Blogs from Africa - page 17

After getting some recommendations from my tour guide, once I finished the tour in Cairo I decided to head for the Red Sea and some relaxation. A holiday within a holiday! I think Africa is going to be tiring, and that is starting in about five days, so why not some beach time first? On Saturday night our group had a last dinner (and sheesha) together in Cairo in the bar upstairs at the hotel. Then I figured I should book what I was doing from there, so I got online and booked a return flight with Egyptair to Sharm El Sheikh, planning about five days in Dahab. Originally I wasn't going to go anywhere near Sinai because there have been some tourist kidnappings in the area, even off the road between Taba and Dahab. But ... read more

25 mars J'embarque dans le bus CTM à midi en direction d'Agadir, station balnéaire importante du Maroc. J'ai un petit sac de pistaches dans une main et mon lecteur MP3 essoufflé dans l'autre; c'est qu'il y a presqu'un sept heure de route qui me sépare d'Agadir. Le voyage, c'est aussi les nombreuses heures de bus accumulées! Je prend place sur mon banc inclinable, avoisinant celui d'un vieux bouc aux yeux couleur impairs. La barbichette prend beaucoup de place à mes côtés. Il s'étire, s'allonge et s'accapare notre accoudoir commun. Je suis collé à ma fenêtre alors que lui lit son journal en tournant bruyamment les pages froissées avec ses sabots. Bon. Et voilà maintenant que son museau poilu renifle sans arrêt. "Ça doit être difficile de respirer avec tout ce poil au fond des narines" que ... read more

So – Monday in Freetown! Mark and I headed out to seek out more accommodation for the international runners to stay in the night before they head home. In the evening we headed to the Hash – The Drinking Club with a Running Problem. Apparently there are Hash Harrier groups all over the world, and seeing as they are all keen runners, we thought they were a prime target for our marathon promotion. What an amazing experience! So there are runners and walkers, and for totally social reasons (yeah right!) I joined the walkers group so I could chat to people. Every week they start in a different location. The runners have trails left out for them and the walkers have a leader. Halfway around, someone has carefully planned a water stop (cold water!) and we ... read more

Siteki, Swaziland - Dr. Pons works through the Good Shepherd Hospital - a nominally Catholic Institution that is now largely funded with government funds. He has support from CBM as well (a European/Canadian-based eye care mission). This is where most of our clinical work was done - working in the clinic on Wednesday and Friday, with a day of surgery on Thursday.... read more

24-25 mars Avec ses 79 000 habitants, Ouarzazate est la plus grande ville de la région. Les touristes y affluent pour s'y booker des tours de jeep ou de dromadaire dans les dunes d'Erg Chigaga un peu plus au sud. Devant moi, des bus de tours organisés ou des 4X4 passent mollement, les uns après les autres, sur la rue principale Mohammed V (encore) pendant que je mange un croissant à "La Vache qui Rit" sur une terrasse ensoleillée. Les commerçants et les restaurateurs deviennent vos amis très rapidement ici: "Vous êtes français?", "Canada Québec?", "Belle montre!", "Quelle marque votre casquette?" ... Toutes les techniques sont bonnes pour attirer les acheteurs potentiels dans les cavernes d'Ali Baba des détaillants de cossins. C'est que la concurrence est forte ici. Quelques bronzés arrivent à tour de rôle depuis ... read more

After a day of relaxing (and eating) in Amman last week, I got a taxi to the airport and caught a Royal Jordanian flight to Cairo. I'd booked an eight-day tour, but had a day before it started so spent my free day sleeping, visiting a papyrus factory and basically just trying to absorb the craziness that is the city of Cairo. First impressions? There is some beautiful architecture and the traffic is nuts. From my eighth floor hotel room I got a very far distant view of the pyramids, which was kind of exciting even if they just looked like tiny paperweights from where I was standing. The next day my roommate, a girl from Korea arrived, and we joined up with the rest of our group - three Aussie and one Swiss guy, to ... read more

Week 2 has been interesting. It started with a drive round the marathon course – it is pretty amazing. Everyone in the villages had big smiles for us and waved. They were happy to hear the marathon would be returning. A Red Cross vehicle drove us around, with three seats in the front where I was making notes and taking photos furiously. Ibrahim from the Red Cross was driving and Mark was reading directions from the laptop. Emma was in the back of the truck in charge of mile photos. The course is amazing and it is making the marathon seem even more real. The following day, I went to one of the mining camps to ... read more