Saturday, May 31, 2008
Namibia to Amsterdam
Namibia to Amsterdam
Namibia is warm and dry place. We travelled from Capetown to
Windhoek the capital ( very modern and very clean). We got a chance
to do a walking tour of the city and got our exercise. It is nice
being able to communicate (a real change from Madagascar) as the
official language is English but most people speak Africans. We met
AIM folks and they took us up north to an area where they want to
place a team next year. It would be a two year project. The town is
Rundu on the banks of the Okavango River which forms the border
between Namibia and Angola. That river is one if the rare rivers that
does not flow to the ocean but is dies in the Okavango Delta in the
Namib Desert. We stayed there two days then caught an overnight bus
back to Windhoek and a taxi to the airport to start our homeward
journey.
We flew to Lusaka via Jo'burg getting there at 10pm. We were planning
just to camp out in the airport but that did not work out and the
shuttles and taxis were gone. We hand to hitchhike to Lusaka making
for an interesting experience. We found a place to stay in Lusaka but
had to be up a going to the airport by 9:30. In the airport we tried
to make a few calls on our Zambia sim card as we had some talk time
left. We called Grace Academy and found that the grand opening went
very well and things are going fine. We flew out of Lusaka at noon
arriving in Nairobi at about 3pm. We got a chance to talk to a couple
from Arizona who had spent the last 6 months in Malawi. We stood on
line for three hours to get our boarding passes.
We left Nairobi at 10:20pm and arrived in Amsterdam at 5:30 in the
morning. As I am writing this I and sitting in a reclining chair
watching the planes as Mary catches some sleep We are getting
excited about going home !
Take care
Love
Mary and tim
From Tim McDougall's iPhone
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Windhoek.
Windhoek.
Windhoek Namibia is reported to be the cleanest city in the southern
hemisphere and I think it is true. We have done a great deal of
walking since we arrived and the city is very nice. We walked down
Eros Weg from the small motel we were staying at to Independence Ave
the main street of the city. This is a modern city very much like
Capetown and the traffic laws are obeyed. We did some shopping at the
Post Street Mall then walked back via Fidel Castro ave and Robert
Mugabe ave. We past the famous Luthren Church and the parliament
buildings and the state house.
On Saturday May 24th we decided to go to the Angus Buchan Crusade at
Independence Stadium. The map we had was not to scale and we ended a
three hour walk with a 15 minute taxi ride to finally get to the
stadium. The crusade was great with about ten thousand people
attending. We had trouble finding a taxi and ended up hitchhiking home.
On Sunday we went to church with Suzanne & Mick and then to their
place for lunch. We went for another walk in the afternoon and ended
up back at the motel by 6pm.
Monday we head to Rundu in the north which is on the border with
Angola. We hope to meet with some AIM staff there and return home by
the night bus on Wednesday ready to fly out on Thursday. We hope to
post a few pictures if we can. Later.
From Tim McDougall's iPhone
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
CapeTown South Africa
We arrived in Cape Town last thursday. I is an amazing place and more amazing is that we are at the bottom of Africa.
Good bye Madagascar
These are the last few days in Madagascar and we are trying to get things finished up and look around a bit. Saturday we took our last trip to the craft market and we went with some of the young people. Jenny (USA), Renier (SA) and Elizabeth (a canadian girl who just arrived in Tana) went with us. The prices were a bit higher, but we had a good time talking to all the sellers. On the way home we set a new record on the taxi bus 36 adults. So tight that you find other people's hands in your pockets.
Sunday we went to town on the taxi bus again, went to church at a school called Vision Valley. It was nice because it was mostly in English and we met some new people. After church we caught another bu and went exploring a bit, getting back home at about 2 pm.
On Monday which was a holiday iN Madagascar (penticost) some of the AIM team took us south of the city to a place called Gasicara. It is kind of a cultural center with some of the traditional houses from around the Island and we saw some traditional dancing. It was a beautiful day and a great outing. As a thank you we took the team out for supper at a Korean Restuarant. It was great as we had our Korean friends there to explain the food. I got to taste some very good Korean food in the heart of Madagascar. We made it back home by 8:30 ready to go to bed.
Wednesday we leave Tana for South Africa and say goodbye to the Red Island. We will try to update the blog in Capetown. Til then.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
May 1st weekend
May 1st weekend
Our weekend to the coast didn't work out so we spent Thursday morning
cleaning our place and then in the afternoon we caught the bus to the
Dichye market. This is a tourist trap with over 200 little stalls. We
had hoped that there would be lots of tourists and we wouldnt be
noticeable but alas there were probably a max of 20 tourists in the
whole place! So besides being noticeable the sellers were desperate
for a sale. We had only taken a small amount of money in case we were
robbed so we quickly got rid of that and then just walked along
looking at things. I thought tim had kept our bus fare separate and he
thought I had so we had to let a couple of buses pass us by before we
found enough for bus fare home. We got home before dark and went out
and got some fesh green beans and carrots and tim made a stor fry for
supper. Arent you jealous?? Gill decided that she would like to go
somewhere on Friday and invited us along. She has the use of a car
which makes it nice. So we left about 7:30 this morning a d headed out
of Tana and into the country. It was so nice to get away from the
crowds of people and see some farming. It is harvest time for the rice
and the grain. Harold you would have loved the scenery today. It
reminded me of dad and grampa and bringing in the sheaves but a little
more primitive then I remember. The woman and children were sloshing
through the fields bent over work a little scythe and cutting the
grain or rice and putting little handfuls down on the ground and then
the children were gathering it into bundles and the men were loading
it onto their heads and carrying it up the sides of the hill and
loading it onto a cart pulled by oxen. The oxen would pull the cart to
a flat spot on the side of the road and men would beat it out on the
side and leave it to dry. Everyone helps I think. We drove until
about noon and found a room to stay beside a little lake. We went down
this crazy winding dirt road for five km and found a pretty waterfall
called Chutes de la Lily. Just as we got there there was a bit of
excitement as an ox pulling a cart over a bridge fell between the
cracks into the river. We though he might go down the rapids but got
to shore and the driver got him hooked up okay.
We spent the later afternoon looking for a crater but never found it
but saw a lot of scenery. We got back to the room had tea and crackers
and talked for the evening and went to bed.
In the morning we got up about 730h had a petite dejuener at the
little restuarant and headed to the Lemure park. Check out the lemure
Picts on the blog. It was really interesting to see all the different
kinds. We got back home about 3pm and got settled then went down to
the vegetable sellers at the end of the street. We got some food and
practiced some Malagasy words. We will have to make some plans for
Sunday so we will see.
Tim is catching a cold so we got water some stuff to make soup. We
hope your weekend was as interesting. Talk to you later.
Love Mary & Tim
From Tim McDougall's iPhone
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Saturday School
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