Blogs from Africa - page 2718

There is something that doesn’t feel quite right as I sit in my house in Nairobi, Kenya with my little electric heater blowing warm air onto me while I am dressed like it is October in West Virginia. What happened to the Kenya that I imagined that would leave me sweating and wishing for an air conditioner? Maybe the imagining part is where I went wrong. I imagined I would live here and serve orphans and see sunny skies each day along the way. The weather changes just as the moods and scenes do, with frequency. Time and events seem to pile into a jumbled heap as the days speed by. I am a lucky girl who gets to go to America annually and escape the pressures of African life. It is bliss having leisure time ... read more

To keep this short- people are waiting to use the computers, I'll be brief- just come to the presentation in September. Queen Elizabeth was exhausting but loads of fun. We spent our days (early early days) tracking lions and our evenings calling for hyenas- resulting in very little sleep. We did manage to see 3 aardvarks (very rare- apparently we'll live to be 300 now) and had 6 or 7 leopard sightings (coming out of the woodwork for us). We were allowed to go off road, so we were able to get close to elephants (not too close), kob (antelope-like), buffalo, and warthogs (very habituated). Jeff almost got attacked by some research mongooses (no one was hurt). Andrew was also hit by a bird (go figure). Vet stuff: we got to do a couple of post ... read more

I decided long before arriving in Rwanda that I would travel to Uganda for a while during my four months in Africa. I had planned to travel here some time in July, but as any traveler knows things change, so here I am in Uganda in late June. I have so many things to say, so many stories to tell, I don't know when to start. But as a wise person once said, "Beginnings are delicate times, so when telling a story, always start at the beginning. Put everything and everyone in their place, and move forward from there." So to the beginning we go, though it may not be the best part. 0430 Friday, 22nd of June I drag my sorry butt out of bed to the horrendous clangor of my cell phone's alarm. Rubbing ... read more

I have been sick as of late but this has afforded some personal reading time. I finished the Sun also rises by Ernest Hemingway and there is one line in the novel that is poignant to my experience in Africa. Mike is asked how he became a bankrupt and his response is 'gradually then suddenly'. This quote applies to so much of what I am going through: my understanding of development, language and Ghana in general. I am slowly seeing myself change my perspective but it has been slow and upon reflection I see how much I have grown. I spent one week on in a rural village on a farm in one of the poorer districts. Despite all the hardships the farmer, Gmaden (pronounced Mada) is extremely successful. He has three wives and 27 children ... read more

The fish eagle's cry. A peregrine falcon meticulously plucking and eating his breakfast of what appears to be a wader of some description, given the length of avian legs hanging off the branch. The self-important chattering of a giant kingfisher as it takes up its perch on the dead tree near the Lake shore... but only once the falcon has vacated the premises. A bearded scrub-robin hammering the local ant population, with our vocal encouragement. A slender mongoose with his reptilian breakfast hanging out either side of his mouth. The dassies among the rocks, playing peek-a-boo with the visiting humans. Iridescent-coloured skinks scuttling around the paths and rocks, their progress suddenly frozen when a human appears. A briefly-glimpsed otter. The ever-entertaining antics of a troop of vervet monkeys playing in the trees and bushes, their ... read more