Blogs from Africa - page 3057

Well it's been another two weeks in the village and not a whole lot has changed. Since the kids are out of school I mostly pass my time playing football with the boys, going to the well (it has not rained in some time), napping, working out using the jerrycans of sweety water, and finally, helping out with some of the construction that needs to be done. There is a lot that needs to be built and I would like to leave something solid and useful behind before I leave. Our first project is building a platform for one of the water containers using bricks and concrete. With any luck it should be done sometime before 2007. While I have noticed travelling through Africa and other parts of the world how much workers rest and how ... read more

Labe was a pretty nice town. Everyone had little motorcycles, and that was the main way to get around. We would hire two when we wanted to get anywhere and it usually worked out, although one time one took me to the wrong hotel and Alex was there worried when I didn't arrive. They had a pretty good market full of clothes that come in huge shipment containers from American Goodwill....all the Goodwill rejects are available for purchase over here. You see a lot of funny shirts... shirts with weird slogans, old mission trip or family reunion shirts and shirts with bands that I vaguely remember. Oh and in case you were wondering what happened to all the billboards in America once they are taken down... they are actually all here too, because they are a ... read more

Friday morning we flew Air Mauritius from Mauritius to Johannesburg International. We arrived at our hotel around 1:30pm which was close to the airport. We then headed to a large shopping mall where we spent the afternoon after a meal at Nando's restaurantant. The mall had over 250 stores and was quite nice. We were quite impressed with the infrastructure in Johannesburg especially with their motorways. After a quick pizza dinnner we headed back to the hotel for a early night. Saturday morning we headed on a tour of Johannesburg. First we visited downtown which was interesting. Numerous times our tour guide told us to keep the cameras and video camera down as we were going through rough areas. He mentioned they will break the glass if they see valuables at a traffic light. There were ... read more

Hey everyone! I'm visiting Conakry for my last chance to use internet until the end of September. So far the city has lots of large but dilapidated buildings, muddy streets, and cars with crazy drivers and no traffic laws. We had the rare opportuinty to go to a European supermarket where I got real cheese and yogurt!! (though it cost me a week's pay) I had fun in Labe on the rest of my site visit. Labe has a huge market that I wandered in for hours before buying some local jewelry and fabric. It is set up like a labarynth of stalls and narrow aisles, mostly covered with scrap tin that keeps most of the rain out. You can find almost anything you need there, if you spend enough time dodging crowds, pickpockets, and mudpuddles. ... read more

I am happily exhausted. Guillaume, Derique, and my mosquitoes have welcomed me back into my home. I spent the entire past week entertaining fifty girls, 10-14 years old, in Porto Novo, Benin. I have a t-shirt to prove it. I love that age group, and I had so much fun translating time-killing games and playing endlessly. Follow-the-leader, Simon Says, Heads-up, Seven-up, Charades, we even translated the B-I-N-G-O song. Aïchath, Elisabeth, Gisele, Imelda, and I left Sunday, July 2, for Camp GLOW. We had to wait for a taxi- the chauffeur I had found did not arrive, so I had to track down another automobile. The car ride was wonderful. Only one of the girls had been to Cotonou, and only barely at that, so I often heard, “Are we there yet? How much farther? Where are ... read more