Blogs from Africa - page 3327

Africa » Ghana » Greater Accra » Accra March 26th 2005

I've been taking it easy for the past week, spending a lot of time in Accra, with trips to Lake Volta and Kokrobite. Lake Volta is the largest man made lake in the world, the lake was created when the hydroelectric dam was built in the first years of independence, under the government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana and independence leader. The lake and the scenery around it are spectacular. The rainy season seems to have started early. That doesn't mean it's been raining all the time, but there has been a lot of heavy rain. Parts of Accra have suffered from flooding as a result. This is not helped by the fact that many of the streets that have flooded are low lying, with no drains by the side of the ... read more

Choc chip Muffins and Crocodile Tails

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Johannesburg March 25th 2005

Mum

She Rambo

Farewell Australia My mum was ordering a birthday cake for my brother when he called, ‘Bek, I don’t think I can make it to dinner tonight.’ I was fuming but held my temper. It was my farewell and his surprise birthday party. I watched my mum go to the effort of selecting a cake and dictating the message, ‘It’s my farewell dinner. Why can’t you make it?’ ‘I’ve made a booking at the restaurant under my name but my girlfriend has this problem you see and she needs my car…..’ I didn’t want to hear the rest of it. He will not get away this time, not when the entire family (and I mean small community) had put aside tonight to be there for his surprise birthday and my farewell. Steph had called earlier asking about ... read more

Wandering to Sahara

Africa » Tunisia March 25th 2005

kit t

I headed out to two major tourists sights in Tunisia today, Matmata and Douz. Matmata is a countryside town set amongst the hills to Tunisia. The landscape around this region is typically described as lunar - it kind of looks like the moon - rough edged, cratered floors, dry arid sand. What Matmata is best known for is its troglodyte homes. Since the temperatures get quite high, the locals build there homes underground in pits. In fact, these were the exact homes that were used in Star Wars Episode 4 as the home of Luke Skywalker. It was pretty cool to wander through the rooms - they were incredibly cool considering the extreme heat outside. You could tell from the height of the roof though that many of the inhabitants were short - even I had ... read more

My Trip to Tamale - Special Entry for McGill Chapter EWB Team

Africa » Ghana » Northern » Tamale March 25th 2005

Pump servicing #1

louisd

Hello McGill EWB Team! I hope this finds you well and rested from the Easter Holiday, and not too burned-out from the end-of-semester assignments and fundraising efforts! I have decided to write-up this special post on my blog such that you have a better idea of my work here, as well as a better idea of the development realities I am facing at the time. Hope you will find the read enjoyable and thought provoking! Quick overview: So as some of you might know, the small-scale irrigation project the McGill team and I were tied to ran out of funds last December. This means that since then, there is no one in the EnterpriseWorks (our partner NGO) office working on it, and no office resources (vehicles, promotion expenses, travel expenses) can be allocated to it. This ... read more

Stuck in a stinking hole

Africa » Tunisia March 24th 2005

kit t

I'm finally in a hotel in Tunisia after a gruelling 30 hours of travel. First flew to Frankfurt for 9 hours, then sat in the airport for 4 hours, then 2.5 hours to Tunis in Tunisia, then 2 hours coming through immigration (the queues were huge - why the heck are so many tourists coming to Tunisia). Then had to travel for 7 hours to get to Gabes, a town in the south of Tunisia from where I would start my travels. Getting to Gabes was like a neverending nightmare. I had to catch a louge (long distance taxi) from Tunis which was quite and experience. Basically you turn up at a Louge station, which is basically a big shed with lots of little vans. Each driver is constantly yelling out their intended destination - when ... read more

Cape Town March 2005

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Hout Bay March 20th 2005

alboyle

I got back from my (short) trip to Cape Town last week and had a great time when I was there. Cape Town, still recovering from the dark days of apartheid, is totally separated, culturally, racially and economically, which became apparent to me only when I took a guided tour of the townships. The townships were set up to "house" the non-whites during the Apartheid seperatism and are basically sprawling shantytowns. Seeing the township and meeting the people of the townships is something every visitor to Cape Town should do, rather than confining themselves to the expensive suburbs, beaches and wineries enjoyed largely by white people. Before I went, I thought of this tour as extreme tourism, but when I was there I realised that the people, despite being really poor and unemployed, have built a ... read more

Pokerface shows his hand

Africa » Namibia March 20th 2005

Deadvlei

Cumberland Sausage

South Namibia - Swakopmund to Orange River We left Swakopmund heading South along the coast, with the cold sea air blasting through the back of the truck, then turned inland heading towards Sesriem, gateway to the Sossusvlei sand dunes, amongst the largest in the world. After some hours we passed through the gateway to the Namib-Naukluft park, an alien army of folded rocks marching into the distance to besiege the mountainous citadels on the horizon (jeez, what do they put into this cheap supermarket plonk?). After passing through this band of blasted barren sentinels we emerged into the desert proper, jagged peaks emerging from a sandy sea. After pitching camp the rest of the group drove off to Sesriem Canyon, whilst I took the opportunity for a wander through the nearby desert at Sunset. The size ... read more

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Africa March 18th 2005

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ron

another test... read more

The Golden Stool

Africa » Ghana » Ashanti » Kumasi March 18th 2005

Kumasi City Centre

Stuart

Ghana was the home of one of Africa's richest, gold dripping empires - which is why the Europeans came sniffing around this part of the West coast of Africa in the first place. The golden stool is used in the enthronement of the Ashanti kings. The Ashanti are matrilinial - it's the mother's clan that is important. The Golden Stool was also implicated in sparking off the Ashanti War of Independence of 1900 -1901. The British had demanded that they should be given the Golden Stool. When no one offered to give them the stool, the British tried to steal it. The war was led by a woman Yaa Asantewaa, she died in exile in the Seychelles. I've just spent some time in the Ashanti areas, and I have also visited the slave forts on the ... read more

Where have all the people gone?

Africa » Namibia March 18th 2005

Darmaland

Cumberland Sausage

Northern Namibia - Caprivi to Swakopmund. Whoah dude, Utah Rocks. Moab is soooo cool. Uh oh, Reality check. We are still in Africa, although I have to keep reminding myself, because it feels more like the Southwest USA. Swakopmund is a beautiful tourist town - ok, so they don’t have the Slickrock trail and the Porcupine Rim, or any Ellesworths or Santa Cruz Blurs to rent, but they do have the ocean, the dunes of the Namib desert, sunshine, cool sea breezes, beautiful authentic German architecture, great restaurants, clean streets, cafes, bookshops and even the Brauhaus that sells Erdinger Weissbeer, rather than rather insipid local draught brew. In short I want to retire here (although if they could find some slickrock out back that would be even better). By European standards Namibia is a vast country ... read more

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