Blogs from Africa - page 2988

I spent the last 2 weeks of my trip in Zanzibar. Mostly as a guest of the president’s son, but that’s a whole other story and probably not as exciting as it sounds. Stone Town, is as you would expect, a winding maze of whitewashed streets full of women swathed in black robes and bright kanga head scarves, along with men in square hats pushing bikes. As the women saunter through the narrow streets you can’t help but be mesmerized by what you can see - just their alluring eyes peeking out through the black hijab. However it’s also a place full of honeymoon couples and groups of Italian tourists emjoying the luxury of 5 star hotels. Out of Africa indeed. I’ve been on the back of a pharmacists’put-putting piki piki as it swerves through narrow ... read more

The Village Road Show After the success of the public education and demonstration day (see “sunshine at night”) the group decided that a trip out to some of the villages was absolutely essential to see if the demand they are sure exists is as massive as they believe. The group had already met many people from the villages who told them that their “ASER” (Association Sénégalese pour l’Electrification Rurale) solar batteries no longer worked and that no one was responding to their requests for help maintenance. The panels being made by the group are not designed to replace these “Solar Home Systems - SHS” but it gave them a good idea of what to expect in terms of perceptions of solar. Comes back to what I’d seen in other villages - a poorly implemented solar scheme ... read more

So the airline lost our luggage--didn't lose it exactly as much as decided not to bring it on the plane because it was so hot that the plane with everyone's luggage was too heavy to take off. They left 70 pieces of luggage behind however they did not tell us this until the plane had landed. Luckily we had packed some extra clothing in our carry on bags. We stayed at Capetown Hollow right next to the planetarium and found it to be very convient for everything that we wanted to see and do. With so much to choose from we decided to get the Capetown pass which we highly recommend to anyone travelling in the area on a budget. It gave us free admission to most attractions and discounts for most others. ... read more

Let's play safari jeopardy! You know the game. What are the correct questions to the following answers? 1) Wildebeest Tail 2) Leopard and 3) Pink Flamingos. Questions are provided at the end of the blog! The week of October 30th was spent on safari with the Safari Chicas: Sheila, Janet and Kim and what a special time! We can proudly say that we have all seen in the wild Africa's Big Five: elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard. The latter being the most illusive and we were blessed to see two! Our certificates are in the mail! We also enjoyed seeing giraffe grazing on trees, wildebeest & zebra grazing on the plains, hippos snorting, vultures eating, crockodiles sunbathing, baboons grooming, and elephants racing. We also saw jackals, hyenas, monkeys and several species of gazelle and deer ... read more

La Lutte “La Lutte” has several meanings in French - it’s often used to signify a “struggle” or “fight”, as in “the fight against poverty”. When it comes to traditional wrestling though, La Lutte surely has to mean the struggle the largely female audience has to contain itself. Picture in your mind those well-screened images of screaming women (and men), beating their own heads in hysteria as John, Paul, George and Ringo played inaudibly on a stage in the middle of a stadium somewhere in the states. Now dress the audience in colourful sparkling robes and dresses and dim the lights to near darkness. Add a deafening rhythm from 10 drums, strip the Beatles down to their underpants (no, actually take off their pants and give them some hot pants and a thong), put them on ... read more