Blogs from Africa - page 2970

Early Tuesday morning I met the group for my seventy one day tour going from Nairobi, Kenya to Cape Town, South Africa. Had a late start as some people needed to do banking in order to change travellers cheques into US dollars for kitty payment. Once on the road, our first stop was a visit to Sheldricks Elephant orphanage. The organization is on a large area of land & they rehabilitate orphaned elephants & rhinos before releasing them into the wild. Their costs are funded through donors & you can sponsor your own elephant for around US$50- per year. The little ellies were fun to watch as the keepers fed them & they played soccer together & frolicked in the mud. Made a short stop overlooking the Rift Valley, which goes for thousands of kilometres. Onto ... read more

We’re off and running! It was a 4am start to get to Manchester for the flight down to Heathrow. We were both still feeling the effects of a little get together we had on Saturday night - thank you everyone who turned up and got rip-roaringly drunk with us until 4.30am the following morning. We got some breakfast at the airport before catching the commuter jet into Heathrow. We got there with plenty of time spare to do a bit of shopping and grab a glass of wine. Fi had been quite nervous and excited and found a perfect, if unusual stress toy in a mandarin, which she kept all the way to Kenya (strange girl) We boarded the BA flight to Nairobi on time, but then spent the next hour waiting on the tarmac while ... read more

Somehow, this entire semester is almost over. This is our last full week, our last week of class, our last week of internships. We have just a week left in Namibia, and I'm pretty much freaking out about having to leave. I really love this country. Like a lot. And I can't believe that the time flew by so quickly. Right now the only consolations are the fact that I don't have to leave these people yet, we still have 10 days together in Cape Town after we leave that promise to be an absolute blast, and I'll routinely be able to drop in conversations, "Back when I was in Nam..." All the bumper stickers and abbreviations for Namibia are Nam, which I find funny. This has been one of the easiest semesters I've ever had...I ... read more

Alright guys, this will be my last posting for awhile. Tomorrow Shona and I are getting up at the crack of dawn (before the crack actually... boooooo) to catch our bus to Port Elizabeth. Apparently we cant drive into the reserve at night so we're actually staying the night in PE and then into Kuwantu the next morning. And of course tonight we DANCE! :o) Lima posted a comment remarking on the "homesickies" which i found quite hiliarious... i do wish they would just go home! I'm getting a little tired of all the b*tching and moaning... but at the same time, i try to be patient with them. I just cant relate i guess! I'm glad I left all you suckers behind!!! Just kidding of course :o) I'm at the SASTS office right now because ... read more

Korsimoro, 14-11-’06 20:19 Afrika is enigszins een cultuurschok; niet zo vreemd. Ouagadougou is een drukke vieze miljoenenstad vol met mensen die je naroepen of aanspreken omdat ze iets van je willen omdat je blank bent. Soms puur vriendelijk, soms eerst vriendelijk om je daarna om geld te vragen. Als een ober na betaling om je nummer vraagt, betekend dat gewoon dat hij graag een contactpersoon in Europa wil hebben. Gesprekken gaan al gauw over de oneerlijke situatie in de wereld en wat de mogelijkheden voor hen in Europa zijn, voor bijvoorbeeld een master/aio plaats of een optreden op een festival. Toch lijdt de gemoedstoestand van de Burkinabé er niet onder. Er wordt veel gelachen en er heerst een prettig straatleven. Dan is er de cultuurschok tussen Ouaga en Korsimoro; een plaatsje van 5.000 inwoners aan een ... read more