Blogs from Africa - page 3041

Day 2 - 7th September - A wasted journey ? Another very early start without breakfast and we were camped outside the office of the Technical Director of the Malawi Revenue Authority by 7am. He rocked up at 8am and, after a ceremonial washing of hands on his male secretary's desk, we were ushered into his office by the “Smithers” type character. We were pointed towards two very low and very threadbare chairs 5 metres from his presidential desk and Mr Chiumia started the talking. After much nodding and grunting, our man shakes his head. “I am really very sorry for your trouble in driving here from Nkhata Bay, but the office in Mzuzu should have told you that we are no longer able to waive duty on donations for NGOs as they have been abusing ... read more

Zimbabwe was emotional. With mixed feelings about our visit to a country torn apart by a vicious dictator, the decision was at least not ours to make, as our tour ended there. Zimbabwe is in dire need of assistance, but I guess it does not have enough oil, or pose enough threat to be worth any first world intervention. So I guess Mugabe will grow fat and old, untouched, which watching his people suffer and die. Zimbabwe had just revalued their currency a month before we arrived. Prior to this, you needed 20 of their largest banknotes just to make up the equivalent of a US Dollar. It would actually be cheaper to use their money as toilet paper, than buying actual toilet paper! Our tour leader told us of dinners where the bill reached into ... read more

Just spent a week in Egypt at the Red Sea aboard the Grand Sea Serpent, a Tony Backhurst Liveaboard dive boat. A group of 22 people from the dive club went and dived reefs from Elphinestone down to St Johns! I managed to do all the dives offered - waking up at 6am for a briefing and on the busy days doing 4 dives a day. Schedule was Sleep - dive brief- dive - eat -Sleep - dive brief- dive -Sleep - dive brief- dive -Sleep - dive brief- dive..... Slightly exhausting but all good! The last dive was my favourite, we saw a sea horse, guitar sharks, turtles, and a dugong!!! Great fun! I dived with Graham most of the week, which was interesting! My favourite buddy however was probably Jan - we did a ... read more

Sooooo I am HERE!! It is ridiculous - I still feel like the full gravity of the fact that I am in Ghana has not yet hit me. So quick run through of what I have been up to: arrived in Accra on Friday night (it is dark outside by 6:30 pm each night) and made it through customs easily to be greeted by Aunty Nana, our academic director. Then we went to a hostel in Accra for food and introductions and sleep. The very next morning we loaded up on a bus (about 16 of us) and drove the 3 hours to Cape Coast, our home away from home. The first few nights in Cape Coast we stayed at Jacaranda Guest House which was... interesting. My roomie (Jocelyn from Carleton) and I picked out what ... read more

Lake Naivasha and orphanage at Gilgil. Today was a mental day! Our heads were spinning. Up at dawn for a quick Denford brekkie (fried egg toasted sarnies and fruit salad, just the thing) and then back on the boat heading across Lake Naivasha, past the same group of hippos and spotting the same fish eagles sitting up in the treetops. This time we crossed the lake right to the other side and with our guides disembarked onto a beach to begin our walking safari in a national park. It felt like Jurassic Park! There were storks and pelicans on the beach and as we walked into the park area we gradually saw various impala, Thompsosn's gazelles, other antelope type things, and before long herds of zebra. Everyone was very excited and it really was the perfect ... read more