Blogs from Africa - page 2725

We woke up very refreshed around 10am, got ready for a day in the city getting our Sudanese visas, exchanging money and purchasing supplies for the journey to Adjumani, Uganda and Kajo Keji, Sudan. It took most of the day to accomplish this because of the heavy traffic, slow pace of life and minor setbacks. We cruised back to Susan’s place for an evening of fun with children. We played with them for hours and it was joyous see smiles on their faces. I was super tired so I turned in early.... read more

Just a quick note: I did send already an update including the 16th of June from Iringa (Tanzania), but it was just a quick one while at the internet cafee. The connections are usually very slow. I usually write our blog updates whenever I have electricity at a campsite and upload it including some pictures I have made smaller on my laptop the next time I have access to the internet. So don’t be surprised if the date of sending is later than the blog itself. All in all we are fine and healthy and full of good spirit. Thanks all our friends worldwide (!) to send us all your good wishes. Please excuse when we do not answer individually, as Internet Cafees in Africa are at yesterdays speed and it would take hours to ... read more

Last week was Paul's 7th birthday party which was very cute! After waiting around for 8 hours for my host dad to pick me up from the town ("I'll be in there in 20 minutes!" yeh sure...), i arrived after dark and found that they had waited for me. All the kids rushed into our house and we sat around handing out this sort of breadish-cake, popcorn, and cordial. All the kids were so excited to get the food even though it wasn't alot since there were so many kids. Paul was given a few birthday presents (a tennis ball and sunnies), and he was so happy with them. Other than that, not much to report from Saikeri - There was the sports knock out competition last week and Saikeri Primary won the football after ... read more

Stepping out from Leopold Senghor airport in mid afternoon is like diving in a stock-pot in which stew of piranha is being prepared: if you survive the high temperature, then the taxi drivers/piranhas will eat you alive! Had I been on my own -a white man apparently at lost- I could have understood the furious onslaught from the eager taxi drivers, but that this could happen when accompanied by a local went beyond my darker fears. Hamsa, met in the short Praia-Dakar flight, negotiated in wolof with the crowd of taxi drivers while keeping an eye on the baggage and protecting me with an arm from the most audacious attackers. A scene of unparalleled mercantile fury to which I couldn’t wait to withdraw from. Maybe in an attempt to compensate the country little edifying image ... read more

So our days of building have come to an end. We left our village of Mvae last Friday and met up again with all the volunteers from the other camp and new volunteers who had just arrived in from Dar es Salaam. Had a fantastic night catching up with everyone before we all went our separate ways, even managed to make it to a night club which was basically a big barn with ALOT of strobe lighting! Great night had by everyone, though we were all a little tired on Saturday, our last day in Singida. It was very strange saying goodbye to people with whom we had lived in such close quarters for a month. Sunday morning at 5am we hauled ourselves to the bus station to take the most insane bus journey of my ... read more