The final African post... for now....

I am now in Entebbe tying up the last few threads of my travels.

I spent a few days on Buggala Island, part Ssesse islands on Lake victoria.  Ostensably to avoid having to go to Kampala.  Another interesting journey comprising of crowded coach, complete with chicken pecking at my feet for 4 hours.  Followed by a boda boda to minibus for ferry, this with two large bags and rucksack.  The driver was very young and small and I was a little fearful he could hold it steady on the rough track, but they are so strong these little guys.  Then  to the ferry, to find that some one needed to get a spare part from Masaka from which we had all arrived an hour earlier, very crushed and my knee permatly locked,  onto to the ferry for the most amazing African sunset (I will be adding phots to this blog when I get back) back onto the minibus, when my knee finally gave way and I had to insist on a seat where I could try to keep it straight.  not easy on a 14 seater bus with 20+ and assorted animals and bags of maize etc.  I expected I would get a taxi to my hotel, but no, it was very dark and no taxis and so another overloaded boda boda ride into to night all the while unable to properly bend my knee!. 

The island is very quiet, no internet, no phone at least until I bought yet another sim card, and few visitors, I was the only one at my hotel on my final night.  It is so peaceful and the birdlife amazing.  I managed to rest up and even get on a forest walk, until bitten almost to death.  Mother nature also provided the most terrific thunder and lightening storm with bits of tree and lumps of ice flying about. 

I arrived in Entebbe and decided to brave Kampala for final shopping and to join the hash.  For some one who has been avoiding capital cities because of chaos, traffic, noise and pollution; this might seem contrary, but I guess true to form.  It was a hilarious run around the rush hour of the Parliament area, and as I hadn't managed to do any sort of city tour, it ticked most of the boxes.  I suffered 3 down down, as a visitor; not having an appropriate song to sing: and the final one from my shoe, as infact it was a sandal and so mostly poured down me.  I had an interesting return trip through the Kapmpala night; drunk (much better on a boda boda) smelling of beer and managed to pick up another young admirer on the bus, who insisted on walking me home, even as I explained yet again I am old enough to be his mother; luckily we arrived at the hostel just as he was getting on to the subject of sexual healing.....   I am not sure the return trip from Cambridge hash will be so eventful, but at least I didn't miss the last train.

East Africa has afforded me to most wonderful array of experiences which I will take some time to assimilate and organise.   I know I will want to return, it has got under my skin, as I was warned.  I have so much enjoyed my travels but I know I will need a purpose for my return too.  So my final day will be spent researching the solar and renewable energies, which may shed some light (argh, couldn't resist)

Looking forward to a direct catch up with you all soon

Was it a Crocodile?

With slight sadness I returned to Uganda but was uplifted by catching up with friends from Uganda Lodge who are now at another project here in Jinja.  It is a usual gently decaying post colonial town located at yet another source of the Nile.  It is also a hub for white knuckle activities for this part of Uganda.  So it was good to have a little touristy pampering of, Mediterranean roast veg and hummus sandwiches and smoothies as a change from the high carb local fare.
I trekked out to Bujugali falls where much of the white water rafting takes placed and watched the local throw themselves down, attached to plastic jerry cans, or in kayaks.  I decided to take a trek down river towards a new dam being constructed, which will dramatically change this area shortly but provide much needed power to the country.  As usual I set off in the general direction, relatively easy as the mighty Nile on one side and construction site visible ahead.  I managed to get with in about 1 km when I ran out of path and as it is so large, visibility too when I decided to turn back and as usual managed to loose the return path, at one point leading me to a 5 m sheer drop with only a tree to hang on to to break my fall and then I got too close to the river and into the reeds, when I saw a large tail slither towards the water and heard a loud plop.  Initially I thought wow that was a large otter, but then began thinking was a crocodile, or even snake,  so I made a rapid retrace of tracks and got back to some sort of track, eventually  I got back to the falls; although not without having to negotiate my way around a local fishermen's drinking/ganja den by having to climb over their boats.

I visited the school my friends are now working in, I helped in classes of more than 100 and the largest is 167 students, all squeezed into a fairly normal sized class room.  What is amazing is that good quality, by local standards and even some UK schools, was taking place.  Students hardly have access to writing space to make notes or be able to see the board they do not have many text books so every thing has to be laboriously copied down.  They are quiet and attentive and will continue to work unsupervised to get tasks finished.  All of this whilst learning is English as a second language.  It certainly underscores one of my major frustration in my work with recalcitrant young people in Huntingdonshire.  Give them all a week in one of these schools and a week in the shamba and I am sure they will begin to appreciate the opportunities they have been given.

I am now back in Ruhanga at my original project.  It has grown enormously in terms of the numbers of volunteers.  Not surprisingly as the university holidays have started.  We were up to 24 this week.  It has highlighted my previous concerns about lack of organisation to cope with this growth; but hopefully meetings between the directors will acknowledge this and changes will be made.  There have been meetings with the School Committee and Community Board Organisation, to enable them to takeover the community and volunteer projects  which should ensure better use of funding, donations, resources and volunteers within the greater community.  Also that the community can determine what projects they need and can use and so lead to greater ownership and sustainability.

I am also catching up with some of the many friends I have made here.  They are so pleased to see me return and it will be even harder to leave this time.  So a big thank you to all: the lodge staff, Denis, James, Gerald, Robert, Didas, Resty, Justine, Beth, Sarah, Mode, Rove, for looking after me so well; Volunteers, too many to list, you know who you are; School staff Jamir, Alinda, Merril, Eunice, Kedrine and co; George,Gertrude and family,  Craft ladies, Jennifer and co; Solar Sisters; CBO and PTA Levi; Osbert and family and of course all the children and students of Ruhanga and Team college and everyone who has made me so welcome I hope to return.

At Last I see the Mountain

Well I managed to survive Niarobi again through the consideration of the people I met, Virginia made sure I was on the Matatu for Nanyuki, before she would leave me.  The journey into Niarobi was again interesting, we were late to pick the next volunteer at the airport due to the jams but our innovative taxi driver just drove down the central reservation to a suitible dirt track turn off and then crossed the on coming traffic.  There is no manueover that is impossible here.

I arrived in Nanyuki to again be looked after in the rain until met by my friend Patrick, who I had met with his wife in Ruhanga.  He is a guide and they have a tour company here  (see link above right, I cannot recommend more highly) and are looking to start a volunteer programme here so I was keen to discuss all that I have learnt.

Nanyuki is a garrison town, with training bases from Kenyan military and police as well as British army, right on the Equator, I got my certificate and the water really did spin in opposite directions at either side; and the base of Mount Kenya.  Patrick assured my I would see it.  It was good to get a hot shower and a Tuna sandwich as well as the odd beer or two.

So early next morning we set off for a trek to the first hut.  There is a track up to this point but not a road so I was fascinated to see a motor cycle pass us, carrying several trays of eggs, along what looked liked a dried up, boulder strewn river bed.  When we arrived at the hut I had to shake his hand as he had managed to deliver them with only one or two breakages.

And yes I got fabulous views before the cloud came in again;  It is a truly beautiful place and I do not think I have ever been anywhere so quiet, even in Maasailand I was under a flight path for Niarobi.  There was little wind and no mechanical sound at all.  So still except for bird song.  We got to around 3500m high enough to see the giant lobelia and tree heathers.  Looking back across the plain, I could see acres and acres of polytunnels (and in the town some of the most beautiful roses ever, this is where those tescos are grown, but they are a poor relation to the ones here).   I was glad that I hadn't signed up for the full 5 day trek to the top, the altitude and my general lack of fitness would have made it very hard, but it has made me determined to come back and do it; so yes I will be cycling and walking around Cambs with those weight strapped to every available appendage again.

A highlight of my visit was to the school that Patrick and Naomi want to assist with volunteers.  It is called Melbon School and so I think it appropriate to try to link with it, not least because it is led by an inspirational principle; Pauline.  She had me teaching an English class with in an hour of arrival and Science after that.  The students are sooo keen to learn and just suck in any information you give them.  I have a list of those who want e pen pals in the UK so I will be looking for willing 12 to 15 year olds when I get back.  They also had me singing and dancing with them in the afternoon, all well before beer o'clock!  It will be a great base for a volunteering/voluntourism project.  As, although it is a small private school, Pauline tries to support as many poorer bright children from the community to give them the best chance at a quality eduction to enable then to go on to secondary school and university.  And she succeeds, as it is a very high performing school which also gives a good all round learning experience with very few resources.

I would have loved to have stayed longer but had promised to return to Ruhanga before I return to UK so it was with much regret that I left Kenya, particularly Patrick and his family and friends.

The journey in and out of Niarobi again was interesting.  All roads in and out are subject to construction, but non of this namby pamby coning and closing of section for this work, the traffic just finds any route through, around, under, over; at one point around 12 lanes (difficult to tell in these random conditions) had to constrict to 2 to go over half built bridge, it being the only way forward.  But there was no road rage or very little horn exercise, there is some form of rule but certainly not obvious to a muzungo like me.

Moving on from Masailand

Sadly my time here is coming to an end and I am moving on to visit friends near Mount Kenya, which I hope I will see unlike Kilimanjaro!

I have been given my Maasai name; Napishai which means happy person, and a Maasi blanket as well as a lovely thank you letter and certificate at a little ceremony this afternoon.  The people here at MEAC, see link, have been so welcoming and are so keen to help them selves to improve there lives of the Maasai people.   I have been helping in a school, giving lessons on HIV/Aids, Solar power and renewable energy and safe disposal of batteries, not easy when there is no rubbish collection.  I have also been meeting with womes' groups and how they are helping themselves by forming savings groupsand making and selling theri bead work etc. 

It has been a truley enlightening experience, to live a very simple life if only for a short period of time, and not as basic as many deeper into Masailand.  We ran out of tank water, which meant finding deisel for the generator to pump from the borehole a couple of kms away, we took the fuel to the man who pumps, opening 6 valves buried under various stones and bushes on the way; Jackson who I was accompanying had been part of the team who installed the pipe a year or so ago, and so knew how to find them, I hope he doesn't leave cos there is no way of mapping them in the bush!  When we got the pump man's house, he was away,so another days wait.  Then the generator neededto be fixed, then the valve had to be fixed, not surprising as they are all just buried in the earth with no protection from dust, grit, being dug up by animals or just stepped on and bent!

All in all more than a week of carry ing water from the dam for general use, very brown and murky; or from a neighbours tank for cooking, rain catchment.  I am now the expert at the 2litre shower, washing hair, body and underwear; I thought I was pretty good in Uganda, but this is a whole new level particularly when its only every other day or so and I am pretty filthy from the dust and the wood smoke from the fire; and the water is murky brown to start with. 

This is the end of the rainy season, and I have only heard one short shower, which barley settled thedust, it is very dusty and dry now so I am not sure how bad it will get before the next rains.  The people here consume so little because they have so little, but I think they are paying a much heavier price of global warming than those of us in the west who are enjoying the benefits of our capilatist, consumer culture.   I understand there is a drought in E Anglia now, but sure as eggs is eggs, the rain will come around june 22nd,when I return and I will not moan about the british summer, well for at least a week!

Quick blog from Masailand

I am staying with a 'settled' Masai family who have a compound with tin shelters and a more traditional mud and stick kitchen.  We have a little solar power which provides either lighting for one room or tv.  All cooking is done over an open fire in the kitchen, which keeps us all fumigated from the flies.  We have little water but seem to keep healthy, even though there is little chance to clean hands or utensils, even after slaughtering the chicken and plucking it in the bowl we use to wash up.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger; and these people are mighty strong, both physically and mentally.  They rise before dawn, some of the children set off for school at 4am, and retire about 10pm although again the children are often studying beyond this. 

The day consists of milking cattle, taking them out to graze, along with the goats, feeding the chickens, growing crops mainly maize, cooking, and cleaning, very time consuming over a fire and heating water too; collecting fire wood and water, etc etc.  There is no machinery, just everyone knowing what is to be done, cooperating and getting on with it. 

Visits to the loo are interesting, across the cow yard, with or with out cows blocking the gate to the next compound and across another paddock, to the pit latrine, which is fine; but I have now been told not to go on my own after dark!,  but have been given a more convenient place behind the house for a 'short call' . 

My family are always cheerful, caring and considerate.  The children are a delight;  for all the hardship they are some of the most cheerful and relaxed people I have met, even those family members working in town with all amenities prefore being on the shamba as it is more relaxing.  I think 'modern life' will means something different to ma after this experience.

Hopefully this is a quick flavour of where I am.  I hope to blog more when I have more time.  This is my one visit to town, in the back of a pick up truck and I must meet with my volnterr coordinator and buy my essentials of water and loo roll before I have to get another matutu to get back

Spectacular Serengeti and Ngreat Ngorogoro Safari

I have managed to circle and step on Kilimanjaro but not actually see it.  The cloud has been down, but still managed to avoid getting too wet since loosing both my coat and brolly in Uganda.
I continued my 3 day trek to the end of the Usambara Mountains, through many villages, to Mtea in order to see Kilimanjaro, but it was not to be the fog was down and it was much like any other lake district view point, as cold too.  I had a great time getting there and stumbled upon a traditional medicine ritual to expel ghosts from a young man, it consisted of him being dunked in a pool below the biggest waterfall of the mountains, being yelled at and sprayed with water, burnt herbs and the blood of a decapitated chicken.  It was then the turn of a 4 month old baby, although she was only dunked in the water and sprayed.  When I asked how the ghosts manifested themselves, it sounded like a description of stress or depression,  triedness, anger, agitation etc.   Perhaps we should try this instead of valium!

I decided to move onto Moshi in search of Kili and literally bumped into Susana who I had volunteered with and she works in Windermere, and so had a fun day catching up and going to Marangu base camp on Kili, but again, shrouded in mist and not to be seen.
She did persuade me that I needed to go on safari, this being the low, rainy season, it was easy to arrange but I was concerned that it would be wet and wouldn't see much. 

Sure enough it poured and the cloud was down all the way to the rim of Ngorogoro but as we descended the weather cleared and the view of the plain was spectacular.  It is so vast and the air so clear you can see for ever.  As we continued we came across the Masai and their herds of cattle, goat and donkeys interspersed with herds of zebra antelope, gazelle and the odd Giraffe, quite odd.  We eventually entered the Serengeti National park, in which there is no farming or herding and were priveledged to see the migrating herds of wildebeest with zebra; they apparently lead the migration with their superior sense of small and intellect to remember and find the right pastures;  accompanied by antelope gazelle and buffalo.  There were 100 of 1000's if not millions, as far as the eye can see, and that is a long way here.   

We saw cheetah, a lioness so close we could almost touch her, monkeys, fabulously plumaged birds.  Our camp for the night was visited by mongoose, hyena and baboon, who made off with one of my  companions food.  In the morning we visited a hippo pool, pre-dawn (which was stupendous all you would expect of an African dawn) as they were returning from their nights foraging, they are silent and solitary on land but social and noisy in water.  The smell of the pool was about 100 times worst than a slurry pit and looked it.  You would think they would relieve themselves before they returned but no they seemed to take great pride in doing so as they got back, spraying the community in the process by spinning their tails like a fan.  They seemed to be having fun laughing a lot very noisily.
We also managed to see a leopard in a tree with her kill of a gazelle, apparently she had lost her cub, during the hunt to a hyena and so was still scanning the savannah for it.

We moved on to Ngorogoro, which magically appeared just as we began our ascent to camp at the rim, here we were joined by water buffalo which are very big and can be very aggressive, it does wonders for your nocturnal bladder control.   The crater was amazing, teeming with wildlife, although it is the rainy season, much of it appeared quite dry.  We saw a lion with his kill and again he walked right by us so we could see his bloody mouth, I also managed to see flamingos, which I had missed at Lake Mbeya;  And then we actually managed to complete the big 5 by spotting 2 white rhino, quite far away but still so big.  I am glad I was persuaded to go and I think even better in the low season as there were few others around only about 4 or 5 other vehicles where as in high season it is just a constant stream of 4x4's on the routes.

As we left our driver persuaded us to visit another museum, which we were rather reluctant to do as we were more interested in the animals, but when we got there it was where the Leakeys had done their work on the early hominids, it was really interesting, we just hadn't appreciated how close we were to the site.

So finally back to Arusha and onto Niarobi for my twoweeks volunteering with the Masia.  I am really excited now I have seem some of their culture on the trip through the Serengeti.  They are obviously a powerfully strong cultural group as they maintain their traditional tribal villages and dress.  They are stand out on the plains for miles and really stride out and cover great distance even as I watched them.
It is sad to leave Tanzania.  I have met somwe truly wonderful people and the country is so varied and dramatic, again it is hard to leave.

Ah Zanzibar

Zanzibar, I made it;  and it truly lived up to the hype, sun sand and.... well not quite, lets just say the place and the people are so seductive.

Stone town well deserves is world heritage site status.  It is a real working town but still retains the atmosphere of a intermingling of many cultures and trade.  The guest house where I stayed had a very happy chappie making the breakfast, singing all the way through to the point that his colleague serving, closed the kitchen door on him, when I asked why he was so happy, he said it was because he was going to give his first public performance on the violin that night as he had just reached grade I.  Coincidently, I visted the old customs house now renovated and turned into a cultural centre and  noticed that the Dhow Countries Music academy was giving its monthly concert that evening, so I went and sure enough he was there with the beginners, but it was nothing like the beginners recitals at Meldreth!   It was a  great fun local cultural evening.

Did I mention a previous local event I stumbled upon in Dar es Salaam and the Tribal Village museum. It was an amazingly talented troop of young performers, starting with drum, then singing dancing and circus acrobatics.  In the middle of which they staged a mini childrens' african dancing competition.  It reminded me of my times with Liz, at Helen and Megan's competitions, even the babies were grinding.  The leader of the troop insisted I went to meet all the members and would not let me leave until the end, so another night taxi ride!

And then on to the beach, it is all that I expected.  The snorkeling was stunning. Although it is now the low season and there was rain most days and some cloud, it made for welcome relief and enabled me to get some serious beach walking in, a young guide kept joining me so we ha a real hoot walking and swimming as we kept getting caught by the tides.  We had a great walk to an island but then again got caught by the tide and I ended up shredding my feet on the urchins and the rocks.  Not so sensible as I left for the Usambara Mountains the next day.

Another epic in its self.  I had spent an extra couple of days on the beach as I had hoped to get a boat to Pemba, but it was not to be so I took a local dhow back to the main land.  For someone who is not good on boats; I get sea sick when snorkeling; this again might not have been the best decision.  We all got on, straight from the beach. All the women and children got into the bottomof the boat, I decided to sit on the side, and so I could focus furiously on the horizon.  I was quite proud to be the only female not to be sick during the three hour journey, luckily there were plenty of buckets.  Their received wisdom is that it is better not to be able to see, I think I prefer mine.  The boats are fairly small and are wind powered, I am glad for the experience but probably won't do it again.

I am now back on the mainland and in radio contact, up in the Usambara Mountains, which are beautiful.  I have found myself another guide and have just returned from a trek where I felt positively cold when we reached the top. I needed a blanket last night too,it was wonderful after the humidity of the coast.  I seem to have fallen in with another community project too and so will spend and extra day or too finding out how things work here.

The Tanzanian people are just so warm, friendly and welcoming, it is hard to move on as planned, but hakuna matata, I am just going with the flow