Off To See The World

Hey Everyone,

I hope everyone had an awesome new years! John and I spent all of yesterday in the Adiss Ababa Airport because I guess Kenya Airways decided that they would declare New Years a holiday even for airlines so there was no flight AND nobody there to defer us to another flight. So, this morning, when an Kenya Airways person finally came in, we got them to put us on the first Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi and then we hopped on a bus to Arusha and that is where we are now. We meet our guides for the climb tomorrow morning but I thought I’d write a quick hello before we embark on our 9 day climb. See you all in 9 days! Hopefully we will have good news and pictures of us at the top!

Hello All! It should be about 11:20pm on New Year’s Eve in Edmonton right now! It’s 9:21am in Ethiopia. We left Ethiopian Children’s Fund Village yesterday… I cried quite a lot. It was really difficult to leave those children and they were crying too so it was just one sad day. I hope I will be able to return in a couple years to see how they are doing. They are all so optimistic and innocent. Sigh… The experience was really quite amazing and I will never forget it. We taught, we sang, we went for field trips to the mountains, we ate enjera until we were dreaming about it, and we just had an amazing time. I’m so happy this leg of the trip worked out so well.

Sigh… I will miss it… but the older kids can speak and write some english so I have given them my address to write to me… would anybody else be interested in exchanging letters with a kid from Ethiopia? I told them I would ask my friends. Man, I’m in such a strange state right now… on the one hand, I am so sad that we had to leave the school but on the other hand, I am excited that we will start our climb of Kilimanjaro in a couple days!

It’s almost new years for the people at home… it’s not new years on the Ethiopian Calendar so it’s just another day here. We will be going to the airport soon and then heading to Kilimanjaro.

Thanks for all the holiday wishes! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are having a great New Year’s Eve celebration now! Talk to you again soon.

P.S. We were not caught up in any of the war stuff with Somalia here but thank you for the concerned emails. I believe most of the bombing is actually on Somalian soil.

Well, John and I arrived safely in Addis Ababa and were picked up by someone from the Ethiopian Children’s Fund to bring us to Aleltu. We went around Addis first to pick up some groceries and to have lunch with our new friend. For those of you who know ethiopian food, you’ll know that they main dish is Injera (sp?). That’s what we had for lunch when we arrived… and for every meal since then! If I don’t lose weight here, I’m destined to be a lonely, porky woman for the rest of my life.

Anyway, we made our way out to Aleltu and pulled up to a large, gated compound that had “Ethiopian Childrens Fund” written across it. The compound is quite large with about a dozen small buildings on it. As we pulled up to the main office, children chased after the truck… and as we got out, we were literally swarmed by a group of children. The children here are very affectionate… wanting to hug you, kiss you, and just hold your hand. They are all very adorable. We got settled into our volunteer suite (which is actually a nice 3 room flate with a flushing toilet and running water!), and we went for a tour of the compound. There are currently 9 classrooms: 2 kindergarten classes and a classroom for each grade from 1-7. Currently, they only go up to grade 7 but the principal hopes to go up to grade 10 next year and then eventually the equivalent to grade 12. They have a big fundraiser coming up in January but unfortunately, we will not be here for that. However, after seeing this place, I think John and I will try to continue to contribute to this group in some form or another whenever we can. Oh, that reminds me: the soccer balls arrived here safely. Thanks to everyone who contributed a soccer ball! We get up at 6am to play with the children in the morning (unless we are dead tired). The principal does not want to pull out all the balls because he wants to make the last but they Are here… I will try and get a picture on here as soon as I can.

Thanks also to the Strathcona Wrestling Club for the 50 t-shirts that were donated. They are here as well… and I’m sure some of these kids could use a new shirt. Some of them have like a quarter of a shirt left on them… and their toes poke out the end of their shoes. They are very thankful for everything here… I wish I could share their hugs with you.

Anyway, for our first day here, we were thrown right into class! We thought we would be doing construction but they ran out of funds and materials for the building so we are now teaching english. It kind of caught us off guard but it has proven to be quite fun. The younger grades have no idea what we are saying.. they just say everything we say.. haha. The older kids though can carry out normal conversations and are very interested to hear about Canada and the other places we have been. It’s great how happy and optimistic everyone is… we drove through the town today and some of these kids are very very poor…. and some of them are orphans with no homes. Sigh… I wish there was more I could do! I guess I am doing what I can right now… and if any of you are feeling extra generous this Christmas season, I know of a place that can use any help it can get (www.ethiopianchildrensfund.org).

So, John and I have a few more weeks here… I don’t think we will be back to Addis before Christmas because we told the kids we would stay at the school next weekend… they are very eager to spend time with us and just play and practice their English. So, Merry Christmas to everyone! Thanks for reading the blog… I hope everyone has a delightful Christmas holiday. I think we will be back before new years so I will see you then. Please feel free to post comments even though we won’t be checking them until later. We love hearing from everyone! Take care!

I want to try and do my best to depict what I see… I’m not the greatest writer but I hope this can give you readers a better idea of a drive through Africa… I think on the day I wrote this, we were driving to Arusha.

So, picture this: A vast area covered in various grasses, trees, shrubs… most of them are just different shades of green but occassionally you find one flowering in bright red, purple, or yellow… the colors are absolutely vivid. As the van drives by the shrubs, a flock of small song birds fly out and as you watch these birds fly away, your attention is brought to the background which is like a painting of beautiful hills and mountains.

Not far ahead, a small Maasai boy and his heard of cattle and sheep stand in the field. And a little ways ahead of this boy, 2 young Massai warriors bearing their spears are walking and chatting. They are dressed in traditional Maasai clothing with their brilliant red and blue colors. Ahead of them, their village of mud huts is visible. You can see small children playing near their house while a couple women are grinding what appears to be corn.

But not all is rainbows and lollipops here… As we come over a hill, we pass a small town which is basically a cleared piece of land with some tin-roofed, shanty-like buildings which are mostly stores. They watch the safari van pass and you can tell they are hoping that we stop to buy something. Not far behind these stores lies the small homes of the shop owners. They are made of really shabby wood sticks or sometimes just mud. Everything looks kind of grey… the children aren’t really playing… just carrying water back to their homes. It had rained last night so a large puddle had formed in front of a small home where a mother, with her enfant strapped to her back, bends down to scoop some of this water into a small bucket. 3 other small children spot our van and run along-side saying “hello!”. The children are smiling and laughing… Those smiles can brighten up even the darkest days.

The towns are small so the view returns to one of open field in no time. A group of kids in uniforms are walking along the road… I don’t see anything up ahead so I’m guessing they have a long walk to school. Miles down the road, we finally pass the school on the edge of a bigger city. Here, there are more cars and Matutus (busses). There seem to be a lot of people sitting around and street vendors can be seen walking up and down the streets hocking whatever they can. Coke and Pepsi signs can be seen every so often which makes you feel a bit more at home.

It’s funny to see a Maasai warrior talking on a cell phone… it seems so out of place. We pass a large dumptruck with like 20 people sitting in the back… looks pretty scary. As we leave the city, we pass large coffee plantations and small curio shops displaying beautiful pieces.

This pattern of feilds, Maasia, towns, etc. continues until, BAM, you hit a crater, or a valley that just takes your breath away. You really do need to come and see this.

Our guide had an early flight so he was the first to leave… you get to know someone pretty well when you are with them all the time for 2 weeks so I’m gonna miss him. The rest of us left later… we all said our goodbyes, exchanged info and what not. I guess we’ve been moving on so much in this trip that it’s just another day.

We took the ferry back into Dar Es Salaam… and this is where I am now. We just have to find a place to stay tonight and then we’ll be catching a plane back to Nairobi tomorrow.

This experience has been utterly amazing. I learned a lot about myself and it was very eye-opening seeing how spoiled North American life is. If someone just gave up buying a gucci watch or a rolex, and donated that money, they could build a school-house, or feed a whole town. With the holidays nearby, I’m glad I’m not at home, where you can’t look anywhere without being bombarded with Christmas advertisement… I guess the best thing I could have this holiday season is the chance to see a whole different Christmas.

K, this post will be pretty short… cause we just chilled on the beach pretty much all day. I washed a bit of my clothes… yeah… nothing much. Just enjoyed the sea breeze a bit… and got ready for tomorrow’s departure.

Today was long… very long. We woke up at 5 to catch the public bus to Dar Es Salaam. I got the window this time and John got to experience the butts/crotches/armpits/etc. At least we weren’t in the front row and this bus didn’t stop as much as the first one did. The ride was about 6 hours with no long stops… there was one quick “bathroom” break… where the driver screamed something, a lot of people got off into a grassy field… sitting at the window, I watched these people get out… a looked away for a second and when I looked back at the field, all the men had their backs to the bus and you could only see the tops of the womens’ heads poking out from the grass… haha.. THIS was a bathroom stop… it was hilarious. I’m glad I didn’t have to go or you’d be able to see my white ass from the bus!

Dar Es Salaam was hooot…. realllly realllly reallly hot and humid. We caught a taxi to the ferry port where we caught a ferry across to Mikadi Beach camp. This camp was awesome. We stayed in huts on stilts on the beachfront… We couldn’t ask for a better end to the trip. There was also a pretty sweet outdoor bar so the group could enjoy a couple cold ones by the beach. They also had a slushy drink that you could get in a bucket! hehe. Our group had a good night of fun. I can’t believe it’s almost over…

Today was the last day of our Usumbara Mountain Trek. We left Mtai in the morning and made our way to a beautiful viewpoint. The view was amazing… again, I can’t put it in words but you’ll have to take my word for it. Lunch was served in a hut near this viewpoint… but it started POURING rain. John and I toughed it out and were the only 2 to actually continue hiking as opposed to getting a ride down.

About halfway down, we stopped at the hut of a traditional healer… it was kind of creepy… he had a really low raspy voice but was really young… and he was wearing like a pair of timberlands, with jeans and a puffy jacket… haha. There was a dead chicken on his roof to help one of his clients or something… yeah… it was really wicked to see but we didn’t get to see any kind of healing ritual or anything like that… and Ed, there were no shrunken heads.

The rest of the walk wasn’t that eventful… we walked back down to Lushoto where we stayed at the same hostel and I made all the entries saying that I needed to get my journal.

Oh, I almost forgot! The sun has been shining down and shining down hard… John and I both got a little burnt… however, I forgot to protect my ears and they got FRIED… and I mean FRIED. I had a blister on my ear that came out like 3cm… it was frickin’ SICK. So when we got back to the hostel, I popped it… and it made a fountain of water! John seemed pretty disgusted… haha. It was disgusting though… shudder… I took a picture of it but I’m pretty sure nobody wants to see it.

Another day of trekking. We actually just did a big loop today and returned back to the same guesthouse. It was another day of children waving and yelling Mzungu through the mountains.

The first stop we made was at a Primary School tucked into the woods. It’s Christmas break so there was no class in session but many of the kids were there collecting sand to help build the latrines for the school. It’s nice to see people doing things without expecting a big pay cheque at the end. These kids and some adults were using their holiday time to help build latrines. What’s more amazing is that there were no latrines before… so 130 kids at school… no latrine nearby. Sigh, I’m so spoiled. John and I ended up donating the soccer ball that we’d been holding onto to this school… the teacher seemed very happy and the children that were there were happy.

We got back to the guesthouse early enough to go watch the sunset. The spot where we could watch the sunset was a small school and there were children playing there today… John and our guide joined some boys in a game of soccer (where the ball was made of plastic bags and rags)… the boys were reallly good at this. Me, the Americans, and the British women played with some of the younger children… taking pictures and then showing the picture to them on the screen of the camera. The kids LOVED this. We spent about an hour playing with the town children, watched the sunset, and then it was time for dinner. The food was actually reallllly good at the small restaurant we went to… god, I’m going to miss this.

Day 9… The convent prepared a big breakfast for us before we headed off for another long day of hiking. The scenery today was a little different; we were out of the dense forest and more into just lush green hills and terraced land (for farming).

As we walked by farms and small villages, we could hear people calling “Mzungu”! This is the word for white person and I guess 5 white people hiking over this terrain is not very common. It was usually children screaming Mzungu our loud and waving their little hands at us. Sometimes they were so far away, we wouldn’t even be able to see them so we just waved in the general direction of the sound… I swear they could spot us from the next mountain… MZUNGUUUUUUUUUU…. haha. Kids would sometimes even run up to us for high-fives or just to say Jambo (hello) to us. We felt like celebrities…. although, sometimes, small children would go running and crying when they saw us because some kids still believe that the “Mzungu will come and take you away if you are bad” (that’s what their parents tell them). So we made some kids cry but for the most part, they just wanted to shake hands, or walk with you for a bit down the road… they are really adorable.

Town after town, kids would do this and we passed a lot of small towns and many farms. Along the way today, we passed the market where these farmers would go buy and sell goods. There was everything from colorful clothing to lung fish. Everything and everyone is so colorful here and the market is so lively. Children swarmed us when we walked through the market but most people wouldn’t want us taking photos because a lot of the locals still believe that if we take their picture, we take their soul away. This was common in a lot of the places we visited.

There wasn’t much to get in the market other than neccessities (I guess this market isn’t a tourist trap, like most of the other markets we went to). Soon, we were on our way again, weaving through farms until we reached the next stop, which was a small town where they do a lot of pottery. This place was a little more tourist trappy… we watched some local women make large pots… no potters wheel or anything. It was amazing to see how they could make such a symmetrical pot with nothing other than their hands and a stone for smoothing. Just amazing. We left a small donation for their time and then went to another picnic spot for lunch. I love these picnics in the mountains.

Soon, we made it to Mtai, the small town that we were staying in … the guesthouse was a cozy little place. The doors were either really short or narrow… it was funny because the Americans are both really tall so they kept bumping their heads on the doors. The people are all really nice here… everyone likes to say hello to the white people… even the creepy person who wanted to take me to “the point”… haha. Sigh, people here are so happy… like they don’t have a care in the world… they don’t need running water, they don’t need electricity, they don’t need heat… they are all happy! Children were more than happy to carry buckets of water on their head to our guesthouse so we could wash off. It’s amazing how much weight the locals can balance on their heads… and it’s even more amazing how far they travel!!

Since there was no electricity, we went to bed pretty early… If you ever get a chance to go through rural Africa… DO IT.