am completely speachless!

HERE I AM!

2007-03-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

Good to be alive. I’m now feeling like a real African because I’ve battled and survived Malaria. On Monday of this past week I biked to Shibanze despite feeling really quite badly because I had to meet with a parent about a child who has epilepsy. After that meeting I told teacher Emily that I was really really not at all feeling right. But…… an older man had insisted that I go to survey his home because I’d promised to do it the week before and had run out of time. So… I said Ok, I’ll go just to this one home and then leave because something is really not right. He brought me on the back of his bike which was painful itself as this man was quite elderly and almost falling over with me and the bike repeatedly along the way. We stopped at a small market because I needed some water and this is when the illness really hit me. I ran behind a building and started vomiting. Not fun at all. What makes it worse about being sick if Africa is that everyone’s eyes are already on you as the mzungu so I had an audience while I was getting sick. I’m sure it was quite entertaining to them all. After that I still managed to go and complete the survey but by the end the man insisted I go to the area hospital so back on his bike I got. I was now in an area called Khalaba which turned out to be a lot further from Shibanze than I’d expected. He took me to a hospital nearby which consisted of maybe 4 rooms. One maternity ward, a lab, a doctors office and another which I couldn’t quite figure out. I was barely able to stand up by this point so they gave me a hospital bed to lay on. I could feel that the breeze going through the room was really cool yet I was sweating so much that the sheets were soaked. I’ve never felt such bad pains in my body. When malaria hits you badly enough your joints ache and the pains in your stomach are unbelievable. After the lab results came back they told me that I must have contracted the disease about 1 week prior because there were so many parasites present. They diagnose moderate malaria as having 3 or 4 parasites per field under a microscope but I was having more than 10. If I wasn’t’ otherwise healthy they would have admitted me but I’m really glad they didn’t because I don’t know how I could have handled sleeping in that little hospital in the middle of nowhere. After a few hours of the doctor watching me I was sent away and went back to the old man’s house. I couldn’t bare the heat at that point in the afternoon as it was close to forty degrees so decided I needed to rest there until the sun started to go down in order to get back to Kabula to home. Resting wasn’t really possible because I was surrounded by people. The man’s house was very small. He’d lost his wife a few months ago and was caring for his 3 year old daughter, Sharifa, alone. Again, another example of a man of maybe 70 years marrying a woman of 31 (what her death certificate said). This had been wife number 2 for him and he said he was looking for a new young wife. I don’t know why he felt the need to tell me this but I sure wasn’t about to marry him!!!!!! Anyways, after sitting on a couple of chicken eggs that had been buried under the chair cover I had just started to close my eyes when I heard giggling outside the door. I had small children peaking in and then running away on me. Eventually some were brave enough to enter to see what sort of strange creature was in this home while other small ones were crying in hysterics because the older ones were trying to drag them closer to me! By the time I left that place the entire home was so full of people that had come to see me that they were sitting on chairs and even standing outside looking in the windows. My mom called me while I was there and I put her on loud speaker. They couldn’t believe that they were talking on the phone to someone in Canada! At that point I was very very ill so I wasn’t really able to form sentences properly and of course silly mother thought I was going to die in that little hut. But too bad for her, I’m still alive and will be back to torment them! I took A LOT of pills over the last few days and was not able to eat so sleeping was impossible at night and I had no energy but yesterday I kept food down and finished the medicine and am up and running today again! So, enough about my malaria – no need to worry! Just another African experience. Good news. Baby Layla fully recovered. On Monday morning before I left Shibanze sick I saw her run by me and didn’t even recognize her till I saw her mother. I wasn’t even aware that she could walk! I knew she was two years old but she is so tiny for her age because of being malnourished. She was eating and laughing and it made me so so so happy to see that. She’s the most adorable little girl and now that she’s full of life again she can do anything any other two year old can! Last week on Friday I also brought another child to a hospital. His name was baby Issah. He is coming from a family of one mother and sister. I wrote about them before and said that I’d told them that he could come to the school when he was big enough but to start collecting porridge mix now. Anyways, I’d gone back to see if they had taken him to the hospital which they hadn’t so I was frusturated with the irresponsibility of the extended family and took him myself. We went to a different hospital which is actually the one responsible for Shibanze called Butere District Hospital in a bigger town like Bungoma called Mumia’s. I expected it to be closer and cheaper than Bungoma hospital but it was quite the journey to get there. The baby was given medicine for both pneumonia and malaria and sent home. Although I haven’t been able to check on him because I’ve been sick I’m told he has been seen out playing with other children, so that is good news. I’ll check on him myself tomorrow. That reminds me about the woman I brought to Bungoma with baby Layla. I saw her when I visited the home of the epileptic child and her leg was not at all better. Her ankle was swollen and she was in even more pain despite finishing the antibiotics. I’ll need to bring her back for futher testing. So many things to do! Tomorrow will be an interesting day for me because the women in the community will be coming to mud the third classroom. The structure is built and ready to go for the newcomers that will start in May for term 2. I’m told that this will be quite the experience to see and I plan on doing some mudding myself. Good news from a couple of friends!!! Christa and Chris at teachers college at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay have been busy! They’ve fundraised about 1500 CAD so we are going to be able to finish building desks for both classes, getting more kitchen supplies, finishing the well, putting proper locks on the doors and bars on the windows etc. So much will be accomplished with that money! It goes such a long way! We will even cement the mud walls so that the rains will not destroy them. Hopefully I will even buy some paint and let the kids put their handprints on the outside to decorate! I found out that the last volunteer left as mall video camera behind so I’m going to take it tomorrow to tape the mudding and some of the kids and hopefully figure out how to put the video on my blog! You’ve been complaining about my lack of pictures but a video will be that much better!!!! So that’s all for now because I want to try to prepare for my women’s group seminar which I wasn’t going to do this week since I was sick but I think I can still pull it off this afternoon! Talk to you all soon!!!!!!!!!!!! CIAO

One child at a time

2007-02-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

Meet baby Layla. She's 2 years old and has three older siblings. Her mother is hard working and is at every parent seminar at the school. Her father is an alcoholic and at least physically abusive to the mother if not the children as well. Neither have jobs and so the family of 6 live in a very small hut with a grass roof that leaks rain often. Two of her older siblings, Rojilah and Hashim, go to Tumaini Academy. Baby Layla came to school yesterday with her mother to collect porridge mix. I had wanted to check on this woman to see how the situation was at home so had a teacher come along since she isn't speaking any English. I found out that the husband will come home at night very drunk and beat her badly, followed by kicking her out to sleep in the garden. My priority for the next few days is to find out what I can do to get the mother and four children away from that home but these things can't be taken lightly. Baby Layla was looking very ill so I told Mamma not to make plans that she was coming with me to the hospital. My suspicions were correct and after laboratory tests it was confirmed that baby Layla had very severe pnemonia... which is the top top killer in children in Africa and to make that worse, she's very malnourished getting one meal a day if that. I went to check on them thismorning at the hospital since they were immediately admitted and baby Layla is hooked up to machines and IV's. Although it's a scary site I'm told by the doctor that he has high hopes for her recovery and survival. She seems to be a fighter. I'm praying for her and hope that Mamma does not have to lose a second child as she lost one around this age a few years ago. When I walked into the childrens admittence ward I had quite the shock. Mothers and young children lined up on beds with IV tubes hanging on the walls. Many many sick children. That might have been the hardest thing I've ever seen. Today I'll go to the families home because the other three children wouldn't have even known where the mother was last night. On that trip to the hospital yesterday I also brought a woman who's caring for 5 orphaned children. Three are boys that go to Tumaini and I had sent a note home for her to come because the children were never being bathed. I found a woman barely able to walk because of an infection in the right leg. She was in so much pain that she would start crying in pain off and on the entire way there. She got an xray and I bought her some antibiotics at about 2 dollars and the doctor says that she will be fine as the infection had not gotten into the joint yet. On a happier note, we have a new student at the Academy. I told you about Saumu who has down sydrome in my last entry. Yesterday was her first day at school! I went to greet her and she has a big smile on her face. Part way through the morning I brought her a uniform dress and helped her to change into it and she was very proud of the new outfit. She's fitting in with the other kids who are too young to notice her being different from them. She's clapping and dancing with them and seems to be having a really great time. I'm so so glad that she got to come because I really really think it will make a big difference in her life. Maybe as she grows older she can start helping with cooking meals at the school and even have an income! I've also finally tracked down the district nutritionist. I didn't have time before but since I was forced to be at the hospital for a long 6 hours I found out where her office was. She's going to give me some resources and I'm also going to go on some teaching trips with her at different places so that I can learn more about nutrition in Africa. Today I have a seminar in just 3 hours with my womens group on breast feeding and weaning. I also stopped by the family planning clinic at the hospital yesterday and got some resources to do a seminar on that. The women are interested as they don't want to have 100 children each but it is often the husband who is against family planning as it shows his strength to have many children. I've changed the minds of a couple of them already though!!! I almost forgot. I have to tell about the chicken situation at Mamma Gertrude's. She was having about 40 and within 2 weeks we are down to 6. They have been dropping dead and having some sort of disease. Luckily I'm too sad when they slaughter a chicken to eat it so I don't have to worry, although they asure me that it is strictly in the chickens. I've convinced them otherwise by now as many many many have died so we will have to figure out what the problem is. So far there is no bird flu in Africa so I'm crossing my fingers for that. But... this morning squeak found one that had died beside the house that was bigger than him and picked it up to bring it to me. He brought it under my bed to eat which was extremely disturbing so I spent about 30 minutes thismorning at 6am chasing this cat around as it was growling at me with a bloody chicken in its mouth. I will take a few more hours to recover from that sight!!!!!! So... I have to run and get some felt pens and giant writing pads for my seminar but I will log on again soon and update you more on baby Layla and the activities at the school :)

Always forward, never backward!

2007-02-24T00:40:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up very early because I had a visitor come to give me a lovely present. Squeak (one of the cats) had caught a very very large rat and still being a kitten wanted nothing more than to let it remain in misery while playing with it - Catching it over and over and over again while it was squealing. I'm not a big fan of rats but I am worse with handling pain and death so had to feel sorry for the little (or BIG) thing. I had to go and get Charles who is one of the boys who does work around the house to come and remove it from my room. I'm almost fully recovered from the trauma now!!!!!!!! A lot has happened since I wrote last. I'm just remembering that I wrote this same line in my last post so things must be going well here! Yesterday I picked up the donation from the local supermarket. They gave 5,000 Shillings worth of supplies which included 14 mailla papers, 2 cellotapes, 3 wall clocks, 30 student files, 5 pkgs of plasticine, 10 pkgs of water colour paints, 6 rulers, 250 exercise books, 4 blackboard erasers, 150 pencils, plus teacher supplies like scheme books, pens, glue, class registers etc. !!!!! I'm continually impressed with the businesses in Bungoma and how much they are wanting to help us. I don't think that the organization had considered the local capacity of donating here and were relying very heavily on international donors. Benson thinks I can work magic but I'm trying to assure him that the people sincerely want to help and it's not just my special touch (ok, well maybe just a little!). I also had another business give 24 small bags of maize flour and a case of soap for the hygiene program. They are also going to donate more in the future and when I was talking to that manager, another delivery man of another company was listening and asked for my information so that he could also help. So, it seems like things will only get better! This past week I was able to start doing home survey's for the children who had just started at the Academy in January. I have completed about 15 in the two days and have seen many things. I thought I was already in rural Africa but apparently I wasn't! I took one of the teachers, Emily, as well as the parent chairman, Edward, with me for both translation and safety reasons. We hiked through very tall sugar cane fields where there are no roads but just narrow paths. I visited home after home completing my surveys. The first home we visited on Wednesday gave me a chicken.... and the thought is really really awesome but when it's 35 degree heat and I'm sweating to death and already carrying around all my supplies for surveying, the last thing I want to do is carry a chicken under my arm.... but, there I was again carting around a chicken! One of the questions on the surveys asks if the family has lost any children and in the first day out of 7 surveys 2 had answered yes. I thought that this was bad but on Friday I met a family with 8 children in which the mother had actually given birth 13 times but had lost 5 of them before the age of 4 years. It's really difficult for me to hear this and I'm constantly having to collect myself between homes. I guess I was hoping that it wasn't really as tough here as we are made to believe at home. The reality is that it really truly is. Most of the deaths were entirely preventable but due to lack of knowledge and resources the family could do nothing. Malaria, phnemonia and diarrhea are the top three killers of children in Africa and in over half of those malnutrition is to blame. It seems as though I have an endless amount of work to do. This same family had a daughter of about 10 years and I knew right away by her physical features that she had down syndrome. I think that this sort of genetic disorder is less common in Africa so I was surprised to see it. I had noticed a few schools that were for special needs children but never thought too much about it. I asked the mother what she knew about the girl and she said the doctor told her that she was perfectly normal but would just learn more slowly than other children. That kind of bothers me because I really don't think it is accurate information and that nobody made an effort to really help the family to understand this little girl. Just from watching I think that she is very high functioning for someone with down sydnrome as she is very polite and quiet and understands instruction well. She just can't form words herself. I really want this girl to come to join the young nursery class because I think that the young kids are innocent enough not to judge her and be cruel and I really think she would enjoy singing and dancing and colouring which is what a big part of their day involves. I also visited a home yesterday that had previously been surveyed but I wanted to check up on them because the notes were worrying me. It was a family having both mother and father with 6 children. They were all living in a one room home with a grass roof and mud walls that was the size of a big sandbox. Three of the kids come to Tumaini Academy but are always late and never washed and look very malnourished. What I experienced while visiting the home was a very drunk father who was leaning against the wall to stand and the mother was sitting on the floor in the corner with all the kids huddled around her not saying a word or even looking up at me. I couldn't understand what the father was saying to the wife myself but afterwards Emily told me that he was giving her trouble for having the kids dirty and late. But... they are having to walk an hour to get to school so you can't know what they are doing or getting into along the way. I'm now really worrying what trouble I've caused for that woman because I fear that the husband is going to take the problems out on her in a very harsh way. I'm going to go back tomorrow to make sure things are ok and talk with them more. Every time I have a conversation here I'm learning something new and unfortunately it is mistakes that I'm learning from. In many of these areas, no mzungu has ever ventured so although the parents have seen us from being in town at the markets, many of the young children had never. While passing one home there were two little girls about 1 and 3. When they saw me they burst into tears and ran to the mother. The older girl was in hysterics and covering her eyes like they were going to catch fire at the site of me. I had no idea what to do. I wanted to just go over to them and reach out my hand but every time I took a step closer they just screamed louder. I decided to leave the encounter at that but it was an odd feeling to be seen as such a monster!!!!!!!! I'm finding the heat hard to handle also and often when I stand up am getting very dizzy and seeing spots. I hope I will get use to it soon. Today I'm working on organizing the school records because within a week or so the office will be built. As we have a few children coming from more regular family situations they can afford to pay fees but I am finding out that noone has been keeping files up to date to make sure that the fees are actually collected. So, I have to play the mean lady and tell them to cough it up. Without a steady income of donations, we have to have a few children paying in order to offset the costs in giving the orphans free education. Maybe by the end of next week I won't be liked as much as I am now. People in Shibanze are constantly begging me to stay at their home and insisting that I'm far too tired to bike all the way back to Kabula (and even though they see my bike every day leaning against the school wall, they don't really believe that I know how to ride it). It's still hard to accept the royal treatment I'm getting here. People are always offering me the best seat in the home, trying to accomodate me by any means possible and I just want to give them that best seat but yet it makes them so happy to do this. I guess I'm just feeling guilty that I'm recieved like this yet am going home (even here) to a much better situation. On Thursday we had the first group meeting for women in the community. I was really surprised to see that 18 had showed up! Although, they had me worried because most were an hour late but this is Africa time. You get use to it quickly. They were all very keen to learn about hygiene, and nutritional health stuff so can't wait for the next meeting. We just did some introductions and I wrote down a list of things they were interested in so next week we will do a seminar on breast feeding and when and how to wean the children. They've also divided themselves into two groups and have volunteered to each once a week to help with the school garden that will provide some of the foods in the lunch program in the future! I can't believe that as of tomorrow I will have been here for an entire month. It's been going by so quickly and although I know I've accomplished a lot here, I feel like my brain is being stretched in 10 directions and that I have a never-ending list of other things I want to see happen. But, baby steps are necessary and I have to remind myself that I can't take every problem under my own wing. I better get to the administration work as weekends are my only chance now but I'll be sure to write again soon! Thanks for keeping on reading and if anyone else is interested in donating then please just send me a message to my guelph or hotmail account! aflanaga@uoguelph.ca, or flan_15@hotmail.com! BYE FOR NOW :)

Where do I start??????

2007-02-17T04:11:00.000-08:00

So much has happened... and I've had such little time to write. I was warned by other people with African volunteer experience before I came here that I would have a ton of free time and be very bored. I have yet to experience this. I've been busy busy busy each and every day. In the morning I'm up at 6am Monday to Friday to be on my not-so-great-bike by 7am on route to the school. It's 14 km away but in the morning it's still cool enough to be quite bearable and I'm liking that I'm forced into the exercise. Last weekend I somehow connected with Red Cross working in this area and they have done a really great thing for us. They donated 50, 25 kg bags of Unimix porridge which is completely fortified with all the nutritional goodness that the kids need, 2 large cans of powdered milk, 24 cans of fish, and 36 packages of maize flour. With the 50 pags of unimis porridge alone we are able to make this last the entire semester until May as well as send each child home with 1 kg every Monday. Great news! I am also working with them about the possibility of distributing insecticide treated bednets throughout the area in order to reduce the risk of malaria. I'll keep you posted! This past week was the first week been at the school regularly but I'm learning how things work quite quickly. On Monday I had arranged for a local dentist to come and talk to the kids about dental hygiene. We were also joined by some members of the local community and listened to him talk for about 2 hours. Of course, I just looked silly pretending to understand fluent Swahilli the entire time. Good thing I already know how to brush my teeth! After that I gave each child a toothbrush that I'd bought for them over the weekend and all 91 of us brushed our teeth together. It was quite the experience. Most of them had never seen such an instrument before and had also taken a liking to the toothpaste. They were eating it and trying to trick me into giving them more while laughing hysterically at how much fun it was. This was followed by drooling and spitting all over the front of otherwise perfectly clean school uniforms. But.... they are learning and each day of the week the uniforms were getting less and less covered in paste! I've also started a handwashing system so they are now use to washing after break time and also before porridge - something they were not previously doing and were definetely not learning from home. I had been given some cough syrup from a local doctor to distribute around the classroom but word got out in the community and I have been swarmed by a group of people at the school each day about noon bringing me all of their problems. I guess the word 'on the street' was that I was a doctor with free medicine so I had people of all ages wanting my help and trying to explain to them all that I had no idea about any of their medical issues was quite a challenge. I think that by Thursday they were understanding. Aside from the outside community medical problems we are having a seriously difficult time combatting fungal infections and lice in the feet of the kids. Although they have uniforms now they still do not have shoes and we are a long way from being able to afford them. A bit of good news, though, is that we have a doctor coming free of charge soon to look at them and give the medical attention that is needed. A few of the children have feet that are swollen and cannot even walk properly anymore because the infection has gotten so bad. On Friday I was invited to one of the few childrens homes who has a mother present. The 4 teachers that we have also came along. Since I am such an attraction in the community we must have had about 25 children following us to the home squealing "HOW ARE YOU". When we arrived little Aqram's mother had prepared a meal which must have taken an entire years worth of earnings! There was chicken, beef, liver, Uglai, rice, Chipati, cabbage, bread, tea and probably other things that I cannot remember. I truly don't know where it came from and we certainly did not eat anywhere close to all of it! After lunch, Aqram gave me a present that she'd picked out herself. It is a little wooden jewellery box that was handcrafted by a neighbour. Unfortunately I later lost the lid on the back of the Boda Boda trying to get home but it still serves its purpose! Within the area that I was having lunch I was exposed to my first real "world vision TV like" house. There were just three young children and their very ill mother living in a very small one room home that was falling apart. The kids were between the ages of 2 and 7 and in tattered rags and told me they slept on the floor each night huddled together. I knew I was going to see this but to really be there is something you cannot prepare for. I am told that they will be talking about a mzungu visiting their home for the rest of eternity and that this energy alone could sustain life!!!!! So... the children have been told that they will get to attend school starting in May for free and will get a cup of porridge each day. If I were told that I got to go to school in a mud house and have only a cup of porridge each day I would not think this was sounding like a great deal but the smiles on their faces are something I won't ever forget. Today I'm finishing writing a letter to a local supermarket requesting the donation of some school supplies. I talked to the manager about helping and he asked for a letter so I'm hoping that things will work out in getting some more assistance. Since I've had so many friends committed to fundraising we've been able to go ahead and start the construction of some new things for the school. A third classroom is almost completed which is big enough to also contain a small office. We are also half way done the construction of 5 proper toilet systems and a well has started being dug! I can see already a huge improvement in the short 3 weeks I've been here and that is very encouraging. To all of you who are helping with fundraising ... THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU! You really cannot imagine how much your assistance is appreciated. I am hoping to use a video camera and take some footage of how things are going while I'm here and distribute some DVD copies when I get home. I think it's really important that people see that their money is going directly to a good cause and that every penny is being used to its best to create a possibly very bright future for a lot of innocent young children. Next week will be a new week and I'm busy preparing a lesson plan for something else I've decided to add to my agenda. I asked some of the women in the community if they would be interested in nutritional counselling on infant feeding practices and I had a list of names within seconds! So... every Thursday afternoon we will meet for a couple of hours and by the end of my time here I will pass all of my teaching resources along for them to continue to teach others in the community. This will also be a really great learning experience for me as I haven't done anything like it before. Every day I'm learning so much, and really understanding what this work is all about. So, before I take up too much of your time I will leave it at that for today. Thanks for the continual support and don't forget to write :) Amanda

LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!!!!!!

2007-02-08T03:35:00.001-08:00

I know it is strange that I'm posting 2 days in a row but I just have to tell about my morning. I got up bright and early as usual around 6:30-7am and got ready to go to Tumaini Academy in Shibanzee. We had been looking forward to this day since I arrived since it would be the day that we said good-bye to Celestria and Chaz and I would talk to the guardians of the orphans about the program that I will be starting. I was quite nervous but after making my way through the children swarming me I got to talk to the handful of adults that had come to show their support. Unfortunately, with the children being orphans, we see 92 children and only 15 adults. With Benson translating for those who don't know English I explained who I was and how they should be very proud about what they have accomplished already. I told them that I wanted to see the children to all be very healthy and had them brainstorm ideas of how to accomplish this. They managed to decide on washing uniforms, hands and digging a well for better access to water. This was exactly what I'd hoped for because I didn't want to go in and say 'Hello the Mzungu is here to tell you all what to do' which is what happens too often. Instead, my hope is to be seen as an equal to them - just a participant that will learn from them every day. So, I told them to come back on Monday and that I would have a surprise for the children. I've purchased toothbrushes and plastic cups for each one as well as hand washing basins and drying towels. I still need to get soap, toothpaste etc. before the end of the weekend too. I've managed to track down a dentist (after a few hours of wandering in Bungoma yesterday) that has agreed to come on Monday morning to talk to the kids about the importance of having clean teeth and how to properly brush. SO, I really hope that this hygiene program starts off well and I have high hopes that it will be a great success after today. Everyone seemed very excited about what Monday would bring. Soon we will have a well dug and also 5 toilets. Two for girls, two for boys, and one for staff. I'd done some research and insisted to Benson that we have separate toilets for girls and boys because I'd read some journal articles online about how female participation in school greatly increased when this was done. I really can't wait! I had to keep myself together when they did the good-bye to Celestria. I was fighting tears. These people have nothing... and when I say nothing, I strictly mean in terms of material things. But - they had all brought her presents. There were bags of maize flour, avocados, chicken eggs.... and even TWO CHICKENS! You have to realize how bit of a deal it is for these people to give like this. I had to laugh because Cel was in tears and Benson was telling how she would take all the gifts home with her to Whales.... of course the chickens will have their own seats on the plane! I got the job of hauling one of the chickens back to Mamma's house. I was wishing the entire time that someone was following me with a video camera because I had this chicken under my arm whose feet were tied together while I was riding on the back of the Boda-Boda (bycicle). Kuka was following on his own bike hollering "are you ok my daughter". The kids were giggling on the side of the road at the site of me carrying a kuku (chicken!). Then.... I had to take it on the matatu as well and the laughing only got worse. If you do any sort of work here as a Mzungu it is absolutely hillarious to everyone! We dropped Mamma off to head home and I gladly passed the chicken along to her and headed into Bungoma. So here I am at the internet cafe again.... I have a meeting with the dentist about what we are doing at the school but first I'm going to head to an amazing little 'restuarant' that a new friend showed me for some Ugali, beef fry and Chipate! Go well! (as they would say in South Africa)

Pictures!!!

2007-02-07T01:56:00.001-08:00

Finally a few pictures! I'll appolgize to everyone who doesn't care about my kitten friends Squeak and Rizzla, but I just had to! Meet Joe who is 3. He's one of my best buddies! His younger brother, Wopega is the one having a bath... something he absolutely loves! There is also a picture of man taking a goat to town on the back of his bike which I found quite amusing. The picture with all the kids on the wagon is just a random shot in Bungoma... normal life, and then at the end there are some pictures of the kids at the orphanage school (Tumaini aka HOPE Academy). I've also put up a picture of the building of one of the classrooms so you can see how things are done here... and exactly what my house looks like as well! Enjoy :)

And then there were four!!

2007-02-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

We have a new addition to the family. Baby Emmanuel was born on February 5th!! Congratulations to Shillah and Steven here in Bungoma, Kenya! There are children everywhere. Let me tell you about life here in my new home. I live in a compound with a rather large family. Gertrude and Ezikial aka 'Mamma' and 'Kuka' (grandfather) share the main house while their two sons Benson and Steven share a second with their wives Lillian and Shillah. These, of course, are not their African names. Benson and Lillian have three children - Joe who is 3, Wepoga who is 1.5 (and just started walking 2 days ago), and baby Chaz (short for Charles) who was born this past January 19th! Shillah and Steven have just welcomed their first... hense 'and then there were four'! Although the children don't speak English yet, the oldest child Joe has decided to call me 'Mamma Amanda'. Everyone calls Gertrude 'Mamma' so I guess it is normal to call the older women in the household by Mamma. The third house is for the volunteers. Currently there is a couple from Whales named Chaz (yes, baby Chaz was named after volunteer Chaz) and Celestria. Unfortunately they have to leave this Sunday but they have been here working hard for the past 4 months and we will be sad to see them go. I share a room with a German girl named Solveig who is just a few years younger than me. Now... let me explain what I mean when I say 'house'. You don't get a more African experience than this. The houses are made of frames using tree trunks and a tin roof. Normal enough. Then there are the walls, which are packed thick with mud. And don't get me started on the floor. Yes, a mixture of soft mud and cow dung. Now it's not as if I'm sinking up to my knees in the stuff because it has hardened but it is an interesting concept. Mamma frequently re-does the flooring. We have a toilet system that is a hole in the ground about 40 feet deep, again with mud walls for shelter... and another similar room beside it where we bucket bathe. I've forgotten about the kitchen. This is again a separate 'house' where food is cooked over hot coals as we have no electricity or running water. The first night I arrived Benson showed me around and it was already dark. I entered the kitchen and then jumped because I heard noise in the dark corner behind me. The kitchen is also the home to the chickens. At night they all perch on this wooden thing to sleep. There are a lot of animals here. We have a cow who is tied up outside my bedroom window, 2 kittens about 4 months old who I've named Squeak and Rizzla (and sleep with me every night!), about 20 chickens including a whole lot of baby chicks, and 2 dogs named Poppy and Simba. Simba just about gives me a heart attack every night. He gets tied during the day because he's too hyper and would knock over the kids but at night he gets to run loose. I'm always shining my flashlight at night trying to find where he is because he comes barrelling at me and jumps up out of nowhere. Daily life for me is fairly simple. We are well taken care of here and this is mostly because it is thought we cannot do anything for ourselves. I guess it is just a 'fact' that Mzungu's (Swahilli for white person) are just extremely intelligent but cannot take care of themselves... and of course we all have African maids back in Canada. It's a waste of time trying to explain that it's not like that to people here. I wake up in the morning at about 7am which is the time that 'Mamma' is bringing breakfast and Chai. This, of course, doesn't happen until after the Rooster has driven us all mad. Chai is an obsession here and we have it three times a day. It's just boiled water and milk poured over tea leaves into a thermos with far too much sugar. I've taken quite a liking to it though and have had to stop drinking it at night because then I get no sleep. For breakfast we often eat eggs (so many chickens!) but sometimes we have pancakes too. We always have bread in our house so we can have that whenever we want. After breakfast I walk for about 15 minutes to the highway where I flag down a Matatu (Swahilli for minibus) to head into Bungoma. We actually live 12 km outside of Bungoma in a region called Kabula, but I'll call it Bungoma for simplicity. The Matatu to town costs me 30 Kenyan Shillings which is equal to 50 cents. Then, depending on where I get left off as this varies each time I either walk or take a Boda-Boda to the internet cafe. A Boda-Boda is a bicycle with a seat over the back tire and a second pair of handlebars under the normal bike seat. There are tons of them here and they hang out in packs and fight over who will give you a ride. This costs about 10 Shillings. If I am home for lunch we are usually given Irish Potatoes or some other type of potatoe... I'm already sick of potatoes. I always have a 'bath' in the afternoon when it is hot and Mamma heats water for you if you want so bathing is really not at all unbarable. At 4pm we are again served Chai. I usually spend the late afternoon reading a book and playing with the kids. I've brought some balloons with me from Canada and the first time I blew one up Joe started crying because he was so happy. Crying in an uncontrolable way so that Mamma had to come and calm him before he could actually catch his breath to play with it. I'm scared to introduce anything else that may not have been seen before for fear of killing someone! Dinner is served really late... never before 8pm and sometimes as late as 10pm. Not ideal, but I'm sure I would starve if I was left to my own devices here. Last night we had chipate, which is like a homemade fried flat bread served with a mixter of beans. Sometimes we get beef or chicken too. Ugali is the staple dish of East Africa and it's made by boiling water and then slowly stirring in maize flour until it thickens to a consistency about 3 times as thick as mashed potatoes. It is also an obsession for the locals which I have not wrapped my head around because I really don't think it has much, if any, nutritional value and absolutely no taste. Anyways, I eat it without a complaint! Dinner time is great fun... the other three volunteers eat alone in the volunteer house but so far I've always joined with the family around a big table at Mamma and Kuka's. The stories we tell are more and more funny each time and I think I recall someone spitting their food across the table because they were laughing so hard one night! That is my day in a nutshell. Oh, and we also handwash our clothing which I've proven to be terrible at according to Mamma, Lillian and Shilla so I give the neighbour 50 Shillings to do it for me... who is also a wife of one of Ezikials many other sons. I know that 50 Shillings sounds terribly cheap of me since it is less than one dollar, but if I were to pay a lot more than the family would be very use to getting this money and would start to change the way they do things... and when I left this could definetely turn into a large problem. So, 50 Shillings (on the advice of Shillah) it is! Since I've gotten here I've been doing mostly administrative work. The organization is very new and have not been doing a proper job of keeping records. I've input all of the costs for building the school compounds into excel and they are now up to date. I've also been putting slide shows together about the projects in order to do some fundraising... as well as doing some research for the health and hygiene project that I am in charge of initiating. However, I did go to visit the school one day so far. The school is located in an area called Shibanzee which is the opposite direction from 'home' that Bungoma. Again I take a matatu and then a boda-boda to get there.... once Chaz and Celestria leave I'll be taking over one of the bycicles that they bought and doing the 10km ride each way every weekday. When I got there I didn't know what to expect. So far there are just two classrooms and a kitchen. One of the classrooms does not have any walls yet. In both cases the kids sit on the floor on grass mats and each have half of a notebook and one pencil. The last Canadian volunteer fundraised enough money to buy each of the 92 children a school uniform so at least they look like a group! The kids are in Class A and Class B, which here in Kenya are the two stages of nursery school. Class A has kids between 2 and 4 years while Class B has kids between 4 and 8. I definetely interrupted the lesson because as soon as the kids spotted me they all started whispering "mzungu, mzungu" and then all got big smiles on their faces and repeatedly said "HOW ARE YOU?". This is what they all say. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. Whoever taught them this is evil because it has gotten quite annoying already. You can't walk anywhere without armies of children running towards you yelling "HOW ARE YOU". If I'm quick enough I will say it to them before they can say it to me and the reaction is quite funny!! So, I snuck past Class A and went to the enclosed Class B. Of course, the classrooms and kitchen are also made of mud walls! I sat at the front of the room and learned that they were working on math. The teacher told them they could get up and show me their work and within seconds I had about 50 short little shaved headed African children surrounding me with big smiles and notebooks in their hands. I can't explain that experience - amazing. I shook each one of their hands and looked at their books. At that point all I knew how to say in Swahilli was "poa" or "Siki" which mean "cool" and "great". I could also ask them their names - "Jina lacko nane". They all told me their names although I couldn't hear what any of them were saying because they were so quiet. I stayed until the end of their break time and played some soccer, or football I should say, with the boys and then listened to the girls practice singing. They love song and dance here and the girls have made up all of these little skits on their own.... I could have watched them for hours. It's the only time they use 'big' voices...! Tomorrow I will be going to the school again because we are having a going away party for Chaz and Celestria. I'm going to be brave and take my big bag of balloons with me to celebrate. I'll also be talking to the 'parents' (with Ezikial translating) about the health and hygiene program. As of Monday I'll be showing up with a toothrbush and plastic cup for each child as well as handwashing basins. Currently nothing like this is being done and as a result there is a lot of illness being passed around. It's sad to see how sick looking some of the kids are but you wouldn't believe how happy they are to be able to go to school. They are all HIV/AIDS orphans so their parents, or at least one parent, has died from this horrendous disease. They live with relatives or friends... and some are taking care of themselves but still manage to make it to school each day. It's not a chore, it's something they greatly look forward to. Before I end I have to remember to tell you what happened yesterday. I was around during the day longer than normal helping by taking care of baby Chaz while Lillian helpmed Mamma. I was just wondering when I got to the back of the house and saw Mamma killing a chicken. This was terrible for me and I nearly passed out. I knew I wasn't going to like it the first time I saw this happen but I didn't expect to nearly fall over. I made such a big fuss about it that I had everyone laughing at me hysterically. This only got worse when I suggested that we have a funeral for it. Needless to say I was eating it an hour later while trying to think happy thoughts and sneaking most of it to the cats under the table. I don't think they will ever get over it because apparently they've told everyone in the area about my fear of chicken killing and I have not heard the end of it!!! At least they have found me entertaining. I am sure I will have some more very exciting things to tell within a couple of weeks as I'll be biking everyday and interracting with the kids a lot more. I hope my Swahilli improves quickly because I want to get the most out of this experience! So.... that, my friends is what is going on over here in Africa for me. Although I can try to put this experience into words... the words truly cannot do it justice. If anybody is at all thinking of volunteering I would highly recommend this program and don't hesitate for a second to ask me about joining! You can come for a week, two weeks, a month, a year - whatever you want! You just pay 200 CAD each month which gives you three meals a day, a safe place to sleep, a wonderful new family, and the most incredible experience you might ever have in your entire life! Take care and you will all hear from me again soon :)

CELL PHONE

2007-01-30T01:53:00.000-08:00

I now have my own cell phone! Dial 00254735262116. I believe you dial exactly like that from overseas! Hope to hear from someone, anyone soon!

Bungoma, Kenya!

2007-01-30T01:37:00.000-08:00

Jambo!!!! I say hello in Swahilli now! I arrived safe and sound on the 25th to Nairobi Kenya. I was met at the airport by an arranged taxi who brought me to a place called Bush House and Camp where I stayed for three nights. I was only suppose to stay for one but Nairobi caught my interest quite a bit! I spent the time wandering the streets, trying local food etc. The last day there I brought the maids son with me. We had a great time and browsed the Masaai Tribe's market since it was Market day. I got some really nice paintings and some bracelets. Next we were on the matatu (minibus) to Langata to find the Giraffe Centre. Shawn who is 5 was ecstatic. He had never done anything like this before because all of his mothers income goes towards his schooling. We were petting and feeding the giraffes and then had some hot dogs and ice cream before heading home. Great fun! All eyes were on the white girls with the hand of the black baby and people all around told me how lovely it was that I had adopted him! I assured them I would be bringing him promptly back to his mother!!!!! I have now been in Bungoma for two nights. I took a nine hour bus ride leaving at 8am on Sunday morning from Nairobi. I almost missed it because they forgot to get a taxi for me but luckily things were running on African time as usual. I thought 9 hours can't be toooooo bad, I'll just nap and it was a coach bus so I figured there would be lots of space. Not so much. I didn't even close my eyes once because I was too busy holding onto the seat in front of me to keep from bouncing my head off the ceiling. Anyways I still arrived in good spirits and it was fun in a painful sort of way. When I got to Bungoma I was greeted by the brother of WOPEGA's (Western Province Organic Growers' Alliance) organizer. His name is Steven and he brought me up to the bar and I had a couple of beers with him and his wife, one of their friends and the other couple that is volunteering. This couple comes from Whales and are named Chas and Celestria. They leave in 2 weeks so I take over what they've been doing. Everyone is young which is great. Benson and Steve are just 27/28 and the Whales couple are about the same. So anyways..... finally Benson made it to the bar place (which was quite posh by the way) and he took me to the village. We jumped on the back of a couple Boda Bodas which are just bicylces with a padded seat over the back wheel. I was laughing the entire way and everyone was pointing at me saying Mzungo which is white person in swahilli. Then we had to get off the bikes and catch the matatu (minibus) to the end of the path into the village. We walked about 15 minutes and finally arrived. I was thinking where the heck am I going but I was glad the walk ended after 15 as I started to think I had a good hour's hike ahead of me!!!!! So... I met Solveig my roommate next. She is nice.. Her English is not perfect but we get by. The area I'm living in is comprised of 4 mud huts. The main hut is where Bensons parents live.... who immediately greeted me as the new daughter. Their English names are Ezikial and Gertrude. Gertrude takes care of Bensons two oldest children who are adorable. Joe is 3 and WOPEGA (named after the organization) is about one and half. His wife is busy with the new one week old baby so this is why Gertrude takes over. It's normal for all the extended family to live together in one compound. When you marry you move to your husbands parents compound. So I was very excited to learn that I'd get to live with these children! The new baby is named Chas after the Whales guy. Benson and Lillian have one half of the mud hut which barely fits their bed and Steve and his wife Shilla have the other half which is again just as small. Steve and Shilla had to move out of their hut so that us volunteers could move in. Shilla is also expecting a baby and says it will come by the end of the week. Steven had to go to Nairobi so Shilla has decided I will be the one to go to the hospital with her when she gives birth because she's taken quite a liking to me. It's her first baby so it will be great fun I'm sure. Everyone here is married and having children quite young. Shilla is just 20 and the neighbours in the next coumpound have 3 children... the first being born when the mother was only 15. Scary stuff! I lectured her on family planning the other day lol. OK... so the first night Benson just shows me around. He takes me to see the kitchen. It's all very dark already so I can't see anything because there are just some oil lanterns, no electricity. I hear squacking from behind me and turn around to see that the chickens live in the kitchen. They come out during the day by the dozens and run all over with their little babies. I spend my free time so far chasing the baby chickens trying to catch them..... Then, I see the best part. There are 2 little kittens just about 3 months old. They are very friendly and sleep with me both nights so far. I try to keep them out because they have fleas but they just won't go away so I guess I will have flea bites very soon. I tried to explain to Gertrude that in town I would look for some flea collers because they insist on sleeping in my bed and she just laughed hystarically saying what a silly Mzungu thing to spend money on but said ok dear do what you wish! Learning swahilli is going to be more difficult than I expected because they all speak English quite well. I told them not to talk to me in English unless at the school when things needed to get done. . I woke up the first morning quite ill so stayed in bed all morning. Just my luck to get sick right away. All three of the others have had malaria and right now Celestria has this huge swollen head because she has caught some other mean disease. Things are not very hygenic that is for sure. Anyways I got feeling better and sat outside to read my book. Joe snuck his way up onto my lap and fell fast asleep on me. He was very amused by my flashlight. Thismorning I got up at 7 and did the commute to Shibanzee where the school is. First we take the Boda Boda again and then another Matatu. Since it is Tuesday the market was open and this was the real African market stuff. No carvings for tourists.. because tourists don't exist. Just tons and tons of people selling everything you can possibly imagine. I got to the school and saw the garden that they have developed. The kids are adorable. They are packed into these 'school rooms' and were lined up parcticing their ABC's when I got there. Of course that ended when they saw me because I was a new Mzungu so I was just stared at for a while but I'm ok with it! Next I went to the older kids classroom who are 5-7 or 8 years old. These kids were working on mathematics and the teacher told them to show me their work so as quickly as they could they were completely surrounding me trying to pass me their little notebooks. I just kept saying "Jina lako nani" which means 'what is your name' and then looking at their books and saying "Poa" or "Siki" which mean 'Cool' and 'Great'! I was really excited about the school stuff, it sees like it's going to be fun. They went on break while I was there and the soccer ball came out and all the boys went nuts over it. The girls all practiced singing and dancing and I could have sat there for hours watching them. What we have decided is best for me to do is have a 'parents day' to talk about the health of the children. Most of the children are orphaned and living with relatives or neighbours and some you can see are quite quite unhealthy.... but somehow happy. And happy counts for something!!! Anyways I am going to introduce the growth charts that we use in Canada to keep track of the children and see that they are normal for kids their age etc. From there I think that we will be better able to determine who needs most help etc. I am going to use this information to write a proposal on the situation and try to get some funding for a feeding program. While I wait for funding to come (if it ever does) I will be doing seminars with both children and paretns about what sort of things are growing in the garden and what vitamins etc are in them that they need to have. Also I will teach in the school about Hygeine and hand washing etc. It seemed like all of the kids had colds and were coughing all over so I can just imagine what sort of disease I'm about to develop. Well that's all I know so far, I haven't really gotten into it more than that. You will laugh to know that I sleep in this little room made of mud walls and I wake up at night to the sound of a big dried chunk falling off the wall to the floor. Also, the floors are made of cow poop..... luckily it was made earlier so I can't smell it and we just have some plastic covering over it. It's very interesting I must say... and somehow I am quite content so far. The washroom is my favourite..... just a hole in the ground and at night I expecially love it when I see all the cockroaches that are having a party down the latrine with my flashlight. Bathing is interesting also. Standing in a little cubicle in a bucket and pooring water over yourself. Good times.

Contact in Kenya

2007-01-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

Well it's about 2 hours until I have to be at the airport here in Johannesburg. By mid afternoon I'll be in Nairobi where I'll stay for the night before catching a 9 hour bus ride to the small city of Bungoma near the Uganda border. I'm excited but scared all at the same time. No more luxury of running water and electricity. And no incredible beaches to laze around on all day. The survival of the fittest! I spent the past week on Anstie's Beach just outside of Durban on the Eastern coastline. The golden mile of sand was right at my doorstep. I didn't do too much other than swim a lot and get to know the other backpackers. We had a lot of Braai parties in the evenings and there was a french chef that showed up with his girlfriend so we got spoiled a little as well. I also did a surfing lesson with a guy named JJ. He's the spokesperson for the competition "big wave africa". He was about 60 but had me standing up on the surf board in the deep water before the hour was up. I think now I am hooked. I should have done the lesson at the beginning of the trip rather than the end, maybe then I could have gotten better at it! Anyways incase of any sort of emergency the phone number where I will be is +254735122086. This cell belongs to a man named Benson who runs the organization I'll be working for. Hopefully I'll get my own line as well. The address there is "WEPOGA Kenya, BOX 662 Bungoma, Code 50200, Kenya". Feel free to send me care packages!!!! Although don't send anything that looks too large or exciting or the people at the postal office will be taking it home with them. Just the way things work on this continent! Ok I hope everyone is well and thanks for finally adding some comments to this page! CIAO :)

HOW TO POST A COMMENT

2007-01-20T23:57:00.000-08:00

OK people I need some more comments other than from my parents and family... (although I do appreciate these ones as well). You are starting to make me sad and think I have no friends!!! So... below each entry I've made you can click on "0 comments" or hopefully it'll say "500 comments" and then you can put in your entry but you need to click on the bulletin that says 'anonymous' unless you have your own account and then in your entry just say who it's from. On the left hand side of the screen here there are links to all of my posts even though you can see them all on one page. If you click on one of them then it will be the only one on the screen and you will also see all of the comments that have been left already. I promise, I'll comment back!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy South African Lingo

2007-01-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

"the boot" = the trunk of the car, "robot" = traffic lights (let me tell you how confused I was when I asked for directions and drove through set after set of lights wondering where the stupid robot was... grrrrr, "lekker" - it's all good or i liked it... etc. I like this word, it's used constantly and I have started throwing it into my own sentences quite a bit without even thinking about doing it anymore!, "Joll" or "Jolling" - a joll is a party so you could say 'that was a lekker joll'.... a great party! Or... where are we going jolling?, "kiff" - basically it was just too good to say 'lekker', "posi" - your house, "bliksen" - OH BLIKSEN, I stubbed my toe!, "hamba" - go home, get away from me etc. Good to know when harassed by street people, then they don't think you are a tourist anymore!, "oh shame" - This might be my personal favourite. They say 'oh shame' constantly but it sounds more like 'awww shame' and they usually throw 'man' on the end as well. They'll say oh shame in the exact same tone whether you were robbed or you spilled something on your shirt. "Howz it?" - hello, how are you?, "Bru" - dude, mate, geezer, bro, "A good oak" - a nice guy/girl, bloody good chap, "Braai" - African cuisine... basically a rough looking barbeque

Robbed

2007-01-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I now have to add to my list of 'been there done that's' a robbing. It's quite unfortunate because it's been a rough two days. Firstly, yesterday Stefan left so of course I was sad... After dropping him at the airport I decided to go to stay somewhere new so called this lovely sounding place to pick me up. If you are EVER in Joburg aka Josie then please do not stay at Gemini backpackers. They claim to have free internet *unheard of* and a gym among other delightful things. True, they do pick you up for free and have free shuttles to and from the mall but not only do they not have free internet, they don't have internet at all... or computers. And the gym.... guess what, no gym. Worse and worse they had no running water which I wasn't expecting until I got to Kenya and was not prepared for that fact. I got quite angry about all of this and when I asked what the problem was they told me, and I quote, "Oh we have to advertise those things or else nobody comes to stay here" - incredible. Luckily I called a sweet lady named Joan from Bob's Bunkhouse who picked me up and brought me to their lovely quiet home. Apparently this was not the first time that she had to pick someone up from Gemini. So I arrived yesterday at Bob's bunkhouse and met two girls from the Seyshell Islands who were here to shop as well as two guys from Namibia that were just travelling for a couple of weeks. All were plus or minus a few years my age so I felt quite comfy and cozy. This morning the girls woke up at 6am to get ready for the mall and I decided that I would join the guys to downtown Joburg - after all I'd spent a good couple of hours talking to them last night and they were quite friendly and seemingly intelligent. At 9:30am I told them that I would just shower quickly and head with them. They said ok but at 10 when I got out of the shower (yes I know I still have not mastered showering quickly) they were gone. I asked the owners where they had disappeared to and they said they'd be right back. However... when I realized that my digital camera, IPOD video, and money from my wallet were all missing we knew they would not be back. I'm pretty devestated about the fact that people I gave trust to abused it so much but I suppose I have learned a much needed lesson before heading to Kenya. We drove around to local pawn shops but nothing... and after putting the pieces together discovered that they were giving different names to all of the guests and had arrived with only one bag and had been wearing the same clothes throughout their stay here... which they also bailed on paying for. I won't say that Joburg is nearly as terrible as it has been made out to be because I've had wonderfuly genuine encounters with locals that are willing to do anything for you. It's difficult a few hours later but I'm going to take a deep breath... scratch the surface of the continually decreasing bank account to get a new camera and head to Durban for a week on the beach also known as the Dolphin Coast (literally because there are dolphins swimming with you). I'll be back to Joburg on the 24th before flying to Kenya the 25th. I can't believe it's coming so soon but I can't wait to be situated in one place for a bit of time and really learn about a local culture while trying to master Swahilli!

Botswana & Zambia

2007-01-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

Great trip! It was a long long drive through Botswana but nonetheless an exciting one. We finally stopped after about ten hours straight in a town called Nata. We definetely stood out and managed to find a little hut to live in for a few short hours before hitting the road again. The place had a butcher shop where you literally bought your meat, marinated it and then through it on the Braai just outside. We met a lot of locals as well as quite a few Zambians there. Getting a job in Zambia is next to impossible because of corruption so many Zambians make the trek up to a few times each month to Botswana in order to pick up goods for re-sale in order to make a living. The next day we entered Zambia at the Kazungula border post. This is possibly the most irritating border post in the entire world. For future reference, make sure to have more than a few dollars on you and papers from wherever you might have rented a car otherwise you will spend a couple hours sweating profusely trying to figure out what to do. Anyways we didn't have the papers so we took a taxi into Livingstone Zambia which might have been what we ended up doing anyways since Zambia requires you pay insurance to take your own car there. We ended up at a place called Jollyboys which Stefan couldn't seem to remember the name of and constantly called Jollyballs or Jollyfellows! Nice place with two cats creepily resembling mine other than an enourmous size difference between their orange one and mine - mine being the larger of course! The rest of the day we just lounged around, walked through the main street markets and enjoyed the pool. Next day was a good day. We were up and on a bus at 7:30am to go riverrafting down the Zambezi river at Victoria Falls. I'd never rafted before but I have to say that it was not nearly as scary as I thought. I ended up even asking if I could get in a different raft that was a little more frightening - but this all depends on the time of year and how much water there is. Overall, still a good experience and seeing small crocodiles on the sides of the river definetely got the adrenaline pumping a little more. After rafting we enjoyed a couple of cold drinks before heading out on the sunset cruise. They served free drinks as well as dinner and we cruised up and down the Zambezi river over about 3 hours in total. The river was flooded with giant hippos too which was nice because we hadn't seen any yet. That reminds me of the drive through the last part of Botswana where we would have to slow down for elephants crossing the road and also saw a giraffe just off to the one side. Day two was even more exciting. We met a tour guide named Omega at the backpackers pub the night before and he agreed to meet us the following day along with two Australian guys we'd become friends with. We headed out at 10am and walked through the top of the river above the falls for about half an hour before getting to a place called the Devil's Pot. This was basically a mini pool literally right above a chunk of the falls. There were spots for cliff jumping and you could swim (very carefully) up to the edge and lean over looking down hundreds of feet over the rushing water. This all sounds very crazy and really is but it was amazing that we got to do it. Later Omega and I traded a sea shell that I'd picked up along the coast of South Africa for a miniature carved Zambezi river God which all the tour guides wear for protection. Vic Falls was breath taking and it is extremely obvious why it is one of the world's seven wonders! So... we left after 4 nights to head back to Johannesburg. I have to tell you about my bad luck when Stefan drives. He seems to be a professional at hitting very large bugs which splatter just perfectly around into my window where their guts end up on my face and shirt. This, of course, was followed my Stefan laughing at me and me pouting about how disgusting it was that bug guts were once again all over me. Oh yes that reminds me also (speaking of the car) about my speeding ticket in Botswana. The speed limit on the roads around here is 120 km/h at least on the highways but once we got into Botswana all of a sudden 120 would turn into 60 with no warning. Anyhow the police work on a 'pay on the spot' basis so they took 250 Pula and I was angry but I do have a Botswana speeding ticket that I kept because there was something interesting about it. The funny thing... if you call it funny... was that on the trip back to Jo'burg Stefan was driving through the exact same spot and got pulled over as well but we talked our way out of it this time. Anyhow, back in Johannesburg we spent a few days of not much at all other than relaxing before Stefan left...... and I'm sad that he did of course but will see him again soon. Much sooner than later!

2007-01-05T03:21:00.000-08:00

Finally… the long anticipated update of my journey through Africa! My apologies for it taking so terribly long but my site has been difficult unless I have a proper internet connection. So, here I am… with a proper internet connection! Today is January 5th which means it’s been exactly ONE MONTH since I left Canada. That is hard for me to believe for two reasons. One - that it’s been that long, and two - that I haven’t had an ounce of home sickness. I think I could stay here forever (sorry mom and dad)! Since I’ve got so much to catch everyone up on, I’m going to write a long (but hopefully entertaining) story about what I’ve been doing and then I will attempt to post lots of amazingly incredible pictures… Ok here goes… I flew into Cape Town on Saturday evening – December the 9th. I had planned to drive from Johannesburg but the flight was only 65 CAD and I was still quite freaked out about driving on the wrong side of the road. The drive from the airport was spectacular as it was down a twisting road overlooking the city and coastline completely lit up. I got to my backpackers place at 11pm and it was pure insanity. I’ve never seen so many people in one area. The street was packed with young people out ‘having fun’ and so I decided that I had to join. I ended up going out dancing until 4am (nothing ever closes here) and met a lot of people. None of which were from Cape Town. Talk about tourism. The next day (or I guess the same day) I got up bright and early at about 8am and went to see the infamous Table Mountain with Ed from England. We got there only to find out that the cable cars weren’t running to the top because of the wind which is a normal occurrence. That wasn’t going to stop us though. We hiked as high as physically possible over about 4 hours and the views were incredible. I couldn’t walk without pain for the next three days but it was still worth it. I joked around before I left about how I was going to hike the mountain not thinking it was possible or allowed…. But now I’ve done it! The next couple of days were spent on the beach, checking out the markets and relaxing. Along with, of course, some more adventures out in the night! The ocean along the western coast Cape Town area is far too cold for me to swim in. It gets water straight from the Antarctica (I hope I have that right) and my ankles would numb immediately when I set foot in it! Anyhow, I spent this time with a girl named Ava who was in the bunk next to me in my dorm room. She was from California, LA to be exact, and a great partner in crime (thanks AVA)!! Finally the long anticipated arrival of STEFAN! Although the backpackers messed up and didn’t pick him up from the airport, we managed to connect after about 3 hours of both of us roaming the city looking for each other. Stefan admitted to finally understanding why everyone worried about him while he was traveling as he was sure that I had been kidnapped and that scary people were going to find him wanting ransom! Anyhow, we spent a few days in Cape Town which mostly consisted of more beach days, delicious seafood dinners, market browsing… and other good stuff! I had discovered how fun it was to ride on the local mini bus around the city so that is how we got around. Basically it’s a giant van and they pack it with so many people you can’t breathe and play music so loud your ears are going to explode but it is great fun!! And… an awesome way to get away from all the tourism and meet some of the locals. Oh right…. We did take a train one day down the Cape point to Simon’s Town where we taxi’d to Boulder’s Bay. This is the home of the African Penguin. Pretty incredible. See pictures for further excitement. Right, and the day that Stefan bought his first street fruit and bit into an otherwise yummy looking apricot only to find out that he’d swallowed a bunch of worms. GROSS! After looking into travel costs to head east along the coastline, we found that it was far less expensive to split on a car rental. The Baz Bus was something that sounded great but turned out to be a lot of money and more geared for people traveling alone. Anyhow, this is how we met Chico. A nice little blue Volkswagen who we’ve since been talking to as though he is just another passenger along the way… and apologizing to him every time we hit a huge pothole. We headed out the following Saturday the 16th from Cape Town and decided to take the scenic route through the mountains for part of the way. This was because the ‘Garden Route’, otherwise known as the coastline highway, was swarmed with people because of it being the Holliday season. So… we drove and drove and sweated A LOT because Chico doesn’t exactly have air conditioning. We stopped at a place called Robertson and did some wine tasting and pretended to be sophisticated when really we didn’t know much about it at all. It was fun though and we got to try a lot of famous South African wine that hasn’t yet made it into Canada. YUM! We wish we had of bought some now. Before the end of the day we also stopped to go for a short hike before losing complete sanity in the car and killing each other! We had stopped to hike up to one of two apparent hot springs but neither were what they were said to be. They’d been taken over by the tourism industry and built into swimming pools with lots of children most likely peeing up a storm in them. But… the hike was well worth it. We hiked right by some of the best rock climbing in South Africa as well… which Stefan was more excited about that I was, but it was still interesting. We finally decided to stop for some sleep in Ladismith at a B&B. It was impossible to find accommodation but FINALLY after frustrating searching we managed. No complaints though, we are playing everything by ear so we set off expecting to have to spend at least one night in the car and that hasn’t happened yet! On the 17th we set off towards the coastline to connect with the Garden Route at George. We stopped at a place called Wilderness which is definitely somewhere I’d go back to and spend some more time. We had some lunch and a beer or two at a little pub before renting a canoe for the afternoon. We paddled up a river as far as it would go and then parked on shore and hiked quite a ways up a mountain ridge to a waterfall. We spent a couple of hours swimming and tanning and basically had the entire place to ourselves other than a couple of people that came and went. That night we landed at Buffalo Bay or “Buffelsbaai”. This place was a bit off the beaten track but we listened to our Lonely Planet guide and checked it out - A very small town but a beautiful beach and a restaurant with a huge deck overlooking the ocean. We slept for the night and then stayed for most of the day walking up and down the beach and spending some time playing in the waves (which finally were getting a little warmer). On the 18th we didn’t drive too far. We stopped after a couple of hours at a place called Plettenburg and settled into a new dorm! This was a really nice backpacker place and we finally had a real African “Braai” which is basically just a more camp-style barbeque. We were excited to cook for ourselves since we hadn’t yet so we headed to the grocery store and got a cooler bag stocked with goodies for the rest of our journey and some Ostrich burgers to test out that night. They were quite tasty until the next morning when I woke up at 6am literally barfing ostrich (sorry for the visual). I’ve never felt quite that sick -although I seem to say that every time I get sick. Stefan felt a little sorry for me but was still somewhat amused by my illness and disagreed that it was the ostrich until a few hours later when he joined me praying to the porcelain Gods (otherwise known as getting sick in the toilet). We tried to suck it up and drive on but within a short distance of 20 km we’d stopped to sleep on the grass in agony. We pulled into Tsitsikamma which was the plan anyways… in the hopes of conquering the world’s highest bridge bungee jump. We took a few looks at it… practically crawling everywhere we walked in the area until deciding that we’d have to book into the backpackers there and sleep off the dreadful ostrich illness so that we could do the jump the next day. We woke up feeling completely regenerated and did the jump at 9am. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life. Not at the jumping part but at the part where I opened my eyes and realized I was free falling 250 something feet straight down towards trees, boulders and river. All I was thinking was please let this bungee cord work!! Finally the rope caught and I was able to enjoy it a little. I don’t think I will do it again… it’s on my list of “been there, done that’s”. My first, and most likely last, bungee jump. THIS WAS JUST THE START OF A GREAT DAY. THE BEST DAY SO FAR! We then stopped at Jeffery’s Bay… home of (at one time) the world’s largest surf. We had to go and see it just because of all the talk and say that we’d been there. But…. It really wasn’t that wonderful and we only stayed about an hour. We then headed more north towards Addo Elephant National Park. We were bummed to learn that we’d previously driven right by a Cheetah farm where you could play with the cubs so we were determined to find another. We lucked out huge! We finally arrived at this little Cheetah place that was a million miles down yet another dirt road. Not before, of course, stopping to admire the monkeys hanging out on the fences watching us and the mini alligators running across the road in front of us. So… here we were at the Cheetah farm - The only people there. We thought for sure this will not be so great. But…. We were up for the adventure. Turned out that we got to pet two, 4 year old, celebrity Cheetah’s. Yes that’s right, celebrity Cheetah’s! They were two of the 13 that played the part of Duma in the movie Duma that we had previously watched together. So… we left feeling more cool than when we had arrived and drove further towards the park. Finally we made it to the town of Addo and stopped randomly at a place called the “croc and lion ranch”. It said it had accommodation so we went in just thinking that was the name. We ended up having a tour of the lions and crocs in a small family owned place and played with three, three month old lion cubs. They were about 20kg each so not so light and they roared and growled but just wanted to play. This was a huge highlight and we wish so much that we had of stayed an extra night just to play with them some more! They had all sorts of animals there like this baby rock rabbit (see pictures) who was best friends with the 8 week old kitten. They also had a neat little bar where local people went… we finally felt a bit more like we were really in Africa!!! The next morning we woke up early and drove for about 2 hours through the park and saw lots and lots of animals. We were lucky enough to see a lion in the wild along with a ridiculous amount of wart hogs and elephants… some zebras and many; many others (again, see pictures). After that we drove back down to the coast through Port Elizabeth, then Grahamstown (where we stopped to use the internet because it had been non-existent for a few days), and a detour through a little village called Hamburg, before stopping in East London to figure out where we would stay for the night. East London was a fairly big city so we decided to call ahead to a backpackers in Chinsta to see if they had room. Lucky for us they did so we headed a bit further. Chinsta has a backpackers called Buccaneers which ALL of the backpackers talk about. It is perched up on a mountain side overlooking the WARM Indian Ocean. We stayed at this place for three nights and tried some surfing, a lot of sunbathing where I burnt my perfectly sunscreened skin into a peeling frenzy, beach picnics… and then worrying that we had no place to go after because they were booked over Christmas. We spent the last day on the phone for a couple of hours and finally had the 27th through January 1st booked but were still homeless for three nights over Christmas. We tried our luck driving around Chinsta and ended up with a great place! A nice older couple rented out a 2 bedroom house to us in a gated posh community for not much more than a backpackers would cost for three nights. We went out to get more groceries to make a Christmas dinner. The first night we had a Braai with Chicken and corn on the cob… followed by Christmas day with a pork roast which Stefan stuffed with some delicious concoxion of heaven along with lemon herb potatoes, squash, salads etc. We were quite impressed with how delicious it was even though during the cooking process we realized we were going to run out of wine… So we went for a drive with a glimpse of hope that somewhere would be open for a couple of glasses. I spotted a little farm house with an open sign so we pulled in an indulged in some red wine, scotch, and of course the smell of the beautiful African air. Although the food was well cooked when we returned it was incredible. This was a good Christmas. Finally after 6 nights in Chinsta we felt completely rested and headed for Coffee Bay where we would spend 4 more nights. Finally we were slowing down a little an enjoying our days rather than driving so much. We stayed at both the Coffee Shack and the Bomvu Backpackers, each for 2 nights. Basically Coffee Bay is a small Xhosa community. We went on a day tour to Mpanzi which was a village down the coast. We walked along cliffs and saw some amazing caves and even did some cliff jumping. For me, ‘some’ equaled one and it was painful for everyone else because I took so long to jump. Ironically it was about 10 feet and I’d just bungeed over 250 a few days before without hesitation. We then had a picnic lunch near the caves consisting of ‘toasties’ which are really just flame grilled sandwiches with cheese, tomato and onion. I hate one in guilt and then split a second into five pieces for the group of young boys who’d gathered around starring up at me with hungry eyes. Later I snuck the stray dog everyone’s crusts as well. It’s like the orphaned children and stray dogs sense my weakness and know I’ll give them whatever I have if they just give me the right sad look. We also had a traditional Xhosa dinner in Coffee Bay and we are absolutely addicted to –Xhosa bread. It’s got a sweet taste to it which is strangely delicious. After dinner we broke into a bottle of red wine and went to sit around a camp fire and watch some traditional dancing. Next was the real impressive part – African drumming. Talk about talent. These six guys had everyone’s full attention for a good two hours. Finally it was December 31st. The last day of 2006. We had to leave Coffee Bay and drove a few hours to Port St. John’s. The drive was stunning. This place was full of thick forests and everything was so green. Once arriving at Amampondo’s backpackers we met an African guy named Phillipe and his girlfriend (who he referred to as his queen). We took them to our New Years dinner reservation and spoiled them with escargot and spinch/feta crepe appetizers followed by an enourmous seafood platter and steaks. Very tasty. Back at Amampondo’s it was some strange Bushman’s theme for New Years so we ended up being painted with crazy stuff all over! We celebrated New Years with champagne while Stefan and Phillipe shot firecrackers at the crown (including us girls) with evil little boy being bad looks on their faces. We set off on January 1st for the Drakensburg Mountain area. Port St. Johns was our last stop on the coast line so we packed up our bathing suits reluctantly (or ‘costumes’ as they are called here). We stopped at a place called Underberg for the night anticipating crossing the border into Lesotho the next day. We drove in hopes of taking the “Sani Pass” into this mountainous country but were disappointed to realize we couldn’t drive up it without four wheel drive. So… we parked our car at a hotel and took yet another mini bus up to the top into Lesotho. Poor Chico would be left alone for a couple of days. We spent our first night in Lesotho at the Sani Top Chalet also known as the HIGHEST PUB IN AFRICA, about 2000 feet plus. Two young guys that had just finished traveling Canada were running the place and gave us great deals on everything. That reminds me how far over my budget I am… oops! The morning was spent doing a two hour horse ride guided by a local Lesotho Shepard. We had to wait a while for them to go and fetch the horses because animals here just roam freely. We went to a lokout where all you could see were amazingly beautiful rolling hills that led back into South Africa. This view alone was worth the entire trip. We hopped on a minibus after that and rode a couple of hours to a village called Molumong. A woman on the mini bus was excited that we were from Canada and insisted that we now be ‘pen friends’ so we’ll see if I receive any mail from Lesotho. We stayed at a guest house in this village and once again I was ill. I think it was a combination of the altitude and the heat and I wasn’t moving anywhere too quickly. I had a long sleep and woke up early for a 2 hours hike around the village with Stefan. We walked along the high grassy ridges surrounding the village in once again blistering heat. Everywhere we went we had an audience. One child would spot us and yell to the others and then they would all run over to us to watch in amusement. They often put their hands out asking for sweets but we’ve refrained from this since I’m well aware of how bad this is for their teeth especially when they have very poor (or complete lack of) dental hygiene. A few hours later we found ourselves sitting beside the dirt road hoping a mini bus would drive by and wishing Chico hadn’t let us down. We got lucky and some police men picked us up. A few minutes later they also picked up about 10 women and we were once again all sitting on each others knees trying to make room! We got let off at the intersection that would take us back towards Sani Pass to our car. Instead of waiting for a mini bus we hopped in the back of a pick up truck in which some locals were delivering groceries to villagers and heading down the pass into South Africa. We definitely had the best view in the back of this truck even though we sat there for a long three hours. Friendly faces greeted us everywhere along our journey and we often took pictures of people and then showed them what it looked like on the screen. All the villagers were very amused by this sort of technology and couldn’t believe their faces could go to Canada! Finally we were back with Chico and drove a long 6 hours to Johannesburg. We arrived back at the place I stayed at when I first arrived here at about 11pm. We will stay tonight once again before setting off early tomorrow morning for Victoria Falls. We will take the route through Botswana and then Zambia before returning to spend a few day seeing Jo’burg again. FINALLY! I am caught up. I’m sure I’ve missed lots of detail but I must save something for a story to be told when I return. I’m going to try to post some pictures now so I hope you enjoy!

Jo'burg

2006-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Wow wow wow. I've only been here for two days but I'm already convinced I came to the right place and I might just stay forever! I arrived in Johannesburg at 10pm and after dodging some sketchy people offerring me rides at the airport I finally made it to a place called Petra Backpackers. I woke up in the morning to the sound of strange birds I'd never heard before and 20 degree heat at 7am. Pretty awesome itself. I met a man named Dave here at the backpackers that is from the coast so I went with him for the afternoon to see some of the markets. It's almost impossible for me not to buy one of everything but I already can't manage to carry the stuff I did bring! We ended up pub hopping and I quickly noticed that it only costs about 1 CAD for a beer. Very dangerous! Anyhow he eventually left to catch a flight to Dublin so I stayed at the pub with some new younger people I met there. They took good care of me and I ended up pretty spoiled. I went out to a dinner party with them at this posh seafood restaurant that had incredible food and then it was off to a karaoke bar. I ended up doing a lot of singing and the DJ announced that it was my turn each time by calling up "miss canada". So, needless to say everyone in the place knew I was from Canada and it was not a place that travellers went so everyone else was very local. I ended up having a fan club of about six 40 year old women that were out celebrating a friends marriage and they were completely insane. Anyways the day was great and although I can't quite see straight because of extreme lack of sleep I am very ready for more. Tomorrow morning I fly to Cape Town so it's a night of sleep for me which is very much needed!!!! I hope you all are enjoying the huge amount of snow I left behind.... I'm quite content with the 30 degree weather here!!!! Chow!

SOUTH AFRICA!!! One more week!

2006-11-26T18:46:00.000-08:00

Just over one week to go. I'm excited that I will now have a visitor in South Africa mid December to mid January. You'll have to wait for pictures to see who! The suspense! The plan of action is to arrive in Johannesburg on the evening of December 7th and then make my way to Cape Town where I've booked a hostel for a total of 5 nights since I'm confident it is a secure safe place to go and I'm liking the idea of having a bit of direction to start off with on this trip being my first and all!

https://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sf.html

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/InnLongStreet-CapeTown-11911

Nerves

2006-11-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

Wow. So it is technically 17 days until I depart for my SEVEN MONTH journey through Africa. I don't even know how to explain how I'm feeling about that. It's coming up so quickly and I've finally realized... wow, I'm actually doing this. I've said that before but this time it's going to happen. It MUST! The only way it won't is if the Toronto airport shuts down and they drag me out kicking and screaming the day I'm suppose to leave!!!!!!!!! I didn't have any fear of going until the last few days. I'm a little concerned about my connection from the Johannesburg Airport to a hotel for the night then to the train that over 26 hours will take me to Cape Town. I'm trying not to plan too much about this whole experience so that I can take things day by day as I like but people keep scaring me with stories of mugging. STOP THAT ALL OF YOU! I promise I'll be safe and I know I'll be taken care of! OKAY! I've got my international driving permit now which I am excited about (actually I just feel cool... does that make me cool?)... passport... check, vaccinations... check.... But I still have to book that ticket from JO'burg to Kenya so that I can get my Kenyan Visa straightened out. Time is winding down for that but hopefully by the end of the day on Monday I'll have booked that ticket. I guess that means I'll be ready to go. All that will be left to do is pack, unpack, prepack, unpack again and do this over and over till I finally decide on what I will have to leave behind and what will fit in my new traveller backpack which I'm sooooo pumped to use! Oh, and I'm sure I'll have a few freak out sessions as well! Alrighty.......... wish me luck! :)

Mutterings of a birthday card

2006-11-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

Love yourself. MAKE PEACE with who you are and where you are at this moment in time. Listen to your heart. If you can't hear what it's saying in this noisy world, MAKE TIME for yourself. Enjoy your own company. Let your mind wander among the stars. Try. Take chances. MAKE MISTAKES. Life can be messy and confusing at times, but it's also full of surprises. The next rock in your path might be a stepping-stone. Be happy. When you don't have what you want, want what you have. MAKE DO. That's a well-kept secret of contemtment. There aren't any shortcuts to tomorrow. You have to MAKE YOUR OWN WAY. To know where you're going is only part of it. You need to know where you've been, too. And if you ever get lost, don't worry. The people who love you will find you. Count on it. Life isn't day's and years. It's what you do with time and with all the goodness and grace that's inside of you. MAKE A BEAULTIFUL LIFE... The kind of life you deserve.

Can you guess where I'm going?

2006-10-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

For all of those who care, I've booked a flight into Johannesburg, South Africa leaving Toronto on December 5th. I'm going to take a train to Cape Town the day after I arrive and plan to relax on a beach, barstool, and/or mountain for an entire month. One of the many joys of Africa is that once you can afford your plane ticket you can pretty much live there on almost nothing for quite a long time. Hmmmm, maybe I'll stay. Then again, this is probably why a huge portion of Africa is starving and living in poverty. Right.... that reminds me of why I'm really going. Mid January I'm heading for Kenya. I plan to stay there for about 6 months volunteering with a very new organization called WOPEGA. That's just an acronym but I've posted the link for their website below so check it out. It's written very well for someone who doesn't speak English as their first language but hopefully when I get there I can fix it up for them a bit. Anyways, so I'm going to be working in a school for orphans teaching health and nutrition type things but what I'm really excited about is the opportunity I have to write proposals to their government to get funding in order to start a feeding program. Soooooo, I'll keep some updates on this site and if anyone feels like getting out of the country and living dirt cheap while volunteering in a community that really needs your help then come over to Kenya and we'll have a place for you :) http://wepoga.googlepages.com/home. CIAO :)