Africa
The time was between 2 - 5 am, and I was somewhere on Kenya's western Savannah, on the worst public bus ride in my life. The seat was broken, my legs cramped and squished, and the road, my God the road. Even for Africa, this road was hell. The bus driver who loved yelling random words in Swahili performed miracles, taking the bus off-road at crucial times, but still going over our fair share of the pot-holed, beat up and broken down sorry excuse for what they considered a road. I was on this bus through the night for 16 hours.
Meanwhile, my younger sister Lindsay some 4000 km away and closing, was lounging on her first class seat she somehow swinged for her 8 hour Air Ethiopian flight from Bangkok to Addis Abbas. At the same time still, my Mother and youngest sister Taylor were perusing around the Amsterdam Airport waiting to leave for Entebbe, going through duty free shops spraying perfumes and reading their Cosmo and Teen People magazines. Damn them. (I still have to get back to Nairobi the same way in a few days) And so these were all our attempts to meet up for the first time in 18 months, in Entebbe, just outside of Kampala the capital of Uganda.
We all made it, and that's just the beginning. We came to see the country, the people, and the wildlife. All are unbelievable.
My story in Africa, however starts in Nairobi, 3 days earlier. Upon arriving, I do what I usually do once I am in a new, foreign big city: I get drunk. I don't know if it was the beer or the shaking booty's of these dancing African queens, but I was feeling good. MY GOD are the woman beautiful here. And their asses, you've think you've seen it in Canada - HELL NO. Wait till you get this 24 year old dance artist shake herself silly to the beats of the Congo drum music re-mixed to some classic Dutti Rock by Sean Paul. Multiply that by 10. I was blown away. Was it sexual? Hell yes. The clubs in Toronto have no clue what goes on here! (Footnote - Daniel Ferron - this place is for you)
Anyways enough on the beautiful woman and their beautiful bums, dark skin, and perfect white smiles; I'm in Africa, and there is plenty more to see. So the next morning I went on a day Safari through Nairobi National Park. This park is something of an anomaly, being so close to the city. The skyscrapers of downtown are the backdrop to the giraffes, elephants, baboons, antelope and rhinoceroses that roam and run around freely in this 750 km2 park. Yeah, I saw all of em, and it was ridiculously cool. Pics are on the way.
The next day was spent online applying for International Internships relating to HIV awareness/and Micro Financing ideas across the globe. I can't stay in Brampton for too long once I'm back, so I'm trying to set something up for the Fall.
The day after was spent roaming the city eating fried chicken (every restaurant is a fried chicken joint) and talking to a Somalian refugee who talked of the two bombs that the USA just dropped last month on a little village near his home. I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of this either. But that is what makes traveling the world so interesting - you hear these stories from the people. Not form the TV, not from the radio; from the people. They look into your eyes and tell you these things. CNN can't show that coverage, and newspapers can't write those words; you can only experience them through the people, and I am lucky to be experiencing this.
3 hours later I found myself on that dreadful bus ride, from which this story began.
And it has only started.
I'll only say that it has been a week since then, and we have been all over this lush East African country. Tomorrow we finally get to trek through and up into the mountains, in search of the great Mountain Gorillas. It is only in this small corner of the world, some 150km2 where the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda meet, that these giant primates can be found and watched at play.
Till then, Hippos and the wild playful chimps are my favorite.
TIA
Meanwhile, my younger sister Lindsay some 4000 km away and closing, was lounging on her first class seat she somehow swinged for her 8 hour Air Ethiopian flight from Bangkok to Addis Abbas. At the same time still, my Mother and youngest sister Taylor were perusing around the Amsterdam Airport waiting to leave for Entebbe, going through duty free shops spraying perfumes and reading their Cosmo and Teen People magazines. Damn them. (I still have to get back to Nairobi the same way in a few days) And so these were all our attempts to meet up for the first time in 18 months, in Entebbe, just outside of Kampala the capital of Uganda.
We all made it, and that's just the beginning. We came to see the country, the people, and the wildlife. All are unbelievable.
My story in Africa, however starts in Nairobi, 3 days earlier. Upon arriving, I do what I usually do once I am in a new, foreign big city: I get drunk. I don't know if it was the beer or the shaking booty's of these dancing African queens, but I was feeling good. MY GOD are the woman beautiful here. And their asses, you've think you've seen it in Canada - HELL NO. Wait till you get this 24 year old dance artist shake herself silly to the beats of the Congo drum music re-mixed to some classic Dutti Rock by Sean Paul. Multiply that by 10. I was blown away. Was it sexual? Hell yes. The clubs in Toronto have no clue what goes on here! (Footnote - Daniel Ferron - this place is for you)
Anyways enough on the beautiful woman and their beautiful bums, dark skin, and perfect white smiles; I'm in Africa, and there is plenty more to see. So the next morning I went on a day Safari through Nairobi National Park. This park is something of an anomaly, being so close to the city. The skyscrapers of downtown are the backdrop to the giraffes, elephants, baboons, antelope and rhinoceroses that roam and run around freely in this 750 km2 park. Yeah, I saw all of em, and it was ridiculously cool. Pics are on the way.
The next day was spent online applying for International Internships relating to HIV awareness/and Micro Financing ideas across the globe. I can't stay in Brampton for too long once I'm back, so I'm trying to set something up for the Fall.
The day after was spent roaming the city eating fried chicken (every restaurant is a fried chicken joint) and talking to a Somalian refugee who talked of the two bombs that the USA just dropped last month on a little village near his home. I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of this either. But that is what makes traveling the world so interesting - you hear these stories from the people. Not form the TV, not from the radio; from the people. They look into your eyes and tell you these things. CNN can't show that coverage, and newspapers can't write those words; you can only experience them through the people, and I am lucky to be experiencing this.
3 hours later I found myself on that dreadful bus ride, from which this story began.
And it has only started.
I'll only say that it has been a week since then, and we have been all over this lush East African country. Tomorrow we finally get to trek through and up into the mountains, in search of the great Mountain Gorillas. It is only in this small corner of the world, some 150km2 where the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda meet, that these giant primates can be found and watched at play.
Till then, Hippos and the wild playful chimps are my favorite.
TIA
posted by Matt Switzer at 6:21 AM
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