'Light' the way

Bits and Bobs of Africa

nattahenry — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:33:00 GMT

This is going to be a patchwork blog. Bits and pieces of stories stitched together to hopefully give some sort of recognisable picture!

So, where did I finish last time? That's right, the animals in Africa...to sum up, Amazing! A David Attenborough experience. The cultural side of things I didn't really touch on though. There were numerous 'double take' moments as I admired the Masai in their traditional colourful cloaks as they grinned cheeckily riding by on a motor bike, one hand on a handle bar, the other holding a mobile to their ear. It's as if Africa has missed the whole middle step of development. In Westernised countries, development has been a progression. HOwever, in many Afican countries (and others for that matter), it's as if they've reached into the future and plucked technologies and clothing from a future era and started using it in 'real' time. A bizare mix of tradition and modenity. They have phones but not necessarily running water or electricity. Jeans and t-shirts are worn under traditional clothing. Pop music is infused with their traditional drumming. Cows remain as a dowry throughout Africa, even South Africa and if a male doesn't have enough cows, no marriage for him. Tourists have been adopted into the culture as we're seen as opportunities to make money. Slum or village tours are offered in some places as the whites stare out at the locals to get a 'real' sense of how they live in thier community. Walking around as an individual though, or with just one or two other people, locals respond very differently to you. Obviously in a more personal way and I've experienced generosity and adhoc dance and singing performances on a few occassions.

From East to South Africa...

South Africa exceeded my expectations. From the varied landscape to the people.

Cape Town was like a Melbourne winter. Bleak and cold. Luckily I had one beautiful day in which I took the opportunity to climb Table Mountain. Since I had arrived in Cape Town, the top of the mountain had been hidden by cloud (the table cloth as it's known) but that morning the table cloth ahd been ripped off and the mountain sat as a confident statement overseeing the City. I was blown away (almost literally as it was windy) by the view at the top. On one side, clouds drifted by almost as if they were rising from the Atlanic Ocean, taking it in turns to hide neighboring mountains. We cheated and caught the cable car down just befor sun set.

After spending four days in Cape Town, Christina (my Canadian friend who I met in Ghana 4 years ago) one of her friends, Hanna (they'd been working together in Cape Town) and I hired a car and set off on our South Afican road trip. Pasta with pasta sauce and veggies was to become our staple dinner. Quality peanut butter sandwhiches and bananas sustained us most other times.

The scenery varies dramatically across S.A. From impressive green mountains, such as Outeniqua Pass, to the small Karu - flatter, drier landscape, to ocean views, to the typical African Savvana with tall, dry grasses.

We stayed at Bulungula, a hostel in the trans-sky region for a few days. The community juts out to the wild Indian Ocean and the hostel is partly owned by the community. We took about 3 hours to drive 35kms as potholes (or where mini meteorites had seemingly hit) littered the road. But our trusty 2 wheel drive handled the task. The weekend we were there, an initiation ceremony took place for the boys who were becoming men. They had been circumsised 3 months prior and had all lived in a rondeval (round African style hut) but were being 'released' that weekend and so it was celebration time! The boys traditionally do stick fighting (which has been lethal and disabling in the past but has now been toned down) but we missed this action. We did join the locals in drinking homebrewed beer in a Rondeval, men on one side, women on the other. The beer was made from maize and really, would not be marketable in Australia. Every time the container was passed to me, yep, there was a communal container used, I held breath and sipped. When I say container, I actually mean old paint tin. Quality. We then moved to a hillside where the locals just sat, socialised and drank. And drank some more. Most of them for the whole weekend. Women aren't allowed to drink until post menapause in the Xhosa Community which is a good method to prevent drinking whilst pregnant.

Throughout Ghana I saw the result of many tro-tro accidents. Lonely looking shells with shattered glass, bent metal and an open mouth, displaying where the void behind where the door had once been hanging. The rusty or blackened evidence of misguided driving or pot-holed roads sent chills through me yet relief remained as an after taste. I had not been in the toppled tro-tro and I had not seen it fall. However, in the Trans-sky region of S.A, a rather neglected region, a new after taste flavoured my mouth. A flavour that needs to be followed by dessert as the taste is sickening but even dessert can't hide it's taste. We rounded a corner and my brain took a few seconds to catch up with reality shocked as I came to grips with the scene before me. I pulled the car over to the side of the road. One minibus (the local transport in S.A) had collided into the back of another. One minibus lay on it's side in the middle of the road and the other one sat with it's rear end crumpled. As we were pulling over I realised how recently the accident had occured as one man was crawling from the overturned wreckage though the back window, trying to avoid the shattered glass. I noticed one man aimlessly wandering. Blood was painted across his face andh is nostrils were the source of a red stream. I grabbed my rather lame first aid kit and headed toward the minibus lying on it's side. CArs beeped and continued driving through the chaos. The guys whose face was covered by blood had disappeared. I decided to search for him. I passed 3 women in about their late 60's who had been pulled from the rear ended minibus. They lay on the ground moaning. They were alert and could focus on me. There were no obvious injuries and I just hoped that there were no internal ones. I spotted injured face guy and attempted to patch up his face. His septum was completely severed at the base so blood flowed freely over his lips. HIs right eye area was swollen and no doubt he had sustained facial fractures. A string of flesh hung from his right eye. As I coundn't speak Xhosa and definitly couldn't manage the tongue clicking, all I could do was nod and confirm that yes, his eye was very swollen as he pointed to it. An attempt to clean his face was only half successful with my lack of useful supplies and the bandage that I wrapped around his head made him look like a typical injured soldier from World War 1 or 2. The fast response of the ambulances was impressive however it would have been useful if they actually had supplies as well. I just hoped that the hospital that they were being taken to was better equipped and staffed. Another guy had been pulled from the wreckage and was rolled onto a makeshift stetcher as red coloured his face and limbs. As we drove away some of the locals who we had managed to have a short converstaion with waved with a look of appreciation that had been followed by looks of curiosity as 3 white females had landed in their midst!

Lesotho was our next stop. Freezing cold Lesotho! We stayed just outside Lesotho in the Drakensburg mountains and ejoyed a hike our first day there. The end of our hike brought us out onto the main road. It was dirt and in the middle of construction works. We eventually got picked up by a few guys in a minivan and experienced one of the funniest lifts. One of the guys threatened to kidnap us all the way to Underberg where they were headed. 'That's fine', I quipped 'cos you've got beer' as I pointed to the crates in the seats infront of me. He jovially offerred us some (even though they were destined for a hotel) and we politely refused. (Ironically that's the second time I've been offered alcohol in a mini bus in S.A but that's a different story!) The driver then enthusiastically held up a small bottle of vodka and offered us some. We cracked up laughing, relieved that it was unopened. The guy in the passenger seat upfront then offered us some fluro orange concoction labelled pine-nut soft drink. Once again, we declined. They stopped and had a jovial converstaion with a local women who attempted to get them to transport empty beer bottles somewhere, which she succeeded in doing. They continued to banter in Zulu. As they dropped us off infront of our hostel, they waved like school kids in a bus and drove away laughing. Their laughter that was infectious!

As I'm sleep deprived and feel dazed (for boring reasons like spending way too long on planes...not partying...although boring changed into annoying reasons last night as I was reminded as to why dorm rooms can be some of the most ridiculous and innappropriate places) this blog is about to get really lazy...

Lesotho = land of the wind. Sani Pass road leading up to Lesotho = rocky, dusty, windy, steep and happy to survive!

Swaziland = warmth. Hostel in middle of national park = surrouded by tall, dry grass and animals such as wart hogs, impalla, a freaky but resident ostrich, zebra and hippos.

Johannesburg = getting lost in the car on the way to Appartheid Museum. Cradle of Mankind. Constitutional Court.

...Soweto = interesting history including Nelson Mandella's house. Friendly people and a random Rasta pary opposite the hostel. The biggest hospital in the world with 3000 beds.

In the more white areas such as Melville = high fences with barbed wire or gates that resembled spears attached together. Feeling of distrust.

Skipping to Vietnam...been here one day. Baggage lost by airline...forced to travel light...by this I mean pretty much the clothes on my back and valuables. Just need to do emergency underwear shopping! Currenly raining but humid. Motor bikes galore!

Anyhoo, am back in the land of Oz in a week and a bit (the bit is very important) so for those of you who are in Melbourne town, can exchange stories then! For those of you in other worldy places, look forward to hearing your stories!

East Africa

nattahenry — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:07:00 GMT

African time has seeped into my bones and I no longer know what the day, date or barely the month is...

I sit writing on an overcast morning in Capetown, South Africa. It's cool, especially after spending some time in Zanzibar, Tanzania but it provides an opportunity to let you all know that I'm alive and well :-) This is the first place in about a month that I have had access to decent internet connection so I shall spill some stories onto the page in maybe a rather disorganised manner about my last month of travel...

I farewelled Ghana and landed in Nariobi after a short layover at Addis Adaba airport in Ethiopia (another country that I'd love to visit but now's not the time!). I wondered where all the chaos of Ghana was, the humidity, the loud music and missed the West African country that I had just spent an amazing 3 weeeks in. Exploring the city, I discovered a small market and was amused at the selling techniques that were used. One guy told me that a particular bracelet was made from giraffe tail. After telling him that it looked extremely like plastic he assured me that it was giraffe tail...hmmmm, I can be gullible but maybe not quite that gullible! They must have a great laugh after tourists walk out of their stores, swapping stories of the most ludicrous tale they've told!

East Africa was my 'switch off brain' section of the trip as I joined an overland tour. And switch off brain I did. By the first few days of the trip I had lost my debit card, my memory card from Ghana went MIA and numerous bits and pieces just vansihed into thin air. I'm sure there were goblins following me around hiding my stuff. I became known as the person who lost everything. The ordeal with my lost debit card has become a comedy of errors and I'm still unable to withdraw money. My card finally arrived in Dar es Salaam (after a stuff up with the bank in Oz-not going into boring details) and the evening I went to pick it up at the campsite I was staying at I was told that on the way back from the post office, the manager had been stopped by police and due to Tanzanian corruption, the car had been impounded...with, as he realised after he returned to the camp site, with my package in it. Luckily, it was returned to me later that night, as I was due to fly out the next day for Cape Town. Phew! After 3 days I was eventually able to get through to my bank. I activated my card and went to use it but it didn't work. The brainiacs at the bank hadn't assigned a pin number to my card. Soooo, I am now waiting for a pin number...I'm hoping my card will be back in action by early next week???!!! Tis all fun and games...

Talking of fun and games, I've played numerous games of hide and seek over the past few weeks with some amazing African animals. Although, I've been doing all the seeking and they've been doing the hiding as I don't fancy being stalked by African game. But the seeking has been successful!

The first game drive we did was in the Masai Mara in Kenya. It was a surreal moment the first time I saw a giraffe in the wild. Many of them. I had to pinch myself when to my left was a group of elephants fairly close to the truck and on my right, walking off toward the horizon a giraffe. Wow, these animals really do exist off TV screens, pages of books and out of zoos. THIS is their natural habitat! Earlier that day, we'd seen lions lazily lying on the ground metres from our truck and there were too many zebras, wild beast and gazelle to count.

However, this game drive had nothing on the Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti. These two places are like a buffet of wild animals. The Ngorogoro crater is literally where wild animals roam free. Zebras, wilderbeast and random wart hogs were dotted across the plains. A lioness and her cubs paraded across the near horizon in the early morning sun. Shorlty after we spotted a male lion and his impressive mane, lazing by a water hole. After watching him for a short while, he strode up to our truck, stared and walked past. I had to stop taking photos and just take in the moment as he apporached. To be that close to a lion in the wild was amazing. His stare is ingrained in my brain. It was the one animal I desperately wanted to see that day and there he was, not disappointing me. There were more visual treats to come though. Especially as we hadn't hit the Serengeti yet. A leopard sat in a tree and then jumped between two limbs, the colours of evening dusk highlighting its dark figure before it crawled down the trunk and like stealth, disapeared into the undergrowth. At one point I though we were going to be charged by an aggressive looking elephant as it led family members across the road. Ostriches ran in a smooth but awkward way at the same time, twisting their necks necks in different directions whilst standing still. A wort hog stupidly advertised its self to a lioness, two cheetahs lazed under a tree in the heat of the day, hippos hid in muddy water and amused us when 2 decided to go for a short run. Have you ever seen a hippo run? quite amusing! Black and White Rhinos were nice enough to show themselves, wilderbeast fought for females, grunting loudly in the process and numerous type of gazelle leaped, grazed and just stood staring, possibly wondering if the grass was greener on the other side...of which I could tell them it wasn't.

If that's not enough, the Bwindi impenetrable forest in Uganda (although not totally impenetrable as we ventured into it) housed a family of mountain gorillas that we came across during our 12 hour hike! It was an amazing hour spent with them. I felt as if I was in a David Attenborough documentary. They were only metres away. There were 2 silverbacks, 2 three year olds and the rest were adult females. A total of 8 gorillas in all. The first Silverback we came across was sitting in a tree nearly above our heads and as it climbed down we followed it to the rest of the group. At one stage, one of the adults got on all fours and just stared at us. The hours of trecking and bush bashing (there was a guide up the front with a machete chopping down branches as we went as well as a guy with a gun incase we got charged by animals such as elephants) was worth it. We were all very hungry and dirty by the end of the day though!

This is a fraction of the last four weeks...more to come in next installment!...

Head off on a South African road trip tomorrow with two other gals...

Ghana part 2

nattahenry — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:27:00 GMT

Ghana, Ghana, Ghana!!! It has welcomed me with open arms. The hospitality has been generous, the weather hot and sticky, the mosquitos few (from what I've seen!) and the fu-fu with groundnut stew even better than I remembered it!

My time has gone so quickly. I was relieved that my travel mojo came back quickly and apart from a few home-sick moments my time has been positive and I've gained so much more from my short time in ghana this time around than my time 4 years ago. I have dealt better with the varied reactions I illicit from being being an obruni (a foreigner) in this chaotic but friendly country.

I had the fortune of being introduced to the Chief of Nsuta this time round and the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother has ultimate authority of a community as males come from females. Therefore she has the power to dismiss the chief is she doesn't approve of him. I like this thinking!

The solar panels were commissioned on Monday and all went well. The Chiefs' representatives came, some politicians, the director of the health services, other dignitaries and of course the staff of the clinic. The laughed when I gave part of my speech in Twi (the official language of Ghana) as I slaughted their language and they made me dance in the musical interlude...much to my embarrassment! But 'eh, what's a celebration without dance?!

The solar panels are up and running for the lighting system in Nsuta. A fridge was also purchased in conjuction with the solar panels. However, the solar panels meant for backup for the fridge are going to be installed at another clinic in which the community has no electricty at all. The new fridge in Nsuta is well insulated though and can apparently maintain a desirable temperature for up to 3 days if not opened regularly. The power outages are not as common in Nsuta as they were 4 years ago either.

Oppoku-Amankwaa, the Director of the health services took me out last Friday to see some other clinics in his district so I could evaluate the needs in other areas. Aframso, the community that has no electricty, has a clinic that is near completion but has no staff as yet. The director needs incentives for staff to work there, hence solar panels from Nsuta's fridge system are to be installed. More solar panels will also be required to power a fridge to keep the vaccines cold and also a fridge will need to be purchased. There are also two other clinics that would benefit from solar panels for either fridges, lights or both. Soooo, my task is not finished yet and I'll be fundraising more when I get back to Australia...but on a grander scale! Thankyou to all who donated to this project though. You may never see the extent to which you have helped these communities but let me tell you, it is remarkable so THANKYOU!

The National Polio erradication scheme was also in operation last week throughout the whole of Ghana. This is a big task! Health care workers of all levels go out to all communities throughout the country to immunise kids from 5 and under with an oral polio vaccine. Kids from 2-5 were given deworming tablets and kids from 6 months to 5 years were given vitamin A capsules. This is how I spent Wednesday and Thurday of last week. Feeling the heartbeat of the country even more as I stepped out into communities where the infrastructure is fairly non-existant, long days of cooking,labour and sitting chatting in the heat are a part of the daily grind yet the smiles still plenty. At one community a young teenage girl came out of her house and said what sounded like, 'A baby is dead, a baby is dead.' The health director, who was with me this day, and I looked at each other. My heart skipped a beat. She repeated it. After questioning her, we realised she said there, not dead as her accent had misconstrued the word and I laughed from relief.

Oh, and I'm in a new relationship! How can this be, you ask after only a couple of weeks in Ghana?! His name is Deet. Mr Deet 80% to be exact. It's not exactly a romantic relationship but we don't all have the luxury of being in a realtionship for love. I hate it when touches my lips. It makes me want to rip out my tongue and with this muscular pink mop, mop up my lungs from the fumes he leaves behind. However, before you judge me, let me plead my case. The benefits far outway the negatives. He protects me from these evil little female mosquitos (or she devils) and in return I provide him with skin to fry. He coats me in an extra warm layer over my freckled skin as it's not hot enough here already. I know that this relationship will not last however. I will use and abuse him until I return to Australia then forget about him as he waits in the back of a dark cupboard should I ever need him again. Ah, a travelers love affair!

Ghana has thrown some entertaining quotes at me. When you travel on buses for long journeys in Ghana, someone gets up and educates the bus on a particular topic and usually tries to sell something at the end. A health worker on my journey to Kumasi from Accra was informing the bus about how to best avoid intestinal worms and so flogged deworming tablets at the end. However, his speech also involved infomation about general health and as was translated to me by Rosemary, stated that 'Ghanaians already have enough problems but if you have no labido then you will be doubly unhappy'. I don't know what he suggested for this problem but he wasn't flogging viagra.

A guy in his late 20's cracked me up. He stopped me in Nsuta and asked if I was married. After I informed him that I wasn't he then replied with, 'so you are not born?' From which I gathered he meant that I hadn't given birth. 'No, I haven't given birth.' 'Then you are fresh of body!'

Anyway, I'm currently back in Accra the capital and leave for Kenya tomorrow morning. I begin my East Africa overland trip on sunday.

So this is goodbye to Ghana and hello to a new adventure!

Whatever adventure you are on may it be a rewarding one, no matter where you are or what you are doing. And if you think you're only adventure at the moment is housework and this is getting you down, then you better start doing it 'Mrs doubtfire' style! There is no shame in using a vaccuum cleaner as a mic stand. Especially if there is a mirror involved.

Ghana Adventure

nattahenry — Mon, 16 May 2011 02:27:00 GMT

Hi all!

It will come as no surprise to some of you that I wrote a whole story in my blog earlier this week but I lost it somewhere in cyber space??? Soooo, I'll try a summarised version as my time is limited!

Arrived in Ghana nearly 2 weeks ago with much trepidation. As I stepped off the plane, the smell made of my ghana memories bubble to the surface and my Ghanaian mojo began to kick in. I was greeted at the airport by Rosemary, one of the nurses I used to work with and I immediately relaxed as soon as I saw her. Initially it felt really sureal to be back but after about 20 minutes it was like I had never left. We stayed with her family near Accra, the capital that first night and headed to Nsuta the next day. Thankful for surviving the crazy ghanaian roads and drivers, we arrived in Nsuta about 9pm.

A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks and I will expand in my next blog, hopefully in the next few days. I've so much to say! But just to let you know, I'm commissioning the solar panels at the clinic tomorrow. There have been some changes to the initial solar panel plans but will fill you all in next time when I have time to spill all the beans so to say (which is an appropriate saying for me as I'm not without clumsy genes). I've remained fairly healthy, just the usual 'funky stomach' as you may expect occasionally.

Hope you are all going well wherever you are in this amazing world. Keep me updated with your lives as well. I can't read minds...yet.

Until next time...