We decided to go to Gulu because last October we got involved with Guluwalk and learned all about it. Each night the children from the villages had to walk down to the town of Gulu to escape the chance of being kidnapped by the LRA and turned into child soldiers and / or sex slaves. The walk took hours and the kids had to walk back in the morning to go to school and tend to their daily chores on the farm. I blogged about this about exactly a year ago here: http://denisebuchanan.blogspot.com/2006/10/guluwalk-bad-coffee-and-overpriced.html. It so amazing that this year I actually got the chance to go to Gulu and see what is really going on. The LRA are in peace talks right now, but currently demanding alot of money to continue talks so things are pretty much at a standstill right now. Gulu is a small town that has now been completely taken over by military and non-government organizations. Our experience there was very shocking and real. We arrived on a bus from Kampala that was supposed to take 4 hours and actually took 6. Oh the pain. 3 of the hours were speed bumps. Luckily there was fantastic roadside cuisine to kill the time. BBQ'd beef on a stick, roasted corn on the cob, cassava, grilled bananas (yes it sounds weird but it is delicious. BBQ a banana - you wont regret it...If you do I will re-imburse you for the banana). OH - sorry to go totally off topic but i would like to talk about bananas for a moment. Bananas are a wonder food. You can do so many things with them and the East Africans have them all covered - except I am yet to see a banana split. I will just mention a few: roasted bananas, grilled bananas, banana soup, banana pizza, mashed and cooked bananas (matoke), plain old banana, banana yogurt, banana milk and banana pancakes. I think thats it. Talk about making the most of a resource. OK so enough about bananas.
We got to Gulu and instantly noticed its far less developed than the rest of the country. We had some friends who were up there a week before us and they gave us the low down on where to stay and who to contact for volunteer work. We stayed in the most roach infested dump yet (think Joe's apartment x 10), the Bora Bora. At night I would walk into the bathroom and cockroaches would scatter to clear a path for me on the concrete ground. This is probably to much information but I would sit on the toilet or while brushing my teeth and take a cup or a bucket and see how many I could trap. No joke. When one starts to play games like that, one has been in Africa for too long and should probably go home :/ The next day we contacted the head of the food drop program that the United Nations runs in Gulu. We arranged to meet in the morning and go out to the IDP camps the next day to volunteer. We left the office at 9:00am the following morning to go to our first refugee camp. This was a smaller camp, only about 5000 people. We were escorted by a military convoy (8 soldiers on the back of a truck carrying machine guns :/), three other UN trucks and followed by massive trucks carrying hundreds of bags of maize, yellow peas and cooking oil. The food was donated by the UN, and USA. After driving for about an hour we arrived to the camp. All the people in the camp used to live in villages that have been destroyed by the LRA. Many are traumatised and many have turned to alcoholism. Its heartbreaking to see people that once had farms, houses, communities, culture and families living in these conditions. Many people have been living in these camps for 20 years. Imagine a sea of identical round thatched roof huts with only about 10 metres in between them. The toilets are mud huts sporadically placed and the showers are also mud huts which people go into with a bucket of well water and wash. There is the odd goat or chicken running around but not really any farming, they are almost 100% reliant on the UN for food. One thing that really stands out is the amount of children running around, there must be 5 to each adult. Every woman from the age of 12 and up has an infant strapped to her back. Many older siblings (by older I mean ..6, maybe?) have younger siblings strapped to their backs. Babies carrying babies everywhere. The children look generally malnourished with distended bellies and snotty noses. Most of them have been born and raised in the camp and have never left in their entire lives. There are many staggering drunk men wandering around by noon every day talking nonsense. We saw people here who had there extremities chopped off by machetes, as this was one of the favourite torture practises of the LRA. The overload of children is a result of people having nothing to do but get drunk and make babies. Not to mention the HIV rates in these camps. Its hard to know for sure the number but the lack of education the the lack of caring about life in general has definitely impacted the HIV rates. One of the Ugandans who worked for the world food program took us on a tour through one of the camps and gave us allot of valuable information. One troubling fact is that many women choose prostitution, knowing they will probaby contract HIV, to be able to afford to eat and feed their families. This is actually a better option then having themselves or their children die of malnutrition. They will live longer eating well with HIV then not eating at all. Some people sell their portions of the UN food to get money for alcohol / prostitutes. That, more than anything paints an explicit picture of how grim life is here: A place where people choose HIV as a means of survival. People are slowly starting to return to their villages but many will never go back - they are scared / traumatised and have nothing to go back too. Dennis. who is now 27, was a young boy when the LRA started raiding villages and he told us a story of how he was once kidnapped. 1 of every 3 Acholi (sorry, Acholi is the name of the tribe) adults has been kidnapped in their lives. He was forced out of his home and had to walk 100 kilometers over night, completely exhausted, carrying a heavy sack of sugar at the age of 12. He was one of the lucky ones and got away within a week (he says with a laugh and a big heartfelt smile...). Every night his family worried about raids. When the sun set they would go into the forest and hide / sleep until 3am. In their home was the most dangerous place to be during these hours. At 3am they would go back to their house and sleep peacefully for the rest of the night. The LRA always raided before 3am so they could take their victims before daybreak.
So I think you probably get the idea. You have to go see these place to believe it. I just wouldn't know where to start solving the problems they have in these camps. I guess number one would be education and most of the camps do have primary school. Too bad the kids only go for the one meal per day the NGO's provide for them then go back home to take care of younger siblings or help around the house.
So here is the part where we actually volunteer. When the food trucks pull in (as they do once a month to each camp) the women walk down to he unloading area with their food cards and begin to unload the trucks. Each bag is about 110lbs. Many are grandmothers / mothers / very young mothers with babies strapped to their backs lifting the bags. The men are not really helping at all. They are in the camps sitting around drinking the local brew (marwa), getting drunk. We came there to help, so we jumped in and started pulling bags off the trucks and sweating it out with all the other women (minus the babies of course). It was so hard. 5 bags and my arms were screaming in the 38 degree heat. Yet these women seem to do it easily, women old enough to be my grandmother running circles around me with the bags, smiling and laughing. Apparently we looked pretty silly to them struggling to lift these bags with our silly clothes on and pasty skin. After the trucks are unloaded everyone starts the lengthy process of measuring out the food and distributing it. The amount of food they get depends on the number of people in the household. Once its all done the UN does random spot checks, checking food cards and weighing the it to make sure no one has too much. Then after about 5 hours of work we loaded into the truck and headed back into town, exhausted.
Each day we did this was the same but different. One day we went to a camp of over 15,000 people and there were huts as far as I could see. There are over 60 camps in the Gulu region all together. This camp had developed into a sort of village given the population. There was a market and a few bars. We had alot of fun playing tag and football with the kids in all the camps. We also sat with the soldiers one day around a bucket of local brew and chatted, I don't know how useful the soldiers are wasted but hey, TIA. We tasted the local brew and it was sick. Brewed right there at the camp it was like hot chunky, really bad beer. One day a man approached me and began speaking in Acholi, which I obviously don't understand. He had seen me taking pictures and wanted to show me a goat with a human head. One of the guys from the UN was Acholi and translated for me. I was convinced that this man was crazy but he seemed genuinely concerned because someone had been defiling his goats and one has been born with a human head. So...ok. Lets humour this guy and go see his goat. We walked 30 mins to the other side of the camp. He went into his hut and came back out with a baby goat in a basket. It was dead and it was deformed. I guess if you were drunk enough or totally crazy one could see how the head looked like a hairy human head. He asked me what to do with it and if I think its 1/2 human. He was so sincere and concerned I didn't know what to say. In the end he was glad to hear that no one was having sex with his goats and that it was deformed and he should throw it away and not worry about it. He insisted I take a photo of it and he put it back in the hut. If anyone is interested in seeing the photo email me. Its really weird. An and i also got offered 200 shillings for sex in the camp! thats the equivalent to 10 cents. nice.
We did this for a week. At night we ate beans and rice or rolexes, which is egg wrapped in chapati, watching Al Jazzera TV or listening to Kenny G's Christmas (don't ask), playing scrabble and trivial pursuit jr. with our friend Tim who we met there. Every night there was a huge thunderstorm and the electricity cut out. Every night I though the whole town was going to flood and we would all be gone in the morning except for the cockroaches.
So that was our trip to Gulu. Upon arriving back to Kampala we stayed with some friends for a week and relaxed. By relaxing I mean going out partying and dancing, eating delicious food, having hot showers and going to see transformers. Quite opposite from Gulu. We were only planing to stay there for a couple of days but we got the flu or food poisoning or something. I wouldn't actually expect to go a month on this continent without some sort of funky disease or bug. We are not really sure if it was the roadside meat we ate on the way back from Gulu or the fact that the guy on the bus, about 3 hours into the 6 hour ride, began puking in the isle on my feet and backpack. Whatever it was laid us out for a few days anyway. It was not pretty.
Currently we are in Kigali, Rwanda. We spent four night detoxing, reading and hiking at a lake in Uganda called Lake Bunyonyi. It was beautiful. We stayed on a little island and went swimming and running each day. The island had these little villages we could hike through and it was so quiet and peaceful. We left there yesterday and arrived to Kigali last night. The ride here was some of the most beautiful county side I have ever seen - tea plantations, sugar cane fields, rice patties and mountains. Kigali appears far more civilized than anywhere else in East Africa, well anywhere we have been. There are cobblestone streets, stop lights (that people actually obey!), crosswalks, starbucks - esque coffee shops, landscaped round-a-bouts, modern malls and shops. There are actually lines separating the lanes on the roads! The taxi drivers actually work for taxi companies and have numbers and plates, I actually see police walking around not looking like I could pay them off with 10 shillings. Its funny the things I have started to notice as "nice". So having been here for 24 hours I can say that the people have been super helpful and friendly and crossing the road has become a regular task - not a brush with death. Tomorrow we are off to the genocide memorials and then somewhere else. Not sure where yet.
See you all soon!
xx
Saturday, September 01, 2007
hm.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
kili, turtles and reality.
First off I should apologize for being a very bad blogger. There are no excuses so I wont even go there.
Right now Andrea and I are in northern Uganda in a town called Gulu (some of you may remember last year we raised money for Guluwalk). We are here for a week volunteering with the UN doing food drops to the IPD camps (refugee camps) in the area. I have a couple of things to ramble on about before I get to that (if I do get to that - I am thinking next blog). Plus that’s current, you should probably only have to wait at least 2 months before getting all the details.. ;)
So how was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro you ask? Well for $1000 and a headache that lasted 10 days - it was amazing! First things first...YES we did make it to the top. It was not pretty, but we did it. We ended up climbing with a girl from Sweden, Sofia, who fit in with us like we had know her forever (altitude makes people gassy.. we HAD to get pretty comfortable). We spent the first five days slowly making our way up the mountain. I mean SLOWLY. We took about one step every five seconds; the hardest part about this was trying to not walk too fast. We had to go this slow to allow our bodies to acclimatize. So on we went through amazing landscape and beautiful surroundings for five day up the mountain. On day three we started to feel the altitude, some headaches, some nausea..not to mention I had a pretty bad cold to start. So there were, the three of us and an army of 9 guys: 1 cook, 1 guide, 1 co-guide / porter, 6 porters. They cooked for us and carried our bags / equipment up the mountain the whole way. Our guide's name was Julius and he was fantastic. The real story begins on day 5. We woke up in the morning and started our hike for the day. It was about 6 hours and the air was pretty cold and thin. We arrived at the base camp for the ascend..oh wait. I forgot to mention that on day 4 we saw the people who had ascended the night before coming down and they looked beat up. One guy had a bad case of mountain sickness and was frothing at the mouth and talking complete nonsense. Don’t think this didn’t totally freak us out because it did, people die up there from mountain sickness...
OK back to base camp. So we arrive there at about 2pm, are served a light snack of peanuts and popcorn, put to bed and told that we would be woken up for dinner at 5pm. Of course we are in a room that might as well be a frat house on a Friday night at 2:00am. So we didn’t sleep..these students just went on and on....fart jokes, your mama jokes, you name it (yes we did tell them to shut-up, to no avail). After zero sleep we got up at 5 to eat dinner then go back to bed. This time we actually slept! The wake up call came at 10:30pm. Then the real climb began. The goal is to make it to the summit by sunrise..if you make it at all. So we bundled up (were talking -15 here..), strapped on our headlamps and up we went. At this point we have hit the snowline and the steepest part of the mountain. The first 2 hours were really cool, we were still warm enough, there was a long line of people hiking up behind us so all we could see was a trail of headlamps. We were so close to the stars that the sky looked like I could reach out and touch it – our spirits were high and we were all determined to make it. Now lets fast-forward to 3am. Here we are, SO cold from walking so slow all night. Nauseous with headaches from the lack of oxygen to the brain, walking zig zag up a very steep, very rocky / icy mountain IN THE DARK! Never mind the fact that we were dead tired because it is 3 in the morning. Remember we had already walked 6 hours that day. We stopped once an hour for about 10 minutes to warm up / throw up...whatever. My feet were so cold, Julius (our guide) noticed me desperately trying to warm them and came over, pulled off my socks and stuck my feet up his shirt into his armpit. It was a life saver, every stop after that we did the same thing. Kinda gross considering that none of us had showered in 5 days..but at that point would have put my feet in a pile of poop to warm them up. Thank God for Julius, he saved our lives and was the only reason we got up that treacherous mountain and through the night from hell. The whole time he was encouraging us and saying he knew we could do it, telling us we are so strong. At that point we were feeling so delirious, cold, miserable and tired those words were really all that got me through. Fast forward again to about 5:40am..Julius announces that were 20 minutes to the top and the mountain has gotten very steep and icy. Every step at this point has to be calculated to avoid killing myself. I could not feel my feet and I thought I was probably going to throw up. Pleasant to say the least. So I zoned out for another 20 minutes (thought about warm places and hot coco) and just keep putting one foot in front of the other - the next thing I know were there at the top. I am not much of a crier but after that night I was reduced to an absolute blubbering child once we hit the top. Both An and I sat there and cried and cried, what a sight for sore eyes we were that morning. So the sun hadn't risen yet and we decided to carry on along the ridge of the volcano (Kili is actually a volcano) to the next point. We went on for another hour, this time was easy...adrenaline had taken over and I was on auto pilot. The sun started coming up and we just sat there and froze and watched it. I snapped about 3 or 4 pictures since I was to frozen to operate a camera and to delirious to stand up. After the sunrise we saw all the other climbers that made it to the top, about 1/2 of the people we left with. The sunrise was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, I wish I had been feeling better - it was so beautiful and surreal. The way down to the 1st base camp was about 2 hours from the summit and it is steep, loose gravel the whole way so we just shoe-skied down and we were so happy. We just wanted off the mountain at that point. One thing I learned from this experience was this: I do not love climbing mountains and will never do it again. Do I regret it? No way! But honestly, it only started to hit me about a month after I did it, that it was a really difficult and cool accomplishment and finally got over the fact that I spent $1000 to torture myself. After all I did climb the tallest free standing mountain in the world... :)
After that we though we needed to treat ourselves before going back to Mwanza with a week (or two)on Zanzibar. We b-lined it there as soon as we finished climbing. Zanzibar turned out to be paradise. There is really not much to talk about regarding this time in Zanzibar because all we did was lay in hammocks, sipping cold beers and chatting. I played beach volleyball and we stayed up late dancing on the beach a few times. The only thing out of the ordinary was that I did a 4 day scuba diving course and became a certified open water diver. Scuba diving is amazing and I love it! The whole time I was "under da sea" I was singing little mermaid songs in my head. What an amazing world it is down there, I am addicted. Now I want to go back to Thailand and do it there! Guess I should have though of that 7 months ago. The best sea life I saw was the giant sea turtles; we saw 5 of them in one dive. They’re huge and their faces looked like cartoons, as if they were about it start talking to me. One swam right in front of me..I could have reached out and touched it. The company I got certified with was not so great, they had me diving with advanced divers when it was my second time down. I hadn’t figured out how to control my buoyancy underwater and the current was strong so I was slightly out of control the whole time. I was using too much energy on this dive so I was sucking my air tank up pretty fast. The instructor swam over and looked at my air gage and made me take his spare because we were 18 feet under and my tank was empty! You would think I could just swim to the top and breathe there but you can't ascend fast underwater or your lungs explode. So that was Zanzi...soakin’ up he sun, relaxing and getting cheap massages on the beach. Oh ya, we got cheap massages on the beach almost daily ;) We finally dragged ourselves off the beach back to Mwanza to work for July back at the orphanage.
Back in Mwanza I got sick as soon as we got there and spend the entire time there either at the doctor or in bed. First it was Malaria, then it was a parasite..I don’t think anyone knew what they were talking about. I had to take a bus to Nairobi to catch a flight to meet Martin in Europe for a couple of weeks. I took the time in Nairobi to go to a "real" doctor and see what was happening. Turns out it was a throat infection (probably from one of the kids coughing in my mouth) and I was as good as new after 2 antibiotics. Random. The bus ride to Nairobi from Mwanza is worth mentioning since it was 12 hours and I was the only tourist on the bus. The very large lady beside me kept trying to feed me pieces of the six fried chickens she ate on the ride and I shared half my seat with her. The bus broke down twice, but I did get to see a few zebra and a wildebeest out the window....
My time in Nairobi was blurry as I was on alot of drugs trying to kill these parasites and behaving very odd. I jgot a room, went to the doctor and spent the better part of the day in a chicken restaurant listening to Kenyan reggae music, eating chicken and making new friends (?!). See...odd, I told you. The next day I got up at 5am and flew to London and spent two weeks traveling in the Baltic’s with Martin. Very nice indeed.
So that brings me to now well kind of. After returning from Europe, I went to Kampala (after the airline returned my lost luggage to me) and met Andrea there. We stayed with her friends for a couple of days watching MTV and sitting on their couch. We headed up to Jinja, which is a small town on the Nile River where many people go whitewater rafting on the Nile. I chose not to partake due to funds and I was a bit intimidated that someone had recently died doing it. We did however make the trip up to Sipi Falls which is a beautiful remote area full of..well...waterfalls! There wasn’t a whole lot to do up here besides go hiking and read books. So that’s what we did. We did a 4 hour hike, the first half of it was a beautiful and challenging hike, it’s the type of place I could just picture King Kong coming out of the jungle. The last half was interesting. The storm clouds rolled in and we got completely poured on. It’s the rainy season here and there is a torrential downpour at least once a day. That day it happened to be right on our hike. Needless to say we were drenched and frozen by the time we got back and I went straight into the hot shower with all my clothes on shoes and all.
After Sipi we went back to Jinja for a couple of nights. One of those nights happened to be our friends last night in Africa so we hit da' club and drank the local gin (Waragi). We got in at 4:30 in the morning after having many dance-off's with the Ugandans and many Waragis. Good times, but we paid for it the next day.
So now we are in Gulu and working at the refugee camps here which I am going to write a separate blog about when were done. And I promise it won’t take me 2 months. Maybe two weeks but I will get to it as soon as I have compiled all my thoughts.
OH..one more thing. I booked my flight home!!
AAAHHH!!!! Reality!! NOOOO!!!!!
Right now Andrea and I are in northern Uganda in a town called Gulu (some of you may remember last year we raised money for Guluwalk). We are here for a week volunteering with the UN doing food drops to the IPD camps (refugee camps) in the area. I have a couple of things to ramble on about before I get to that (if I do get to that - I am thinking next blog). Plus that’s current, you should probably only have to wait at least 2 months before getting all the details.. ;)
So how was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro you ask? Well for $1000 and a headache that lasted 10 days - it was amazing! First things first...YES we did make it to the top. It was not pretty, but we did it. We ended up climbing with a girl from Sweden, Sofia, who fit in with us like we had know her forever (altitude makes people gassy.. we HAD to get pretty comfortable). We spent the first five days slowly making our way up the mountain. I mean SLOWLY. We took about one step every five seconds; the hardest part about this was trying to not walk too fast. We had to go this slow to allow our bodies to acclimatize. So on we went through amazing landscape and beautiful surroundings for five day up the mountain. On day three we started to feel the altitude, some headaches, some nausea..not to mention I had a pretty bad cold to start. So there were, the three of us and an army of 9 guys: 1 cook, 1 guide, 1 co-guide / porter, 6 porters. They cooked for us and carried our bags / equipment up the mountain the whole way. Our guide's name was Julius and he was fantastic. The real story begins on day 5. We woke up in the morning and started our hike for the day. It was about 6 hours and the air was pretty cold and thin. We arrived at the base camp for the ascend..oh wait. I forgot to mention that on day 4 we saw the people who had ascended the night before coming down and they looked beat up. One guy had a bad case of mountain sickness and was frothing at the mouth and talking complete nonsense. Don’t think this didn’t totally freak us out because it did, people die up there from mountain sickness...
OK back to base camp. So we arrive there at about 2pm, are served a light snack of peanuts and popcorn, put to bed and told that we would be woken up for dinner at 5pm. Of course we are in a room that might as well be a frat house on a Friday night at 2:00am. So we didn’t sleep..these students just went on and on....fart jokes, your mama jokes, you name it (yes we did tell them to shut-up, to no avail). After zero sleep we got up at 5 to eat dinner then go back to bed. This time we actually slept! The wake up call came at 10:30pm. Then the real climb began. The goal is to make it to the summit by sunrise..if you make it at all. So we bundled up (were talking -15 here..), strapped on our headlamps and up we went. At this point we have hit the snowline and the steepest part of the mountain. The first 2 hours were really cool, we were still warm enough, there was a long line of people hiking up behind us so all we could see was a trail of headlamps. We were so close to the stars that the sky looked like I could reach out and touch it – our spirits were high and we were all determined to make it. Now lets fast-forward to 3am. Here we are, SO cold from walking so slow all night. Nauseous with headaches from the lack of oxygen to the brain, walking zig zag up a very steep, very rocky / icy mountain IN THE DARK! Never mind the fact that we were dead tired because it is 3 in the morning. Remember we had already walked 6 hours that day. We stopped once an hour for about 10 minutes to warm up / throw up...whatever. My feet were so cold, Julius (our guide) noticed me desperately trying to warm them and came over, pulled off my socks and stuck my feet up his shirt into his armpit. It was a life saver, every stop after that we did the same thing. Kinda gross considering that none of us had showered in 5 days..but at that point would have put my feet in a pile of poop to warm them up. Thank God for Julius, he saved our lives and was the only reason we got up that treacherous mountain and through the night from hell. The whole time he was encouraging us and saying he knew we could do it, telling us we are so strong. At that point we were feeling so delirious, cold, miserable and tired those words were really all that got me through. Fast forward again to about 5:40am..Julius announces that were 20 minutes to the top and the mountain has gotten very steep and icy. Every step at this point has to be calculated to avoid killing myself. I could not feel my feet and I thought I was probably going to throw up. Pleasant to say the least. So I zoned out for another 20 minutes (thought about warm places and hot coco) and just keep putting one foot in front of the other - the next thing I know were there at the top. I am not much of a crier but after that night I was reduced to an absolute blubbering child once we hit the top. Both An and I sat there and cried and cried, what a sight for sore eyes we were that morning. So the sun hadn't risen yet and we decided to carry on along the ridge of the volcano (Kili is actually a volcano) to the next point. We went on for another hour, this time was easy...adrenaline had taken over and I was on auto pilot. The sun started coming up and we just sat there and froze and watched it. I snapped about 3 or 4 pictures since I was to frozen to operate a camera and to delirious to stand up. After the sunrise we saw all the other climbers that made it to the top, about 1/2 of the people we left with. The sunrise was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, I wish I had been feeling better - it was so beautiful and surreal. The way down to the 1st base camp was about 2 hours from the summit and it is steep, loose gravel the whole way so we just shoe-skied down and we were so happy. We just wanted off the mountain at that point. One thing I learned from this experience was this: I do not love climbing mountains and will never do it again. Do I regret it? No way! But honestly, it only started to hit me about a month after I did it, that it was a really difficult and cool accomplishment and finally got over the fact that I spent $1000 to torture myself. After all I did climb the tallest free standing mountain in the world... :)
After that we though we needed to treat ourselves before going back to Mwanza with a week (or two)on Zanzibar. We b-lined it there as soon as we finished climbing. Zanzibar turned out to be paradise. There is really not much to talk about regarding this time in Zanzibar because all we did was lay in hammocks, sipping cold beers and chatting. I played beach volleyball and we stayed up late dancing on the beach a few times. The only thing out of the ordinary was that I did a 4 day scuba diving course and became a certified open water diver. Scuba diving is amazing and I love it! The whole time I was "under da sea" I was singing little mermaid songs in my head. What an amazing world it is down there, I am addicted. Now I want to go back to Thailand and do it there! Guess I should have though of that 7 months ago. The best sea life I saw was the giant sea turtles; we saw 5 of them in one dive. They’re huge and their faces looked like cartoons, as if they were about it start talking to me. One swam right in front of me..I could have reached out and touched it. The company I got certified with was not so great, they had me diving with advanced divers when it was my second time down. I hadn’t figured out how to control my buoyancy underwater and the current was strong so I was slightly out of control the whole time. I was using too much energy on this dive so I was sucking my air tank up pretty fast. The instructor swam over and looked at my air gage and made me take his spare because we were 18 feet under and my tank was empty! You would think I could just swim to the top and breathe there but you can't ascend fast underwater or your lungs explode. So that was Zanzi...soakin’ up he sun, relaxing and getting cheap massages on the beach. Oh ya, we got cheap massages on the beach almost daily ;) We finally dragged ourselves off the beach back to Mwanza to work for July back at the orphanage.
Back in Mwanza I got sick as soon as we got there and spend the entire time there either at the doctor or in bed. First it was Malaria, then it was a parasite..I don’t think anyone knew what they were talking about. I had to take a bus to Nairobi to catch a flight to meet Martin in Europe for a couple of weeks. I took the time in Nairobi to go to a "real" doctor and see what was happening. Turns out it was a throat infection (probably from one of the kids coughing in my mouth) and I was as good as new after 2 antibiotics. Random. The bus ride to Nairobi from Mwanza is worth mentioning since it was 12 hours and I was the only tourist on the bus. The very large lady beside me kept trying to feed me pieces of the six fried chickens she ate on the ride and I shared half my seat with her. The bus broke down twice, but I did get to see a few zebra and a wildebeest out the window....
My time in Nairobi was blurry as I was on alot of drugs trying to kill these parasites and behaving very odd. I jgot a room, went to the doctor and spent the better part of the day in a chicken restaurant listening to Kenyan reggae music, eating chicken and making new friends (?!). See...odd, I told you. The next day I got up at 5am and flew to London and spent two weeks traveling in the Baltic’s with Martin. Very nice indeed.
So that brings me to now well kind of. After returning from Europe, I went to Kampala (after the airline returned my lost luggage to me) and met Andrea there. We stayed with her friends for a couple of days watching MTV and sitting on their couch. We headed up to Jinja, which is a small town on the Nile River where many people go whitewater rafting on the Nile. I chose not to partake due to funds and I was a bit intimidated that someone had recently died doing it. We did however make the trip up to Sipi Falls which is a beautiful remote area full of..well...waterfalls! There wasn’t a whole lot to do up here besides go hiking and read books. So that’s what we did. We did a 4 hour hike, the first half of it was a beautiful and challenging hike, it’s the type of place I could just picture King Kong coming out of the jungle. The last half was interesting. The storm clouds rolled in and we got completely poured on. It’s the rainy season here and there is a torrential downpour at least once a day. That day it happened to be right on our hike. Needless to say we were drenched and frozen by the time we got back and I went straight into the hot shower with all my clothes on shoes and all.
After Sipi we went back to Jinja for a couple of nights. One of those nights happened to be our friends last night in Africa so we hit da' club and drank the local gin (Waragi). We got in at 4:30 in the morning after having many dance-off's with the Ugandans and many Waragis. Good times, but we paid for it the next day.
So now we are in Gulu and working at the refugee camps here which I am going to write a separate blog about when were done. And I promise it won’t take me 2 months. Maybe two weeks but I will get to it as soon as I have compiled all my thoughts.
OH..one more thing. I booked my flight home!!
AAAHHH!!!! Reality!! NOOOO!!!!!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
bye for now watoto...hello best month ever!
So now we are in Arusha..the base for climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I have 2 main things to cover here so if you’re more interested in part one than part 2 ...feel free to scroll down and vice versa. Cause I have the feeling this is going to be looong. I will try to make it short...we all know how good at that I am.
Chapter 1: First and foremost, the kids.
We finished our 6 weeks at the orphanage last Friday. We decided to go back in July as the volunteers that were scheduled for the two spots cancelled (yay for us!!). Needless to say we were really glad not to have to say goodbye. Saying goodbye for three weeks was painful enough.
The week before we left, other volunteers had arrived so we weren’t needed to teach anymore. We spent most of the week figuring out donation money and doing arts and crafts with the kids, as well as a games day. Arts and crafts day was one of the most fun and most frightening days of my life. Imagine 40 kids, a huge box of glitter glue, paint (thank god it was wash-off-able), feathers, markers, paper, scissors, pipe cleaners and crayons. Then imagine just me and An there to supervise. I seriously don’t think these kids have ever seen these types of materials, they went mad. Some of the kids spent the whole day working on one piece until it was perfect..some grabbed a piece of paper and poured glue and paint all over it, then moved on to the next project. The best was the finger painters though. There was more paint on tables, floors, clothes and skin than all the paper in the house. This went on for about 6 hours. The kids would make something...line up to show you just to hear us say "zourie sana!" (very good!) Then throw it on the ground and carry on. Occasionally there would be some fighting over a glitter pen or something but hey..they are kids. The amazing part was the cleanup. Once all was said and done, An and I started to clean up. Within seconds all the kids had joined in and started cleaning, the mess was gone in less than 5 minutes.
The next noteworthy point was the pizza party / dance party sleepover. We ordered 25 large pizzas from town and hooked up some speakers to our iPod. The kids had never had pizza before. I would say about 50% of them really loved it and others weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Some picked off the top and ate only the toppings, others did the complete opposite. Strange to realize that some of these kids prefer small fried sardines to pizza! After the pizza we broke into a huge dance party lasted the duration of the evening (these kids can shake it like its no ones business)..We had planned on painting all the girls toenails, in proper sleepover fashion, but the party went on to long and all the kids were pooped by the time we crashed. The next day we did the nail painting - even the boys wanted to partake! We let the kids paint our nails too..of course it was a complete mess but the girls really loved it.
On our very last day, we had a "games day" we bought eggs for an egg in spoon race, made water balloons, had 3 legged races, wheelbarrow races and a huge impromptu water fight. When we got there that day the kids ran up to the gate to see us as they usually do. They all walked us into the house - set up for An and I were 2 seats with white sheets over them and a sign hanging over the seats saying "thank you Denise and Andrea". There were balloons hung all over the place and Gloria had got some beef and made Pilau for us (an excellent African rice dish) it was amazing! They totally surprised us! Then on with the festivities of the day...games.
After lunch we had the water balloon fight which was so funny. The kids tried so hard not to drop them and screamed their heads off when they did...this resulted in some kids going to fill up cups of water to throw at their partners, the next thing we know a huge water fight had broken out. We had some cupcakes tubs of icing, jelly beans and smarties. They all decorated their own cupcakes and ate them. We left Joel and Gloria with 40 kids on a serious sugar high, although I am sure they slept like babies by 7pm that evening.
So here is what happened with all the donation money. Between An and I, we raised $3100 which is a new record for the orphanage!! Thank you all so much. This is what we bought:
- 10 School and English reading books for the older kids
- Supplemented what was needed for them to have the wiring done so they can have electricity
- 1 years worth of rice
- Medication for the head fungus that all the kids had when we arrived (its now gone)
- 2 malaria tests and treatment
- 1 HIV test (that was negative!!)
- 17 pairs of second hand black school shoes
- 9 mosquito nets
- 7 new mattresses
- 1 chicken dinner with soda
- 1 pizza and nail polish party
- 1 basketball net for the yard
- Printed pictures of all the kids and hung them on the bare walls in their bedrooms
- Sodas for the beach day
- Supplies for games day (balloons, 40 cupcakes, 2 dozen eggs)
And there you have it. The biggest ticket items were the rice for the year which was $800CAD and the electricity $850CAD, but also the most important. They run a generator for about 2 hours a night just to have light to eat dinner and you really can’t see anything. I am so excited to come back in July and see them actually have power, it makes a HUGE difference! An and I decided to spend the money 1/2 on "fun" stuff and 1/2 on necessities. We also gave Joel and Gloria enough money to go out to town for dinner and take a taxi there and back because they have sacrificed everything for these kids and really deserve it. The day we went to town to buy all the shoes and everything last week, Joel and Gloria came (they don’t have to pay Muzungu prices) then we went for pizza, even that for them is a big treat..
So the goodbye was sad but not too bad since we will be back. It was strange to see how some of the kids reacted to us leaving. Some were sad, others were pouting in the corner and others were downright angry with us. They volunteer program only started here in January so there not used to saying goodbye yet. We explained that we would be back in three weeks...but the real goodbye that is inevitably looming will be nothing short of tragic.
During our time in Mwanza we made quite a few friends. We got to go to a professional football game (soccer in our world)... it was Senegal vs. Tanzania. We got flags and t-shirts and screamed our hearts off for Tanzania. The game ended in a tie. The funny part was when Senegal tied it up no one booed. I was told later by a Tanzanian that Tanzanian people are too nice to boo. They don’t want to make the other team feel bad or un-welcome. I was shocked but after thinking about it ..it really does suit the culture. The most often used word in this language is Karibu (welcome)..they even say it when you get in a taxi. :)
Chapter 2 - the Serengeti
5 days ago after wrapping things up in Mwanza, An, a couple of volunteers from our sister orphanage and I went on a 4 day safari in the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro crater. It started with us being picked up at out place at 8am and driving 2 hours to the park. This was the first time I have left Mwanza in a month and a half so you can imagine are were pumped to see the rest of the country. We entered the park and the first thing and the last thing we saw was a wildebeest (there are a million, 8000 are born a day during birthing season). Over the course of the 4 days we saw everything anyone would want to see in the Serengeti besides the elusive rhino.
The animals were hilarious, majestic and totally gave me goosebumps. It’s really a dream come true driving around there. Plus all the animals spoke. Actually An made them speak. Her running commentary of what they must be saying to each other or thinking kept us giggling.
The Serengeti is like..well watch the Lion King. It’s just like that. I can’t remember how many times the Lion King was brought up over the past 4 days but I will guess about 1000. It’s absolutely breathtaking. This is something everyone must see in their lifetime. It’s like a different planet or Jurassic Park. Wildebeest are migrating in packs, huge colorful birds are soaring around the skies, zebra are grazing in the grass, hippos are being fat slobs in the swamps, vultures are picking at carcasses, giraffe heads are poking out of the treetops, hyenas are laughing and prowling around and lions and their cubs are sleeping in the trees and on the rocks. It’s all right there to be taken in. Really, truly amazing. The first day it rained but even that was great.. driving through the storm while hundreds of wildebeest run alongside the truck. Anyway you get the idea. The second day was sunny and warm. We saw a cheetah go in for the kill but she didn’t succeed. We were secretly glad for the tiny, frail looking gazelle. But hey...circle of life (Lion King)!!!
So here’s the list of what we saw in no particular order: (Since I am in a list mood today...)
Serengeti
- Cheetah
- Loins
- Giraffes
- Warthogs (which are surprisingly one of the cutest animals I have ever seen!)
- Buffalo (ones with massive horns about the size of a Ford Taurus)
- Leopard (was eating a wildebeest on the side of the road when we pulled up and he hid in the grass)
- Hippos
- Wildebeest
- Baboons
- Ostrich
- Hyena
- Crocodile
- Waterbuck
- Impala
The only things we saw in the crater that we hadn’t seen the Serengeti was elephants, flamingos and allot of Maasai people with their cows and goats. Oh..and allot of amazing birds everywhere whose names I couldn’t remember.
We spent 3 nights and 4 days there. We were camping and had a guide and a chef (named cool banana by the way) with us the whole time. The food was fantastic and it was fun to camp in the wilderness albeit pretty scary at times. We could hear hyenas giggling just outside our tent on the second night and wildebeest grunting on the third. I was afraid out tent was in the path of migration and that would be squash banana for us. The tent was so warm and cozy; I probably slept the best there than I have the whole time I have been in Africa, even with all the bizarre noises and rustling around the tent. Going pee was definitely an issue. We even brought a plastic cup and bag in the tent just in case - there was no way we were leaving after dark with all the racket going on right behind the zipper. Thankfully no one needed it.
So that brings us to now. I have had one of the best experiences of my life in the Serengeti and am about to embark on something that will test my mind and body to the limit. Tomorrow morning at 8am An and I start the 6 day climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. We have our snow gear all packed complete with ice poles and gators. Keep your fingers crossed we make it.. some people do and some don’t. The problem is the altitude not so much the physical strength, everyone reacts to it differently..so we'll see what happens to us! I have allot of amazing pics from the safari and the kids but as usual the computer / internet connections are sketchy so I will try to do as many as I can..otherwise I will do it in Zanzibar (our reward for climbing Kili!) talk to you then!!
xo
p.s. That wasn't too, too long....was it?
Chapter 1: First and foremost, the kids.
We finished our 6 weeks at the orphanage last Friday. We decided to go back in July as the volunteers that were scheduled for the two spots cancelled (yay for us!!). Needless to say we were really glad not to have to say goodbye. Saying goodbye for three weeks was painful enough.
The week before we left, other volunteers had arrived so we weren’t needed to teach anymore. We spent most of the week figuring out donation money and doing arts and crafts with the kids, as well as a games day. Arts and crafts day was one of the most fun and most frightening days of my life. Imagine 40 kids, a huge box of glitter glue, paint (thank god it was wash-off-able), feathers, markers, paper, scissors, pipe cleaners and crayons. Then imagine just me and An there to supervise. I seriously don’t think these kids have ever seen these types of materials, they went mad. Some of the kids spent the whole day working on one piece until it was perfect..some grabbed a piece of paper and poured glue and paint all over it, then moved on to the next project. The best was the finger painters though. There was more paint on tables, floors, clothes and skin than all the paper in the house. This went on for about 6 hours. The kids would make something...line up to show you just to hear us say "zourie sana!" (very good!) Then throw it on the ground and carry on. Occasionally there would be some fighting over a glitter pen or something but hey..they are kids. The amazing part was the cleanup. Once all was said and done, An and I started to clean up. Within seconds all the kids had joined in and started cleaning, the mess was gone in less than 5 minutes.
The next noteworthy point was the pizza party / dance party sleepover. We ordered 25 large pizzas from town and hooked up some speakers to our iPod. The kids had never had pizza before. I would say about 50% of them really loved it and others weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Some picked off the top and ate only the toppings, others did the complete opposite. Strange to realize that some of these kids prefer small fried sardines to pizza! After the pizza we broke into a huge dance party lasted the duration of the evening (these kids can shake it like its no ones business)..We had planned on painting all the girls toenails, in proper sleepover fashion, but the party went on to long and all the kids were pooped by the time we crashed. The next day we did the nail painting - even the boys wanted to partake! We let the kids paint our nails too..of course it was a complete mess but the girls really loved it.
On our very last day, we had a "games day" we bought eggs for an egg in spoon race, made water balloons, had 3 legged races, wheelbarrow races and a huge impromptu water fight. When we got there that day the kids ran up to the gate to see us as they usually do. They all walked us into the house - set up for An and I were 2 seats with white sheets over them and a sign hanging over the seats saying "thank you Denise and Andrea". There were balloons hung all over the place and Gloria had got some beef and made Pilau for us (an excellent African rice dish) it was amazing! They totally surprised us! Then on with the festivities of the day...games.
After lunch we had the water balloon fight which was so funny. The kids tried so hard not to drop them and screamed their heads off when they did...this resulted in some kids going to fill up cups of water to throw at their partners, the next thing we know a huge water fight had broken out. We had some cupcakes tubs of icing, jelly beans and smarties. They all decorated their own cupcakes and ate them. We left Joel and Gloria with 40 kids on a serious sugar high, although I am sure they slept like babies by 7pm that evening.
So here is what happened with all the donation money. Between An and I, we raised $3100 which is a new record for the orphanage!! Thank you all so much. This is what we bought:
- 10 School and English reading books for the older kids
- Supplemented what was needed for them to have the wiring done so they can have electricity
- 1 years worth of rice
- Medication for the head fungus that all the kids had when we arrived (its now gone)
- 2 malaria tests and treatment
- 1 HIV test (that was negative!!)
- 17 pairs of second hand black school shoes
- 9 mosquito nets
- 7 new mattresses
- 1 chicken dinner with soda
- 1 pizza and nail polish party
- 1 basketball net for the yard
- Printed pictures of all the kids and hung them on the bare walls in their bedrooms
- Sodas for the beach day
- Supplies for games day (balloons, 40 cupcakes, 2 dozen eggs)
And there you have it. The biggest ticket items were the rice for the year which was $800CAD and the electricity $850CAD, but also the most important. They run a generator for about 2 hours a night just to have light to eat dinner and you really can’t see anything. I am so excited to come back in July and see them actually have power, it makes a HUGE difference! An and I decided to spend the money 1/2 on "fun" stuff and 1/2 on necessities. We also gave Joel and Gloria enough money to go out to town for dinner and take a taxi there and back because they have sacrificed everything for these kids and really deserve it. The day we went to town to buy all the shoes and everything last week, Joel and Gloria came (they don’t have to pay Muzungu prices) then we went for pizza, even that for them is a big treat..
So the goodbye was sad but not too bad since we will be back. It was strange to see how some of the kids reacted to us leaving. Some were sad, others were pouting in the corner and others were downright angry with us. They volunteer program only started here in January so there not used to saying goodbye yet. We explained that we would be back in three weeks...but the real goodbye that is inevitably looming will be nothing short of tragic.
During our time in Mwanza we made quite a few friends. We got to go to a professional football game (soccer in our world)... it was Senegal vs. Tanzania. We got flags and t-shirts and screamed our hearts off for Tanzania. The game ended in a tie. The funny part was when Senegal tied it up no one booed. I was told later by a Tanzanian that Tanzanian people are too nice to boo. They don’t want to make the other team feel bad or un-welcome. I was shocked but after thinking about it ..it really does suit the culture. The most often used word in this language is Karibu (welcome)..they even say it when you get in a taxi. :)
Chapter 2 - the Serengeti
5 days ago after wrapping things up in Mwanza, An, a couple of volunteers from our sister orphanage and I went on a 4 day safari in the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro crater. It started with us being picked up at out place at 8am and driving 2 hours to the park. This was the first time I have left Mwanza in a month and a half so you can imagine are were pumped to see the rest of the country. We entered the park and the first thing and the last thing we saw was a wildebeest (there are a million, 8000 are born a day during birthing season). Over the course of the 4 days we saw everything anyone would want to see in the Serengeti besides the elusive rhino.
The animals were hilarious, majestic and totally gave me goosebumps. It’s really a dream come true driving around there. Plus all the animals spoke. Actually An made them speak. Her running commentary of what they must be saying to each other or thinking kept us giggling.
The Serengeti is like..well watch the Lion King. It’s just like that. I can’t remember how many times the Lion King was brought up over the past 4 days but I will guess about 1000. It’s absolutely breathtaking. This is something everyone must see in their lifetime. It’s like a different planet or Jurassic Park. Wildebeest are migrating in packs, huge colorful birds are soaring around the skies, zebra are grazing in the grass, hippos are being fat slobs in the swamps, vultures are picking at carcasses, giraffe heads are poking out of the treetops, hyenas are laughing and prowling around and lions and their cubs are sleeping in the trees and on the rocks. It’s all right there to be taken in. Really, truly amazing. The first day it rained but even that was great.. driving through the storm while hundreds of wildebeest run alongside the truck. Anyway you get the idea. The second day was sunny and warm. We saw a cheetah go in for the kill but she didn’t succeed. We were secretly glad for the tiny, frail looking gazelle. But hey...circle of life (Lion King)!!!
So here’s the list of what we saw in no particular order: (Since I am in a list mood today...)
Serengeti
- Cheetah
- Loins
- Giraffes
- Warthogs (which are surprisingly one of the cutest animals I have ever seen!)
- Buffalo (ones with massive horns about the size of a Ford Taurus)
- Leopard (was eating a wildebeest on the side of the road when we pulled up and he hid in the grass)
- Hippos
- Wildebeest
- Baboons
- Ostrich
- Hyena
- Crocodile
- Waterbuck
- Impala
The only things we saw in the crater that we hadn’t seen the Serengeti was elephants, flamingos and allot of Maasai people with their cows and goats. Oh..and allot of amazing birds everywhere whose names I couldn’t remember.
We spent 3 nights and 4 days there. We were camping and had a guide and a chef (named cool banana by the way) with us the whole time. The food was fantastic and it was fun to camp in the wilderness albeit pretty scary at times. We could hear hyenas giggling just outside our tent on the second night and wildebeest grunting on the third. I was afraid out tent was in the path of migration and that would be squash banana for us. The tent was so warm and cozy; I probably slept the best there than I have the whole time I have been in Africa, even with all the bizarre noises and rustling around the tent. Going pee was definitely an issue. We even brought a plastic cup and bag in the tent just in case - there was no way we were leaving after dark with all the racket going on right behind the zipper. Thankfully no one needed it.
So that brings us to now. I have had one of the best experiences of my life in the Serengeti and am about to embark on something that will test my mind and body to the limit. Tomorrow morning at 8am An and I start the 6 day climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. We have our snow gear all packed complete with ice poles and gators. Keep your fingers crossed we make it.. some people do and some don’t. The problem is the altitude not so much the physical strength, everyone reacts to it differently..so we'll see what happens to us! I have allot of amazing pics from the safari and the kids but as usual the computer / internet connections are sketchy so I will try to do as many as I can..otherwise I will do it in Zanzibar (our reward for climbing Kili!) talk to you then!!
xo
p.s. That wasn't too, too long....was it?
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
small fish and sleepovers
Thank you to everyone who donated! Once all the money is allocated and spent I will post a list of what it all went to. So far we bought a years supply of rice, took several sick kids to the doctor for a check up, bought some medicine, bought some chicken and took the kids for a day at the beach on Sunday (which was total madness..they have never been to a beach before...you can imagine).
Life has a good routine here now. Weekends are weekends once again. We get up at 8:00am, have breakfast and head to teach at 9:00am till about noon. Then we go home to eat and come back around 2:00 to teach again for another hour and play for the rest of the afternoon until we decide to go home. In the mornings I teach Grade 2 and Grade 1 in the afternoon. We were going to rotate but once you get to know the kids and there strengths and weaknesses we realize its better to have one teacher.
I have a whole new respect for teachers! in the morning i have Neema (6 years old) who is the queen of procrastination (having to go toilet 10 times in 1 hour) and loves to sing and dance during class, go play with the baby or constantly sharpening her pencil ...sound familiar dad? I also teach Samson (also 6) who is such a eager learner, he does this funny Africa bombata booty shakin' dance whenever he knows the answer and squeals... its so cute. If he doesn't know the answer he yells "acha!" and snaps his fingers...hilarious.
Its really hard to teach english concepts like pluralization or when to use AND or BUT to kids that don't speak engilsh. The best way is props.. but I still can't tell is they actually get it or just memorizing?! All these things we don't think about....our language is really hard to learn!
The kids I teach in the afternoon are in Grade 1. There are 8 of them. We are just learning basics like the alphabet and colours and numbers. Its difficult teaching 8 of them, their attention spans are comparable to that of a fly. I try to make it fun by playing games and letting them write on the board but kids will be kids - they will yell at each other and poke each other with pencils and cheat. They do all go to school, we are just there to supplement the learning and push english. We want these kids to go to high school and get educated and being able to speak english will give them a huge leg up. Also they need help with their homework and stuff.. things which parents usually do.
The kids are teaching me swahili and I am actually picking it up quite easily. Too bad the only people I can talk to are 6 and 7 year olds and say things like "lets play" or "who farted" or "its your turn", "quiet", "sit down", come here"... not so useful in the adult world although i can get myself a bottle of water and count to ten. I can also greet people and use my manners..please and sorry.
The thing that blows me away the most is the willingness to learn that we don't have in our world.. If we decide to skip teaching one day and play games or sports instead they are all disappointed and come over and say "can we please learn?", Its amazing.
The food they eat there is interesting to say the least. We have Ugali which is cornmeal and small fish like sardines that are fried. I have tried the Ugali and its not good. The fish...well I am not that brave yet. I will get around to it though. They also have beans and rice which is yummy. Gloria (mom) is a great cook. One night An and I bought chickens for all the kids and she cooked it for us. It was the best chicken ever....and really, really fresh....the chickens were alive when they brought them home and on our plates an hour later! And the sodas...the kids go bonkers for pop. I couldn't believe the rapid speed in which a child of 2 years old can down a huge soda pop. I am sure there were a few kids wetting the bed that night. After the chicken / soda party An and I slept over. I slept with Hannah and An with Irene. The kids sleep between 2 and 4 to a bed depending on the size. Single beds. Its a squeeze but it works. The sleepover was reminiscent of being 8 and having all my friends over for my birthday and sleeping all over the basement floor. Complete with "Dad" yelling down at us that its time to stop talking and go to sleep. Needless to say we didnt get much sleep that night (Hannah is a kicker) but we had alot of fun! The kids were up at the crack of dawn!
The one downfall is that I have had malaria twice. Its nasty.. Its finally gone now but I have learnt my lesson. I am now going through a bottle of repellent per week!
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Mambo!
We made it! We have been working at the orphanage since Tuesday! Its amazing...challenging at times, but so worth it. Its pretty intimidating to stand in front of 10 little faces staring up at you, especially when they don't speak the same language! An and I have been picking up some Swahili from the kids and the duka (shop) owners around our house. The people we live with (volunteers) have done an amazing job of getting us orientated in town and the culture. We have already been invited on a boat tomorrow and had a trivia night with all the other expats here. There is a big community of miners, doctors, teachers and volunteers here so they have nights out and events. We have already decided to extend our stay here for a couple of weeks because there is just so much work to do! We have 50 kids and only the Tanzanian couple who run it, a cook, a couple of nannies and us. The kids are just so love starved, they just want to be picked up and played with. I have started to get names but its hard, there are so many of them. There are always the few that make themselves known more than others who I know already butr it will take time to get a grip on them all. There are twins named Happy and Joy. They are 3 years old, I dont know their story but they are just the happiest cutest kids I have ever seen in my life!!
This weekend we took some of the donations and bought them a basketball hoop, since they all seem to love to play bball but just dribble back and forth and try to steal the ball from each other. We also bought school books for primary english and word games. I am particularly excited about putting up the hoop! Our house is about a 20 minute walk from the orphanage and its no frills. We have a cold shower, a well in the backyard and a use a bucket to wash clothes / dishes. We have a gas stove and a kettle in the kitchen. The best accessory of the place is without a doubt the Masai warrior that is our night watchman. He comes at dusk and stays till dawn. He is reeeeeally tall with the biggest smile ever and dressed in traditional Masai dress. He has those big earing hole things and can plant a arrow firmly in a tree from 100 miles away. He is so cool. So now its the weekend and we are just in town which is a 30 minute dala dala (bus) ride from our place, we have to go back now and plan our lessons for the week!
This weekend we took some of the donations and bought them a basketball hoop, since they all seem to love to play bball but just dribble back and forth and try to steal the ball from each other. We also bought school books for primary english and word games. I am particularly excited about putting up the hoop! Our house is about a 20 minute walk from the orphanage and its no frills. We have a cold shower, a well in the backyard and a use a bucket to wash clothes / dishes. We have a gas stove and a kettle in the kitchen. The best accessory of the place is without a doubt the Masai warrior that is our night watchman. He comes at dusk and stays till dawn. He is reeeeeally tall with the biggest smile ever and dressed in traditional Masai dress. He has those big earing hole things and can plant a arrow firmly in a tree from 100 miles away. He is so cool. So now its the weekend and we are just in town which is a 30 minute dala dala (bus) ride from our place, we have to go back now and plan our lessons for the week!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
goodbye india, thanks for the laughs...
I know it has been almost a month since my last blog, I took a 3 week internet hiatus since Martin was here. Anyway we are in Varanasi right now and preparing for a full scale planes, trains and automobiles journey to Africa. Starting in about 4 hours we board an overnight train from here to Delhi, spend the day there, go to the airport and catch a plane to Dar Esaleem, Tanzania. But not without a 5 hour layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. So in about 500 hours we should be arriving at the camp Mwanza, Tanzania where we will drop our bags for a month and work. The idea of just dropping my bag for a month is amazing...never mind the experience we are about to have.
Martin has come and gone. We had a great time to say the least. India is a tough place to "pop in" to for a few weeks. It really takes a few weeks to strengthen your nose, stomach and gag reflex. But he did it and did it like a champ. I met him at the airport in Delhi where we stayed at the Sheraton thanks to a deal from my sweet friend Maria. Thanks Marnuuna! It was like HEAVEN to me. I had completely forgotten what it’s like to sleep in a bed with a duvet and crank the AC, I actually want to spend more time on the toilet just because the bathroom is nicer than any room I have stayed in over the last 4 months. So An and I pull up to this beautiful place in a rickshaw (the kind of people who stay at this Sheraton do NOT take rickshaws), filthy fresh off an overnight bus from Daramshala. Oh the bus. This bus was a "sleeper bus" which meant above the seats are rows of beds. We ordered a sleeper booth for 2 and it was the worst experience ever. I can only compare it to being in a paint shaker. We had to take Gravol just to keep from actually being sick all over the place. We had been warned about this before from other travelers, but wanted to experience it ourselves. Needless to say there was no sleeping that night, the entire night was spent trying not to barf and not to fall out of bed. Anyway we are disgusting by the time we get to the Sheraton, we check in (while people stare from all around like "who let the street people in") and head up to the room. The rest of the day included hour long showers, luxurious naps, AC, cable TV (big screen TV!), and room service. Yep, we used every towel, every menu, every station and every pillow. It was great. Later that night around 11pm I tore myself away from the room and went to meet Martin at the airport.
We decided to travel Rajasthan while Martin was with us because we could make a circle starting from and ending in Delhi. We failed to realize that this is slow season in this area due to temperatures averaging around 45, but we toughed it out. Jaipur was the 1st stop. It’s known as the pink city because all the buildings are pink although I am not really sure why. We stayed in a nice place there with AC and a great rooftop restaurant. The first night, Martin and I decided to go for a walk; it was really his first experience with the "real" India. I figured there were probably shops, cafes or whatever nearby and we could just have a nice stroll. We walked out the door and there bums everywhere, men hissing, urinals, no streetlights, blaring horns with no lights on and just a total slum. Whoops. We were obviously in the wrong area, we burned it back to the guest house pretty fast and decided to try again in daylight the following day. What a first experience.
We took out our cameras out and walked the city as well as a fort about 10 km away. The best part was the monkeys that were everywhere, playing and chasing each other around. The monkeys have really long tails, black faces and they make a noise I would picture dinosaurs making. They are everywhere in Rajasthan. Oh..we saw snake charmers too, real ones. I don’t know if the snakes had teeth or not but either way it was scary. It tried to attack my leg. After 2 nights in Jaipur we decided to head out. It’s really a big stinky city and there’s not a whole lot to do besides sightsee and we all know you can only do that for so long without barfing. We did get some good pics though.
On to Pushkar. This is a religious town surrounding a lake. Hindus believe that a lotus flower was dropped to earth by the gods and created this lake. Many Hindus come here to bathe in the water and pray at the temples, including a Brahman temple which is rare. Here we witnessed our first Sadhus (holy men). Sadhus are spiritual men who leave their families and homes forever to pursue a life of holiness, trying to escape reincarnation and create good karma for India. They live in temples, at ghats (where people bathe in holy waters), and wherever they can. They live off donations from Indian people who believe that donating to them will create good karma for themselves and the India. We learnt a lot about Hinduism and all the gods, karma, dharma...It’s really interesting. There are many different gods and depending on personality and preference (whatever god they relate to) the Hindus choose one, or more, to worship. There is Ganesh (the elephant) who represents wisdom, Shiva the god of destruction, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the god of preservation and Hanuman the monkey god, to name a few. So you can Imagine, its kind of like New Kids on the Block or Spice Girls, everyone has their favorite, they hang posters and pictures, they have trading cards, statues, jewelry all representing their god. There are temples everywhere, in people’s houses, shops, restaurants and on the side of the road, each with a Hindu god in it. We learned allot in Pushkar, but we also got royally ripped off. Well... Martin did (but he was new here, everyone has to get ripped off once...). The scam is this: Some “priest” tells you to take flowers and put them in the lake and it will bring good luck to your family. Every faux priest is trying to sell them to tourists. This guy actually got us, took us for the tour of the Brahman temple, buttering us up the whole time. Then he took us to the lake, separated us and gave us flowers (of course we would want to ensure the health and happiness of all our family members!). They gave us each a speech about saving our families... then demanded $30US per family member! By demanding I mean getting rather aggressive and telling us that we can afford it cause were westerners and to show him how much money we have in our wallets and of course that my family is doomed if I don’t hand it over. They even asked Martin for his camera, saying that a "gift" would ensure his family is safe. All the while we are unable to consult each other on the situation. Luckily I had only 10 rupees on me but Martin paid about 2000 (about $50US). I got away without paying, I figured Martin got bullied into shelling out enough for his family and mine, cest la vie! In India, you win some and lose some. The funniest part was later in the day when we were reading the lonely planet book; it warns readers about that scam, step by step, exactly as it unfolded. Besides that Pushkar was good, we saw a cow with 5 legs, which makes it a holy cow, and spent the last day by the pool due to unspeakable temperatures.
Andrea decided to stay in Pushkar and do yoga for a few days, so Martin and I had some time to catch up. We headed off to Jodhpur, the blue city. Which was really blue, again, I don’t know why. We decided after spending a day taking photos to book a two day camel safari. I didn’t want to leave Rajasthan without riding a camel. The night before the camel safari we went out to an amazing restaurant for dinner, it was on the roof of a palace overlooking the whole city. The palace was built by a maharaja back in the 1600's and is now a main attraction of the city and a great restaurant. We got up there at around 8 and there were bats everywhere and live music and candlelight (have you barfed yet?). Anyway it was a very cool dinner with an amazing view and definitely one of the highlights of Rajasthan. Our jeep came at 10am the following day and drove us 2 hours into the desert. We stopped to visit a Jain temple (where there was a large sigh, clearly posted that menstruating women are NOT allowed?!) and arrived at our camels just as the afternoon heat was at its worst. 1pm, perfect time to ride a camel in the desert for 2 hours. The camels were so cool - they reminded me of star wars characters. The way they move and noises that they make.. they really are straight out of star wars. When they trot your butt just slams on the seat and it can become quite painful after an hour (and a few days following..) but its amazing the way these animals move through deep sand in 40 degree weather like its no problem. We stopped for lunch at a family’s house in the desert and they sat there and watched us eat like we were zoo animals. They were giggling and talking to themselves about our every move. Then we rode again until sunset and went back to the family for dinner. The daughter had just gotten married and the kids decided to dress me up in all her marriage gear, about 10 pounds of jewelry and scarves. After they were satisfied, they called in gramma, mom, grampa, dad, uncle, cousin, baby brother and the family’s pet goat to come have a good laugh at me dressed up like an Indian woman about to get married. We ate the same thing we had for lunch, again, with the family closely examining our eating habits... then slept under the stars in cots. Sleeping was pretty scary at times, we would hear weird noises or forget that there were four camels right beside us and one of them decided to hok a loogie (sp?) or belch at 2am and scare the crap out of us. All in all, a really fun experience and the family were so hospitable, despite the fact that we could not communicate at all past "Namaste".
We took a frightening 8 hour bus ride to Udaipur. In Udaipur we splurged. Martin was only here for 2 weeks, we just decided to go for it. We stayed in a nice hotel, ate at all the best restaurants in town, took Indian food cooking classes, swam at the best pool in town, went shopping and even drank beer! For me it was like a vacation from the trip. We just slept in, ate, strolled the town and chilled out for once. It was great and I think I needed it more than I realized! There are amazing hotels here and the town surrounds a lake with a giant palace in the middle of it. The palace is now a hotel which is about 300$ US per night. There were allot of high end hotels, many of which we would got to for a drink, sunset, or lunch. We spent a wad but it was well worth it.
We met back up with Andrea in Bundi. Bundi is a small town with (again) a great fort overlooking it. We had only 2 nights here. The coolest thing was that we happened to be here during a period when it’s lucky to get married. Hindu wedding processions are such a production. You can hear them coming from a mile away and it’s like a parade. It’s led by a large noise machine with a marching band (dressed in proper marching band outfits) surrounding it banging out all Hindi wedding classics as well as whatever chart toppers are cool at the time. There is a man who walks beside this machine (that is pushed along by people) and belts out the words to all these songs at the top of his lungs through the completely distorted speakers of the noise machine. I hope you are following and I can imagine this is all probably hard to picture. I do have pictures of it and a video but the internet it deathly slow and who knows if I will ever be able to upload them. Anyway behind the noise machine is a swarm of men and boys all busting out their best dance moves and going nuts. There dancing like there is no tomorrow, screaming and smashing into each other. In the middle of this dance party is the groom on a white house, heavily decorated in Hindi wedding dress (the groom and the horse). The groom sits with a child and throws money into the crowd of dancers. Behind the men are the women and the bride. Their faces are covered and they just watch the whole thing go down. I don’t know how they can resist joining the dancing; even we were having a hard time. Surrounding this procession are young boys, each holding up a large fluorescent light, there are about 20 light holders, depending on the size of the party. But here is the kicker: Behind all this is a guy pulling a huge generator on a wagon to power the whole ordeal, talk about getting the short end of the stick. This was happening all the time in Bundi, if we couldn’t see it, we could hear it going on in the distance.
There were nearly no tourists in Bundi. We had a good dinner at the guesthouse An was staying at, served by the kids of the owners who were keen to read to us from there guest comment book and show us there pet tortoise. Everyone in Rajasthan has a comment book. Each restaurant, even the lassie shops (lassies are yogurt drinks), guesthouses, jewelry stores, tour operators... and as soon as you are done your meal, lassie, tour, whatever you can bet you will find a comment book in your face and someone watching over your shoulder eagerly awaiting approval.
We had the day from hell trying to get to Ranthamborne Wildlife Park for our tiger safari. It was one of those days where anything that could go wrong...did. We were 15 minutes late for the 1st train; the second train was like trying to get on to a cattle car with Indian people hanging off the sides. There was no way in hell we were getting on that with our backpacks. It was SO hot. 4 hours later we were still sitting at the train station trying to figure out if the next train is coming or if we have we missed it. I know it sounds easy, but nothing is posted, no one speaks English, you get 10 different answers from the "information" booths and so on. We end up missing the 1st day of safari and splurging on a car to get us there. The next day we got up at 5am to go on safari. We had missed our safari the day before and to make matters worse our guide was telling us how that group was so lucky they actually got to see tigers…BUT..it was our lucky day too cause we saw a momma and 3 babies. This really made the previous day’s hassle all worthwhile. We also saw a crocodile, exotic birds whose names I cannot remember, samba deer (otherwise known as tiger chocolate) and antelope. I think that’s it. It was a fun safari, our guides got so excited when we saw something, even more than the tourists.
The last and final stop in Rajasthan was Agra. Martin and I booked a nice hotel there for a couple nights since they were his last days in India. The Taj Mahal is in Agra. We spent the following 2 day soaking up the luxury of the hotel (again) and got massages, cocktails, buffet breakfasts...the works. Although the massage was more like an awkward full body rub down with waaaay to much oil and waaay to much being exposed, but hey - Indian style, nothing shocks me here anymore. The Taj was amazing, you just cannot believe how white and massive it is until you see it. The sky was dark and there was lightening; it really added a cool atmosphere to the whole experience. Took a ton of pics of course. It was built by a maharaja for his second wife who died giving birth to their 14th child, there is also a beautiful mosque right beside it.
Then back to Delhi for Martin to catch his flight and An and I to head to Varanasi. Martin and I had a quick drive by goodbye and I headed back to town all teary eyed. The next night we were on the overnight to Varanasi, where I am now. For 3 more hours. Varanasi is the holiest city in India and some say the oldest city in the world. This is the place where many Indians come to die. They are hoping that dying by the Ganges (the holy river) will end the cycle of reincarnation or allow them to come back as a higher being then what they are now or in a higher cast, the women hope to come back as man as that is the only way to end the cycle of reincarnation (?!). This morning we took at sunrise boat ride down the Ganges. There are many ghats with people bathing and swimming and burning sites. There are 2 places along the river where they burn the bodies of those fortunate enough to have died near the Ganges. I actually saw them burning bodies today, which at 5am was pretty nauseating but also very moving as this is a very spiritual ritual. They do not burn pregnant women or babies who die, instead they send them floating down the river. We saw a pregnant woman today who looked as though she had been floating down the Ganges for awhile, I was almost sick. I could have had something to do with the fact that it was 5am and I was up too late last night getting my palm read. But it was probably the body; I have never seen a dead person like that before. There are many people in the water praying and dunking themselves in and out, mostly the elderly waiting for their turn. Many kids swim and play in this river as well, people do there laundry.. and the towns sewage dumps there. It’s extremely polluted and really sad because it is the lifeline of India. There are many Sadhus here as well.
So that brings me to now. I am getting ready to leave India and take on a whole new continent. I am kinda sad to be leaving India but ready to go all at once. I have stepped in enough cow poop, seen enough people having a Sunday afternoon nose picks that drag on forever, heard enough horks splat on the ground right in front of me, enough 24 hour honking, constant cow dodging and had enough curry. I haven’t had enough of the incredible Indian spirit, hospitality, willingness to share even though they have nothing, eagerness to help, curiosity about my life and openness about theirs, Hindu religion, traditions, the bright saris, fresh chapatti, masala chai and all the other constant contradictions that are India. Constantly grosser than you could ever imagine and constantly more beautiful and moving than you could ever imagine. Oh no I am going to cry, wait, no I'm not. I only hope that my next stop will touch me as India has, I feel like I have gotten to know this culture and these people more than anywhere else, even though I have barley scratched the surface. It must be the most frustrating and rewarding place in the world. Well this is my goodbye to India and I am actually pretty sad. Namaste India! (I know I am totally being melodramatic, but I am sad!)
Wish me luck in Tanzania!
P.S. I would like to send a special should out to my boy Cameron who did an amazing job raising money for the orphanage in Tanzania! He decided that he didn’t want birthday presents this year (did I mention that he is 4 years old?) and instead raised a whopping $370 for the kids I am going to work with next month. Thank you so much Cameron, that was an amazing thing you did and it means a lot to me and the kids. There should be more boys like you in this world! I will keep you updated on what happens with the money and send many pictures from the orphanage! Thanks again...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Martin has come and gone. We had a great time to say the least. India is a tough place to "pop in" to for a few weeks. It really takes a few weeks to strengthen your nose, stomach and gag reflex. But he did it and did it like a champ. I met him at the airport in Delhi where we stayed at the Sheraton thanks to a deal from my sweet friend Maria. Thanks Marnuuna! It was like HEAVEN to me. I had completely forgotten what it’s like to sleep in a bed with a duvet and crank the AC, I actually want to spend more time on the toilet just because the bathroom is nicer than any room I have stayed in over the last 4 months. So An and I pull up to this beautiful place in a rickshaw (the kind of people who stay at this Sheraton do NOT take rickshaws), filthy fresh off an overnight bus from Daramshala. Oh the bus. This bus was a "sleeper bus" which meant above the seats are rows of beds. We ordered a sleeper booth for 2 and it was the worst experience ever. I can only compare it to being in a paint shaker. We had to take Gravol just to keep from actually being sick all over the place. We had been warned about this before from other travelers, but wanted to experience it ourselves. Needless to say there was no sleeping that night, the entire night was spent trying not to barf and not to fall out of bed. Anyway we are disgusting by the time we get to the Sheraton, we check in (while people stare from all around like "who let the street people in") and head up to the room. The rest of the day included hour long showers, luxurious naps, AC, cable TV (big screen TV!), and room service. Yep, we used every towel, every menu, every station and every pillow. It was great. Later that night around 11pm I tore myself away from the room and went to meet Martin at the airport.
We decided to travel Rajasthan while Martin was with us because we could make a circle starting from and ending in Delhi. We failed to realize that this is slow season in this area due to temperatures averaging around 45, but we toughed it out. Jaipur was the 1st stop. It’s known as the pink city because all the buildings are pink although I am not really sure why. We stayed in a nice place there with AC and a great rooftop restaurant. The first night, Martin and I decided to go for a walk; it was really his first experience with the "real" India. I figured there were probably shops, cafes or whatever nearby and we could just have a nice stroll. We walked out the door and there bums everywhere, men hissing, urinals, no streetlights, blaring horns with no lights on and just a total slum. Whoops. We were obviously in the wrong area, we burned it back to the guest house pretty fast and decided to try again in daylight the following day. What a first experience.
We took out our cameras out and walked the city as well as a fort about 10 km away. The best part was the monkeys that were everywhere, playing and chasing each other around. The monkeys have really long tails, black faces and they make a noise I would picture dinosaurs making. They are everywhere in Rajasthan. Oh..we saw snake charmers too, real ones. I don’t know if the snakes had teeth or not but either way it was scary. It tried to attack my leg. After 2 nights in Jaipur we decided to head out. It’s really a big stinky city and there’s not a whole lot to do besides sightsee and we all know you can only do that for so long without barfing. We did get some good pics though.
On to Pushkar. This is a religious town surrounding a lake. Hindus believe that a lotus flower was dropped to earth by the gods and created this lake. Many Hindus come here to bathe in the water and pray at the temples, including a Brahman temple which is rare. Here we witnessed our first Sadhus (holy men). Sadhus are spiritual men who leave their families and homes forever to pursue a life of holiness, trying to escape reincarnation and create good karma for India. They live in temples, at ghats (where people bathe in holy waters), and wherever they can. They live off donations from Indian people who believe that donating to them will create good karma for themselves and the India. We learnt a lot about Hinduism and all the gods, karma, dharma...It’s really interesting. There are many different gods and depending on personality and preference (whatever god they relate to) the Hindus choose one, or more, to worship. There is Ganesh (the elephant) who represents wisdom, Shiva the god of destruction, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the god of preservation and Hanuman the monkey god, to name a few. So you can Imagine, its kind of like New Kids on the Block or Spice Girls, everyone has their favorite, they hang posters and pictures, they have trading cards, statues, jewelry all representing their god. There are temples everywhere, in people’s houses, shops, restaurants and on the side of the road, each with a Hindu god in it. We learned allot in Pushkar, but we also got royally ripped off. Well... Martin did (but he was new here, everyone has to get ripped off once...). The scam is this: Some “priest” tells you to take flowers and put them in the lake and it will bring good luck to your family. Every faux priest is trying to sell them to tourists. This guy actually got us, took us for the tour of the Brahman temple, buttering us up the whole time. Then he took us to the lake, separated us and gave us flowers (of course we would want to ensure the health and happiness of all our family members!). They gave us each a speech about saving our families... then demanded $30US per family member! By demanding I mean getting rather aggressive and telling us that we can afford it cause were westerners and to show him how much money we have in our wallets and of course that my family is doomed if I don’t hand it over. They even asked Martin for his camera, saying that a "gift" would ensure his family is safe. All the while we are unable to consult each other on the situation. Luckily I had only 10 rupees on me but Martin paid about 2000 (about $50US). I got away without paying, I figured Martin got bullied into shelling out enough for his family and mine, cest la vie! In India, you win some and lose some. The funniest part was later in the day when we were reading the lonely planet book; it warns readers about that scam, step by step, exactly as it unfolded. Besides that Pushkar was good, we saw a cow with 5 legs, which makes it a holy cow, and spent the last day by the pool due to unspeakable temperatures.
Andrea decided to stay in Pushkar and do yoga for a few days, so Martin and I had some time to catch up. We headed off to Jodhpur, the blue city. Which was really blue, again, I don’t know why. We decided after spending a day taking photos to book a two day camel safari. I didn’t want to leave Rajasthan without riding a camel. The night before the camel safari we went out to an amazing restaurant for dinner, it was on the roof of a palace overlooking the whole city. The palace was built by a maharaja back in the 1600's and is now a main attraction of the city and a great restaurant. We got up there at around 8 and there were bats everywhere and live music and candlelight (have you barfed yet?). Anyway it was a very cool dinner with an amazing view and definitely one of the highlights of Rajasthan. Our jeep came at 10am the following day and drove us 2 hours into the desert. We stopped to visit a Jain temple (where there was a large sigh, clearly posted that menstruating women are NOT allowed?!) and arrived at our camels just as the afternoon heat was at its worst. 1pm, perfect time to ride a camel in the desert for 2 hours. The camels were so cool - they reminded me of star wars characters. The way they move and noises that they make.. they really are straight out of star wars. When they trot your butt just slams on the seat and it can become quite painful after an hour (and a few days following..) but its amazing the way these animals move through deep sand in 40 degree weather like its no problem. We stopped for lunch at a family’s house in the desert and they sat there and watched us eat like we were zoo animals. They were giggling and talking to themselves about our every move. Then we rode again until sunset and went back to the family for dinner. The daughter had just gotten married and the kids decided to dress me up in all her marriage gear, about 10 pounds of jewelry and scarves. After they were satisfied, they called in gramma, mom, grampa, dad, uncle, cousin, baby brother and the family’s pet goat to come have a good laugh at me dressed up like an Indian woman about to get married. We ate the same thing we had for lunch, again, with the family closely examining our eating habits... then slept under the stars in cots. Sleeping was pretty scary at times, we would hear weird noises or forget that there were four camels right beside us and one of them decided to hok a loogie (sp?) or belch at 2am and scare the crap out of us. All in all, a really fun experience and the family were so hospitable, despite the fact that we could not communicate at all past "Namaste".
We took a frightening 8 hour bus ride to Udaipur. In Udaipur we splurged. Martin was only here for 2 weeks, we just decided to go for it. We stayed in a nice hotel, ate at all the best restaurants in town, took Indian food cooking classes, swam at the best pool in town, went shopping and even drank beer! For me it was like a vacation from the trip. We just slept in, ate, strolled the town and chilled out for once. It was great and I think I needed it more than I realized! There are amazing hotels here and the town surrounds a lake with a giant palace in the middle of it. The palace is now a hotel which is about 300$ US per night. There were allot of high end hotels, many of which we would got to for a drink, sunset, or lunch. We spent a wad but it was well worth it.
We met back up with Andrea in Bundi. Bundi is a small town with (again) a great fort overlooking it. We had only 2 nights here. The coolest thing was that we happened to be here during a period when it’s lucky to get married. Hindu wedding processions are such a production. You can hear them coming from a mile away and it’s like a parade. It’s led by a large noise machine with a marching band (dressed in proper marching band outfits) surrounding it banging out all Hindi wedding classics as well as whatever chart toppers are cool at the time. There is a man who walks beside this machine (that is pushed along by people) and belts out the words to all these songs at the top of his lungs through the completely distorted speakers of the noise machine. I hope you are following and I can imagine this is all probably hard to picture. I do have pictures of it and a video but the internet it deathly slow and who knows if I will ever be able to upload them. Anyway behind the noise machine is a swarm of men and boys all busting out their best dance moves and going nuts. There dancing like there is no tomorrow, screaming and smashing into each other. In the middle of this dance party is the groom on a white house, heavily decorated in Hindi wedding dress (the groom and the horse). The groom sits with a child and throws money into the crowd of dancers. Behind the men are the women and the bride. Their faces are covered and they just watch the whole thing go down. I don’t know how they can resist joining the dancing; even we were having a hard time. Surrounding this procession are young boys, each holding up a large fluorescent light, there are about 20 light holders, depending on the size of the party. But here is the kicker: Behind all this is a guy pulling a huge generator on a wagon to power the whole ordeal, talk about getting the short end of the stick. This was happening all the time in Bundi, if we couldn’t see it, we could hear it going on in the distance.
There were nearly no tourists in Bundi. We had a good dinner at the guesthouse An was staying at, served by the kids of the owners who were keen to read to us from there guest comment book and show us there pet tortoise. Everyone in Rajasthan has a comment book. Each restaurant, even the lassie shops (lassies are yogurt drinks), guesthouses, jewelry stores, tour operators... and as soon as you are done your meal, lassie, tour, whatever you can bet you will find a comment book in your face and someone watching over your shoulder eagerly awaiting approval.
We had the day from hell trying to get to Ranthamborne Wildlife Park for our tiger safari. It was one of those days where anything that could go wrong...did. We were 15 minutes late for the 1st train; the second train was like trying to get on to a cattle car with Indian people hanging off the sides. There was no way in hell we were getting on that with our backpacks. It was SO hot. 4 hours later we were still sitting at the train station trying to figure out if the next train is coming or if we have we missed it. I know it sounds easy, but nothing is posted, no one speaks English, you get 10 different answers from the "information" booths and so on. We end up missing the 1st day of safari and splurging on a car to get us there. The next day we got up at 5am to go on safari. We had missed our safari the day before and to make matters worse our guide was telling us how that group was so lucky they actually got to see tigers…BUT..it was our lucky day too cause we saw a momma and 3 babies. This really made the previous day’s hassle all worthwhile. We also saw a crocodile, exotic birds whose names I cannot remember, samba deer (otherwise known as tiger chocolate) and antelope. I think that’s it. It was a fun safari, our guides got so excited when we saw something, even more than the tourists.
The last and final stop in Rajasthan was Agra. Martin and I booked a nice hotel there for a couple nights since they were his last days in India. The Taj Mahal is in Agra. We spent the following 2 day soaking up the luxury of the hotel (again) and got massages, cocktails, buffet breakfasts...the works. Although the massage was more like an awkward full body rub down with waaaay to much oil and waaay to much being exposed, but hey - Indian style, nothing shocks me here anymore. The Taj was amazing, you just cannot believe how white and massive it is until you see it. The sky was dark and there was lightening; it really added a cool atmosphere to the whole experience. Took a ton of pics of course. It was built by a maharaja for his second wife who died giving birth to their 14th child, there is also a beautiful mosque right beside it.
Then back to Delhi for Martin to catch his flight and An and I to head to Varanasi. Martin and I had a quick drive by goodbye and I headed back to town all teary eyed. The next night we were on the overnight to Varanasi, where I am now. For 3 more hours. Varanasi is the holiest city in India and some say the oldest city in the world. This is the place where many Indians come to die. They are hoping that dying by the Ganges (the holy river) will end the cycle of reincarnation or allow them to come back as a higher being then what they are now or in a higher cast, the women hope to come back as man as that is the only way to end the cycle of reincarnation (?!). This morning we took at sunrise boat ride down the Ganges. There are many ghats with people bathing and swimming and burning sites. There are 2 places along the river where they burn the bodies of those fortunate enough to have died near the Ganges. I actually saw them burning bodies today, which at 5am was pretty nauseating but also very moving as this is a very spiritual ritual. They do not burn pregnant women or babies who die, instead they send them floating down the river. We saw a pregnant woman today who looked as though she had been floating down the Ganges for awhile, I was almost sick. I could have had something to do with the fact that it was 5am and I was up too late last night getting my palm read. But it was probably the body; I have never seen a dead person like that before. There are many people in the water praying and dunking themselves in and out, mostly the elderly waiting for their turn. Many kids swim and play in this river as well, people do there laundry.. and the towns sewage dumps there. It’s extremely polluted and really sad because it is the lifeline of India. There are many Sadhus here as well.
So that brings me to now. I am getting ready to leave India and take on a whole new continent. I am kinda sad to be leaving India but ready to go all at once. I have stepped in enough cow poop, seen enough people having a Sunday afternoon nose picks that drag on forever, heard enough horks splat on the ground right in front of me, enough 24 hour honking, constant cow dodging and had enough curry. I haven’t had enough of the incredible Indian spirit, hospitality, willingness to share even though they have nothing, eagerness to help, curiosity about my life and openness about theirs, Hindu religion, traditions, the bright saris, fresh chapatti, masala chai and all the other constant contradictions that are India. Constantly grosser than you could ever imagine and constantly more beautiful and moving than you could ever imagine. Oh no I am going to cry, wait, no I'm not. I only hope that my next stop will touch me as India has, I feel like I have gotten to know this culture and these people more than anywhere else, even though I have barley scratched the surface. It must be the most frustrating and rewarding place in the world. Well this is my goodbye to India and I am actually pretty sad. Namaste India! (I know I am totally being melodramatic, but I am sad!)
Wish me luck in Tanzania!
P.S. I would like to send a special should out to my boy Cameron who did an amazing job raising money for the orphanage in Tanzania! He decided that he didn’t want birthday presents this year (did I mention that he is 4 years old?) and instead raised a whopping $370 for the kids I am going to work with next month. Thank you so much Cameron, that was an amazing thing you did and it means a lot to me and the kids. There should be more boys like you in this world! I will keep you updated on what happens with the money and send many pictures from the orphanage! Thanks again...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Monday, April 02, 2007
finally sick of curry...
Ola!
It was only March 17th the last time I blogged and SO much has happened, grab a cup of coffee, or skim through most of it....
An got sick for a few days in Mamallapuram and we couldn't really do anything, we think it was sunstroke. It was a good time and place for it to happen since we had extra time there anyway. I just swam at the pool, ate fantastic food and spent time with some great people that we met at dinner one night. One in particular was an Indian man by the name of Swamiji. He was born blind and was orphaned at birth, sent from home to home. He is now in his early forties and such an amazing person. He spends his life traveling around India trying to help people in similar situations as himself. He was so interesting to talk to and has a very positive attitude on life. He has done more things in his life blind than many people will probably ever do with eyesight. Including skydiving, driving a car, driving a jet ski, learning how to swim, traveling alone extensively he even won a photography contest once (?!). He has had some serious near death experiences and his stories were just unbelievable. An and I spent allot of time with him in this town, swimming in the pool, out for brekkie and dinner, even helping him write emails and edit poems that he has written. We were lucky to meet him, he was really inspiring. We are still emailing with him and editing poems!
We couldn't get a direct train to Hampi so we ended up spending about 18 hours in Bangalore. Which is the trendiest city in India where all the IT and call centres are. This is where you notice India's revolution. The older generation and in rural areas, all the women wear sari's and most marriages are arranged. Women are married between 16 - 20 (or else there is something wrong with them), have children by 21 and stay home while the husband works. Enter Bangalore. Girls with tank tops on, tattoos, even smoking. Which is SO taboo for a woman here. Barley a sari in sight. There is so much western influence here, there is a McDonalds or Pizza Hut on every corner. Western clothing stores everywhere. An and I took this opportunity to get our western fix. We ate Pizza and Ruby Tuesdays. We even went to a mall and got the worst makeovers ever. We looked like drag queens (see flickr). We were so tired and filthy from being on the overnight train the night before. The plan was to arrive in Bangalore and find a hotel with a pool so we could swim and use the shower to escape the heat. Well one look at us and no hotels let us in. We realized we had become the unsavory characters that we are usually escorting out of our hotels..
An has become the toughest rickshaw negotiator I have met yet. It’s awesome. We know the prices now and what it SHOULD cost to go a certain distance. And we know when someone is trying to rip us off. So here's a scenario: An: "how much to X" Rickshaw Man: "120 Rupees" An: "WHAT?! THAT’S WAAY TO MUCH, COME ON DENISE LET’S GO!" Rickshaw Man: "OK 100!?, how much you pay?" An: (as were walking away) "We'll pay 30, we came here from the bus station yesterday and paid 30!" Rickshaw Man: "OK pay 70" An: "screw this, let’s go find another one" Rickshaw Man: "how much you pay?" An: "40" Rickshaw Man: "OK get in". An huffs and we get in the rickshaw. Repeat every time we need a rickshaw. It’s great because we never get ripped off anymore. One instance sticks out in my head, it was 5am in Pondicherry and the rickshaw driver royally ripped us off. Storming off An says to him "Ya, thanks, really nice welcome to Pondicherry!" Obviously knowing we had been ripped. That was the last time any rickshaw driver would ever hose us. It’s become a joke between us when it comes to rickshaw time we have this "act" down pat. No one messes with us.
We went to Hampi from Bangalore on another night train. We slept like babies, babies with really dirty clothes on and drag queen makeup. Sleeping on a night train is becoming second nature. We try to get the upper bunks for maximum privacy and we never know where our stop is since the train breezes through each town. We make sure to befriend someone local in our cabin and mention where we are getting off. This works like a charm. Every time our stop is coming some friendly Indian wakes us up with enough time to pack up and have a chai tea before de-boarding. Everyone is so helpful, since we are often the only tourists.
So arriving in Hampi was as usual, someone woke us up on the train, negotiated a rickshaw into town etc. We checked into a so-so place and the heat here was unbearable. The town had a desert landscape and climate. The Hampi bazaar (where all the shops, restaurants and guest houses are) lies beside a river, surrounded by huge boulders and ancient temples. It’s quite a sight, with one huge temple overlooking the whole town. There are monkeys and cows everywhere. We were there during low season; it’s just too hot to really enjoy it. After asking around town we took a rickshaw to the edge of a banana plantation and decide to head in and look for these waterfalls. We didn't find any waterfalls but we found a big pool with allot of big slimy boulders in it. It was pretty fun to slip and slide all over the rocks, like slim surfing over them on our bellies. Sounds weird, but it was so fun. We met two guys swimming who were heading back into town the adventurous way...boulder hopping along the river. So we decided to follow, not the greatest idea in flip flops and our survival was questionable at times. We got lost, had to cross a big river, avoided snakes then found ourselves lost in the banana plantation. The banana plantation was huge so we decided to pick a direction and just go with it. Eventually after getting attacked by killer tree thorns and pretending we were in a movie like "touristas" (about to be found by crazy natives that would harvest our organs, or at least blood thirsty monkeys) sweating like maniacs we made it back to town. Took about 4 hours, which felt like 8 in the heat.
The next day we got up early and decided to hide from the heat in a cave all day, which we didn't end up doing at all. Instead we climbed up to the famed monkey temple, where the monkey god, Hanuman was born. This is about 20 minutes straight up stairs, and of course, we decided to do it right at noon (the hottest part of the day). Anyway after sweating our butts off doing that, we went for a swim in a nearby lake and made delicious salads for lunch on a frisbee with a swiss army knife. Gourmet!
Next stop was like the amazing race. We went to the town of Belguam, where An's grandmother was baptized. Her family lived there when the English colonized India. We were searching for clues and talking to people all day trying to find out the address of the house they lived in or school she attended, anything. We found the chapel she was baptized in and found records of baptism at a nearby church, we may have found the house she lived in. We hired a driver for the day to help us on our mission. After we found what we could find, we drove around taking pictures of the town and well..kids. More kids. There are no tourists at all in this place. I don't know why though, the old British architecture and the colours of the houses and buildings are amazing. The market is bustling and has everything you could ever want. We met some friends of our driver and they invited us into their house to see their dogs and have something to drink, the people were so hospitable. They were knocking on doors asking if anyone had information on An's family. The kids totally mobbed us. I felt like Michael Jackson, ripping at our clothes and screaming. There were about 50 of them. All wanting us to take their picture, complete chaos. Got some funny pics.
We left that night to Mumbai. As we pulled into town in our taxi, a guy ran up to the car and asked us if we would like to be extras on a Bollywood set. Ya! It was 8:30 in the morning and we had to be ready to go onset by 9:30 and we still hadn't found a place to stay. After being ripped off by the taxi driver and looking at a few overpriced and gungy hotel rooms we finally settled on something. We showered and ran out the door...Bollywood was waiting. I was thinking this could be my big break (besides the fact I am not Indian and don not speak Hindi). The first four hours were painstaking. Sitting in a small room waiting for our scene. So BOOoooring. The time finally came after lunch. We were actually filming a Yamaha commercial, that will be aired in India at the end of April. An and I both got parts that would probably pay a considerable amount at home. No talking or anything but good cameos. It went something like this: Super hot stud drives by the super hot babe on his shiny Yamaha and then I walk behind him. So does An. It’s so cool! We made 500 Rupees!
Earlier in the day someone spotted us and asked us if we would like to make some more money. More serious coin, I am talking like 1200 rupees. Big money. The job was this: It was fashion week in Mumbai, which is the capital for Bollywood and fashion in India. An and I make ourselves pretty and show up at McDonalds for pick up at 8:30. We are then driven to the posh side of town and asked to pour ourselves into some seriously tight jeans and Perroni beer shirts. The party starts. We are on the red carpet with 2 other "Peronni Angles" (seriously, that's what they were calling us), taking pictures with all of India's hot shots. Fashion designers, Bollywood actors, Models, Athletes...you name it. All the magazines and newspapers were there and there were like 10 camera men taking pictures of us all night. We were instructed to walk around the party, drink free beer and get the photographers to catch us schmoozing with famous people drinking Perroni. Tough job! Anyway as silly as it sounds, we had a blast, met alot of people and even picked up some Indian dance moves. We got home at 2am after a really Loooong day. The next day we slept in and shopped and toured Mumbai all day, then treated ourselves to dinner at an expensive restaurant to reward ourselves for a hard days work.
We flew to Delhi and decided to go to Dharamshala, home of the Dali Lama (who was driven out of Tibet). This town is made up of Tibetan Exiles that have been driven out of their country by the Chinese takeover. Their country has been under Chinese rule since 1949 and no one is doing anything about it. Last night I went to listen to a Tibetan speaker who had spent time in as a political prisoner in Tibet, and has since been driven out to India. The Tibetan Identity is being erased in the schools as the Chinese teach Chinese language and culture. It is even difficult for a Tibetan to even get a job in Tibet, as the Chinese do not hire them. It is really sad, these people are slowly losing their identity. Free Tibet!
This town is up on the side of a mountain and a nice relief from the heat. We are here for a week. We did an 8 hour hike the other day up the Himalayas to a place called Triund. It was hard, straight up the mountain and straight down, with snow covering the last hour up. It was incredible at the top though. The altitude and exercise killed us and we got Tibetan massages last night. I injured my knee in Thailand and am trying acupuncture here; I'm scared that it won’t be better by Kilimanjaro! That’s it for now. Heading back down to Delhi in a couple of days to meet Martin and head to Rajasthan!
Yay!
It was only March 17th the last time I blogged and SO much has happened, grab a cup of coffee, or skim through most of it....
An got sick for a few days in Mamallapuram and we couldn't really do anything, we think it was sunstroke. It was a good time and place for it to happen since we had extra time there anyway. I just swam at the pool, ate fantastic food and spent time with some great people that we met at dinner one night. One in particular was an Indian man by the name of Swamiji. He was born blind and was orphaned at birth, sent from home to home. He is now in his early forties and such an amazing person. He spends his life traveling around India trying to help people in similar situations as himself. He was so interesting to talk to and has a very positive attitude on life. He has done more things in his life blind than many people will probably ever do with eyesight. Including skydiving, driving a car, driving a jet ski, learning how to swim, traveling alone extensively he even won a photography contest once (?!). He has had some serious near death experiences and his stories were just unbelievable. An and I spent allot of time with him in this town, swimming in the pool, out for brekkie and dinner, even helping him write emails and edit poems that he has written. We were lucky to meet him, he was really inspiring. We are still emailing with him and editing poems!
We couldn't get a direct train to Hampi so we ended up spending about 18 hours in Bangalore. Which is the trendiest city in India where all the IT and call centres are. This is where you notice India's revolution. The older generation and in rural areas, all the women wear sari's and most marriages are arranged. Women are married between 16 - 20 (or else there is something wrong with them), have children by 21 and stay home while the husband works. Enter Bangalore. Girls with tank tops on, tattoos, even smoking. Which is SO taboo for a woman here. Barley a sari in sight. There is so much western influence here, there is a McDonalds or Pizza Hut on every corner. Western clothing stores everywhere. An and I took this opportunity to get our western fix. We ate Pizza and Ruby Tuesdays. We even went to a mall and got the worst makeovers ever. We looked like drag queens (see flickr). We were so tired and filthy from being on the overnight train the night before. The plan was to arrive in Bangalore and find a hotel with a pool so we could swim and use the shower to escape the heat. Well one look at us and no hotels let us in. We realized we had become the unsavory characters that we are usually escorting out of our hotels..
An has become the toughest rickshaw negotiator I have met yet. It’s awesome. We know the prices now and what it SHOULD cost to go a certain distance. And we know when someone is trying to rip us off. So here's a scenario: An: "how much to X" Rickshaw Man: "120 Rupees" An: "WHAT?! THAT’S WAAY TO MUCH, COME ON DENISE LET’S GO!" Rickshaw Man: "OK 100!?, how much you pay?" An: (as were walking away) "We'll pay 30, we came here from the bus station yesterday and paid 30!" Rickshaw Man: "OK pay 70" An: "screw this, let’s go find another one" Rickshaw Man: "how much you pay?" An: "40" Rickshaw Man: "OK get in". An huffs and we get in the rickshaw. Repeat every time we need a rickshaw. It’s great because we never get ripped off anymore. One instance sticks out in my head, it was 5am in Pondicherry and the rickshaw driver royally ripped us off. Storming off An says to him "Ya, thanks, really nice welcome to Pondicherry!" Obviously knowing we had been ripped. That was the last time any rickshaw driver would ever hose us. It’s become a joke between us when it comes to rickshaw time we have this "act" down pat. No one messes with us.
We went to Hampi from Bangalore on another night train. We slept like babies, babies with really dirty clothes on and drag queen makeup. Sleeping on a night train is becoming second nature. We try to get the upper bunks for maximum privacy and we never know where our stop is since the train breezes through each town. We make sure to befriend someone local in our cabin and mention where we are getting off. This works like a charm. Every time our stop is coming some friendly Indian wakes us up with enough time to pack up and have a chai tea before de-boarding. Everyone is so helpful, since we are often the only tourists.
So arriving in Hampi was as usual, someone woke us up on the train, negotiated a rickshaw into town etc. We checked into a so-so place and the heat here was unbearable. The town had a desert landscape and climate. The Hampi bazaar (where all the shops, restaurants and guest houses are) lies beside a river, surrounded by huge boulders and ancient temples. It’s quite a sight, with one huge temple overlooking the whole town. There are monkeys and cows everywhere. We were there during low season; it’s just too hot to really enjoy it. After asking around town we took a rickshaw to the edge of a banana plantation and decide to head in and look for these waterfalls. We didn't find any waterfalls but we found a big pool with allot of big slimy boulders in it. It was pretty fun to slip and slide all over the rocks, like slim surfing over them on our bellies. Sounds weird, but it was so fun. We met two guys swimming who were heading back into town the adventurous way...boulder hopping along the river. So we decided to follow, not the greatest idea in flip flops and our survival was questionable at times. We got lost, had to cross a big river, avoided snakes then found ourselves lost in the banana plantation. The banana plantation was huge so we decided to pick a direction and just go with it. Eventually after getting attacked by killer tree thorns and pretending we were in a movie like "touristas" (about to be found by crazy natives that would harvest our organs, or at least blood thirsty monkeys) sweating like maniacs we made it back to town. Took about 4 hours, which felt like 8 in the heat.
The next day we got up early and decided to hide from the heat in a cave all day, which we didn't end up doing at all. Instead we climbed up to the famed monkey temple, where the monkey god, Hanuman was born. This is about 20 minutes straight up stairs, and of course, we decided to do it right at noon (the hottest part of the day). Anyway after sweating our butts off doing that, we went for a swim in a nearby lake and made delicious salads for lunch on a frisbee with a swiss army knife. Gourmet!
Next stop was like the amazing race. We went to the town of Belguam, where An's grandmother was baptized. Her family lived there when the English colonized India. We were searching for clues and talking to people all day trying to find out the address of the house they lived in or school she attended, anything. We found the chapel she was baptized in and found records of baptism at a nearby church, we may have found the house she lived in. We hired a driver for the day to help us on our mission. After we found what we could find, we drove around taking pictures of the town and well..kids. More kids. There are no tourists at all in this place. I don't know why though, the old British architecture and the colours of the houses and buildings are amazing. The market is bustling and has everything you could ever want. We met some friends of our driver and they invited us into their house to see their dogs and have something to drink, the people were so hospitable. They were knocking on doors asking if anyone had information on An's family. The kids totally mobbed us. I felt like Michael Jackson, ripping at our clothes and screaming. There were about 50 of them. All wanting us to take their picture, complete chaos. Got some funny pics.
We left that night to Mumbai. As we pulled into town in our taxi, a guy ran up to the car and asked us if we would like to be extras on a Bollywood set. Ya! It was 8:30 in the morning and we had to be ready to go onset by 9:30 and we still hadn't found a place to stay. After being ripped off by the taxi driver and looking at a few overpriced and gungy hotel rooms we finally settled on something. We showered and ran out the door...Bollywood was waiting. I was thinking this could be my big break (besides the fact I am not Indian and don not speak Hindi). The first four hours were painstaking. Sitting in a small room waiting for our scene. So BOOoooring. The time finally came after lunch. We were actually filming a Yamaha commercial, that will be aired in India at the end of April. An and I both got parts that would probably pay a considerable amount at home. No talking or anything but good cameos. It went something like this: Super hot stud drives by the super hot babe on his shiny Yamaha and then I walk behind him. So does An. It’s so cool! We made 500 Rupees!
Earlier in the day someone spotted us and asked us if we would like to make some more money. More serious coin, I am talking like 1200 rupees. Big money. The job was this: It was fashion week in Mumbai, which is the capital for Bollywood and fashion in India. An and I make ourselves pretty and show up at McDonalds for pick up at 8:30. We are then driven to the posh side of town and asked to pour ourselves into some seriously tight jeans and Perroni beer shirts. The party starts. We are on the red carpet with 2 other "Peronni Angles" (seriously, that's what they were calling us), taking pictures with all of India's hot shots. Fashion designers, Bollywood actors, Models, Athletes...you name it. All the magazines and newspapers were there and there were like 10 camera men taking pictures of us all night. We were instructed to walk around the party, drink free beer and get the photographers to catch us schmoozing with famous people drinking Perroni. Tough job! Anyway as silly as it sounds, we had a blast, met alot of people and even picked up some Indian dance moves. We got home at 2am after a really Loooong day. The next day we slept in and shopped and toured Mumbai all day, then treated ourselves to dinner at an expensive restaurant to reward ourselves for a hard days work.
We flew to Delhi and decided to go to Dharamshala, home of the Dali Lama (who was driven out of Tibet). This town is made up of Tibetan Exiles that have been driven out of their country by the Chinese takeover. Their country has been under Chinese rule since 1949 and no one is doing anything about it. Last night I went to listen to a Tibetan speaker who had spent time in as a political prisoner in Tibet, and has since been driven out to India. The Tibetan Identity is being erased in the schools as the Chinese teach Chinese language and culture. It is even difficult for a Tibetan to even get a job in Tibet, as the Chinese do not hire them. It is really sad, these people are slowly losing their identity. Free Tibet!
This town is up on the side of a mountain and a nice relief from the heat. We are here for a week. We did an 8 hour hike the other day up the Himalayas to a place called Triund. It was hard, straight up the mountain and straight down, with snow covering the last hour up. It was incredible at the top though. The altitude and exercise killed us and we got Tibetan massages last night. I injured my knee in Thailand and am trying acupuncture here; I'm scared that it won’t be better by Kilimanjaro! That’s it for now. Heading back down to Delhi in a couple of days to meet Martin and head to Rajasthan!
Yay!
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