head east
where did the time go?
Two Months of Adventures!
the adventure continues!
Tours, Travels, and updates!
Mwanza Pictures
the two week mark!
Pictures of
Karibu Mwanza!
karibu Africa!
the countdown begins...
who we are
we are two Canadian students from the University of Western Ontario, currently in the process of completing the third year
of our Honours Bachlor of Arts in Media in the Public Interest.
at the moment, we are in Mwanza, Tanzania as interns with Western Heads East.
learn more about...
- western heads east (WHE)
- the university of western ontario (UWO)
- mwanza or tanzania
- FONELISCO
- swahilli
archives
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
the adventure continues!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006my first encounter with tropical diseases was less than exciting.
headaches, stomachaches, backaches... you name it, malaria's got it.
but after two weeks straight of ODing on antibiotics, i finally feel myself again!
despite both rob and i coming down with the dreaded disease (really, it's not that big of a deal... i can't imagine the mess getting malaria in canada would generate, but here virtually every pharmacy sells anti-malaria meds) we've been really busy.
and it hasn't helped that we've just realized how quickly time has flown by... two months next week!
right now, we're working on putting something together for AIDs Awareness Day, this Friday December 1st. Kivulini has invited us and some of the Yoghurt Mamas to go with them to meet other AIDs awareness organizations and speak a bit about our project. we're both excited to meet more people involved in the field, and get a chance to talk more about what we're doing here!
rob did such a good job on updates with the last post that this is all i've got for now... but more to come from me soon, i promise!
until then, take care and i'll try my best not to acquire any more tropical diseases.
posted by sam at 9:32 AM
Tours, Travels, and updates!
Monday, November 27, 2006
Sorry for the little contact over the last couple of weeks. Sam and I have been very busy with the project and almost everytime we come downtown the internet cafe has no power.
That being said, we are usually running on about 4 hours of hydro a day. For some reason the power normally comes on at lunch for an hour or so, then at 5pm for an hour and a half, and then will flick on throughout the night...This always keeps life interesting as you cannot charge batteries, keep food in the fridge, or see anything without a candle to help you.
Sam and I have been very busy with the Yogurt Mama's for the last two weeks as well. We head out to the kitchen about three times a week, and our conversations with them are great places to practise our Swahili! They are all making sure that we our practising what we are learning at our lessons and they love looking up English words in our dictionary as well!
On Friday Sam and I both got tested for Malaria and it turns out Sam still has it (or got it again) so Friday night we went out for a comfort meal consisting of chicken soup and a pasta dinner.
This weekend we had lunch at the Hotel Tilapia, followed by a boat ride out to Saa Nane Game Reserve (an island that is about 10 minutes off shore from the Hotel Tilapia).
Sam, Sam (from the UK), Anna (another volunteer with Kivulini), and myself all climbed aboard a very large boat and headed out to hike around the island for the afternoon. Saa Nane was a great adventure, and turned out to be the perfect afternoon outing.
We first read the rules of the park before stepping out onto the paths which was a paved pathway across the island. We immediately saw the wildebeast, a herd of impala's, and the many birds that soar overtop of the island.
Our first stop was the hyena cage where we saw a lonesome hyena behind bars staring out at us (and to our surprise, they stand quite tall). We noticed the lack of solid fencing between us and the hyena and chose to carry on towards the lions cage.
The lion stood alone ontop of a grassy hill in a caged enclosure roaring as we approached. There were no staff directly around the cage and the path went along the front of the cage so we could stand within inches of the lions mouth.
The rest of the island was a beautiful adventure with Mwanza behind us and Lake Victoria (and many other islands) in front of us. This was our first 'toursit' trip in Mwanza and it was well worth the $10 for the four of us.
Sam and I have been teaching English a couple of times a week in the late afternoons out at the orphanage which makes for a busy week, but also makes the week go by very quickly.
We have gotten much more brave in trying out new restaurants and venturing out and around to areas of Mwanza that we have yet to explore.
We will be downtown to post pictures about our last few weeks of adventures and will be trying to keep everyone posted as our last month and a half in Africa draws to a close!
Kwa Heri !
posted by Robbie at 8:15 AM
Mwanza Pictures
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Sam and I have been busy discovering, planning, and learning more about Mwanza and Africa. Here are a few pictures that we managed to get up on the blog for you all to see where we have been working.
They loaded in a different order, so starting at the bottom is a picture of Sam in the yogurt kitchen with the Yogurt Mama's. We have been walking out to Mabatini (where the kitchen is located) about three times a week to sit in the kitchen, talk about the project, and work on our Swahili with them. They are very helpful and love reading through our dictionaries and quizzing us on words.
The next picture up is of the yogurt kitchen outside.
The third picture from the bottom is of our 'getaway' spot, where we go to read and relax on the beach. This is Tunza (well, the beach at Tunza) and Lake Victoria. We normally head out there on Sunday's to relax, and work on our Swahili in a gorgeous place.
The fourth picture is of some of the kids at Fonelisco. Everytime I pull out my camera they all want a personal photo shoot, this was one of the few group photo's I had. Sam and I head out there on friday afternoon's where we have started teaching English with some other volunteers, and on Satudays we are there playing games, and taking the children to Lake Victoria Swimming.
The fifth photo is one of the clearer photo's of us stuck in the mud en route for the Serengeti. This is Sam and Jodi (a volunteer from Kincardine), as well as a few locals, waiting around the car on one of the many times we got stuck in the mud that night.
This is where we ended up spending the night. Although the sign points at our site, we were stuck just off to the left of the sign at about 1 in the morning and decided to call it a night. This is our camp site that we spent the night on... It is actually in the middle of the road to the real camp site. This was the first time Sam and I got to hear the 'Sounds of the Serengeti' at night while we slept. Mainly frogs and birds, but the occasional hyena could be heard in the distance.
This is the pathway to the main lodge at the real camp ground. We spent a second night out there in fear of getting stuck in the mud. As you can see, it did rain again, we we enjoyed our night in a dry tent and with the baboon's wandering around the campground.
Sam and I will try to load more pictures in the next week of the public school, more of the yogurt mama's, Kivulini, and our Serengeti expedition! We have started our swahili lessons and spend 5 hours a week in class studying and practising, and have come to realize what a beautiful language we get to learn.
Updates to come very soon!
Kwa Heri!