Just an afterthought
These are some of the favorite toilets!!!!
1) Serengeti-after our baloon ride we were treated to an English breakfast on the Serengeti so of course they needed a bif. This one had three sides only- the fourth was open and overlooking the vast plains of the Serengeti with hundreds of wildebeast, zebra and gazelles to view. It was called a loo with a view!

2) Chobe National Park in Botswana- We spent two nites camping while on a game drive. This toilet had four sides and no roof. We were able to see a very bright stars incuding the Southern Cross and a brilliant milky way .

3) Wine country in South Africa- this was a regular BR in a building. Immediately in front of the toilet was a large window that overlooked the rows and rows of autumn colored grape trees. Great view!

It doesn't take much to make us happy!

Helen is bringing this baby home with her.

The Maasai performing for us.

We now have a car and are truly a danger to the world. Driving out of Cape Town in rush hour traffic and on the wrong side of the road made for some anxious moments but Helen got us through in one piece. We venture down the cape, stop for some fish & chips and visit with all the fishermen along the way. Their catch is on display on the pier and looks great. Tonight fish for supper.

The Cape is a piece of rock with the Atlantic on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other.The scenery is truly spectacular. I know we keep saying this, but for the cape it is true. We had a bit of a storm so the waves were really high and they pound into shore with terrific force. There are lots of little towns along the way and one is Boulder. Boulder's claim to fame is penguins, lots of little (about 18 inches high) penguins. They are so cute and funny when they walk. We spent about 2 hours just taking pictures and watching these little guys. We spend 2 days on the Cape, walking every trail and visiting some of the little towns. Travelling is a challenge, at one point we had to wait while the ostriches cross the road and at another point someone has hit a mother baboon and her baby is trying to make her get up. We wanted to get out and help but an injured baboon is no laughing matter.

On May 2 we head for the Garden Route only to discover that the start of the route is 300 km away so we decide to settle for some points along the south coast. We spent a few days in the charming town of Hermanus. Hermanus is in the middle of wine country and we spent a day traveling to the different cellar doors. Donna started out driving but the call of wine was to much for her to resist and soon Helen was behind the wheel. The views in the wine valley were amazing, the vines have started to change color and the hills are covered in red & yellow. These vineyards have wonderful old world charm and you could spend several days traveling throughout the countryside. But we only had one day and we are headed back to Cape Town.

We are back for our last day in Cape Town and are headed home tomorrow, May 6. See you all soon, Helen has 8,000 pictures and she expects you to see them all.

We are on our way to Cape Town and have spent the whole day traveling. Arrive in Cape Town late and we are happy to be in our guest house. The morning dawns bright & clear but much cooler than we are used to. Cape Town is a beautiful city, the harbor has all been redeveloped with a ton of shops & restaurants. The restaurants are right up our alley, shopping not so much. We ride the hop on hop off bus and because the day is clear we go up Table Mountain. The view from the top is spectacular and we spend the afternoon hiking the table top. At times the sights were covered with the table cloth (cloud) but every once in a while it would clear and we could see the harbor and the city.

We visited District 6 Museum which is a reminder of what happened to some of the residents of a whole district that were displaced during apartheid. The pictures tell a story of a close community that is torn apart by policy. This is a wonderful city with a great history, some of it very sad but all of it interesting.

We ventured to Camps Bay and to Sea Point and had a wonderful walk along the sea wall. There is a huge park all along the waterfront and kids play football and everyone walks their dogs. It goes for miles and is a wonderful way to burn off lunch. The city has beautiful botanical gardens and we spent a couple of hours there. We have had wonderful seafood, and coupled with amazing South African wine, we are happy. All the seafood is cooked in at least a pound of butter but the Tums come in handy.

We arrange for a car and we are off tomorrow for The Cape.

Have left Livingstone on our way to Chobe National Park in Botswana. Our guides see us through the immigration process and we are in a little boat crossing the Chobe River into Botswana. This river is also flooded, more water than they have seen for 50 years.
The transport trucks wait at the border crossing for over a week to get across the river. The only way across is by ferry which can only handle 1 truck at a time.

The first part of our trip is a water safari so we start out in a covered raft complete with tea, coffee and cookies. The trip to our camp takes about 3 hours and we view the animals on the shore from the safety of our raft. We see hippos, elephants, kudos(antilope) crocs and impala. We are met on shore by another guide and he (Jensen) takes us to our camp. This is not a luxury camp but is very comfortable. Our travelling companions are great, 1 from Australia, 1 from Germany and 1 from Holland. Wine is included with our meals and we all proceed to bond and become best friends with our fellow travellers. At one point we are all laying on a blanket (drunk as farts) looking at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. We knew thats what we were looking at because the guy from Holland(24 years old) was an Astro Physicist. We keep very good company here. Our guide was amazing, he found us all the animals including a lion with 6 cubs. He was quite willing to provide all services but don't worry, the wine haze cleared in time. Warren, don't worry, your mother is following all the advice she has given to you in the past. We had a wonderful time, we are on our way to South Africa and the last leg of our journey. We are still well, tired but still smiling.

We left Lusaka via bus heading for Livingstone/Victoria Falls/Mosi oa Tunya (the smoke that thunders). The bus trip was an event all on its own. We were scheduled to leave at 8:30am and finally left at 1:30. Apparently this bus does not leave until it is full. We are finally underway but we have a preacher with us who delivers a sermon as we travel along. We thought if he goes all the way to Livingstone with us we will have to kill him but after 45 minutes he has run out of spit and fire & brimstone and he gets off. Every day is an adventure, some of them we could do without but This is Africa. We arrived in Livingstone very late, our rooms are saved for us and our supper is some heated up banana bread. No double rum & cokes but we are happy to have the banana bread.

Next day is Victoria Falls . They are truly magnificent. The spray can be seen miles away as the Zambezie river is very high right now and the fall are huge. We of course had to walk across the bridge next to the falls and got soaked in the spray even with 2 raincoats on. It was exciting and scary all at once. We walked every trail so we could see the falls from all angles and even tried to venture in Zimbabwe but were turned back by a kind guy who told us what we were doing was illegal.

Next day we took a helicopter ride over the falls and could see the river, the falls and the gorge. Exciting... Our pictures are great and you all have to see all 9,000 of them. That evening we thought we would try another sunset cruise and this one lived up to its billing. A lovely boat, The Lady Livingstone, wine and snacks. Not sure the one on Zanzibar wasn't more fun but this was lovely. Back to the falls the next day for 1 more look and the off to The Royal Livingstone for lunch. The Royal Livingstone is a 5 star hotel right on the Zambezie River and overlooking Victoria Falls. We drag ourselves in, soaking wet but they served us a lovely lunch (for about $40. each) and we could pretend we were staying there. To highlight our lunch, there were zebra and monkeys on the lawn and as were are leaving, there are giraffes, a mother, father and baby on the road. A perfect ending.

We arrived in Lusaka, Zambia after leaving Dar es Salaam very early Thursday morning. We flew through Jo'burg as Zambia Air is bankrupt and we could not fly direct. After a long day we were met at the airport by Sarah & her new husband Alvin. After travelling for 2 month, it was nice to see a familiar face. We spent the next 4 days doing regular Zambia/Sarah things. Sarah cooked us a traditional Zambian dinner complete with nashima?? (maize porridge) and lots of wine. Dinner was delicious and it was nice to have some home cooking. The chicken balony sandwich we had the day before was also a highlight. Do you get the idea we are travelling on our stomachs.

We shopped for material with Sarah, watched a basketball practice and went to a couple of games. Alvin coaches the national level womens' team and it was fun to sit in the stands and watch the games. After the games we had chinese food which was as good as anything we have eaten before.

Sunday we went to the botanical gardens outside of Lusaka, had a picnic lunch and just hung out. A wonderful visit. Alvin and Sarah were great hosts and we enjoyed our visit. Thank you again guys, we will see you in June.

We have just spent 5 glorious days on Zanzibar. It is the spice island and known for its winding streets, doors and the area where the slaves were traded. The food was excellent and we had sea food at least twice a day. The prawns were huge and delicious- cooked in many different ways.
We stayed in Stone Town for most of the time, and spent a lot of time wandering the quaint streets, looking in all the shops and trying to resist the high pressure sales-types. They were quite pushy but harmless. One day I went snorkling- it was totally amazing and it was one of the best reef I have seen. the coral was beautiful -all shapes ,sizes and colors. And so were the fish!
We had our nails and toes "done" and were generally tourists .We went to the north part of the island one day and were treated to white sand, blue skies, very few tourists and generally a little paradise.
We booked a sunset cruise and had visions of champagne, canapies, men,and a sunset! The reality was an old wooden dhow with a ripped sail, no life jackets, and two young men on their maiden sailing voyage. The champagne turned out to be orange pop with a bag of chips but we had a lovely sail and our captain and one crew member got us back alive!!!
In Stone Town we found many spots to view the ocean and did so usually accompanied with some local beverage.
The ferry ride was an adventure in itself. Going over we took the slow ferry which is the same as the chicken bus in Guatemala!! It was overloaded by at least 200 people-and no life jackets to be seen.
Coming back we thought we would be smarter and took the fast ferry. Also much pushing and shoving to get seats but finally we are off! The first thing the did was hand out barf bags and we soon figured out why. The next two and a half hours were spend rock and rolling!!!!The sounds and smells were a test.
We are now back in Dar es Salaam. Have spent a day here poking around the shops and looking for new places to eat- always a priority.Its a big city and hot as hell and humid.
Tomorrow we leave for Zambia and a visit with Sarah.
Will keep you posted.

Our last day was a balloon ride over the Serengeti. We started off at 5:00am with a 1 hour night game drive and saw many of the night animals. We saw 4 lions that morning, African hares, owls, little Dik Diks (tiny antelopes). We arrived at the launch site in time to see a beautiful sunrise. The balloon was being set up and we were loaded by 7:00am. There were 16 passengers plus the pilot who was a wonderful tour guide. For the next hour we floated over the Serengeti, checked out all the animals and just marvelled at the scenery. Some of the time we just cleared the trees and then we would go up to 1,000 feet. It was an amazing trip and a highlight of the whole trip. We have pictures, many, many pictures. We landed softly on the plains and were treated to a champagne breakfast. Our travelling companions were English and we had such a great time trading stories and drinking champagne we wanted to stay forever. Then it was more game drive and back to our wonderful hotel for a swim, a lay about the pool and supper. This roughing it is real hard to take.

The next morning we drove to Ngorogoro Crater and another game drive. This time the animals are closer and do not run away when we drive up. We saw all the animals that we had seen at Serengetti but there are more babies here. We saw elephants and rhinos. At the very end of the day we came across a mother lion feeding two cubs. We watch for a long time and then happend to look behind us and there was a pride of 8 lions just laying in the grass. A papa guarding his group, some females and some young males. We had to divide our time between the pride and the mother feeding. A neat experience (Helen says it was captivating). Then it was off to another lovely lodge on the rim of the crater. A gorgeous view especially from the bar. The next day was an early morning game drive, elephants with babies, cheetas, more lions and all the usual, zebras, gazelles, wildebeast, warthogs and birds. We are getting animalled-out. We were so excited to see our first zebra and giraffe, now it is ho hum, just another zebra. Not quite but almost.

Tomorrow we are heading to Dar es Salem(by bus) and on to Zanzibar for a couple of days.

Miss you all, will post again after Zanzibar.

Well we are back in Arusha safe and sound after a wonderful safari. We started off in Lake Manyara to see the baboons, tons of giraffes, zebra, and all kinds of antelope. The neat part of looking at these animals here is they are all together, the zebras together with the wildebeast?? together with the giraffes. That night we stayed at a tented lodge that was wonderful. The tents are on permanent foundations with proper toilets and showers but the walls and roof are tents. It had the nicest bar and dining room you can imagine. Food was good and we hated to leave. No midnight visitors to our tent that night (of the animal variety) but it was a wonderful stay. The next morning we had a walk with a Maasi guide who took us through the local area and told us how to cure syphilis with the roots of a tree. Good information to have.

Then it was off to the Serengeti after a brief stop at a Massi Village. We had a welcoming dance from the warriors, a dance with the women, a visit to a Massi home and then to their market where we bought all sorts of treasures. The dance was wonderful and we will post our pictures the next time. The dance is where they jump 2-3 feet straight up in the air. They are very colourful and there is much singing and chanting while they dance. We were kind of distracted while they were doing this as there were a whole bunch of little children around and they really stole the show. The children are incredibly dirty and incredibly cute. The Massi home is a sticks and cow dung round structure. There is a firepit inside and the place is incredibly hot and stinky. We don't think we will become Maasi any time soon. Then we visited the kindergarten for another round of financial solicitation. All in all a good visit even if we did leave somewhat poorer.

Then it was off to the Serengeti after a brief stop at Oldavai Gorge. We toured the museum where the Leakeys made their discovery of Lucy, looked at all the old bones and were off. Our first day on the Serengeti was amazing. A plain that stretches for miles & miles, no trees at the start of the Sarengeti, just some outcropping of rocks called kopjie. We saw thousands of wildebeast, zebra, gazelle. These are all on the Serengeti waiting for the time to migrate further north. We did not actually see the migration but got to see all the animals in one place. An awesome sight and one we watched for a long time and will never forget. We also saw giraffe, lion, warthog, hyena, and tons of birds (and the back end of a leopard in a tree). After a full day it was off to our very lavish lodge. Swimming pool, and amazing dining room and the view from every window overlooked the Serengeti. The next day we saw a baby wildebeast being pulled underwater by a hugh crocodile. We didn't stay for the finish but it was kind of sad even if the wildebeast are about the funniest looking animals alive. We are not finished but are going to post this so we don't lose it. More to follow.

A quick note-
Tommorow( April 1) we are starting our Safarie!!!
Looking forward to that.
Yeasterday we spent a day on a cultural tour of the Wa-Arusha tribe.We did a lot of walking thru the village. Saw and visited two schools -elementary and secondary-,saw a home of one of the residents. She lived there with a cow ,a goat and goat, and had a fire pit in the middle of the floor . It was very hot and smokey inside. the village does quite well as they all work together- to build schools and support orphans. they rely on donations from tourist as well.
Lot of lush trees and plants!
A great day.
Until next time.

It is Sunday March 29 and we are finished our volunteering. We have left our home and are staying in a hotel with a swimming pool and brochettes to die for. Tomorrow we fly to Arusha. Our family was sorry to see us go, or so they said. They had a party for us last night, with some of the neighbors and a ton of food. We bought the beer so we had lots of that too. It was fun with lots of African singing and dancing. It is part of the Rwandan culture to have a party when they have guests. Our last day at the Centre was a lot of good byes and well wishes for happy travelling. A wonderful group of ladies who we will not soon forget. They are brave women who have endured much adversity and most of them are still smiling. We both have had different experiences with our volunteering so we will have lots of stories to tell when we get home. We are happy to be done and on to some exciting travelling.

Last weekend we travelled to Nyungwe, a rain forest in the south part of Rwanda. A beautiful park that is home to many different kinds of monkeys but unfortunately we were to late in the day and they were all sleeping. But we had a nice hike and saw many different kinds of orchids, huge old growth mahogany trees but no monkeys. We stay in a traditional rondel (round house) right on the lake and it was a very pleasant weekend. We were refused accommodation at one of the hotels because we were not married. Was the joke of the day.

Yesterday we tried our hand at golf in Kigali and Tiger Woods still has a job. We has to take caddies and that we new for us and in the end we really enjoyed them. One of them spoke very good English and we had a good time with them. The golf course was very pretty with flowering trees. Hot as hell but fun.

We start our safari on Wednesday and are looking forward to that. We will be on safari for 8 days so am not sure about email access while we are travelling so our next update may be after April 8. We continue to be well, no sickness of any kind. Hope it lasts.

Rwanda is an incredibly safe country and we were not worried about travelling around even at night. We will have to do a mental adjustment to make sure we travel safe from here on in.

Hi all,
Last weekend we spent in downtown Kigali.A hot shower in the room and CNNmade us quite happy!!! Spent two days exploring the city- it is one that is very sprawled out so we did a lot of walking, the city is on a hillside so has amazing views, a lot of trees and flowers so it is beautiful.
We had a nostalgic moment when we found the Canadian Embassy!
Ate a lot of good food-from local to more western.As usual both of us enjoyed each morsel! The Primus beer is our frequent standard.
We went to a fashion show in the gorgeous Serena hotel with local designes and local singers for entertainment. A most enjoyable event.
this weekend we are headed out of town to Butare and Nyengwe National Park to do some hiking and to see some monkeys and waterfalls.
Will let you know how that adventure turns out!!
We continue to be safe and well(cast iron stomachs).
Take care all of you. Miss you

We managed to publish some of our pictures. It takes a long time but they turned out really good. Just to update you, last weekend we went to Uganda to see some Rotary projects. We flew into Entebbe airport and Rotarian Timothy picked us up and drove us into Kampala. Kampala is a large busy city, lots of traffic, noise and lots of clubs, bars. We found Kampala to be more upbeat than Kigali but it might have been we were with Rotarians who could show us around.

Timothy drove us to our accomodations for our stay. It was the home of Rotarian Peter, a very nice home complete with hot water showers, flush toilets. We got a warm welcome from Peter & his wife Margaret and their daughter Meg. After a rest it was off to a Rotary meeting, out for beer and then home for late supper. Next day was more Rotary, more beer and another late supper. The schedule in Uganda is breakfast at 8am, lunch about 5pm and then supper about 10pm. Friday a trip out of town to see a technical school!!! project and then our goats & heifers project. A great day, we saw lots of countryside and met some of the students in the
school. A stop at the equator for a picture and then it was home for a traditional Ugandan supper, fish, baked bananas , chicken, rice, beet greens, egg plant and a few things we didn't know. Probably some mystery meat in some things. It was a great meal and a great experience.

The next day we are off with Dr. Alice Kagoda, a professor at a university in Kampala and a director of the Bussano school. We stopped at the source of the Nile , bottom end of Lake Victoria, and did a bit of shopping. Dr. Alice is a delightful woman who showed us a great day. We went to her school where they had a program of speeches, songs, dance, and a great lunch. Do you get the idea we are eating & drinking our way through Africa. Dr. Alice has done a wonderful job with this school of about 330 children. She is looking for a teacher to come & spend a couple of months and do some upgrade training for her teachers. It would be a really cool job for a couple of months. Then it was home for a beer and out to supper at a French restaurant hosted by Peter & Margaret. This meal was as good as anything we have eaten anywhere.

We took the bus home so we could see the countryside, a 9 hour journey. Glad to be home and it is back to our volunteer job.

We met with Rev. Gatera, a Rwandan minister we met in Edmonton before we left. He was very insightful on the Rwandan culture.

Gota go for now, more later.

Some of the women who work at the centre.

More napping children from the day care.

Our cook at the centre.

Some of the children in the village. The greet us us every morning and escort us to the volunteer centre.

It's nap time in the daycare.

This is some of the volunteers at the centre. Me, Jennie from Vancouver, Helen, Debbie from Ontario, our resident computer expert, and Helene from Montreal. Helene is an engineer working with Bombardier.

A picture of the family we are staying with.

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The arbour at the genocide museum.

Sorry, having trouble loading any more pictures. Will try again tomorrow.

Here are some of our pictures. We have to resize the pictures before we can put them on the blog so there are only a few.

This is the home we are staying at in Kigali. A widow and her 3 children live here. Helen and I each have a bedroom. Our house mother Constance has some lovely flowers.

This is Helen's bedroom. Pretty basic but it works.

09Mar09

Hi all,
All continues to go well.There are always some new experiences. Each day as we walk up to the centre we are greeted by a lot of children wanting hugs and to hold our hand. All have a big smile and a Bon Jour!
Donna is still teaching English and I am massaging shoulders and have tried to start the ladies stretching their shoulders regularily.
Last weekend we went to Akagera Park with some of the other volunteers.
We had such a good time!!!The park is small and not frequented by a lot of tourists so we were able to go off the trail and track animals by vehicle. Too see these animals in the wild was so exciting! We saw giraffes,zebras,monkeys,baboons, impallas, water buffalo and to end the day--a rare sighting-- a leopard. It was so beautiful.
At the gorilla area we had a gorilla-I think the story now is that he was at least 500 lbs- slowly saunter up to us and leap in a second on the roof of the vehicle and into the van!!
We were siting in the back with no escape root .We gently tried to shoo him away but he had another adgenda. I had a leftover sandwich which he quickly snatched and jumped out of the truck through the roof!!!!
After it was over we all laughed and laughed but the truth was that we were pretty scared. Of course the guide ,driver and men all exited the vehicle.The scenery in the Park and all thru Rwanda is totally gorgeous. The vegitation is lusch, and there are lots of flowers.

We have been in Rwanda a week and a lot has happened. First, if we have not signed onto our blog, please don't worry about us as the internet is up and down and we sometime cannot get on.

We are very safe, living in the village of Kimoronko with a widow and her 3 "kids". Families got cobbled together after the genocide with widows taking in orphans so the families are not really related. Helen & I are in the same house. We did not expect to be but she had room and I think needed the money. Living conditions are rustic, however very clean & comfortable. Our farming background is standing us well as we shower in a tub. We will check into a hotel every couple of weeks to get back to civilization. They all speak kirawandan except for 1 and she speaks quiet good English.

We visited the Genocide Museum last week and it is a horrific introduction to what went on here in1994. It is a well done museum, also included information on other genocides. A hard day but well worthwhile to understand the people and what they went through.

The countryside is lovely, green with many mountains(hills) and is very clean. Last weekend we went to a town on Lake Kivu and had a great time. We has tilipia fish for lunch, caught that morning from the lake. We had to eat with our hands. Someone came by with a pitcher of water so we could wash before eating.

We take our meals at the centre and they are very good. Nice fresh, home cooked meals. There is enough to eat but no seconds and no desserts. We walk to the centre every morning which takes us 1/2 hour and so we are loosing weight. But that is OK because we found a beer place just 10 minutes from the centre and we are starting to have a cocktail every afternoon before supper.

Our volunteer jobs at the centre are varied and while it took us a little while to get into the swing of things, we are now busy. Helen is giving massages and working with the Dr. who comes once a week. I am teaching a little english, working on the business plan and a Rotary project. We both help out in the day care and both help cook the lunch meal for the day care. Today we peeled about 20 pounds of potatoes and a sack of carrots!!! These little buggers eat a lot. Kids are sweet and we love them all, but no we are not bringing them home, yet!!!!

It takes forwever to get anywhere as they all want to give you hugs, say Bon Jour and talk. Being able to speak French would have been a benefit but we are managing. Helen speaks some french so she can translate.

There are 3 other volunteers here so we have plenty of company. Very nice people and they have had interesting lives. We have had a couple of comments from the locals that they thought volunteers were young so we are unusual to them.

Next week we are off to Uganda and a visit to the Rotary projects there and a visit to a school.

Not sure if we are going to be able to load our pictures as we need to resize before we load them and computer time is an issue. Will try.

Thats all for now, talk next week

It is Monday and we are leaving Amsterdam tomorrow for Africa. We have spent 2 days here , and it is now our new favorite city. We spent lots of time in the museums, got to see Rembrandt paintings and Van Gogh. We are now all cultured up. So we thought we would visit the red light district just to balance us out.

This is an amazing city, would be lovely to see it in the spring when the tulips are all in bloom. The food is great, and the bakeries have all sorts of good things. We ate everything in sight getting ready for Africa. It is a great walking city and we have enjoyed the architecture and walking along the canals. No time for shopping but maybe next time.

In just under 3 weeks, we will be on our way to Rwanda for our next adventure. We leave on Feb 13, spend a couple of days in Amsterdam and then fly into Kagali via Nairobi.

Our plans are to spend 7 weeks in Rwanda and do some travelling around that country. We will hopefully see the gorillas, visit a Rotary project in Uganda, go on a game drive in Rwanda and visit Lake Victoria. This is all while we are volunteering in Rwanda. We will be working with an organization called Ubuntu which is an organization working with widows and orphans in Kimironko (a community in Kagali). After we have completed our volunteer stint, we will be travelling through southern Africa including South Africa.

We thought a blog was the best way for us to let everyone know where we are and to see what we are up to. Thank you Jarett for setting us up. The picture on the blog is of us in Vietnam in Halong Bay. Some of the locals were teaching us how to fish and then our cook fried up these little tiny fish. A wonderful day.

We will publish the pictures of our travels along the way(that is if we remember how to do it). Isn't technology wonderful.