Blogs from Africa - page 3207

2-21-06 the problem with big adventures is that I’m so tired after them I don’t get around to writing about them for awhile, after I’ve recuperated a little and forgotten some more. We went to Yussef’s mom’s village, Konni Kayne, it should take ‘bout 15 minutes outside of Niamey. If all goes well that is. We left here surprisingly early considering how long it takes me to get up and out. We took a van to kwarra tegi and walked to "presque" the end of the city where the bush taxis take people out and beyond. We bought provisions and goodies for the day; tonko(peppers) albasan(onions) savon(soap), omo(another kind of soap), alumettes(matches), spiga(spaghetti) two galette sandwiches, bean curd deep fried in oil in a bed of bread with hot sauce. We saved two seats in a ... read more

After my not so safe experience with the 1st tour company for a 2 day Safari, I decided I definitely didn't want to go up the mountain with them for 5 days. So I went to the company I originally planned to go up with and we sat down the morning I was supposed to climb and to plan my trip up. I was hoping that I could be added to a group that was already going up to save money, but they didn't have any others. I explained to the owner, who I call 'Big brother' that he had to send me up with safety as a priority. That was no problem for him so called up a guide with 6 years of experience as a guide and 2 porters and a cook. The basics ... read more

So There I was at my secend border post in three days wondering what lay ahead of me and after handing over my GBP35 I returned to the bus eagerly awaiting the next country on my list of countries. I waited on the bus some more. And abit more. Just to make sure we weren't in a hurry immigratrion kept us waiting some more. After two hours we were on our way for the last two hours of the journey to the adventure sports capital of the world and home of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls. I got there about 1 in the afternoon and after booking into Jolleyboys I went out into Zambia to do some shopping and too see what Zambia was like. I now knew that I ... read more

We drove back to a clearing of plains where the toilets were and ran into a group of Masai herdsmen on the way back to the truck. I am not sure how they feel about us, but I get the strangest feelings around them. It's weird how they aggressively come up to you asking you to take pictures of them or with them. Over time, with so many tourists taken unwanted pictures of them, they've adapted and now spend a good bit of time accommodating and even invited tourists. who can blame them though. Being pushed steadily from the land they called home for centuries further and further over time by the govenrment in an effort to preserve and use their land as 'national parks' for tourists to gather. It seems natural that they'd have ... read more

Hey all. Hmmm...soo what to talk about? Well first off, walked our a bit this morning. I'll put picture down below at the end. More importantly, second day of programming went well. I love these kids. And the yesteday night we came up with our usual convoluted craziness -I just helped a little. Our movie as witches and vampires, a president -not Bush, soccer players and karate folk, and divas. Oh and a student. Things are a little difficult with the language barrier but the kids are soo good about it and they all support each other. They also make fun of our accent...lol. But hey -everyone has an accent. After our programming today we went to dinner at a place called Greens -think trendy LA spot . Needless to say I was over it. LOL. ... read more