Slideshow on Youtube

I’ve just finished a short slideshow and posted it up on youtube. Its seven minutes short, or long depending on what way you look at it :)! With over 8,000 photo’s from the trip its difficult to keep any slideshow under the ten minute mark.

Anyways, I hope you like it.

Back home!!

Well its been a rollercoaster of a three months and we got back home yesterday, much to the surprise of our family and friends. We had told them all along that we would be home on the 23rd April, so you can imagine their surprise when we showed up out of the blue.
We left Kampala Sunday week and instead of travelling the way we came, we decided to go a different route and one that didn't take us five days! The route went Kampala, Nairobi, and then Arusha. It took 21 hours straight and involved three different countries(Uganda,Kenya and Tanzania) and two border crossings.
We arrived in Arusha and stayed in the same hostel we were in for the first half of our trip. We wanted to revisit and surprise the pupils and teachers in Meru view school, but when we arrived we found out that the school was on a month long Easter break, which was a pity. But we soon found ourselves another project to dig into for a few days; namely "Future Happiness". This is an orphanage/home/school in which fourteen girls from the age of seven to thirteen live and learn some education. They are looked after by a local lady who uses here home to care for them. The set up is excellent with the girls having a great loving place to live and a simple but effective classroom in which to learn in. They have a teacher who comes by for a few hours each day. We met up with this wonderful girls everyday for a week and had such an amazing time. They are so respectful and gracious for what they have in life and for the opportunity of living in a home that has structure and substance. It would be very easy to think if you visited the orphanage and didn't know it was indeed an orphanage, that its a loving home where the mother has fourteen children. It really is an amazing set up and compared to other places we've visited and heard of, the children in Future Happiness are very lucky.
Funding for the project is in the form of sponsorships from people all over the world, who has visited and wanted to help. The money is been used in the correct manner and the girls are really having a chance in life.
During the week we visited them we created a few mini projects for ourselves to do during the evenings at the hostel. We created the Alphabet on cardboard and glitz them up with stickers and colours before getting them laminated so that they would last. They were very pleased with this addition to their classroom wall. We also got a recipe for making cookies using flour,sugar,jam, and butter, and we spent one afternoon making cookies with them, which they absolutely loved doing. We also arranged a day out for them in which we hired a mini van(dala dala) and took them all out for a buffet style dinner a walk around a park. This was a very rare treat for them to all get outside the confines of their school/orphanage. You could really see that they were so excited about going for a spin in a bus.
We said our goodbyes to them last Sunday and boarded a bus headed for Dar Es Salaam which was a ten hour journey away. We wanted to head to the Zanzibar Islands before we left Africa. Zanzibar is located off the coast of Tanzania and can be reached by ferry, which we took early Tuesday morning. The ferry took a nice short two hours and were looking forward to two days of relaxation at the beach. Zanzibar as you can imagine is all white sand beaches and gorgeous blue skies. It really seemed like paradise to us. Unfortunately for me and because of the larium, I was unable to go out in the sun for long. But still, this didn't dent the fact that we were in an exotic location. I could go on describing Zanzibar but I'll let the photo's below describe the setting.
We left Zanzibar Thursday morning headed back to Dar es Salaam. We went to the airport and boarded first of three flights back to Dublin. Our route was Dar to Doha(Qatar), Doha to Gatwick, and Gatwick to Dublin via Qatar Airways, which may I add was like a 5 star hotel with wings! On the plane I felt like Tom Hanks in that movie "Castaway", after been away from technology and comforts for years. I was a child in the plane...touching buttons and laughing at the fact that everything was so clean.
The total trip back to Boyle including the train from Dublin took thirty six hours. But it didn't seem long at all. By that stage we were well accustomed to travelling long hours.

Below are a few photo’s from when we arrived back in Arusha and also a few from Zanzibar.

When I get settled in a day or two I’ll post my final update on the Trip with my thoughts about my three months in Africa.

Ciao

A few stories

Ok so we've been taking our anti-malaria tablets for the past twelve weeks(one per week) and although it hasn't sent us crazy or anything, it has certainly taken its effect on me in a few ways. The most noticeable one been nightmares. Although I do suffer from the odd nightmare like everyone else, I've had a big increase since taking the Larium tablets. This was too be expected though, as there are quite a few potential side effects from taking Satan's pill as its called! A couple of nights lately I've been convinced that Sanyu babies home(orphanage) is actually an animal zoo and there are crazy monkeys trying to escape from it. I woke Florence up one night to let her know that the mad monkeys were "out to get us". Another night, I awoke and jumped up out of the bed...nearly killing myself in the mosquito net(thought I was a fish been caught by a fisherman), and proceeded to look under the bed for squirrels, which I both heard and saw(in my head of course)!!
Another night I woke up convinced that I had a dogs mouth and started to bark. Needless to say Florence was both terrified and shocked at this behaviour! These are just a few examples of the crazy dreams that I've been having, and that I can only attribute to taking Larium. The dreams/nightmares seem so real.

Another side effect that I've developed is a huge increase in photo sensitivity to the sun. This has never happened me before as normally I would just go brown after been exposed to the sun. But since we came on this trip, I've only gotten extremely burnt, even with sun cream applied. Also my skin goes all blotchy and comes out in a white/red rash. Again it has to be attributed to Larium.

But at the end of it all, if the Larium does it's job then it will be worth it. So far I've gotten bitten by mosquito's well over 150 times(yes I've been counting). One night alone in Dar Es Salaam I got 36 bites. Destroyed wasn't the word, and all I wanted to do was scratch myself with sandpaper!

We heard a funny story Paddys day when we went out with a few Irish girls for a meal. We were joined by a German doctor called Hans, who was also doing some volunteering work in Kampala. He told us that he heard this story from a man who was very high up in the Guinness brewing business in Dublin...and that the story is in actual fact true.
Anyways, it relates to the reason why Guinness in Ireland tastes so much better than anywhere else in the world!
What he said was that during the fermentation process, there are big holes left in the top of these huge containers(holding Guinness) and that rats climb into these containers(attracted by the smell). The rats obviously drown, and after some time they disintegrate! Now he said that this gives Guinness its unique "smooth" texture and that its a result of these rats :)!! He also said that in every pub in Ireland that has a Guinness tap, there is a filter at the end of the tap(just before the Guinness reaches the glass, and that this prevents any debris from entering the glass, such as a "tooth" or "nail" that didn't disintegrate! We laughed when he told us this, but he was very adamant that it was true.

I did also mention that people here have rubber necks on them. When I say "rubber necks", I mean that they would be walking south and facing north! They make no shame in letting you know that they are extremely interested in your business. For example the other day, I was showing a taxi driver(motorbike) on my phone the name of a place that I wanted to go to. As he was trying to read it, I looked behind me and there were no less than five random strangers all peering over my shoulder trying to see what was on the phone!!! I tried to hide the phone, like you'd see a kid in school doing to his copybook if he didn't want his friends copying him :)!! Very funny to see. Another time, we were walking down a side street, and there were about 20 men all standing outside a shop on their tiptoes, again trying their hardest to see what was going on inside. We thought it must be something serious to warrant all this attention, but it turned out only to be a 12 inch T.V screen that captured their attention. Man U were playing Chelsea, and it was a week after they actually played...so it was a re-run! :)
The local men absolutely love football. Favourite teams are the obvious ones. Grown men will have screen savers of Ronaldo on their laptops and mobile phones, which is very funny in internet cafe's when a guy opens his laptop and theres Mr.Ronaldo or Beckam on the screen saver. Well I thought it was funny anyways.

Ladies of the night(I don't need to explain this one) line the streets at night time. Nothing unusual about seeing that except that its very freaky when they approach you. One night I went out to get some water, and my Mzungu white skin must have glowed like a fluorescent bulk because suddenly there were four creatures of the night around me offering discounted services. To say I was very uneasy would be an understatement...especially when you see needles sticking out of their handbags. I managed to swerve my way out of that particular hairpin to a pit stop around the corner, where I sought refuge and planned an alternative way back to our flat. Not funny at the time though but I laughed afterwards.

So thats all for this update. Our volunteering work in Sanyu babies home is going well. We have definitely made a slight difference to the staff and the little ones. I'll have a few more photo's up next week.

Ciao

African Rucksack 101

Since I don't have any news to report on the past few days, I thought I'd share the contents on my rucksack that I brought with me to Africa.
In the past whenever, I've gone traveling, I've always brought a huge suitcase or a 115 liter rucksack...which was massive. For this trip I limited it to a 50 liter one, and Flor managed to fit all her stuff into a 45 liter one! And I also brought a 20 liter daysack(which I compressed into my main rucksack.
Its true what they say; "pack what you think you'll need, then throw out half of it"!

So here's the contents of my rucksack, broking up into Clothes, Gadgets, Medicine and Miscellaneous.

Clothes

• 1 pair of sandals,
• 1 pair of trainers,
• 2 pairs of socks,
• 2 T-shirts,
• 2 shirts,
• 2 pairs of pants/combats
• 4 pairs of jocks
• 1 thermal long sleeve top,
• 1 rain jacket,
  
• 1 sleeveless top.

With the exception of the rain jacket and the sleeveless top all the clothes were made out of quick drying material, and also have a wicking(carries moisture away from body) effect. They also compress into a very small size, so they were convenient for traveling. There was also a anti-microbial substance in the clothes which kept them from smelling.....and they do work....I proved it :)

Gadgets

• Mini Panasonic camcorder(size of a packet of cigs)
• A SLR camera(1 lens) and a compact camera.
• Mini Laptop(writing up blogs, and watching movies)
• Mini hard-drive with 60 movies burned onto it. Also used for making a double copy of all our photo's, incase I ever lost the laptop and vise versa.
• External speakers(listening to movies)
• Ipod
• Nintendo DS+game card with 60 games(a life saver for long distances on buses...believe me)
• Phone
• Adapter plug.

The Nintendo DS really was a great purchase as it made long journeys that bit more tolerable. We had one each so it also meant we could play against each other on certain games. You may think its a bit childish but there are some great puzzle games available for it. The laptop also allowed us to watch movies whenever the boredom got too much in the evenings, or when there was no T.V available.

Medicine

• Anti-Malaria tablets(Larium) Crazy stuff....no wonder its nicknamed Satan's pill!
• Painkillers(Ponston)
• Antibiotics(Ampicillin)
• Valium(havn't had to use these so far :)
• Anti-Fungal cream
• Motilium
• Arret(Diarrhoea)
• Bandages and plasters.

All the above kept in a small medical pack.


Miscellaneous

• Travel towel(100% a definite for any trip. 5 uses out of it before you need to wash it. Soaks up to 10 times its weight, and have anti-microbial agent in it to prevent bacteria etc building up. Compact.
• Knife(a big 4 inch blade one I brought with me. It also had a bottle opener on other useful tools on it. We used it for everything, from eating and cutting wood. Very handy here in the flat in Kampala when you don't have a sharp knife.
• Travel line(very handy for drying clothes overnight in hostels etc)
• Travel sink plug
• Sunglasses
  
• Ducktape(we used this for mending clothes, hanging up curtains and 101 other things)
  
• Notebook
• Washbag(shaving gear, toothbrush etc)
  
• Lonely Planet Guide

So that's what I've been traveling with. Everything fits. The only thing is that any books that I've bought and read, I've had to leave them behind because of space.

There are things I would do differently though for again. For example, we brought our money in US dollars, as we were told its the best way. But we know now that its not. We exchanged our Euros for dollars before we left, then changed them as we needed them to the different currency depending on where we were. But if we just brought the Euros with us, then we would have gotten alot more. We worked it out to be something like an extra $1000 we would have had to spend if we brought Euro instead of dollars.

I also wouldn't advise people to eat unrefrigerated liver for breakfast like I did in Nairobi when we first arrived. :)

Ciao

Back in Uganda!

Well we arrived back in Kampala yesterday after a week in Kigali. We had a nice time there and although we visited the Orphans of Rwanda orphanage there for the week, we didn't feel like we were helping as much as we felt we should be. This was mainly due to the fact that the orphanage has alot of qualified staff and any amount of visiting volunteers(like ourselves). So our time there was mainly just chatting to the boys and girls who were living there. We got first hand accounts of what the genocide was like through the eyes of some of its survivors. Terrible stuff to be honest.

The journey back to Kampala was nothing short of a nightmare! It really was crazy and it was all due to the driver’s insane need for speed. We left Kigali at 5.30am Wednesday morning and within ten minutes after we got out of the city, I said to Florence that this is going to be a rough trip. For some reason the bus didn't take the same route as we came. The scenery was equally as beautiful as the sun was rising over the mountains, but the road was very, very bumpy. The driver was absolutely hammering his way along these twisty, dirt roads with no care for safety in the slightest. After a half an hour, the woman behind us started retching her stomach contents onto the window and was using the curtain to wipe her mouth! That will tell you how crazy it was, when even locals were terrified. There were babies on board the bus, whose mothers were strapping them to their chests as best they could. The putrid smell of vomit behind me, coupled with the stale air made me very nauseous. I spent the next two hours praying that I didn't get sick as I had nothing only my day back on the bus filled with books. I passed a bottle of water back to the woman behind me to try and help her feel better. After a while she eased up, but the smell remained for the whole ten hour journey.
After about 5 hours, we stopped for a scheduled fifteen minute break at a little station. We were no more than five minutes off the bus when the driver was blowing the horn and revving the engine for us all to get back in. One toilet for males and one for females, and here was this lunatic driver hammering on his wheel wanting us to hurry up.
However, someone along the way decided to ring the bus office, which was Kampala coaches and made a complaint about the driver. No it wasn’t us! This resulted in a heated argument between the driver, the conductor(collects tickets etc) and a few passengers outside the bus. We had no idea what was been said as it was in their language, but the driver was not a happy man. When he got back on the bus he face was white with rage! A funny site giving the colour of his skin :)
This did result however in the bus restarting as a decent speed, in which all of us were very relieved. However, this did not last!! Two hours later, the bus was racing through tiny villages and towns at a speed of at least 80 miles a hour. People at the sides of roads were just stopping in their tracks and looking and pointing at the bus. Others were trying to tell the driver through hand signals to slow the F down! People at the back of the bus(where we were) were trying to get up and complain to the staff at the front but it was way too dangerous and bumpy to stand up. The woman started puking again behind us. We arrived in Kampala after a ten hours of that mess of a journey. When we got to the station, loads of people were going to make complaints, so we decided not to bother lining up in the queue.

We got ourselves sorted in the same block of apartments as we had before we left, so things are fine again. We spent this morning up in Sanyu babies home again and its good to be back here. We can be more helpful here.

Apart from that we have nothing else to report. We haven’t long left on this trip so we are going to try and enjoy African life for the remaining time we have.

Ciao!