Blogs from Africa - page 3317

A cheap night (2 euros) at Hotel Al Atlas, Dakhla. A whole morning at Hotel Sahara waiting for my ride to Nouadhibou (Mauritania). To eat, nothing but bread and water. My last dirhams were just enough to pay for the fare. At 3pm a kind soul took my bags and I to the police check point outside Dakhla. By the road I waited, and waited, and waited. I had a ride but not the money demanded by the driver, a cheeky young Mauritanian with whom I didn't want to travel. One of the policemen took over the situation. He promised me to find someone willing to take me for the dh 200 I had. Around 6pm a tall gentleman arrived, the ceaseless wind blowing his blue-sky robe against the setting sun. He accepted my price. Furious, ... read more

First, I apologize for the length of time since the last blog. As a result this will be a long blog, with 41 photos. In the last couple of weeks I've flown from Cameroun, stayed in J'burg (Josie), Tshwane (Pretoria), the Kruger National Park, the Drakensburg and other places. I also rented a car for 10 days which managed to break down twice. More of that later. And, yes I've enjoyed myself. Getting off the plane in J'burg (Josie) was a shock after months in West Africa. The roads were tarred. The electric doesn't cut out without warning, and all the rooms in cheap hotels and guest houses have flush toilets and proper showers. In fact, it felt like I had left Africa! The city has all the first world comforts you could desire including flash ... read more

So it’s time for me to explain a little bit about what exactly I’m doing here in Ghana. It all started last September when I ran for an executive position with Engineers without Borders at McGill. Engineers without Borders(EWB) is a Nationwide club that seeks to share knowledge and education regarding development work, particularly in regards to technology. Part of their mission is raise funds to send university students overseas each summer to work for 4 months in a developing country, usually through partnering with a local Non-Governmental Organization(NGO). The idea is to hopefully provide these students with the opportunity to have small impact on the community that they are working in but more importantly to give them first hand experiences that they can use to relate to people back in Canada who have never had ... read more

My days in the Maghreb drew to a close. Mixed feelings. Anxiety - what lies beyond? Nostalgia - will this country ever leave me? Hurry - when will I get to Kenya? At Hotel Smara, just off the ramparts, Julie and Geraldine - two frenchgirls I met in Marrakech - waited for me. Despite the grey sky, they had good news. They'd met a nice moroccan guy who invited us for tea at a friend's restaurant. His name was Hassan. Craftsmanship was in his blood. Son of an artisan, he personified all I'd read about Africa. Tradition, heritage, tradition. He introduced us to the Gnawa Music. Rituals, soul and physical healing, trances. Animism, voodoo, capoeira? Perhaps. Its more inteligible facet being the Essaouira's Gnawa Festival. Held every year around the 26th June, it takes over squares ... read more

Hi Guys For those of you just want a quick update of how we're doing, here's the RAG status!!! Finance = Green Fitness = Amber Relationship = Green Arguments = Zero Here we are in sunny Cape Town - we can say this today but it has been a little wet over the past couple of days! Not that is has stopped us doing anything (except getting up Table Mountain), we've still done all the other things we wanted to do. So what to say about Cape Town? We do really like it here. It took us a couple of days to find our feet and feel safe but so far we haven't had any problems (famous last words!). The appartment we are staying in is great although we have no lock on our patio door. ... read more