Africa... here we go again

So I am aware that I didn't actually get to a word about Africa in my last post and that the title is quite misleading. However, I dare you to upload all those photos to such a long post using this thing. It has a terribly user-unfriendly interface.

Anyway, we woke from our flight just in time to land and go through customs. It took forever! So once we finally got through Alexis' whole family was there to meet us (except little sister Solange aka Soso who stayed back with big brother Patrick's little girl Alexa). The drive back to their house took an hour on winding, bumpy roads that are barely wide enough for two small cars to pass each other let alone big trucks. I wished that it was light out so that I could see the landscape (and oncoming traffic). The last bit of the drive was the craziest. Their house is on the top of a steep hill with a crazy path heading up to it. Once we got there I met Soso, Alexa, and Charlotte (a girl my age who helped out the family around the house). I was welcomed so warmly by the Nyandwi's that I immediately felt like part of the family.

The next few days are still a bit of a blur. We mostly stayed around the house as the weather was pretty crumby and I was terribly jet-lagged. I did a lot of sleeping... tagged along as Patrick ran errands/worked all over Nairobi... and ate Mrs. Nyandwi's amazing food (this included succulent beef, chicken and goat covered in delicious sauce, sweet potatoes, spicy chiles and my favourite millet porridge for breakfast).
Matatu; Alexa

So after the cloud of jet-lag cleared, it was time for little Alexa to be baptized. As Alexis is her godfather and she is his namesake, Patrick had planned to have her baptism while we were in town. The day began with no electricity so I got to enjoy the delight of the bucket shower. And I'm not even being sarcastic. After several days of luke-warm showers under zero pressure, I thoroughly enjoyed the scalding heat of the water Mrs. Nyandwi had heated for me on the stove. We headed to the church late in the afternoon with Alexa looking like a little princess. Patrick had asked me to do the first reading. I was so touched. I have never been so nervous in my life and I don't remember a word of what I read. After the church we went to a reception and ate delicious African food and drank lots of delicious African wine and delicious African beer. I met a whole bunch of family friends including this adorable little girl named Kenza who took photos of me and told me that I'm too light.
Alexa and Mama Tina; Alexis with his new Goddaughter; Kenza and me; Alexa cuts her cake.

The next day was my birthday and the whole team (minus the two girls who were still in Europe) arrived bright and early in the morning to celebrate with me. After getting everyone settled at their hotel just down the road from the Nyandwi house (and letting them nap until mid-afternoon) we went to Karen to use the internet and stopped by the pub for beers and chicken gizzards (which I discovered that I do not like). Our favourite mode of transportation in Africa was the 15-passenger van known in Kenya as a matatu. Shawn (one of our film-makers ) and I got experience it at its best when trying to get back to the hotel. It was around 4pm and the whole world seemed to heading home. After waiting forever we got crammed into a matatu. I think I had about 6 school kids sitting on my lap. Thankfully Shawn had gotten into the front seat so he could ask the driver where we were supposed to get out because I couldn't see a thing.

That evening we all went up to the Nyandwi house for a birthday feast of barbecued goat and all sorts of other goodies. I got a big card with little notes from everyone and had one of the most memorable birthdays of my life.

Alexis and Patrick barbecue the goat; Mrs. Nyandwi, Soso, Tina, Alexa, Alexis; Shawn, Megali, Matt, Dr. Nyandwi.

Africa... we meet again.

Ok so it's the middle of January, I am not in school, my useless job only gives me 25 hours a week, and I have no more excuses.

It's blog time.

So Africa.... it's been a while. I've missed you. Now just like the good ole friends that we are, let us reminisce about all the good times we used to have:

So it all began last July.... Mum and Dad drove me and Alexis to the airport for the first of our epic flights to Nairobi, Kenya. We got all checked in with no issues and were off before we knew it to Minneapolis. That was the easy part. Our flight was much too large for the capacity of the baggage conveyor belt and I nearly witnessed death by killer luggage for a child who was standing too near the belt before her father grabbed her out of the way just in time.

We took the overnight flight to Amsterdam and on our approach I was very happy to see that the Dutch fully live up to their stereotype by putting windmills everywhere. From the airport we went straight to the Heineken brewery (where else would one go in Amsterdam?). It was much overpriced and set up like a museum with a bar in the middle and we had a jolly good time taking many a ridiculous photo and drinking many a Heineken.


Next we went for a stroll through town eating bread with cheese and salami and drinking wine straight from the bottle. We sat by the water and embarked on a fight to the death with the local birds for possession of our food. Next our stroll took us through the red light district and we witnessed many stoned tourists and next-to-naked women in all the windows. It was not a good time... interesting from a cultural anthropologist-like perspective but I was sooo not in the mood.


We took the train in the evening to Brussels and went to meet Alexis' big sister Chantal and her boyfriend Theo. They live right in the city-centre (perfect for us tourist types) however, its on the 4th floor so I had to drag my excess of luggage up floor flights of stairs. Not fun when I couldn't even remember the last time I slept. And on top of it all Theo doesn't speak much English so I had to somehow make my brain work in French for the next few days. But my efforts were rewarded with Belgian beer: the best beer I have encountered on this planet thus far.... and so many varieties! I had cherry beer, white beer, dark beer, 9% alcohol beer! It was great!

Chantal and Theo took us to a baptism in the Rwandese community of Brussels (a rather substantially community). There probably hundreds of people there and it lasted well into the night. This was my first taste of proper Rwandese food and boy-howdy it was awesome!!! So after a full day of food and complimentary drink, Alexis and I went out for waffles with two of his friends from the proverbial "back in the day". I promptly lost my wallet and all that was in it and had a little nervous breakdown. Then we went to a Rwandese bar, drank some more beer and ate brochette (savoury meat and onions on an stick). I felt substantially better among good eats and even better company. I only had a few dollars in my wallet so in the morning I cancelled my credit cards, transferred all my money to Alexis and came out of the whole experience no worse for wear.

We were lucky enough to be in Brussels for their Fete National (National Day/Holiday)... the equivalent to Canada Day I suppose. There were all sorts of parades and expositions and we nearly saw the royal family except that it was so crowded and security was so tight that we quickly gave up trying to get anywhere near them. So we went over to Grand Place instead and I immediately fell in love! The architecture oh the architecture!!! It made me weak in the knees. Then we saw little Mannequin de Pis, touched Lady Luck, ate more waffles and drank more beer. That night we took the last train out of Brussels to Ghent for their annual week of partying and festival-ing. We got there around midnight and met up with a couple of our friends who would later be travelling around Africa with us. We danced the night away and then took the first train back to Brussels in the morning. Chantal was not pleased when we woke her up at 6am to let us in.

The next day... or rather later that same day we walked around the Royal Palace grounds and went to visit Chantal at work at the European Commission. She took us to see the European Parliament and we took in happy hour and a nice pub out front. Then we rushed back to the apartment, packed and hopped on the last train back to Amsterdam. Our flight to Nairobi was at 10 am so we had to take the train the night before and spent the night at the airport. It was sad to be leaving Europe and our excellent hosts behind but I was very excited to be setting foot in Africa in less than 24 hours. After a miserable night at the airport we got on our flight and were asleep just as soon as our bums touched our seats. We didn't even notice when we took off.

Coming soon to a theatre near you

Welcome to the prelude of my next adventure (a little belated I know but internet was hard to come by).

I went to explore a bit of Europe and East Africa. My dear Alexis (who you will recall from previous posts) is the founder of an NGO called Room for Improvement Youth Development. He has been working very hard over the past few years, raising money and awareness for global issues and especially for an orphanage in the Musasa region of Rwanda. He developed a program that took 9 students and two filmmakers to East Africa to document the current situation of youth in Rwanda. Our film will focus on the needs of the youth we meet as they define them and the organizations working to meet these needs.

My trip had the secondary objective of meeting Alexis' family. So, we began our journey on July 16th. More to come later when I am less jet lagged and have more energy.

New York, New York!

As exciting as it was to finally be in New York City, we instantly discovered that America is not like Canada and you can't just ask random people for directions. In fact you can't even ask the guy at the info booth for directions without getting a murderous look of contempt accompanied by a get-out-of-my-face-you-stupid-tourist expression. So with much difficulty Alexis and I finally found our way to a place to exchange what little Canadian money we had left and met our first (and one of very few) friendly New Yorkers. The guy asked us how long we were staying in New York and we told him about 4 days. He then grew very concerned and told us that $70 wouldn't be nearly enough for that long. We knew that. He did give us moderately useful directions to our hostel but seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to walk there. We didn't want to get a cab for fear of the fare (we found out later that taxis are amazingly cheap in NYC) so we walked all the way from 42nd St to 63rd with all our luggage. And then we weren't allowed to check in yet so we ditched our luggage and crossed the street to Central Park and sat down on the first bench we could find. Needless to say, after our sleepless night and rather toublesome morning, we ditched all our activities planned for the day and slept all afternoon.

That night we went to visit Alexis' friend John who lives pretty much at Ground Zero (which is still just a big hole in the ground). He lives right downtown pretty much on the water so we went for a little stroll down to the water and then went on a hunt for some beers. We didn't get back to our hostel until around 4am but it was well worth it to have a nice relaxing night.

However, we were up bright and early the next morning for museum day! We went to the Guggenheim first which was wonderful but some of the temporary exhibitions were really weird contemporary stuff. For example, there was a giant sculpture of a phallus hanging from the ceiling and a guy who paints black canvases... that's it... just big black squares.

Anyway, next on the agenda was the Met. This place is WAY bigger than I ever imagined and after a few hours of artifacts from all over the world our late night started to catch up with us. But I saw Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Manet.... oh the list goes on! It was wonderful! But wow were we ever tired by the end of museum day. We strolled across Central Park back to the hostel and went straight to sleep. That night we did nothing. Well Alexis went for a walk and picked up some supper for me but I just slept.

The next day we ventured out of Manhattan and went to the Bronx Zoo. It was super-fun. We saw tigers right up close and hilarious gorillas (one of the babies ate his poop right in front of us! haha). Even at the zoo they take your picture and try to sell you your image in front of a lion or something! We didn't fall for it this time. After Niagara we were experts on the photo selling phenomenon.

On our way back to the train from the zoo we saw a zillion police cars zoom by... a welcome-to-the-Bronx sort of experience. Anyway, we decided we would go on a harbour cruise and got there just in time to catch the last one of the day. And somehow we managed to get the best spot on the boat right at the front of the bow Titanic-style! This was probably my favourite thing we did in NYC. The boat left from about West 42nd St and went down the harbour out to the Statue of Liberty, around to the east end under the Brooklyn Bridge, up a bit further and then all the way back. It took about two hours and was absolutely perfect.

We were supposed to be staying with John for the next couple of days so we decided that before heading over to his place we would run over to the Empire State Building and catch sunset. This was a big mistake. They trick you at the Empire. When you arrive you only see the little line at the door, then you get past the door and see another big line at security, then you get past security and see another big line to the ticket booth, and it goes on and on for about two hours until you finally get to the top where it is so crowded you just take a couple photos and go back down again. Seriously overrated. In any case it was well after dark by the time we got to the top (as beautiful as the city is at night) we couldn't get any good photos because well... it was dark. So after all that we hustled back to the YMCA (that was our "hostel"), picked up our luggage and hustled down to John's place. To our dismay the last bit of the track was closed so we had to haul all our luggage onto a tiny packed bus to get there. But, we made it and Alexis' good friend Fahim (who Alexis hadn't seen in 7 years) was there. We went out on the town and had a really good time.

The next day we slept in and spent a nice relaxing morning by the water next to John's apartment building. Then we decided that we would head back to the Empire to go on the virtual reality ride. This was actually really fun but if one is moderately hungover, not such a good idea. So feeling slightly sicker than before, Alexis and I decided to do some shopping. I took him to Victoria's Secret and we were e ntertained by the dozen or so guys hanging out in the foyer while their women shopped. We went perusing a few other shops and went to a couple more museums including the Bodies Exhibition (so cool!) and then decided to go out to dinner at Ninja New York (a restaurant which we had seen on the travel network on a show called "craziest places in the world to dine", or something like that). We met Fahim there and then were escorted to our table. The restaurant is set up like a ninja layer and ninjas will jump out at you with swords and fire balls and stuff. It is super-cool! And if you order dessert they will do a magic show for you! It was the coolest restaurant ever and I highly recommend it to everyone!

After dinner Fahim was planning on going to a hip-hop show at the BB King Blues Club so we decided to go along and see if we could still get tickets. Fahim's friends were near the front of the line so we snuck in with them. I soon discovered that I was about to go to a Black August Benefit Concert. I must say that I have never felt so white in my whole life. We came straight from dinner so I was wearing a white knee-length skirt with a blue t-shirt and my glasses, looking like quite the librarian, and then I could barely understand what these girls were saying to me (one of whom had a big tattoo across her shoulders that read: Hood Rich). Incidentally we did get tickets and the show was amazing. We saw Q-Tip and a whole bunch of other people I had never heard of but who are evidently rather famous. I personally think the best part of the show was at the start. The first act wasn't ready yet so the MC asked if anyone in the audience could beatbox. There happened to be a guy at the front who was amazing and then the MC started freestyling along to his beats.... it blew my mind.

The next day we went to do some more shopping and went to get a proper look at Ground Zero but I wasn't feeling well so after an hour or two I went back to John's place to sleep and Alexis went with the boys to a Caribbean parade. I guess there was loud music and lots of girls wearing basically nothing so they had a great time. That evening Alexis and I caught the bus back to Toronto. We actually got to sit together for most of the return journey and we were even half an hour early getting in to Toronto in the morning. That was awesome because we had a flight to catch back to Saskatoon and made it with plenty of time to spare. There were lots of things that we didn't have time to do in New York (like see a Broadway show *sigh*) but it was an amazing trip and I wouldn't change anything... except maybe the bus ride from Hell.

Inspiration

Well hello there! How have you all been? I am reading a new book by Bill Bryson who is my very favourite travel writer and I suddenly find myself with the overwhelming desire to document my trip to New York (which was over 4 months ago now). Well it all started because Alexis (you will remember him as my object of affection from the Mexico posts) needed to go to Toronto for a conference-like thing and this event was to correspond with my return to Canada after 4 months in Mexico. The idea of being home again and not seeing him for an extra three days was a little heart-breaking so I decided I should meet him in Toronto and we should make a holiday of it. In any event I came home a month early from Mexico but decided to not waste an opportunity to head out east (which I hadn't done in 11 years). Then we decided to take the bus to New York City (in hindsight this was a very bad idea and I recommend paying the extra $100 and flying there).

So Alexis left a few days before me and I met him in Toronto where we spent a few nights at the luxurious Westin Harbour Castle for mere pennies because Alexis works for the Sheraton Hotel and gets fabulous discounts! We had a room on the 20th floor with a fabulous view of the harbour and half price room service (which I thoroughly took advantage of). We had a really good time in Toronto shopping, strolling along the harbour and eating at some amazing little ethnic restaurants. We also had the opportunity to stroll through the "largest gay neighbourhood in Canada" and got trapped in a mini drag parade. It was awesome!

View from our hotel in Toronto, exploring the harbour

We took the train to Niagara Falls simply because neither of us had ever been passenger aboard the illustrious VIA Rail and it really was quite fun. We only spent one day in Niagara Falls and took the bus overnight to NYC to save on accommodation and time. Niagara was really really fun and we partook in every dorky tourist activity we could find. It was here that learned of the tourism industry's obsession with taking photos of unsuspecting tourists at every attraction and imposing their image onto some scenic backdrop. In a matter of an hour or so we found ourselves in front of the falls in broad daylight and then eerily hovering over them in the dark of night. In New York we were at the zoo, hovering above the Empire State Building... you get the idea. Of course being the dorky tourists that we are, Alexis and I bought the photos from the Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist (the insufferable boat that is in EVERY photo because they run four different boats so that there is continuously a boat in the falls) and then we walked under the falls through the tunnels and got soaking wet on both adventures. These attractions are WAY more fun than they appear and I highly recommend them to everyone who has the chance.

That evening we had to get to the bus station before they closed at 10pm even though our bus didn't leave until 11:00 to get our luggage that we had stored there. As we were waiting we changed out of our wet clothes and napped while waiting for our bus which was over an hour late. And then when it finally arrived I couldn't find our tickets. I searched through every crevice of both our luggage but they were nowhere to be found. The bus left without us. But of course we found the tickets about 5 minutes later in the hidden front pocket of my backpack where the zipper was covered by a little flap to help keep water out. It was heartbreaking. So we waited for another hour or so until the next bus came shortly after 1am. Almost immediately we had to get off the bus at customs and Alexis got to try out his new Canadian citizenship card. He was amazed at how easily he was allowed to cross the boarder while the poor Mexican girl next to us got grilled with questions. Eventually we all got back on the bus and then we arrived in Buffalo where we were supposed to have a 30 minute rest stop. The 30 minute rest turned into a 90 minute layover and 3 in the morning because our bus was late... again. Finally we got aboard our next bus which was packed so Alexis and I couldn't even sit together. It was a proper catastrophe at that hour in the morning when I really needed a familiar shoulder to sleep on. In any case a couple hours later we had a bit of a break in Nowhere, New Jersey or Pennsylvania or something like that and the guy next to me got off and took with him all his belongings. So I grabbed Alexis in a half conscious stupor and we fell right to sleep. Then I was aroused not a few minutes later with the voice of a man saying "Where is my seat?... I was sitting just there, wasn't I? Who is that?" As bad as I felt for stealing his seat I pretended to be asleep and let him take Alexis' old seat. Anyway, we were originally meat to arrive at 7am but didn't actually get to New York City until around noon. It was the most horrible bus adventure ever!

Dionne the Published Writer: an article I wrote for the July Projects Abroad newsletter

Projects Abroad has changed my life. The ten weeks that I spent in Ciudad Guzmán were the ten most valuable weeks I have ever lived. I worked in a rehabilitation centre for street kids and I was blessed to have been able to work with thirteen of the most amazing boys I have ever met (the youngest being twelve and the oldest seventeen).

At first I was very overwhelmed. I came to Mexico not knowing very much Spanish and not knowing what to expect at my placement. However, after the first couple of weeks I found a niche at the centre playing with the boys and entertaining them with my terrible Spanish. My job was simply to play with the boys and at first I was disappointed because I didn’t feel like I was doing anything valuable. But, it didn’t take long for me to realize how incredibly valuable it was to the boys to simply be there and love them. And love them I did.

These boys have seen so many horrors and lived through so much yet every day they are joking, laughing, playing and smiling. I have learned more from them about courage, strength and love in the past ten weeks than I have in the entirety of my 22 years on this earth.

There were many ups and downs working at the centre. One of the most emotional days was near the end of my placement when some of the boys’ families came to visit. During the few weeks prior I had been teaching thirteen-year-old Jorge to read and when his mom came to visit I watched him read to her for the first time in his life; pride beaming from his eyes.

That same day I saw all the boys dressed up in their best clothes in anticipation of the visits, excitement quivering in their voices. I saw Luis sit by the window, watching for hours, waiting for his sister who never came. The devastated look in his eyes sincerely broke my heart.

My first and last days at work were the worst. On the first day, I was overwhelmed, culture shocked, upset, and seriously considered changing placements. On my last day, I wept like a little girl as I parted ways with the boys I had grown to love as if they were my own. I would have smuggled them all home with me if I had thought of a way. If I had any advice to future Projects Abroad volunteers, it would be to request this same placement. It will change your life.

-Dionne Wilkinson

La Guelaguetza - Guadalajara - Home

I woke up bright and early to get out to the Guelaguetza Popular an hour or so after it was meant to officially start (never show up to anything on time in Mexico or you will be the only one there). I had to ask a bunch of people how to get there and eventually had to take the bus. I had no idea where I was meant to get off the bus so I was praying that the rest of the passengers on the bus were heading to the same place. Luckily there was a nice woman sitting near me who must have seen that I had no clue where I was going and told me when to get off the bus. So I walked along with her and the rest of the crowd passing a million little vendors on the way until I got to this huge soccer field with a big stage in the middle surrounded by chairs. The first of the dancers were already on stage. It was a really awesome good time and as I discovered later on it was very illegal for me to be there as foreigners are not permitted to partake in protests in Mexico. Anyway, at the end of every dance the dancers throw some item of food into the crowd like onions or tostadas or tomatoes. It was really funny. I was so very confused and the blistering heat of the day was not helping things. I only ended up staying for a few hours before I couldn't take the heat anymore. On my way out, I went up to where I saw a group of people gathered thinking that it might be where the bus stop was. I was wrong. There was a bus there alright but it had been stopped sideways so that it blocked off the whole street and there was a group of man with scarves wrapped around their faces setting off fire works and yelling things at the crowd. I didn't stick around to find out what was going on. I got my buns outta there pronto!

The reason that I was able to attend both the Guelaguetza popular and oficial is that the official one is so well attended that they have two (one in the morning and one in the evening). Now were I not the silly uninformed tourist that I was I would have gone straight from the Guelaguetza popular to wait in line at the Guelagutza Oficial. However I thought it would be a better idea to have a nice lunch and a little nap before I headed off to the second event. When I got to the auditorium I met massive crowds and ridiculous numbers of police and was told to turn around and go home because all the gates were closed and they weren't letting anyone else in. I was very disappointed but thought that I might as well walk all the way around and see what I could see. When I got to the very top/back of the auditorium they opened the gates and slowly started letting in a few people at a time. After nearly getting trampled by people trying to get in I finally got through the gates. The auditorium was huge and the located on the top of a big hill so the view out over the town was amazing. The dancing was great and they had a huge live band. I managed to get myself into a pretty good spot for viewing (mind you I was still about as far away as one could get from the stage). There was a group of young girls in front of me who were so nice. They made sure that I could see and every time I went to take a picture they were sure to be out of my way. Between each of the dances there were guys standing on the tops of the walls who would throw sombreros and tee-shirts to the crowd. The girls caught a couple hats and gave one to me. It truly made my day. Later on I passed on that smile when a little street girl came up to me and asked if she could wear it. I gave her the hat and watched some fireworks with her for a bit both of us with huge smile on our faces. She reminded me of my boys I had left behind in Ciudad Guzman and I got a little teary-eyed thinking of them.

After the show, I met up with Kira again and we went for dinner and margaritas. The next morning I had a flight back to Guadalajara and so we had to say our goodbyes. It was pretty sad as we had become pretty good friends over the past few days. The next morning I caught my flight and my dear friend Fernando came to pick me up at the airport. It was really great to see him again. So we went back to his house and I got myself organized for my flight back home the next day. Fernando's great uncle had passed away while I had been travelling and the funeral was that night so Memo had offered to take me to a soccer match that just happened to be a friendly between the Tecos vs the Boca Juniors who are one of the top teams in Argentina. The game was not all that great and ended in a 1-1 draw but it was so cool to see those players live and to finally go to a proper Mexican soccer match. My trip to Mexico was almost complete. After the game we met up with Fernando again and stuffed our faces with tacos... well I did anyway... these were my last Mexican tacos. I had to take advantage. After tacos we went out for some drinking and karaoke at the boys' favourite bar and ended the night in the playground outside Memo's house. I said some very sad goodbyes to Memo and Ricardo and went back to Fernando's place for a few hours sleep before I had to be at the airport for my flight home.

By an amazing stroke of luck. Jess' flight back into Guadalajara arrived about an hour or so before I was meant to board. So I got to see Jess again which was absolutely amazing but sad because we had to say goodbye all over again. I learned that at the Guadalajara airport they feel the need to hand search every single passengers luggage which was enfuriating because I had very carefully packed three bottles of booze so that they wouldn't get broken. Anyway, saying goodbye to Jess and Fernando was the worst. I cried from that moment all the way to Los Angeles. I cried for all the amazing friends I'd made and for my boys and for the food. Oh how I do miss the food! Getting on the plane to LA they also felt the need to search my carry on luggage and the wouldn't let me take on the unopened bottle of water I had just bought when I was already through security. And then they proceeded to pat me down and even made me take off my shoes so they could check them too. I was really truly hating on Mexican airlines by the time I got on that flight. It really didn't help the whole crying thing. And then I lost my luggage tags. Thank God they didn't lose my bags.

American customs were a breeze after the nightmare that was Mexico and I now consider myself somewhat of an expert at LAX since this was the fourth time I'd been through there in the last year. However, I had a seven hour layover there. After I had thoroughly gone through every shop and still had about five hours to kill I took to my usual passtime of people watching and enjoying a long drawn out meal. When I finally boarded my flight to Calgary I was so excited to get home. It was really starting to sink in that I would sleep in my own comfy bed that night. In Calgary I didn't have much of a layover at all and finally at around 12:30am on July 24th I was home! Mum, Dad and Alexis were there to meet me and I had never been so happy to see their faces.