Hello Team Africa! We hope all of your preparations are going well for our upcoming adventure and that this introductory blog entry finds you all well. This blog will be a very useful way to tell the story of our trip to your friends and loved ones, so please pass this address on to them or tell them how to find it through the Carpe Diem website’s blog link. Allison… Read More
These past three and a half months have been an incredible journey for all of us. It was a journey where each of us became best friends through all the challenges, scary moments, exciting times and pee in our pants laugh out loud moments :)We enjoyed every experience across East Africa and have all come out of this experience in our own way, transformed from trying new things, challenging ourselves,… Read More
Hello again! We are taking advantage of the close-by Internet cafes to squeeze in a few more blogs before the semester ends…
Today, the divers completed the underwater portion of the scuba certification process, while others did cultural things around the amazing island of Zanzibar. I (Zoe) was part of the diving group, while Vicki did the Spice tour and checked out some museums, so we’ll each have good input… Read More
We’ve finally completed our certification classes for open water scuba diving! Yay!
Here’s how the journey started:
On Thursday morning, we all went to the One Ocean Dive Centre and got signed up! It was a long, long, long day filling out a ton of forms, watching videos, reading and taking tests. The whole process took about 9 hours…yup, getting open water scuba certification is a loooong process! 🙂
For… Read More
Hello!!We just had an amazing and exciting past few days of free travel. We started our free travel journey on Thanksgiving at the United African Alliance Community Center. The group ended up deciding to split up into two groups, a group of five and a group of seven. We all traveled from Arusha to Moshi together and stayed the night at a backpackers hostel in Moshi. The next morning, the… Read More
Hello! Happy Thanksgiving!
We are still in Arusha, but no longer with the Maasai anymore. We have been staying with Black Panther, Pete O’Neil for the past 3 days. For everybody who doesn’t know who Pete O’Neil is, he started the Black Panther Kansas City chapter. After being exiled from the United States, he and his wife Charlotte moved to Tanzania and started the United African Alliance Community Center. We… Read More
Hello again!
Yesterday was an intense one. We set out at 8:15 am for a walking safari to Lake Manyara. We can see the lake from our boma, and a bunch of us were excited to finally walk out to it. We were led out by one of the leaders of our boma, “Emseea” (I’m not sure how to spell it…)
He showed us different plants and natural medicines, including… Read More
We’ve finally begun our 10 days with a Maasai tribe in Esilalei, Tanzania!
I’m sorry it’s been awhile since the last blog, but things have been pretty rustic lately. After leaving Kigali, we landed in Arusha, Tanzania full of excitement. Especially me and Becca, who were jumping out of our plane seats when we saw the familiar airport.
We stayed one night at an incredible hotel, complete with a swimming… Read More
It’s been an intense couple of days.
On Friday, we all took our time to see the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The museum was really interesting to say the least. It walks you through the history of Rwanda in relation to the 1994 genocide. There was so much information is was nearly impossible to process it all in one sitting. Even today, a people are going back for round two.
Yesterday,… Read More
We arrived in Rwanda yesterday (some of us by foot!) and drove into Kigali. Of course, it wasn’t a completely hassle-free experience. Chris was stopped at the Rwandan entrance. The man pointed at his signature in his passport, and the one on the form and said that the difference in the tilt of the “C” was suspicious. That, piled on top of the fact that Chris has cut his hair… Read More
Hello from an internet cafe in Kabale!
We’ve been doing so much, I have a lot to cover-
Free travel was definitely a learning experience for all of us. Figuring out transportation was a bit of a challenge, but we ended up taking a public bus from Lake Nkuruba to Mbarara. The day was a stretch on our comfort zones but we all stuck together and worked things out. We… Read More
Hello!
We’re stopped in Kabale to pick up some fruit at the market and some cookies at the bakery while en route to Edirisa’s Special Needs Education Center (SNEC). I’m sort of short on time but here’s some stuff everyone had to say:
Chris- I got to teach 2 classes in primary school. I taught science in P3 and social studies in P4. I love the entire Edirisa program and… Read More
Sorry it has been so long since the last blog! We have been doing so much in these past 10 days that we have hardly had time to get into a town with internet.
So since the last blog by Izzy we have completed a major part of our semester; the R&R; weekend ! Our R&R; weekend took place at one of the beautiful Crater Lakes called Lake Nkuruba where… Read More
Last Tuesday we arrived in Fort Portal after 13 hours of traveling.
We have been staying at a hostel run by Youth Encouragement Services. YES was founded 15 years ago by Carol Adams, an American. Her organization now takes care of over 300 kids who came from elderly-led families, child-led families, or orphanhood.
Throughout the week we have been working at the Manna Rescue Home where 30 kids with HIV… Read More
The crew just left JJ’s and is getting ready to spend a night in Mbale before heading off on a 9 hour bus ride to Fort Portal tomorrow. To recap, after leaving Jinja last week, we caught a ride into Mbale where we celebrated Zoe’s 18th birthday! We had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant and enjoyed an East African supermarket cake. The next morning we met up with… Read More
Greetings from Jinja! Weve just returned after spending a week volunteering at the Lubani Primary School with NGO, Soft Power Education. Everyone is pretty spent and ready to relax after a week of intense painting. The week started with a visit to a local art festival in Kampala, where Izzy bought a cool pair of sandals for the good Mzungu price of 28K. Afterward we went white water rafting in… Read More
So today was the last day of a successful orientation! After 4 long days of scavenging, bonding, and team building the adventures begin! For now were going to back track to the scavenger hunt and tell you guys a little bit about Kampala. We were sent out in groups with a list into the city, with each group having there own special tasks. The city of Kampala is absolute madness.… Read More
Hello fellow parents and friends! After 2 long days of traveling we have finally arrived at the Kampala backpackers hostel. In the morning we got together, had orientation and were sent out in the city for a scavenger hunt! We have been scavenging all day and have learned some words of the local language. They seem to enjoy trying to watch us speak and we laugh with them. I (Alexa)… Read More
HQ is pleased to announce that the Africa group has re-grouped! The group is together, well, for the most part. Due to a missed flight out of Portland, Taylor will join the rest in Entebbe in just 24 hours. Stay posted as the next blog entry will come directly from the Africa Fall 2010 group! Safari njema everyone!… Read More
