All roads seem to lead back to Africa

When I arrived in South Africa February 2003 I had no idea the impact the country and ultimately the continent would have on my life.  At the time I spent 6 months in Durban and  2 months travelling through Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.  I promised I would be back.  in summer of 2010 matt and I visited Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi but didn't make it to South Africa for lack of time.  In planning this RTW it was difficult to fathom a journey that didn't include the return, both Matt and I were drawn back to a place that captured our hearts.  No other region I have visited gets me as excited or brings a bigger smile to my face.  

Landing in Cape Town was a shock to the system after being in India. Clean streets, modern buildings, fancy shopping malls, western food. It certainly is nothing of the "Africa" often stereotyped in people's minds. Despite the curtain of wealth and modernization, South Africa is still a country recovering from years of unfairness, oppression and violence.  There are a lot of people still hurt and angry. And there are huge discrepancies between rich and poor that causes often violent clashes.  This curtain remained as we travelled up the beautiful eastern coastline....it was often easy to forget you were in a country that had such a fractured past and a current population living in poverty.  We were fortunate to be exposed to people and tours that helped us to understand the realities and impacts of Apartheid.  Seeing Robbin Island on the day of Nelson Mandela's 95 th birthday was powerful, and our knowledge, respect and admiration for this man only increased as we moved through the country culminating at the Apartheid museum in Jo'burg.  Meeting a man named Cromwell who took us to Soweto and told us stories of growing up with a pass that identified him as a coloured person, and his participation in protest and violence in high school.  One place we went to the people in the area of Soweto had recently burned down a KFC and torched cars to try and get the government to install water so they could have sanitary latrines (toilets) and electricity.  Overall we were impressed by the conditions in the South African "slums" compared to other African countries they were orderly, had proper housing and government was doing a lot for improvement....but then we learned that more would be happening if there wasn't so much government corruption.  We were so lucky to meet up with old friends of mine from University of Natal days - sharing how life has changed since I was there 10 yrs ago!  Loved touring the campus, visiting old hangouts and staying up till wee hours of the morning getting schooled on r&b and hip hop that's cool in SA these days!  

And then we started our journey to Malawi to visit our friends in Zomba/Grace Orphan Care!  First stop was modern Lusaka in Zambia.  Caught up with Jonny Perrot before a 20 hour bus journey.  Best memory of this truly African bus was the mattress on board (along with mountains of other luggage and people) that continued to get crowd surfed from the front to the back because there was no real room for it!  Arriving in Zomba felt very comfortable and a bit like going home away from home. Kids and staff at Grace inspired us with their amazing hearts and generosity and the good they are doing for their community.  A huge crew we had worked with in 2010 were graduating high school! Several were waiting for university entrance exam results to start post secondary studies!!  We worked with Ernest to help get the Maize Mill running to help fund some the incredible programs they have at Grace - hopefully wont be long!!  

Since then we have travelled for almost 7 days straight including another 22 hour bus day (almost overnight since bus broke down!). Paused for a day to visit Victoria Falls which is a dream, definatly one of my favourite places in Africa. Then we were in Chicago for 2 days....now one plane ride away from home. Wow.  One last follow up blog to come. Thanks for sharing in our journey!

Power of inspired students

First a huge congrats to the students that are finishing up their last exams and graduating from PDHS - you are an incredible group of students that will be missed in the clubs, sports, classrooms and hallways of our school.  This blog is for you, because it was largely graduating students that led the charge to make this possible.  

This year at my school students under the leadership of the We Action Team and Student Council decided to adopt a village through the Free the Children program.  They raised over $2000 through a coffee house, tye-dye making, and a penny drive, and their actions inspired us to go to the village they were helping ( we also happened to be in the neighborhood).  Thus the day of awesomess began...

Yesterday we visited Bagad, our adopted village.  There have been very few solid opportunities on this journey to get off the tourist tract and catch real sight of people just living their life completely void of any evidence of tourism...today was one of those days.  We hired a car and left off for the general direction we thought the village to be, knowing it was 85 km away and in one particular district of Rajhastan. The driver, through translation from our hotel owner understood this was not just a typical day of sightseeing, and made a last minute tsn turning point decision to call his brother in law to come with us and translate.  We stopped at least 5 times for direction and clarification as we drove further into beautiful Indian country side - away from the crowds and the honking into seas of sheep, goat, cows, oz and buffalo.  The sarees got even more beautiful and colourful, even the ones worn by women working in the fields...imagine your grandmother putting on her nicest party dress and then sending her to plant crops and turn the soil with nothing more than an axe...this was a very common scene.  Throughout this day I was reminded how lucky i am to be norn a woman in Canada and not elsewhere in the world.  We arrived in Bagad - a rural agricultural village of 300 homes after about 2.5 hrs ( including one chai break :)) and were greated by friendly smiles and namastes (hello) largely thanks to Pintu our translator. We went to the school that is still under construction and spoke with the head builder about the building, me to we groups that had visited and about living in Bagad.  His story was typical rural village....not enough jobs so many men go as far as Mumbai for work leaving women to take care of livestock, crops, and the home. There are 4 wells but they are very old and sometimes dry up and are not always clean so women and children go to the deep well 2 km away for good water.  There are no vehicles so they walk.  There is an elementary school but it is not big enough for all eligible students to enrol, so some miss out..but this will change when the new school house is finished (it will have 8 classrooms, one for each class). If students want to go to high school they have to move to Udaipur (2 hrs away) and live on their own (imagine some of our gr 9 s on their own!).  The school will have sanitary toilets and has a drinking water tower that filters the water so it will be clean.  This is great because the man said many people in the village often get sick from the water in the wells.  It also has a small building for the headmaster and a small temple.  We spoke to some students - one gr. 5 boy named Suresh who wants to be a police officer in Udaipur when he grows up.  We asked how he would get money to go to college and he said hard work.  I asked work where and he said he would help in the fields.  He brought us to his house where his mom offered us chai. In the house there are 3 enclosed rooms and kind of a porch area that she cooks on over wood fire, the ox live, and there is sitting area.  In the house lives Suresh, his mom and dad (who is paralyzed so can't work), his brother and baby sister, his grandparents, and his aunt and uncle.  He loves playing soccer and also really liked using our camera!  Another student we spoke to is attending University and wants to be a science teacher. He has lived in Udaipur since he was 15 on his own, but like others was back in his village for summer vacation.  Other students got excited when i asked about Me to We canadians visiting in March because i guess they played volleyball and soccer with them and had a great Time.  The contractor also liked when they were there because they helped make great progress on the school which they have been building since 2010 - there were still at least 3 workers being paid 300 rupees each day to work on it.  Free the children has also built a 2 room community hall but no one knew what it was for and as of yet they didn't really appear used....typical development flaw - great building, no additional funding for programming to make use.  We only asked a couple people as it was on the way out of the village, so maybe there was more going on then they knew?  We stopped at a fort built into the side of a rocky hill in the 1700's that has the "great wall of India" second largest after wall In china.  Lastly after spending an awesome day chatting with Pintu he took us to his home where he lives with his parents and extended family. There are 15 rooms of the house and we met at least 2 aunts, 5 cousins and I wasn't super clear exactly who all lived there....lots of families! We had Chai and made fun of Pintu for being so lazy and relying on his mom to do everything ( he is 27).  He is sad he hasn't found a wife but is finding it difficult because he is inthe upper Brahmin caste which is a very educated caste and he has to marry a Brahmin but he doesn't like school and didn't go to university, so girls don't choose him ( or their parents don't choose him). 

It was an incredible day and I can't wait to share the photos ( matt was super camera man)

I get such pride to see students taking on challenges so much bigger than their day to day, those who feel a desire to understand and help places and people that are so far away but still in their global community. I know and share with them the flaws in charity and development but I think the fundamendantal action of working hard purely independent of self gain is incredible and cheers to them for doing this!! 

Oh and Pintu is very jealous of the new school and thinks we should raise money to build one in his village...haha.  

Welcome to India

Today as I was strolling through the narrow stone streets gazing at shops in architecturally beautiful 300 yr old buildings at colourful sarees and other clothing, silver jewellry, and paintings, I kicked a pile of cow poop...welcome to India.  We have spent the last 4 days in Jaipur, Rajasthan overcoming stomach issues trying to convince our bodies that they could handle rich northern Indian cuisine, and the heat...welcome to India.  Honking cars, trucks, buses, cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, and motorcycles are enough to drive us crazy and certainly led to a headache or two...yes we know you are there, we are looking right at you, no honking necessary...welcome to India.  India is a place of extreme for us...extreme heat (has been 40 almost every day), extreme population density (over 1 billion people and quickly growing), extreme chaos, pollution, filth.  But it also is extremely beautiful when you see pass the negatives, there is incredible history of a civilization more than 2500 yrs old, and architecture from the 1500's. Woman's clothing is stunning - bright, mirrored, embroidered, and provides colourful contrast in streets filled with filth, cows, pigs, people deficating on the sidewalk, and urinating into gutters. 

In India the cows are sacred and take their fixed place in society wherever they wish - often in the middle of the road.  They are fed, healthy and in some cases I have heard their feeding takes precedence over women in the family.  

India takes time for the shocks to neutralize and for the details of the life here to digest.  I'm not sure we are there yet, but getting closer. Yesterday we arrived in Udaipur. It is known as being a romantic city because of narrow lanes, "sparkling" lakes and palaces. It is a city of artists evident immediately by the design of hotels with stunning courtyards and beautiful rooms, also in the French cafe where we enjoyed cappuccino's and French toast!  We ate dinner in a restaurant on cushions 

In an open air alcove overlooking the lit up lake palace...it was lovely.

Today we head into the village of Bagad. This is the adopted village of students and staff at Paris District HS and I look forward to the opportunity to bring to camera someof the benefits of their charity efforts.  Stay tuned...

The art of bus travel according to me.

To travel on the cheap you find yourself on A Lot of buses.  Some are quite fancy - like the one I am on now...VIP apparently with cushy seats, tv (usually showing movies from the country of travel...hilarious), and a toilet. Some are dreadfully crowded, uncomfortable and usually make for the best stories because fellow passengers can include chickens, bee hives, goats, etc.  I once travelled on a bus in Kenya where I had to crouch down and close the blinds because on that stretch of road rebels were known to shoot at the busses.  And in Nepal I was riding on the roof with a small Nepalese child on my lap when the bus started to slide off the side of the road and everyone jumped off the top. I would have had to throw the child, and chose to instead stay put and hope the bus didn't in fact go off the cliff...it didn't. And so, through extensive experience, I would like to believe that buses are an area of expertise for me.  Making the long often terrible rides more bearable is key and requires more than the obvious snacks, tunes, and solid reading material.  During the day it is naturally a great time to gaze out the window and ponder the area you travel in....what would it be like to live there, what do people do for money, how do they entertain themselves...etc.  I have also done some serious personal life coaching during these idle hours. Also, a great place to meet and chat with a local - even in broken English they can be a wealth of knowledge about a region.   Overnight buses are where the biggest challenge lies.  Night buses are great for budgets because you get hotel and transport in one...but can be killer if you can't sleep.  Here are my tips:

1) bring a sarong, blanket or sleeping bag on board - if you are in a warm country the bus will be frigid.  

2) use your travel partner - the double head lean is a very comfortable way to sleep (especially if you have  pillow or bunched sarong)

3) no shame- getting sleep is number one priority for me no matter how I get it.  A great way I have found is to let one person lie across the seat while the other goes on the floor in front (where your feet normally goes) - people might stare for awhile but once you are snoring and sleeping like a baby they will be jealous.   Obviously snagging 2extra seats to lie across is a bonus.

4) watch your backpack. Night buses (and trains) are notorious for thieves.  I suggest either padlocking bag to your chair, putting your leg through the arm strap or using it as a pillow.  On a train from France to Italy I had my bag stolen right from under my legs.  

5) pack your own t.p. when going to toilet at rest stops - often squat toilets or regular toilets with no seats, often sketchy and rarely providing t.p.

17 hours into our trip....and honestly despite using all of my tips my sleep last night sucked.  But, started the morning on KhoSan road with a coffee and street pad thai at 6am!  I have been talking about Bangkok street pad thai for 10 years! Matt finally got to experience the deliciousness for 30B = $1.

Sawadeeh kha

From the southern beaches to the northern hills of Thailand we go.  Seperated  by 2 minibus, 1 ferry and 4 buses of varying quality, a taxi....and 27 hours of travel time, oh boy. Needless to say I have time to write a blog or two. 

First an update of where we have been.  We started our visit to Thailand in Krabi, one of the places I wanted to go last time I was here but didn't get a chance.  We stayed in one of the shadier hotel rooms of our trip that you had to walk through the kitchen of the restaurant to get to. Room was a little moldy and a cockroach did jump off my bag at one point, but the bed was ok (no bed bugs despite a thorough check), the fan worked and at $10 the price was right.  Took a ferry out to Krabi Island to Railay Beach,

https://picasaweb.google.com/115423077873426429468/Thailand

famous for breathtaking limestone cliffs and rock climbing.  As this was our goal we tried not to be too deterred by the garbage strewn beaches, and the less then friendly customer service and focused on sunshine and an adventure.  Matt and I signed up for a climb which included about a minute of advice for us which apparently

constituted as our beginners lesson. Climbing is incredible. Firstly our surroundings were breathtaking, but the act of physically moving your body up a rock face that looked unclimbable to us was exhilarating.  We were initially discouraged that they had chosen a 6b+ route for us to learn on (not a beginner route) but in the end were thankful as we had to push ourselves way harder to reach the peak.  We only managed two climbs each over the 2 hours but that was enough to have ripped the skin from most of our fingers and tested the muscles in our arms.  I would love to have been stronger and more skilled to try some of the other routes people were doing!  Due to the lack of cleanliness on the island, Matt unfortunately got food poisoning resulting in a slightly longer stay than

expected, but allowed for me to do some exploring of some of the less crazy parts of the island.  I also woke up at 530am to catch the sunrise and was rewarded with being the only tourist awake.

  Next we went to Ko Phi Phi, an area made famous in filming Leonardo DeCaprio's "The Beach", and then notorized as one of the sites hit hardest by the December 2004 Tsunami.  I was here in 2002, as a much different traveller.  This was the first repeat site from my first trip and I was so excited to see what had been rebuilt and how the island had changed...but what I think subconsciously I wanted was to go and relive old amazing memories.  I learned an important lesson - don't try to relive the past, it only sets you up for disappointment. The part of Phi phi we stayed in is overrun with poorly planned tourism. Streets and alleyways cluttered with bars, hotels, cafes, tour shops and souvenir shops. At night trained monkeys, funnels, and bar promoters were a major turn off for me....elements that might have made Phi Phi even better in 2002?  It is disappointing to see the damage being done to a beautiful natural environment at the demands of tourism - lack of waste management, water shortages, damage to coast and marine ecosystems.  But we were determined to make new memories from Pho Phi and took a long boat to a more remote unspoiled beach, as well as took a boat trip to see some of the beautiful parts and appreciate the azure waters and cliffs that made the islands famous.  

   

AND, I did drink one bucket for old times sake.

And then after almost 4 months of travelling we decided we needed a few days vacation :) so we found a small resort on Ko Samui discounted or low season and chilled out.  Pool and beach, swimming, reading and kayaking. Refreshed and ready for next two and a bit months!  

   

And so that brings us to the bus. Reminding me of a blog that I have meant to write for a while....the art of bus travel....stay tuned.

In idle

Literally...

Travelling RTW provides me with a lot of time on busses, and ultimately waiting for busses.  Today as I sit 40 min in advance of departure I am left idling with time on my hands, quietly  observing the people and sites and I realize that the bus in front of me has been running the entire time.  This enrages me.  MOSTLY, because it is not the first bus to do so...it is the norm.  They run for 30, 40, 60 min (0r longer) waiting to depart.  I think it's to ensure the bus is frigid with AC from the moment you get on, but I am not certain.  Often I see environmental destruction and I realize that destruction of resources is often in the short term economic gain of a nation, so although it could be different I have some level of understanding....but idling a bus not only increases CO2 emissions, and increases mining of fuel, it also COSTS the company more and thus reduces economic gain.  As i dit here i realize also that i don't take the bus much in Canada and so i don't know whether the practices there are any different?  Trouble is I feel rather powerless.  It isn't uncommon for me to ask friends or family to turn of the ignition...but I'm not sure i can take on the Asian bus community?  Thoughts?

From the rainforest to urban jungle

The last 2 weeks have taken us through distinctly contrasting worlds- from rugged Borneo to the Vegas of Asia in Singapore!  

In our planning of this trip, Malaysian Borneo was never our destination to see incredible wildlife of the tropical rainforest, instead we thought we would go to Java's neighbor Sumatra island or to Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) but in the end we chose it because transportation was a bit easier, treks were a little less effort to organize and overall it met our needs for this point in our trip.  Having so much flexibility has been an amazing part of this trip as we never have flights booked more than one step in advance, and hotels one place booked at a time we can and have changed our mind at the drop of a hat.  Borneo gave us everything we wanted.  The highlights were undoubtedly the final climb to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu, and the 3days spent in the jungle.  Kinabalu is the highest point in south-east Asia and took us 2 days to climb staying at Labban Ratta hut on the mountain for a few hours of rest before we started our final summit ascent at 2:30am.  At first we were part of a mass group being herded up permanent fixture stairs and I got the impression that it was going to be a less than impressive morning.  But, within 30 min we had distanced ourselves and gotten to a position that it was just Matt andI, pulling ourselves over sheer granite with ropes under a blanket of incredible stars.  It was dark, quiet and every few minutes if you looked to the sky you would see shooting stars and heat lightning.

  
Unfortunately we reached the summit an hour before the sun and had to wait in the freezing cold watching the long path of headlamps weave there way wearily to the top.  It has been a while since I have summited a mountain and it was amazing to revisit that euphoric feeling you get when you push your body really hard and then get rewarded with a feeling of immense accomplishment and incredible views from the top.  Oh and we also had to walk down which was at times harder and more painful than going up and I am certain was the cause of my inability to walk for almost 4 days after!  I did take a LOT of joy from doing mini rapels down the ropes I had used to climb up- life's little moments.

With a day break we found ourselves limping like a pair of 80 yr olds (sorry grandma) into Uncle Tan's to go on our jungle trek.  First stop was to Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Center....I was really hesitant to go as I am always stubbornly determined to see my wildlife in the wild, but was convinced when I learned that the feeding platform where food is put twice a day is in the jungle where the rehabbed apes are free to roam, and many don't come back to the platform once they have sufficiently learned to get there food from the forest (the Center uses bland repetitive food to try to encourage the apes to fend for themselves). I have always loved monkeys, especially apes and have been really fortunate to see Chimpanzees wild in Uganda, and now Orang-utans.  Although the 2 that came to the platform when we were there were small (both under 10) to watch the swing through the trees and interact was breath taking.  

This species of ape is genetically the most similar animal to humans sharing 97.5% of our DNA and it was obvious in the short time we had the pleasure to watch them that they were intelligent, affectionate and playful.  Unfortunately in Borneo and Sumatra orang-utans are under serious threat as habitat is being cut and replaced by Palm plantations at a rapid rate.  Driving through Borneo was sad, for hours we saw nothing but Palm.  The worst areas were where forest had recently been cut and land had been tiered and recently planted.  I these areas as far as we could see was exposed soil and emptiness instead of luscious layered forest.  From an environmental stand point I am horrified, but when we talked to locals almost all saw the plantations as positive for the economic and  social improvements they provided. And, is it worse than oil or coal mining- at least there is still vegetation helping to clean the air? A topic for further inquiry and debate.....mega side track.

We stayed in a jungle camp with 4 other tourists that we reached by boat on the Kinabantangan river.  We slept on wooden platforms with mosquito nets open to the creatures and sounds of the jungle.  The first day we caught a rat running off the platform when we were coming back from dinner and later Neils heard it hanging out while we were sleeping....I was happy to share my place with a rat and thankful that it wasn't a snake instead!  We went on a day trek and a night trek in the jungle with a guide named Leo.  I am inspired by this mans enthusiasm, care and respect for the wild creatures big and small.  He could literally speak with frogs, birds and apes and was the most excited person in the group for a sighting of even a tree frog which he has probably seen 1000.  He showed us how scorpions tun fluorescent green under a blue. UV light at
night, how lantern bugs change over their life cycles into the most beautiful, colourful little creature (that was getting eaten by a group of soldier ants...), and how birds sleep with their head tucked into their wing.  Despite searching we saw no wild oragutans, BUT we also did 4 boat safaris and saw 5 Gibbons (another species of ape).  I could have cried watching them swing high in the trees from branch to branch with their giant long arms - I was penguin sighting excited.
 
Also hung out with proboscis monkeys and their giant round noses and fat bellies, and tons of macaques aka the mafia of the jungle according to our guide.  

Then we went from JFC ( jungle fried chicken) to KFC (which we didn't actually eat but they are everywhere in cities of Malaysia and Singapore).  We said a temporary goodbye to Malaysia and flew to my favourite airport in the world Changi in Singapore.  A quick 3 VERY expensive days of indulgement.  Singapore is clean, orderly and full of amazing food and malls.  I am pretty sure that if Singaporeans are not eating at one of the delicious hawker centres throughout the city then they must be shopping because I have never seen so many malls in my life.  If you arrive at a bus terminal you are in a mall, train stop...in a mall, and you can guarantee that that mall is connected to three more through underground tunnels or overpasses.  We are talking mega malls connected to mega malls often with duplication of stores.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Complex...has a mall, casino and that is a swimming pool spanning the top of 3 buildings and is the size of 3 football fields. They did not let us go up.

 WE spent much of OUR time eating.  Because of its multicultural past Singapore is diverse in its population with massive Chinese and Indian populations mixed in with Malays.  The food was even more diverse and with specialties like chicken rice, chili crab, BBQ stingray, dumplings, red bean curd, fish head curry, we have been on quite an eating adventure!  We also decided to do something educational and went to the Asian civilization museum...the history of Singapore is romantic, dramatic and definitely fascinating. To imagine the history of trade stretching hundreds of years and comparing it to the success story they are today is exciting.

Now back to Malaysia...more eating, more shopping, and certainly more great adventures!