some Kenya pics

Alright, so here's some pics finally!!!

This is our view of Mount Kenya from the back porch of where we were staying
















This is our host family in Kenya:


















Our students at Jubilee, loving the toothbrushes we gave them!















Me and an adorable baby at the NuLife orphanage




















Letting a couple of the kids listen to my Ipod, they loovvvee dancing!















The schoolyard at St. Mary's



















Me getting an authentic Kenyan tattoo





















Stay tuned for Ugandan and Parisian ones :)

La vie en Paris

Bonjour!

We've been here in Paris for a couple days now and, as one can imagine, it's quite a shock after Africa! I had nearly forgotted what being extremely cold felt like - I remember even vaguely looking forward to the sensation of frost-bite while squished in the backseat of an overcrowded Ugandan taxi with sun burns covering my body... but my feet have suffered a painful reminder that being frozen is not good either. We started our visstay in Paris with a chilly visit to Versailles, the Dali Museum, and a tour around the sights of Montmartre, but last night we did the sensible thing and went shopping for coats, hats and gloves, and our experience has been much more comfortable ever since.

We visited the Eiffel tower today and it was; of course, breathtaking but we've resolved to revisit it at night when it's all lit up to get the full effect. We also went to Notre Dame cathedral and climbed the 400 steps up the increasingly narrow spiral staircase of the main bell tower to where Quasimodo and the gargoyles hang... not the most enjoyable hike for one with claustrophobia but decidedly less painful than scaling the Statue of Liberty, and well worth it once you get up there for the view of the city alone. The cathedral bit was very beautiful and impressive - especially all the stainedglass windows.

I think I may want to live in this city at some point, even though it is huge, it's still so charming with all its sloping cobble-stone streets and the metro system is so easy to use that everywhere feels like only a hop skip and a jump away... and, more to the point, there are bakeries everywhere and the pastries are out of this world.

Well I'm off to rest up for another full day (a week in Paris is not much time!). Tomorrow we tackle the Picasso Museum, L'arc du Triomphe; Centre Pompidou of modern arts, and most importantly the LaDuree pastry shop, which according to exhaustive research is supposed to be the best in the world...why do I get the feeling this new year's resolution will involve the gym?

Last Post from Africa!

We have just returned from a one day vacation on Ssese Island to soak up some final rays of equatorial sunshine before we head off to Paris tomorrow morning! I'm a bit worried about the climate shock as we have no coats, and very few warm clothes, but one of our first stops will be the biggest flea market in Paris, so hopefully we'll have a bit of luck there.
I am a bit sad to leave Africa... I think i'll miss the scenery, children, rafting, and pineapples most, possibly in the reverse order. I'm not all that sad though as I hear Paris is at it's most beautiful around this time of year, and there are several nasty contagious things floating around Uganda at the moment... Ebola being the biggie, with the bubonic plague, typhoid, and as always malaria. I got one really wicked bout of sickness the other night, where I really started to miss Canadian bathrooms... by 4am I had woken everyone in he house up, and there was talk of bringing me to the hospital. Luckily it didn't come to that and whatever it was it seems to be over now so off to Paris I go! Hopefully they don't decide to stop letting ppl from Uganda in because of the ebola outbreak... I think it might be hard to work up a good holiday spirit spending Christmas in quarantine.
We've got a jam-packed itinerary for Paris so I'm not sure if I will be posting again, but it is my goal to get some pics up here at some point!
Au Revoir!

Extreme Weekend in Jinja!

Hello again!
Well we just got back from Jinja yesterday, and luckily we have done so with our bodies fully intact! Rafting down the Nile was so much fun.. we caught some class 5 rapids, which were scary but awesome :) It was a 30 km distance that we covered, with enjoyable lazy stretches in between the rapids where we could bail out of our rafts and just lazily float along in the nice warm (slightly crocodile-inhabited) water of the Nile and enjoy the scenery and a slice of pineapple. The scariest part of the trip was the final rapid - we were meant to paddle past the class 5 rapid, aptly named The Bad Place, as the water levels were low that day, and aim instead for a neighboring class 4 rapid. Unfortunately, as we had to pick up two stranded tandem kayakers without paddles, and the importance of paddling as hard and as fast as humanly possible was not sufficiently emphasized, we all (unknowingly) entered the class 5 rapid, which caused our raft to do a huge flip, giving us all some air time before we got sucked under. Yours truly was caught under water in what's known as the "washing machine", which spins you around in circles so fast you don't know which way is up. I was seriously scared because it felt like i was down there forever and i almost ran out of air. Luckily when i did manage to surface, a safety kayaker grabbed me and took me to shore.

Having survived rafting, next on the agenda was bungee jumping into the nile! It seemed like a good idea until they made me hop to the edge of the ledge (because my feet were tied together) and gave me a countdown. You have to overcome all your natural survival instincts and convince yourself that jumping off this ridiculously high precipice is a good idea. They say 3... 2.... 1...bungee! and you better jump the first time or you psych yourself out and it's even worse. I managed to do it and gave the most blood curdling scream as i went down! which luckily was caught on camera and hopefully i can upload it on here soon! It was beyond scary, but a lot of fun once i realized i wasn't going to die :)

Another adrenaline-filled first this weekend was that magz and I took our first bota bota rides. A bota bota is one of the most common means of transportation here.. second only to the taxis. It is a motorcycle and there are no helmets. At first i was so scared I think i left bruises on my driver but by my third ride my biggest fear was falling asleep on it.

The annual kayaking competition that was taking place was really impressive, as kayakers from all around the world showed up. The first day's event was freestyle tricks and they did things like "double helices" and "air blunts" and "pistol flipping" and a whole lot of other tricks that i don't fully understand the details of but were quite impressive none the less! The second day was a long nile race, and the third day was a short nile race, followed by a bota bota land race back to the camp, where there was an obstacle race made from upturned rafts which both the kayaker and their bota bota driver had to go through, and then both chug a bottle of Nile Special beer.... and those were the actual requirements of this reputable competition! Ugandan won in the men's division, which made the locals really happy and there was a huge celebration.. mind you, everynight at the camp was a celebration, with everyone including competitors staying up until at least 4 in the morning - I'm not sure how they managed to go extreme kayaking in the morning but there you have it! and they organized their own extreme events at night like fire dancing and one guy, supposedly one of the best kayakers in the world, had injured his ankle from flipping backwards off a table in the bar and so they made him a cast out of an old waterbottle, plastic bags and some tape and he still competed.

The only downside of having been there during the competition is that the people who normally put together a tape of the rafting expedition were competing so we don't have a dvd of the day... so I want to go again next weekend as a re-run is only half price and it's so hard to explain what the rapids there are like - it's supposed to be the best rafting in the world.
My body is happy to be back to the teaching routine in Lugazi as it replenishes its adrenaline and alcohol dehydrogenase stores.

Oh, and if you hear about the current ebola outbreak in Uganda, fear not - I'm aiming to avoid those areas... thanks to Jinja i've had enough adventure for one trip.
=:0)

life in lugazi

Oli Otya! or, as the slightly more hip Ugandans would say, Jeballe!

Sorry it's been a little while since my last post - the power here is not the most reliable, and the internet was down somehow due to CHOGM... but now all that craziness is over and life in Lugazi is returning to normal: hot, buggy, and filled with adorable children chanting "how are you mzungu!?" over and over again

We've begun teaching at our placement and so far it is going very well. Valence wants us to focus on "fine art" (think mr dressup crafts), debate classes, and Physical Education - basically all the stuff that leaves a bit of room for the kids to be creative and have fun, so it's been a blast. It's amazing how good they are at painting and such when they've rarely (if ever) had access to these types of material before. Some of them come from the hardest backgrounds imaginable but all they seem to do in classes is smile and laugh, so it's a great experience for us too.
On the first day we had a "getting to know everyone" class with the P. 5 s and we asked them their name, how many brothers and sisters, and what they want to be when they grow up (which, by the way, is pretty much split between doctors and socce players) and many children in the half had upwards of 15 siblings, some had even lost count - polygamy is fairly common.
Our main form of transportation here is a taxi van built to hold 14, which are over-crowded on a regular basis to help the drivers combat rising gas prices. On the last count, there were 26 passengers in our 14-seater... I think by the end of this trip I will either be cured of my claustrophobia, or have jumped out one of the van windows. We ride on these taxis at least twice daily to get to our placements.

Lugazi is a lovely little village, but unfortunately its stores are somewhat lacking in the "Mzungu" food - not a chocolate bar or bag of oatmeal in sight and i'm down to my last serving!
Oh well, I'm starting to really like Beans and Posho, which is made from maize flour mixed with boiling water, a meal many people here eat 2 times a day as it is cheap and fills you up.

Well, the mosquitos are starting to come out so I should run for cover under my mosquito netting. Hopefully soon I will be posting some pictures of our trip so far!

Weraba!

Back from internet hiatus

Hello All!
Well, it’s been a while… where to begin? The safari was amazing, we couldn’t have asked for a better experience! We saw the big 5 (lion, leopard, water buffalo, elephant and giraffe), along with hyenas, hippos, flamingos, rhinos, and a bunch of awesome birds like Nubian Vultues, Kori Bustards, and one species which our guide didn’t know the name of but that we all agreed looked decidedly like Dan Rathers…. As well as baboons, gazelles and zebras and cheetas and warthogs (which are amazingly adorable and look exactly like Pumba... in fact, the Lion King was bang on about pretty much everything!) It was awesome to be close enough to a family of elephants that we could have actually touched them, had there not been a giant, cranky grandpa elephant protecting the babies. We also had a similar experience with a huge rhino, who was stationed at the side of the road to protect his two-week old baby while nursing. Trouble was, that was the only road leading to where we were headed, and so we had to do a bit of offroading, and let me tell you that being charged by an angy rhino is quite an adrenaline rush! Also, we saw lions mating a few times - a much less exciting event.... we were lucky enough to come upon a pack of female lions on the prowl, as well as one female with her cubs playing in the branches of a tree.
I was all prepared to rough it while on safari, but the showers and beds were actually the most luxuious that I've expeienced in Kenya! There was one kind of scary night though where a lion was heard eating something, and an elephant (apparently much more liable to kill us according to the Masai warrior watchman) outside our tent area.

After the four day safari, our last few days were spent in Nairobi, and within the fist 24 hours we had made up for a month of no shopping. Also, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal at Trattoria - deep fried cheese-coated artichoke in the yummiest spicy tomato sauce eve (wayyyy better than mozza sticks), followed by the best pasta of my life... home made shells with garlic, mushooms, zucchini, asperigus, feta, etc etc.... and then fo dessert, a cake that I will never forget. It was called chocolate meringue cake and it was a cross between a chocolate moose and a really rich dark chocolate cheesecake with the bottom crust made of flaked dark chocolate, and the top cust made of chunks of chocolate meringue cookies with a hot chocolate cocoa sauce in a jug to pour all over it (Karlyn, I think I know what you're getting for your birthday this year!). It may well have been the best dessert I've ever had - I'll have to visit the Olive Branch and have a piece of the raspbery amaretto cheesecake with brandy sauce drizzled on top before I can confirm that.

Anyway, we just got to Uganda and so far I love it! There's this big CHOGM razzmatazz happening here soon where all the commonwealth heads of govenenment (52 of them to be exact, with ove 5000 delegates and her the Queen of England herelf) will descent upon Uganda for their bi-annual meeting... why they chose this country I can't be sure, but it's worked out well for us so far as it is the eason why many of the roads we drove on were so well paved and the aiport we landed in was barely two weeks old. I thoroughly enjoyed Kenya, but I am happy to escape the random election-related riots and from what I've seen so far, the people are somehow even nice, the sceney more breathtaking, and the food more delicious! Apparently it is also much safer here. Magz and I wouldn't (/would) be caught dead out and about after dark in Kenya, but apparently here the threat is nowhere near as high - we've been told that this has always been the case as the tribes from which most Kenyans come were notoriously violent in comparison to the more merchant-driven histories of those here in Kenya. Also, I've noticed the sense of humour is much more compatible with our Canadian one. Today we were taken to the school where we'll be volunteering and it just happened to be the big annual shindig where the kids sing and dance for all the teachers and parents, and it was so much fun - those kids can move!

We lucked out as far as accomodations go - we've got the only placement with a western toilet, internet, and (gasp!) a fridge! It makes the bathroom cockroaches easier to overlook...Our host parents are a newly wed couple and they are amazing., Valence is the director of the local organization we're working with and Dorine is the best cook ever. We had pumpkin for dinner last night and it was delicous!! ...Although it looked and tasted suspiciously like squash. One of the other girls living here is in the Peace Corps and they gave her an awesome cookbook that shows you things like how to bake a cake on a propane stove - it should prove priceless. The dialect here is Lugandan, and is a mixture of Swahili and Arabic, so I know just enough to feel totally confused. We're not exactly sure what our day to day volunteer activities will be here but I'll keep you posted!

~Julia

P.S. For the downsides of Uganda, it is way hotter here, and there are so many more mosquitos, who apparently find me a very tasty treat, but so far no malaria
=:0)

Packing up and moving on

Hello all!
well, today is officially our last day in Nyeri, tomorrow morning we head off to Nairobi, and from there we leave for our four day safari in Masai Mara !!!
It was a bit sad saying goodbye to all our kids, but luckily we went armed with gifts and so they were all smiles :)

We've really enjoyed our time here and the other canadians we've met have brought us to some of the places they volunteer at like Kenwa and NuLife. Kenwa is a place where women with aids live among one another to offer support to each other and to men and women from the surrounding areas who are also dealing with aids, we got to sit in for part of a group therapy session. NuLife is an orphanage for babies only, and they were so adorable! The organization is really well run and the kids are quite possibly the happiest babies in Africa. I was paired with one named Randal who was born prematurely and as a result was very small, on several medications, and had difficulties suckling... That being said, however, yours truly managed to get him to finish his first whole bottle ever! I got so attached within a span of a couple hours - and I thought volunteering at the animal shelter bad for wanting to take one home! Hopefully when we get to Uganda it will be easier to post pictures and I can post one of him, he's adorable.

Alright, well I'm off to pack my bags... the next time I post I'll be in Uganda, which should be quite different from kenya as we've heard it is about 10 degrees hotter on average than where we are now, and is even less financially stable.
Kwaherini Kenya!

halloween, blood and missing heads

Happy Belated Halloween!!!
I thought I was going to have to miss out on the festivities this year, but luckily we have met 8 other Canadians, and they threw a party last night to celebrate - the Kenyans think we're nuts when we try to explain the concept... Magz and I bere giant bottles of Tusker (African beer) and our costumes were definitely the coolest haha. Onto an actually scary note, the way into the internet place was a bit crammed with people today because someone has just been murdered in the building next door and their head was cut off and stolen. Every time I start to think this isn't that different from home, something like that always reminds me that it is.

On a ligher note, I gave blood for the first time today! Apparently they Kenyans aren't as concerned as the red cross is that I was in Englad during the foot-in-mouth disease scare..

The canadians we met ranted and raved about their experiences in Uganda for hours - so we are very excited!!
We've got plans to go rafting down the nile and bungee jumping into it, just to name a couple things!! (sorry mom!) As for our actual volunteer work while we're there, we find out more once we get there and meet the locals who comprise most of the organization we're working with down there (The Real Uganda).
I hope it isn't too cold over there, It's been in the twenties every day here but don't be too envious, Magz and I will be in for a real shock when we land in Paris mid-December acclimatized to Africa with no coats!

Well, I best head out before it gets dark...

Kwaherini!

our second week comes to a close

Well, Magz and I are officially Nyeri pros now... we know our way around town, and how to avoid being followed by a pack of schoolchildren - speak French, it confuses them. We've also purchased some condiments so now I'm really at home :) whenever our host mom makes something strange, I just slap on some jam and I'm all set. They have rhubarb jam here, and it's amazing...the peanut butter, however, leaves much to be desired.

At this point in our stay at St Mary's school, it's become pretty apparent that the tutoring we're doing, while being effective and rewarding, is really not the most important thing we're here for. A lot of the kids just really like knowing that you're there for them and that you care. One of them approached me the other day because he had no one else to go to and told me all about how his dead father's spirit tries to kill him at night. When I tried to convince him that it was just a nightmare, he told me that his priest had told him that it was real and was a punishment from God... some priest. And when he wakes up afraid he can't talk to anyone because all the other boys in his dorm go to a school that is even more poorly funded, and so they are all jealous and consistently unkind to him. Anyways, we had a good chat, and today he wrote me a letter saying that all his nightmares were gone and that he was happy to finally have a friend. So that's pretty much the most intense thing that's happened thus far here.

One of the trickiest things we've encountered is that it is hard to help a kid out by giving him shoes or anything, because all the other kids will be jealous and either steal it, or ostracize him.. so you pretty much have to have enough for everyone. Speaking of which, the toothbrushes we gave out last week were a huge hit.. they've been carrying them around everywhere with them ever since!
Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at bargaining in Swahili - should be fun!
Take care, everyone!
=:0)

Things get mucky!

So yesterday we had our first encounter with the trials and tribulations of living in Kenya during a rainy season. The dirt road from our house to the main road took us 30 minutes to muddle through in our crocs, instead of the usual 5! And then once we reached the town, we had to avoid a huge throng of people gathered in response to the recent shooting down of a police officer in a nearby region. Once we got to the school we were surprised to see a soldier in army gear with a semi automatic standing about - we soon learned that it was the standard protocal for the duration of secondary exams - the soldier frisks each student as they enter to be sure that they don't carry in any illicit cheating materials! As if our day wasn't exciting enough, on the walk home a man chased us about shoving his crippled arm in our face and asking for money...

The night, however, was quite posh and relaxed! Our friend James was leaving today and so everyone decided to go out to eat at a Tavern in Outspan, which is the swankiest resort in town. First we visited the house James has been stayinbg in for free, which is a palace... it had all hardwood floors, three bathrooms, a refridgerator, and a puppy... and we thought we had it good! The meal was delishious - it's the first time we've had western food since we've been here. It is the only place in town that you can find real Heinz ketchup (I'll never take it for granted again!), and magz and I had delishious pizzqa, and tried our first African beer, which is called Tusker and is actually quite good, even to a non-beer drinker. After noticing that we barely ever see people smoking here, we inquired about it and found out that smoking is only permitted in designated areas outdoors - and only for men. Women only smoke at night in the clubs, and are immediately assumed to be prostitutes - luckily me and magz don't have any problems there!

Today, on the way to the Jubilee schoolhouse, a crazy downpuour started, and we had to take refuge in a bar along the street.... we've been trudging through muck and have had mud caked onto our legs ever since! We've been assigned to tutor certain kids in the primary preperatory class who are behind due to having lived on the street until recently, or sickness. One student, Jeff, is the oldest because of having lived on the streets but he's really bright and keen to learn, and he can speak 4 different languages. You would never know which ones are HIV positive, as they are often the most hopeful and entertaining ones with the biggest smiles!

The biggest obstacle Magz and I have encountered thus far in Kenya is that people try to feed you way too much food, which is better than the alternative I suppose. But seriously, they pile bucketfuls in front of you and often seem hurt if you can't finish it! Luckily, we've found a way to beat the system - we save what we can't finish and give it to street kids, which are numerous and can be distinguished from other children by the bottles of glue they sniff continuously, apparently to numb the hunger pangs. They're always very appreciative of the doggy-bagged meals.

There are a couple of tiny little two or three-year old boys that we pass on our way to school everyday who run out of nowhere and attack us with hugs - which is an awesome way to start the day! I've tried a couple times to upload some pictures, but this computer is not having it... hopefully I'll have more success after I burn them onto a CD.

I hope everything is good in Canada, Kenya is great!

Kwaheri!!
=:0)


P.S.: The other day I won a race agains five of the Kenyan schoolboys... definitely a highlight of the trip hehe

Greetings from Nyeri!!!

Soooo... we're in Nyeri now!
It's a smallish town about 3 hours outside of Nairobi. Our host family is so kind - the parents are Eustase and Margaret - who is an great cook, and they have three amazing kids. We have an amazing view of Mount Kenya from our balcony.. but crummily enough, we can't afford to climb it like we had planned since we spent 24,000 KSh on the safari we're going on on the ninth and we need to save some in case we go rafting or something in Uganda. I'm learning a tonne of Swahili, which is a really fun language that unfortunately is not spoken in Uganda, so when we go there I'll have to learn Luganda.
The weather is soooooooo warm... it's supposed to be the short rain season, but so far it has only rained at night. Uganda is supposed to be even hotter, so that should be interesting!
Yesterday was our first day at the school, and we met a felow Canadian volunteer named James, which was awesome because he was really cool and showed us all the ropes and good spots to eat. We've started teaching at St. Mary's Junior Rescue Center, and the kids are so cool. There are 210 boys in all, aged 5 to 18, but we also visit a smaller class for smaller children called Jubilee. Lots of the kids have been orphaned by or are suffering from HIV but it's amazing how thankful they are for everything... just saying Jambo to them makes them break out in huge smiles :)
And they like to poke us because apparently white skin changes colour when poked.It's a very touchy culture (melissa, you'd hate it!) . People here are even friendlier than in Canada I think...possibly on par with Newfies.
Our room mate Ahad fell in a 7 foot ditch yesterday while walking home at night, while on the phone with me... possibly may have broken a rib.
Other than that everything is pretty normal!
I'll blog again soon, with pictures hopefully!
Kwaherini!!

P.S.: Today in one class, we listened in as the teacher defined igloo to her class as "a small house that very small people called Eskimos live in"

Countdown to Take Off Time!!!

Hello All!
In less than a week, I will be heading off for an adventure with my best friend, and hopefully still best friend by the end of the two months, Meghan in Kenya and Uganda, and then a week in Paris. We've got all the major things taken care of, namely health insurance, innoculations against various diseases, and most of our flights, but due to our adventurous nature (/med schools keeping me busy jumping through hoops) there is still much to be decided. In fact, a lot of what we'll be doing is decided after our arrival. Global Volunteer Network is the program we're going through, and they like to get to know you and your strengths before they pick who does what..however, I copied and pasted a portion of the email they sent me to give a rough idea of what we'll be up to:

(and also copied these pictures that other people have taken while volunteering there)





Chronic underdevelopment in Uganda is a problem not easily solved. Remote rural living, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a subsistence economy, loss of hope, and lack of services helps to keep many orphaned children, and their extended families, dependent upon hand-outs, malnourished, and uneducated. Currently, there is no real way to generate funds at the village level to support anything other than subsistence living. Therefore, YOFAFO has developed relationships with local communities to help provide start-up funds, knowledge, and motivation all necessary to solve their respective problems in a sustainable way.


For example, at the village of Bugiri, YOFAFO has a primary school for local children. An orphanage will provide a home to 30 of the most destitute children (which may or may not be complete by November!). A school farm provides training in modern commercial agriculture. After completion of school, graduates receive vocational training in farming and animal husbandry, thereby imparting knowledge and providing a food supply for the school. In order to support orphans’ extended family network YOFAFO offers training in handicrafts marketing, tailoring, carpentry and mechanics. Through these and various other community projects, local adults are able to generate income on their own, resulting in a diminishing need for outside help.




GVN volunteers complement local staff, and provide cultural exchange and life skills to the children, youth and adults. Their presence and care not only build self-worth and confidence, but give the kids a chance to have a bit of fun and express their creativity through sports and art programs. I’m sure your experience as a child mentor and elementary school tutor will really benefit local communities (expect to speak at many engagements during your stay). It may seem daunting, but even the simplest messages are very effective here. Imagine a society where children are never encouraged, never told they can achieve good things. Basic information on hygiene, nutrition, etc. is just not passed on from mother to child as in our culture.



In stark contrast, our time in Paris will be mostly spent indulging in trips to museums, taking a peek at all the paintings we didn't get to see in Italy.... and probably seriously enjoying eating something other than mashed plantain and matooke (mashed unripened bananas) .



Thanks to info and donations from people I've met while serving this summer at the Gables, as well as a bunch of handy books and tips from my aunt Mary, I feel like I'm going into this at least a little prepared, but I am sure that there will be a few shocks along the way.


I'm hoping I'll be able to post regularly - ideally I'll be able to upload some photographs as well but I hear that the connections can be painfully slow so we'll see!


I'm so excited to get this journey started, but am getting a bit misty-eyed at the thought of leaving St. Andrews and all of the people in it... as well as my family and friends in Moncton and Sackville. I think I may also miss the 10 inches of hair I'm cutting off on Tuesday, but it will likely make things easier for me.
Well, I better get back to stocking up on nutrients (/eating my gram's delicious thanksgiving food)...


I will try to post a blog as soon as I land in Kenya, so there should be a new one around the 15th of October or so.


Thanks for taking an interest in my adventure!


~Julia