Blogs from Africa - page 3208

Northern Ethiopia is all about living history -- mostly the ancient living history of Orthodox Christianity. We made a big bus loop through the north visiting all the main hitoric sites. The roads are horrific and the buses are hot, slow, and unreliable, but it is well worth the hassle. Here are some of the key stops. The Islands of Lake Tana Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile, and home of the most gargantuan pelicans you've ever seen. The lake is dotted with lush little island peaks, each one with its own ancient monastery. Most have been in active use for the past 5 or 6 centuries. Each island has a tiny community of monks and a priest who keep the place running, study their Ge'ez (Ethiopia's equivalent to Latin), and show tourists ... read more

Feeling quite upset about having to leave my family. I know I have alot of support from friends and family but somehow 365 days still seems like a longtime. 2 helicopters crashed last week with 10 deaths and 2 survivors. Obviously that upsets the family. I look at it as my 1st Jagman on a long journey. Jeff asked if I was going to find Osama and what a hero and millionaire I would be if I found and killed him. I told him chances were sllim to none since I wouldn't be leaving the camp but it would be amazing if he were found while I was out there. Love and miss everyone and geginnign to count down the days. Ramona... read more

Monday Morning- YMCA canteen My new friends and I had breakfast at the Y this morning and excitedly talked about how nice our trip would be. We hoped that since it took so much time and energy to plan that it would pay off in a great Safari trip. The problem that most people encounter with safaris is that the animals don't make the same plans to see YOU! So you may or may not see as many depending on weather, dry season and migration. But anyhow, we were amped and ready to see the BIG FIVE. (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Buffalo) We started out our day late, with much preparation at the Safari Co. office. We had to pay our balance and wait while they packed equipment, shopped for food and picked up the ... read more

Well, it is about 11:00 PM here and we are in the middle of writing our script. It's our first full day in South Africa and we started by shopping at Woolworth's. We then headed to our production offices sponsored by Enigma Films (a South African production company). Our programming started today at James House. We worked with 19 kids -and we might get 1 more tomorrow. That's a lot for our program. And they all had hard to pronounce names with clicks and all! According to them, I look like Lucy Liu and Nichole looks like J-Lo. LOL. That's hilarious. The drive down to Hout Bay which is where James house is is absolutely beautiful. You either see the beautiful ocean or Table Mountain. Hout Bay which I take to be somewhat of a suburb ... read more

We have been in South Africa for almost a week now. In Johannesburg we stayed at a hostel right around the corner from the airport, so we didn't actually see too much of that city....which is alright, seeing as how it's plagued by rampant crime and car-jackings (at least that's what the news focuses on). We decided not to take the hop-on, hop-off bus option (Baz Bus) this time, and instead opted for more freedom with a car rental. Interesting -- on the "car safety" pamphlet they gave us there are specific precautions to avoid car-jacking. This is too bad, because hitchhiking seems to be one of the main modes of transport for much of the country. People stand by the side of the road and wait for either a minibus taxi or another car to ... read more