They were not slaves In your caption you write "one of the last glimpses the slaves..."
Correction - These were Africans, proud dignified Africans who were made into slaves once forced onto those boats to work all over the world for the laziest people known to human kind - white people.
Thanks for the Teaching Material Hi Tom,
I'm an ESL teacher living in Taiwan right now. One of my students (an 11 year old boy) and I have been discussing elephants; ie, the differences between African and Asian elephants, etc. I was so pleased when your blog popped up in my inbox this morning. Your pictures are fantastic and will be a great teaching/learning tool for my student.
BTW, you say you've been travelling since 1999. Lucky you!! My husband and I have to work so we can take trips out from Taiwan whenever holidays come up.
Best regards,
Suzanne
Super! Thanks for your splendid journaling and for the photos. I visited Serengeti and Ngorongoro in the late 80's. Your photos make me think not much has changed and that's a good thing. My tent was "marked" by a lion the night I "slept" there! Imagine the reaction of my cats when I got home! As long as you keep writing, I'll keep reading. I enjoyed your reflection upon traveling before internet vs. now.
Hi Tom Ian said your a bludger! Where is your registration from last term? we want it now!!!! The only reason you went to Africa is to avoid all the paper work :)
We hope your having an awesome time still and we're all thinking of you! have a couple of drinks for us.
Love History
wow.... some seriously pretty country you're in Tom, loving your pics. especially impressed that you managed to get most of your body in the timer one (won't ask how many goes that took)... i tried to do some of a bunch of us jumping off the ground - either our timing sucks or we can't jump very high. nice work son
Well measured blog Great blog mate, emotional yet not dramatic. Those Massacre Sites sound even more intense than Auschwitz, which ive been to and i find that place pretty hard to comprehend. Its strange how you visit places like these and realise the evils man can do, and you come out hoping that man has learnt from that and never does it again. But then you get Cambodia, then Rwanda, then Kosovo; and we forget that we already had made those mistakes before and had that we already had promised to never do it again. But yeah, you now look at Darfur and realise we still havent learnt, and that all those promises to prevent such tragedies seem to be empty promises. Pretty sad stuff.
good for you. people like you dont deserve cachupa ,we cape verdeans are hard working lovely people if you are a good person we will treat you with respect and show you a good time, in your case well your comments speaks for you good luck in a country where you will b around your on kind .I love my country and my people.
Wow A very powerful posting...I have seen the movie adaptation of the Rwanda massacre starring Don Cheadle, and there is no way that Hollywood film can ever come so close to the truth of all that happened. It's amazing how humans can carry out such brutal acts towards fellow beings. Thank you for sharing all of those eye-opening pictures of our world's history.
Swap? Hi Tom, as my pile of holiday marking shows no sign of diminishing while I look at it, you've got time to hang Kampala and watch MTV and Evan Almighty. I'm thinking I might be prepared to swap with you, even if I have to supply my own antibiotics. Your descriptions took me back to Lake Karibe in Zimbabwe which had that same feel of feeling so far away from everything that you could almost be deceived into thinking the world was only full of good things. Sadly that was way back in the days when Mugabe was an heroic freedom fighter who was bringing the revolution to his country (and I didn't have time to see Crocodile Dundee in Harare's equivalent cinema). Are you heading into Zimbabwe? It is tragic to see so much potential sacrificed to vanity, but I'd love to hear an inside voice on what it's like there. Keep enjoying, and if you want to swap.....
Missing Uganda! Thanks for reminding me how great Uganda was... and you accounted everything so well. I miss the people, Lake Bunyoni, and Backpackers! Did you meet Frankie there, Alon and the freindly female staff? :) And you're right... after Nairobi, Kampala is heaven. Seems like you and I are having similar experiences... although I ended up opting out of Ethiopia last minute b/c of the nonstop rain. Enjoy the rest of your travels!
Incorruptible? From what I understand, Sankara changed the name to reflect the fact that his regime would not tolerate official corruption. And Blaise Compaore's government now is blatantly corrupt. I wasn't commenting on the Burkinabe people, who I thought were brilliant. I was commenting on the government, and how by just changing a name, doesn't change the reality.
scale the words! hey man,
im from Burkina Faso,living in California for over 10 years now,just beeing curious about you saying:
``then you realise that the country should probably be called something
else.``
I do believe that you didnt get the reel picture,its about the all country,not a couple of guys that over take power and doing what they are doing now...Burkina Faso have a reel meaning for the reel people...
its not probably because the majoity of American dont like Bush,that they should be changing the country name...
After reading about your trip in Burkina i look like you have some good time and meet some good friends that is the most important , always about the people,the reelone
edgard
Wonderful writing but.... where did you learn this word 'Goddamn' ? Not in the Griffith household that's for sure. I can think of several more Australian terms. Your blogs are still wondeful though!
Enthralling This is just what I needed to get me through the last couple of weeks of term (remember them??) Tom. Wonderful descriptions of the wildlife took me back to Zimbabwe when it was a wonderful, vibrant country to visit. Your comment on Ethiopian time will undoubtedly surface in my Society and Culture students' HSC responses this year if they get the right question. Thanks for your wonderful, vivid writing, and allowing us to live vicariously through your experiences. travel well mate.
Fantastic Tom, you have such an enthralling writing style that I can't seem to stop reading your blogs. Great work on presenting the realistic side of traveling in Africa, but still making it sound like the adventure of a lifetime. Cheers, and please keep it up for those of us bunkered down at home wishing we were not!
Callie
Injara, Doro Wat, Zilzil Tibs! Should you meet anyone inclined to open an Ethiopean restaurant in Sydney tell them Mitch and I will eat there regularly. Oh Ethiopean food, yum, yum, yum. . . slurp.
Travel happens when I can fit it in, nowadays, but it will always be my favourite hobby. Here's my list of the best bits so far, in thirteen years of hopping around the world:
Asia Angkor Wat (Cambodia) Taj Mahal and Varanasi (India) Annapurna Range and Kathmandu (Nepal) Bagan (Burma) Koh Phiphi (Thailand) Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City (China) Peshawar and the Chitral-Gilgit road (Pakistan) Istanbul and Butterfly Valley (Turkey) Luang Prabang (Laos)
Americas Teotihuacan and Mexico City (Mexico) Lake Atitlan and Tikal (Guatem... full info
Penda
non-member comment
They were not slaves
In your caption you write "one of the last glimpses the slaves..." Correction - These were Africans, proud dignified Africans who were made into slaves once forced onto those boats to work all over the world for the laziest people known to human kind - white people.