http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Into_East_Africa/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Into_East_Africa en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:07:34 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:07:34 +0000 On Monday February 18th I was beginning my last week of work at Monkey Bay Community Hospital and preparing to leave Malawi. That same day I found out that a few days earlier another Joanna arrived. Deborah who I worked with in the Pharmacy department had given birth to a baby girl and named her after me. I feel pretty honoured I now have a great excuse to go back to Malawi i'll have t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-250338.html Lots has happened in the past week. I have had good times that have been extremely good and bad times that have been extremely bad. I first had my birthday. My 29th in Malawi. I had a wonderful day. It started with a soda on the Chancy Maples floating bar watching baboons that were fighting on the rocks. I had a great Malawian lunch at a local pub next to the hospital I swam and snorke http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-243817.html Female circumcision. A horrific procedure. In Njobvu village Malawi it has been replaced by the egg tradition. When a girl reachers 10 yrs of age her mother attempts to insert and egg inside of her. She keeps doing this until she is successful at which point the girl is considered a woman. This is just one of the traditions that we learned of during our visit to Njobu cultural village las http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/blog-241050.html It's been a while Computers and transport have both been failing me lately. We have 3 vehicles a minibus and 2 landrovers and we seem to be lucky if we have even one that is working. I'll be quick this time because last week I typed my entry but the network crashed just before I was able to publish it.As always all is well. I am here in Lilongwe for a day. A few of us came here to see my http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/blog-238306.html A Meeting with SoldierFor those of you who know me and my appearances on stage at Cirque de Soleil dueling Piano bars Travis concerts the like you will not be surprised when I tell you that we ended up on stage at the Lucius Banda concert dancing with the lsquosoldierrsquo himself. The story of how this happened is long so Irsquoll save it for now but I WILL say it was a fun night http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-236450.html The Inconvenient CentipedeOn the way home from Mangochi email town last week we suddenly heard our driver Watipa utter lsquoshtrsquo before notveryslowly pulling our Toyota minibus to a stop. There was a centipede of the poisonous variety on the dashboard. The word lsquocentipedersquo does not do this thing justice. It had 100 legs but they were by no means close together ca http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-232534.html Christmas in Malawi Monday 24th Dec presentMy christmas in Malawi 8pm Christmas Eve 4am Christmas Day Venice Beach Malawi yes you heard me right. We drank Kuche Kuche and once again tried to dance to Malawian music.Christmas Morning I opened my present thanks mum and dad with the help of the 3 other volunteers we were sharing the love. I followed this up with a wee dip in La http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-231053.html lsquoIf the shoe fitsrsquo or even if it doesnrsquot Friday 21st Dec.The lsquoMTO attackersrsquo first big match was on African time starting an hour late with a first half of 30 minutes and a second half of 1 hour 10 minutes. The game ended with the other team walking off as they disagreed with a decision made by the ref who was from their team. African logic Final score wa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-231039.html ldquoGod Is Taking Picturesrdquo this is what the Malawians say when lightening strikes. I guess god has been rather busy with his camera lately because there has been a LOT of lightening. The rainy season has kicked in. This brings with it an even larger number of bugs than usual. There have been nights when we have wanted to go outside to see a storm but we have been unable to open the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-228795.html Here in Malawi I have already given up on asking people what their real names are. I met Cruiser Mr B Coffee Phonics this weekend in Cape Maclear. Our cook is called Computer. Our driver is called Gift. A colleague of mine is called Massage. Itrsquos true what they say Malawians ARE the friendliest people. I have been made to feel so welcome my first week here. I have already had s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-227033.html Camping Corruption on the Ssese IslandsNote to self when in Africa keep your eye on your phone. It was bound to happen at some point. For those of you who know me I have lost my phone in every way you can imagine plus more. Irsquove also been lucky enough to get it back almost every time. This time I lsquolostrsquo my phone on the Ssese Islands. I was informed by a call from a fr http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/blog-218194.html Who ate all that chickenIt certainly wasnrsquot me. Perhaps it was Jennifer Full Figure who we saw live in concert last weekend along with several other singers with equally original names. Why am I talking about a chicken Yesterday as Josephine officially moved into her new home she bestowed upon us the great honor of being given a chicken. Considering my recent return to vegetariani http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/blog-217598.html Hi all. So sorry it's just pics this time. Computer just crashed and i lost my text. Not sure how electricity will go the next few days so wanted to at least let you know i'm alive and well Will update you all soonjoanna x http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Entebbe/blog-213908.html I spoke too soon when I said we have fortunately not been without water and electricity at the same time. If the past week is anything to go by we are going to be very lucky to have water or electricity at all. If water comes on we all head for the showers immediately and if the electricity comes on we all charge our batteries and head down to the internet place which I just did.Twagala kuk http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Entebbe/blog-212817.html I am feeling extremely refreshed as I write this. Refreshed but exhausted. I just had a shower after two days of having no water. We have been working out in the field for most of this week so this was not the best time to have no water. It has been off a few times already since Irsquove been here as has the electricity which was also off for almost two days. Thankfully these two events http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-209456.html My first entry from Uganda from a very small town called Kyotera pronounced something like choetera. My travels went smoothly. I arrived in Entebbe on Monday morning along with the whole of the Ugandan national rugby team and their extra large Africa cup trophy that they had just won. I was met by James the director of Rakai Children's Trust and a fellow volunteer. We then went into c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Entebbe/blog-207956.html Tutakumiss Arusha I will miss you Arusha in Swanglish.I wrote this diary entry while lying in a hammock by the Indian Ocean at Paradise Beach Bungalows Paje beach Zanzibar. I am typing it back in our house in Arusha on my last day here. I had a wonderful time in Zanzibar with my friends Amy and Aimee. We spent a few days in Stone Town before heading to the East coast for a few days on t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Arusha/blog-206678.html My good friend Paulo sitting next to a slaughtered goat in his full Maasai gear scooping out the blood with both hands and drinking it with blood all over his face and hands. I think I'm comfortable with it now but at the time you can imagine how shocked I was.I'm really running out of time here in Tanzania but wanted to update you on my weekend and pretty much everything in general becaus http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Arusha/blog-204032.html Hi all Sorry it's been a while I've been having problems with computer access recently because we've been having a lot of powercuts. I wanted to at least try and update you before the weekend though incase I never return. I am off to visit the home of a couple of my friends. These would happen to be my Maasai friends Paulo and his brother Moses. To be honest I am not yet sure exactly http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Arusha/blog-200282.html Which guinea pig would you like for dinnerI have to be honest I would prefer not to have one at all if you donrsquot mind. What about a box to take away Oh thank you so much but Irsquom actually quite full right now. Guinea pig would not be my first pick off the menuhellip.especially after having seen them run free around my hostrsquos house for half an hour. It was nice to be off http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Arusha/blog-197068.html