Silly stuff

So I was telling my buddy Kendra about some of the funnier pictures that I took while on my trip and she suggested that I should post them here. I though, what a good idea to share with those who have my bizarre sense of humor. This first photo is what it looks like when you jam 4 people into a tuk tuk.

Next is a very typical Ethiopian bus. As many decals as you can put on is the standard. My favourite part of this one is the sheep skin covers on the side view mirrors. He also had sheepskin on his front dash

This is my new friend Maria and I taking a funny photo to make the kids sitting next to us laugh. They really didn't even laugh, just looked horrified at how bizarre the white girls could be

This is a photo from my white water rafting trip in Uganda on the Nile river. Where am I you might ask? See the guy in the plad shirt who appears to be standing on the water? The yellow under his foot is my head

A size comparison: my foot vs elephant poo. Nuff said

I woke up one morning to find an entire group of 30ish monkeys playing on the playground equipment. Needless to say I sat down and watched while giggling uncontrollably

The photo is funny, maybe not the bigger picture though. Slogans like these are printed all over the government run schools in Uganda to hopefully help curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Our guide book said that the most notable thing about our hotel in Stone Town was that it had a steep staircase. Wow, they weren't kidding. The thought of climbing them at the end of each night curbed my alcohol consumption completely

Finally, a view from the door into the squat toilet we were using in Ethiopia at the build site. There is a bag of shavings in the corner to throw down to cut smells. It looks wet, but the locals regularly throw chicken guts and other great things down the hole and its pretty much always wet. You should see the squat toilets in fancy places like airports! Porcelain with foot grip marks andthey flush. Ever tried to pee in a 6" hole?

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Now that I am home and have access to my photos and a much better internet connection, its time to tell you all the step by step process for building a Habitat for Humanity house in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia.

The town of Debre Birhan is quite small and known only for its blanket factory and location on the main road north of Addis Ababa. There are only 2 hotels and if you want something other than local food, you'd better be happy with spaghetti. Luckily the local food is delicious! The government owns all of the land in Ethiopian and permission must be granted to build on it. Habitat for Humanity was granted a large plot of land to build a community on at the west edge of town. Currently there are over 400 homes completed, 80 in progress and plans for many more to come. Each home consists of a small front lawn, which homeowners usually enclose with a fence and plant a garden or enclose animals in, a house and a latrine. Space is also left for a kitchen which most homeowners will add on their own also.

View of the newest section of Habitat for Humanity's Debre
Birhan community. All of these homes were built by Habitat for Humanity

Digging foundations for the 2 room house and latrine pit behind

We started our first day with digging foundations. The local skilled labour had already marked out the size of plot we were to dig and supplied us with a stick that must be the width and depth of the completed trench. The ground in Ethiopia is incredibly dry and hard. Digging foundations requires a pick to break the ground and a shovel to remove it.

Once foundations are dug, the local skilled labourers put up the frame. The frame is constructed of eucalyptus tree poles with a steel roof and supported by filling the foundation with rocks. We did not take part in this. I guess they wanted to make sure it was done right. haha

A row of houses with foundations almost complete

The next step is to use smaller pieces of eucalyptus poles to fill the spaces in the walls of the building by weaving wet tree bark from inside to outside around each piece of wood. Once all of the spaces are filled, support poles are added to the building and you weave them into place with the same bark.

Dave working on building the wall of a house

The next step is chicka! What will become the front lawn of the house is soaked for several days and straw is left on the top to hold the moisture in. Periodically, workers mix the mud with a pitch fork and with their feet like stomping grapes.

A worker prepares the chicka

Once the mix is ready, it is carried into the house and thrown at the walls and smoothed into place. This is definitely the most fun part of our build. It is surprisingly tiring to make mud balls and throw them all day and, of course, there is bound to be a mud fight. Once the mud layer inside the house is dry, it is applied to the outside in the same manner. Then, using a round stick, holes are pushed an inch into the mud to help the cement final layer to stick.

Carrying chicka to the house

Amy and I working on an inside wall

Making balls on mud to throw to a worker on
a ladder for the tops of the walls. Hard work!

Dave, Maria and Xavier having fun with chicka

Next comes a labour intensive job of raising the floor level inside the house. Carrying rocks and dirt on makeshift gurneys and dumping until the level is high enough. Then tamping down the floor and levelling. The house will have a cement floor, but you must wait 1 year for it to settle first.

Wire mesh is wrapped around the finished house and nailed into place and the skilled labourers are left to do the final concrete application to the inside and outside walls of the house. We did get to help in the concrete process by screening the gravel. Another day of shoveling in the hot sun!

A bed spring is used to filter the larger rocks out of the cement mix

Painting on an Ethiopian ladder. This homeowner has put in
her own ceiling made from nylon bags. It wasvery pretty

Finally, the interior of the house is painted with a mix of 'animal glue and gypsum' as a primer and the house is ready. A dedication ceremony to give the new homeowner their new keys and bible is the final step and one which all members of the community are present for.

Now you can build your own chicka house!

Back to the cold

We have arrived home safe and sound. I am very happy to see my family and sleep in my own bed - and to have a shower of north american standard! I am sad to have said goodbye to Africa and its beautiful people and weather. My 6 weeks away seemed so quick. I could have stayed a lot longer.

Parents of Grace Children's Village's headmaster.

I really had no idea that I was operating on 'African time' while I was in Africa. I was still punctual and felt like I was on mzungu time. Now that I am home, I am a little overwhelmed by everything around me. I suppose it doesn't help that I have arrived home one month before my debut at the One of a Kind Show in Toronto (a really big craft show) and have tons to organize for it on top of getting back to a big group of clients waiting for me, bills to pay, emails to answer and general stuff to do. I also feel a little cultural shock at the quantity of food in our grocery store, the number of people shopping for things they 'need' and general disposable nature of our society. I think one of the biggest lessons I learned from my trip is really how much I have and how fortunate I was to be born in such a safe and rich country. Nothing in Africa is reliable. Electricity goes out almost daily, road conditions can become unpassable at any time and governments can be expected to be terribly dishonest at all times. Even with all these things the people I met were not jaded. They were friendly, kind and hopeful

Stay tuned to my blog as I am going to go back and add photos and videos to all of my posts.

Goodbye Stone Town

We are finished with scuba diving for now. Its sad for me to write that, but the end of our trip is drawing near. We had one last night dive in Stone Town to the wreckage of the Northern navy vessel on Tuesday night and it was a great dive to end off the trip. We saw a ton of fish including a squid, lionfish, a flying fish, lots of different crabs and many other things.

Red Colobus Monkey of Jozani Forest

Yesterday was a busy day for us. We went out to see Jozani forest in the morning. It is the only remaining area of natural forest left on the island with beautiful mahogany, eucalyptus, mangrove and guava trees. It is also home to an indiginous population of red colobus monkeys. They are very habituated to human presence and let us get quite close while simply continuing with their daily routine. It was a fun sighting. In the afternoon we hired a boat to take us to Changu Island. Changu, also known as prison island because of the prison that was built on the grounds in the 1800s but never used, is home to a population of giant tortoises. They were a gift to the sultan almost 200 years ago and still reside on the island. I was quite surprised when our guide insisted we pet them. I did not want to harass them, but when I reached out and touched the neck of the giant, prehistoric animal in front of me, he stood up and leaned into it like a dog being scratched.

Feeding a giant tortoise on Changuu Island

Today is our last day on the island. We are spoiling ourselves as a treat. I'm having a traditional henna session and Jody is having a foot massage at one of the local spas in town. I am definitely looking forward to it. We also have plans to go to our favourite restaurant for our last meal. If ever in Stone Town, The Silk Route Indian restaurant is absoloutely amazing.

Next to begin the long journey home with a ferry ride back to the mainland

Under the Sea

Today marks the 4th day in a row that we've spent under the sea scuba diving and I can't figure out for the life of me how I have a sunburn when I've spent most of my time under water! We are officially now advanced scuba divers and have seen lots of great things under the water. Our first ever night dive was  very cool, made especially memorable because we went to see our first wreck. Extra eerie at night for sure.

There is apparently a cyclone hitting Madagascar right now. I have not seen a television in about 2 weeks now, so who knows what actually is going on though. The winds have been high here causing very low visibility under water. It is a bit disappointing when we were expecting 30 meter and get 10 meter, but the water is warm with lots of great corals and fish. Jody didn't even wear a wetsuit today. One especially neat fish we saw today was a pair of seagrass ghost face pipefish. The divemaster was very pumped about that since they are not common here. We got a complete lesson on them. It was also nice to see a leaf fish for the first time, especially when they are very commonly a north east African coast fish.

Zanzibar island is almost entirely coral rock

We have one more day of diving to go and we're back to Stone Town. I was not expecting to like the town as much as I do, but its great. We have big plans to take the local public transportation (as much of the adventure as the destination) dala dalas to the only national park on the island that is home to an indigenous colobus monkey on Tuesday. Cross you fingers it goes well. We met a couple yesterday that got covered in fish blood when a box on the roof of the dala dala leaked.

Can't believe that I'm into my final week away. I feel like I've only just finally adjusted to being on African time. It may cause me some grief when I get back home.

A traditional dhow fishing vessel at low tide

Island Life



National Museum



Jody and I have both arrived safely in Stone Town, Tanzania and are very happy. I am so much more relaxed now that I have a travel companion. It feels safer to be together. This city is pretty amazing. Most of the buildings were built by the rich Arabian traders in the 1800's. The streets are narrow and winding and it's easy to get lost, but that has proven to be fun too. There are more tourists ere than I've seen in my entire trip so far, but it is somehow reassuring after being the only mzungu (white person) for miles.

We had dinner at the Forodhani market last night. It is a hectic and lively set up of close to a hundred vendors with a variety of foods (mostly today's catch) displayed on tables lit by oil lamps and BBQ to cook over. The vendors are loudly calling to anyone who will listen about their wares and trying to out-do their neighbors in prices and sales. It was a fun experience and delicious.

One of many tables at the evening market

We have booked a tour tomorrow to see a spice farm, some ruins of palace grounds and the slave market. Stone town was the last glimpse of Africa that so many slaves saw as they were sold to rich foreigners until 1873 when it was finally abolished. It makes me ashamed of my skin colour to think of visiting such a monument, but I am glad that it exists so that we will never forget the horrors of our ancestors.

We begin our advanced open water scuba certification on Wednesday. We have 5 specific dives to do in 2 days. Some of the exciting parts are a shipwreck dive, a night dive and a dive to a deeper depth than we've done previously. Apparently there is very high underwater visibility and incredible corals on this side of the island. I'm very excited to get back under the water again. Especially to cool off for a few days. Please don't be angry with me, I'm not bragging, but it is incredibly hot here and humid. A break will be welcome.

The Post Bus makes it to town

I woke before the sun and packed my things to walk down to the post office to get the bus back to the capital city of Uganda, Kampala. From a general consensus, the bus that takes the mail to town is the way to go. It departs on time regardless of how full it is while other busses will wait until they are full before leaving. We left town at 7:30am and I knew right away it was going to be a long trip. The bus stopped at almost every cluster of houses along the way to pick up people, bunches of bananas or to let somebody off the bus to pee.

One town we arrived in and pulled to the side of the road and the entire bak double wheel of the bus sunk into a giant sewer hole. We were right up to the body of the bus! Everyone got off and stood around. I started to wonder what alternative arrangement I would need to make and out of nowhere came a tractor who negotiated a price with the driver ad lifted us out and on our way in less than 10 minutes. Amazing! I do wonder though if he made the pothole to have a business of rescuing people from it though. Made friends with my kind young seatmate Jamie. He is a recent graduae on his way to a job interview in micro finance in Kampala. Good jobs are scarce and moving across the country for one is common. Jamie helped me get a boda (motorcycle) ride to my hotel on arriving in town too. What a nice guy.

Tomorrow I am off white water rafting on the Nile river as my last hurrah here in Uganda before departing for Zanzibar island, Tanzania and meeting Jody. I am so excited to see him again