The Connors

Driving Back through West Africa

2012-02-29T09:06:00.000+03:00

28 December 2011 – 1 January 2012

6 whole days of driving. That’s all this trip could havetaken. But, a month later. It’s really time to go home. So, here’s the basicrun down on the drive back.

Woke up on the 28^th, load the car and away wewent. Made it to Tamale, Ghana. Thankfully. We were hoping to gain a day bymaking this leg of the trip in one day! Pulled up to the Giriba Lodge andbooked the last two rooms. Went to the restaurant at the hotel for dinner. Theywere swamped because everyone decided to show up at the same time for dinner.When this happens in Africa, the staff freak out and quit functioning. It’sjust part of life here. While we wereenjoying our dinner, two French boys (about the age of 8-9) walked up to ourtable and snatched the bottle caps off of our beer and coke bottles. WTH??Seriously. It was so rude. Their parents did nothing. Now, had they askedpolitely, we would have given the caps to them. Instead, Liam yelled at themand then started taunting the kids and hoarding all of the caps so they wouldleave our table alone. (I promise – he’s really great with kids…but not rudeFrench kids).

On the 29^th, when we stopped for gas, I happenedto notice that the tire that was canted was almost completely bald and wasbound to pop. We also noticed there was a nail inside the back right tire. Wehave two spares and it looks like we are going to use them. Better startlooking for a shop to repair the one with a nail in it. Instead of changing thebald tire at the gas station, we drove down the road a little closer to theborder and then had the tire changed. Still confused why we didn’t just changeit while we were already at a gas station. But, what do I know. I sat with myfingers crossed hoping we wouldn’t lose another tire. Things like that happenin Africa ALL THE TIME!

Our drive on the 29^th took us all the way toBobo-Dissolou, Burkina Faso. Perfect. We are ahead of schedule and have enoughtime to drive back to Banfora in the morning to buy rum and enjoy a deliciousbreakfast at the Hotel Sucre de Canne! We were going to stay at a nicer hotelbut they only had one room, so we went back to Villa Rose. Had dinner at St.Germaine again because it was so good last time!

On the 30^th, we drove down to Banfora early. Hadbreakfast, tasted some rum, and headed to Bamako, Mali. On the way from Banforato Bobo-Dissolou, the tire with the nail in it went flat. Stopped at atire-changing hut on the way out of Bobo to have someone change the tire. Whilethe boys worked on the car, I was reading my book (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden) andnoticed a chicken stuck in a drainage ditch. Therefore, I went on a hunt tofind something to pick up the chicken and put him back on normal ground.Thankfully, I had some gloves to protect me from funky chicken diseases. Pickedup the chicken on a cardboard box. He was so freaked out that he sat right nearthe front tire of the car for a while. Finally, he calmed down enough andstarted walking around. Realizing he was free!! I’m sure he will be dinner atsome point in the future, but it made me feel good knowing that he wouldn’tdrown in the drainage ditch. Poor lil’ chicken.

Second tire changed, but not repaired. So, now we have nospare tires. Seriously, stressing. It’s just not a good idea to have ZEROspares. Especially since we had already driven the roads and knew they weren’tgreat. However, Al did not agree with us and didn’t want to take thetime to stop. Now, I’m really going to stress about making it all the way toMauritania. Cause we have no spare and potentially a broken back axle. AWESOME.

Made it to Bamako at dark. Checked into the Badala Hotel andate dinner. Liam came upstairs after dinner and informed me that Al said he didnot want to take the time to fix the tire. Seriously. It’s really frustrating.Liam tried to talk him into getting fixed, but it was becoming adon’t-bring-it-up-I’m-going-to-do-what-I-want-because-you-are-bossing-me-aroundissue. Um. It’s not. It’s a safety issue. Because now, we are traveling throughAfrica and seriously compromising our safety. Oh, and apparently me saying, “I’m not comfortable traveling any furtherwithout a spare” does not matter to him. So, I know where I stand on the totempole. I just wonder if he would put his own family in that kind of a position.(And in hindsight, I’m really pissed at myself for calming Liam down andconvincing him to not make a scene. That was irresponsible of myself. I willnever let it happen again. Safety first. Not feeling the need to livedangerously).

Leaving Bamako on the 31^st, the guys got into abit of a yelling contest. Being in the car for 30 days with the same peoplebrings out all kinds of fun tension. Al and Liam ended up in a screaming matchover lots of little things. Then, we spent the next 12 hours in silence. Exceptfor when someone asked to pee. Liam and I were stuck in the front seat and backseat respectively, because Al wanted to drive. Fine. But, for the record, we both offered.

Beautiful Baobab in Western Mali.

The border between Senegal and Mali was a fiasco because thecustoms agent in Senegal was being a complete and utter prick. But, he realizedhe wasn’t going to get any money out of us and he better let us go. Came upon agiant animal. At first glance it looked like a West African baby rhino. But,since they have been extinct since 2006 and I’m not sure they were even in thisarea, we decided it was a giant wart hog. Make it to Tambacounda, Senegal. Stayin the same hotel we did last time. Actually, in the same room. And it was 104.Not 109. They fixed the toilet! We had to laugh. Spent some time talking Liamout of flying out of Dakar the next day instead of driving the other embassyvehicle to Mauritania. He was really pissed and ready to be done with this trip. Wentto dinner and enjoyed a nice quiet meal on New Year’s Eve. After dinner lookedup information and decided we would be able to leave on the 3^rd.Awesome. I don’t really feel like being in West Africa for another 5 days if Ican go ahead and get out of here! Especially with all the extra tension.

Also, spent some time double-checking if the pig was reallya rhino. My brain was literally seeing things. The pig was HUGE. It’s back wasalmost to the top of the front of the car. I’m guessing about 3.5 feet tall.Therefore, I had myself convinced I needed to report a rhino siting to theWorld Wildlife Foundation. See. Africa makes you crazy! (Here's a link to a few google images of African Bush pigs: https://www.google.com/search?q=african+bush+pigs&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=tFy&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SL1NT9_CDIjJtge3q_SkCA&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=607).

Wake up on New Year’s Day. Try to be polite, but it’s goingto be another long day.

Silence most of the way to Dakar. Made it into Dakar andarrived at the embassy. Al went to grab the other car from the embassy compoundsince Liam didn’t have his id and I had absolutely no idea where it was parked.While Al was grabbing the car, we pulled all of our stuff out of the car we hadbeen driving. Al pulls up the car and we tell him to go ahead and start drivingto St. Louis, Senegal since we have to stop by the airport. That way, at leastone of us would get there before dark. Again, more yelling and screaming. Seriously.This trip needs to end.

Al drives through the embassy gate. Liam runs up to him andasks him if his phone is working. Of course not. We have had phone issues thewhole trip. We get in the other truck after loading all of our stuff. We driveover to the Casino market to get some food for the drive since we are bothstarving. As we were pulling in to the grocery store, we saw Al pull into theRadisson Blu next door. So, I guess he isn’t going to St. Louis tonight. Iwonder if he is actually staying there. Hopefully, he will email us later andclue us in. The grocery store was closed for the holiday, so we headed to theairport. Changed our Senegal Airline flight from the 8^th to the 3^rdand were on our way to St. Louis. We wanted to enjoy a few days doing our ownthing. Especially after how crappy the past few days were.

Bought some more oranges on the road and gobbled them down.OMG. They are so delicious. I would drive down that crazy road just to buythem!!!

Make it to Saint Louis right at dark. We begin the hunt forour hotel. There is a parked car in front of us and Liam puts on his blinker togo around the car. As he pulls out, BAM!!! A motorbike rams into the car andbounces off. Crap. We pull forward a little and the crowd starts to form, so wepull away looking for the police and trying to call our embassy. Well, someonefollows us and stops us at a police blockade and accuses us of fleeing thescene. Well, we were following embassy policy. That’s what we are told to do.Remove yourself from the dangerous situation. So, we did.

The policeman tries to get into the car with us and take usback to the scene of the crime. Well, here’s the problem. This car only has twoseats. So, I pushed him away and closed the door. Probably didn’t help the situation.The policeman jumps in the car of the people who chased us down since policemendon’t have cars in Africa. (I mean really, why would a policeman need a car.Seems silly doesn’t it?) So, back to the scene of the crime we went.

Ghana...

2012-01-08T16:01:00.000+03:00

22 December 2011 – 27 December 2011

Wake up to Liam’s bright and shining face on our 1^stanniversary in Africa! We have beenmarried for 3 years. And it’s been a busy three years. But, I’m hoping the 4^thyear of our marriage is MUCH better than the past one. While we have growntogether, it has been a REALLY tough year and we are due a break.

Load the car. We are stopping by the embassy and then we areheading out of town. Ouagadougou has been fun, but I’m ready to see somefriends!! We are heading to Ghana to meet up with some friends of ours from DCwho moved to Ghana in March!

But, first things first. Head to the embassy one last timeto take care of some paperwork, hand in the keys for the TDY house, and checkemail one more time. I’m waiting on official yes from the travel office to bookmy ticket to Memphis for surgery. But, seeing as how I have yet to receive ananswer, it will be last minute before I have a response. Sigh. Gotta love thegovernment and their inability to do their job in a timely manner.

Head south around 10am. We have a border to cross and arestaying in Tamale, Ghana a town a couple hours south of the border. It’s ashort trek to the border and the road was brand new. There were a few spotswhere they were finishing construction of the road but all in all, I think itonly took us about 4.5 hours. Arrive in Tamale and look for a bank that willtake MasterCard for cash. This is a serious problem in West Africa. It’s almostimpossible to find banks that work with MasterCard debit cards. Finally did.Thank you Stanbic. You will have lots of USAA customers for life with thatoption.

After looking at all of the hotel options and one of theguesthouses being full, we decide on the Catholic Archdiocese Guesthouse. For $22.50,Liam treated me to a very special third anniversary. Compete with prostituteshovering outside Al’s room. Oh wait. Did I say prostitutes? I meant to say they“just wanted to be his friend.” One of the girls watching him check in slippedhim a note under his door. Yea. He wasn’t very appreciative of that fact. Aldidn’t really feel the need to make any new friends. And thankfully, they leftour rooms alone all night!

I thought the C-wire added a nice touch. Safety first.

The room was actually pretty clean, but the bed was not comfortable and lacked a top sheet. So, we had to sleep under ablanket, which was probably clean, but still sketched me out a tiny bit. But,we survived. Another African guesthouse. Is it wrong that I’m starting toprefer the slightly sketchy guesthouses to the lush bungalows on the beach?It’s really a cost thing. I’ve become very cheap when choosing a place tosnuggle. Why pay $200 a night when you can spend $20 for essentially the samething. Well, hot water, top sheets, and towels may be a negotiable item. But,that’s part of the appeal. You never know what you are going to get.

After checking in and situating our self in our room, wewalked down the street to Swad Fast Food for dinner. Now, the title might leadyou to assume that this was a McDonald’s type fast food restaurant. However,fast food is a term African’s have added to titles because it is American andcool to say “fast food.” However, by no means does it actually mean you willreceive your food in a timely manner. In fact, it could be a two-hour meal. Becausetime is irrelevant in Africa. Which I’madapting too and beginning to like. It’s a slower pace of life. It’s actuallynice.

As expected dinner took a while, but it was overall prettytasty. I probably ordered the wrong thing for my belly, but Liam’s curry wasfantastic and I was kicking myself for not ordering a vegetable curry insteadof the chicken cordon bleu. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and had afew beers in the courtyard of the guesthouse. It was enjoyable. There were afew cats running around and all of a sudden two were in a nasty cat fight andran past us. I’m not sure what was going on there. Maybe one kitty crossed theother kitty’s line?

The party going on in the conference room ended right as wewere finishing our beers in the courtyard. Thankfully. Cause had it continuedinto the wee hours of the morning, sleeping would have been impossible. Theconference center was literally behind our two rooms and the music was LOUD.Speaker blowing loud. This is the norm in Africa though. I’m guessing it’sabout feeling the music. Literally.

Head to bed after a rather unusual anniversary.

Wake up on the morning of the 23^rd and we grabbreakfast from the guesthouse restaurant. The breakfast options were prettylimited. But, I can fill up on toast, fruit, and tea if necessary. However,fruit was the wrong thing to order, because everyone else ordered omelets andthe guys were done eating their eggs before my fruit was even cut. It was worththe wait though. The pineapple was delicious.

Finish up breakfast, pay, check out. In the process of allof this, Liam pointed out that the back left wheel of the car was canted. Ididn’t see it. But, I guess that could be a problem long term. We will justkeep an eye on it and hope it gets us all the way back to Noukachott.

Pile in the car and we are off to Kumasi, Ghana. Kumasi isthe capital of the Ashanti kingdom. The Ashanti people have been in this regionfor several centuries. There is a legend of the golden stool. A golden stool(literally made of gold) came down from the heavens. Over the years, severaldifferent groups of people have tried to steal the stool. However, after one ofthe last attempts, the real stool has been placed in a secure location and animitation one is on display. Additionally, there is a sword in the ground atone of the hospital. If the sword is removed, the Ashanti kingdom willcollapse. Also, they still have a king. Pretty cool.

Somehow we managed to make a wrong turn and were quite aways out of Tamale before we realized it. But, stopped asked for directions andaway we went on the correct road. The road was full of potholes, goats, mutton,cows, and people. Some of which understood basic physics. One lil' baby goat went splat. It was not nice. But, that's why slowing down and having plenty of reaction time is so essential here.

Arrived in Kumasi to a cluster of chaos. Seriously. The mapwe had was okay until we hit a detour in the road. Then, we made a right whenwe should have gone left and 20 km outside of the city we turned around.However, it was not a total loss. We bought some fresh sugar cane to chew onand a bunch of bananas. Delicious, as usual.

Back track and make the right turn. Check out the two hotelswe are looking at staying in. Decide to stay at the Royal Park Hotel becausethey said they took American Express and we were low on cash. Check in andcheck out our room. It’s pretty nice and an actual king size bed. That’s thefirst I have seen on this trip. We are both going to get a good night sleeptonight!

We are staying in Kumasi for two nights. Mostly to break upthe drive and actually enjoy the sites of a country. So, we head out on the huntto find a place to eat dinner. Look for two restaurants down the street fromour hotel but it’s approaching dark and we can’t find them. The Lonely Planetwe are using is a few years old, and lists them off the map. We give up andhave park at the restaurant next to our hotel. We head in, the servers fightover who is going to help us. Then, we sit down to eat. However, they turn onthe music and it’s BLARING. In our ears. The speakers are 10 feet away and soloud. We decide there is no way we can suffer through that and pack up ourstuff to leave. However, the owner comes over and talks to us. They turn downthe music and we head over to another side of the restaurant. Which made mefeel bad. Why should all the other patrons not have the music at the volumethey want it? But, the owner assured us it was okay.

We ordered drinks and food. The owner came back over andtalked with us for a while. Turns out his is a doctor in town and has openedhis own hospital. We talked a little more and I gave him my contact info. Iwould not mind going back one day and volunteering at his hospital. He didmention that he wanted a new dialysis machine. I kind of felt like he wasfishing for someone to donate one. But, the man owns a hospital. Owns a VERYsuccessful restaurant. AND. Who knows what else. But, he needs a free dialysismachine. He probably makes more money than most of the physicians I know. Sigh.TIA.

Dinner was delicious. Liam ordered pizza. I ordered soup andvegetable fried rice. There must be a gigantic Asian population in this townbecause there is only Asian food on the menu. We started connecting the dots onthat one. If there is a large range of a certain ethnic type of food – thepopulation reflects it. But, whatever. Bring on some Chinese food. It’sdelicious! Liam’s pizza was also prettytasty and the live band was nice. By the time we left, we were all a fan ofthis place. To think we almost missed out on a nice evening because the musicwas loud.

Leave the restaurant and walk to the car. We are blocked in.There are other people who have been blocked in for over an hour. Even though,they have announced the license plate over and over again. They wereunderstandably upset. Well, that’s not okay to me. People should not be soimpolite. So, I go find the owner and ask him to help. Then, we take off thelicense plate on the car and give it to a security guard (the plate was tied tothe car with a string). Then, a group of about 5 guys picked up the back end ofthe Kia and moved it over a few feet. At last. Everyone is free! Helped thepeople who had been stuck to back out and away we went. Well at least the 200feet we went. I’m just glad we were able to help!

Head back to the hotel and decide I can’t resist the monkeyin the cage. He looked so miserable and lonely. I snuck a banana out to him. Hewas pretty excited and I think I made a friend. It was entertaining to watchhim eat the banana. He did the exact same thing I do. Every time I come acrossa stringy thing on the banana, he pulled it off, made a face, and threw it tothe ground! Yep. I definitely share a lot of genes with this guy!!!!!

My lil' friend.

Off to bed. I’m so exhausted. Traveling really wears youout.

Wake up on the morning of the 24^th. It doesn’tfeel like Christmas Eve. Probably because it’s so hot. We take our sweet timeand enjoy a late breakfast. After breakfast, walked back to the room and thehousekeepers asked me to leave them a Christmas present. WTH? Really. That’srude. I don’t even know you.

We showered and headed out to explore town. First stop, themilitary museum. I had no idea that the Ghanaians fought with the Germans inWorld War I in East Africa and then with the British in Burma in World War II.Talk about a change in alliance. They had managed to secure a pretty coolcollection of military equipment. Guns, machetes, tanks, planes, etc. They hada section that was dedicated to each branch of the military. It was in the oldfort that was used to protect the Ashanti kingdom in the early 1900s.

After the tour of the museum, head into town to goexploring. You never know what you will come across. Walk down, meet a fewpeople. Ghanaians are a very friendly and welcoming people. We shop a little.But, it’s lunch time. Based on a recommendation one of the guys gave us, we walkedacross the street and had lunch in an awesome café. I ordered alu matter. I wascraving some Indian goodness after Liam’s delicious curry the other night.Indian food is always good. And filling. I actually think it’s a comfort foodfor me. I grew up on it!!! All because we have so many fantastic Indianfriends!!

After lunch, we decide to check out a few of the shops. Liamends up bargaining for two Ashanti masks. One is the king. One is the queen.And he scored a GREAT deal. It’s become a game for him. How cheap can I getsomething?

Queen on left, King on the right.

Walked down the hill and went for a stroll through themarket. I really enjoy markets. You literally can find anything you need. Wefound a receipt book for Al. There was a ton of CCC – cheap china crap. Okay.So, I think I need to explain something here. I have made a lot of commentsabout China lately. China has done a lot of great things for African countriesas far as infrastructure. The new roads are quite nice. However, within 2 yearsthey fall apart and are crap. It’s kind of like the cheaply made plastic stuffwe buy in the states. You know it’s going to break at some point. Well, theyhave a whole different version of cheap plastic for Africa. And the quality iseven worse than what is available in the States. To the point, some Africancountries (like Tanzania) are restricting and outlawing importation of CCC.Because, families save their hard earned money to buy a $5 chair. Then, thechair breaks a week later and the family has just wasted $5 that took them ayear to save up. So, coming to Africa with an indifferent opinion, I now have astrong opinion that the entire world, specifically China, is only ‘helping’Africa for their own gain. It’s sad. How about we all help this continent growand become a strong economic factor in the world without trying to clean thecontinent of it’s natural resources. Might help us all out!!!!!

Leave the market and head back to the hotel to rest for abit! When Al & I get out of the car,Liam runs back to the bank to get cash. I walk towards our room and thesecurity guard asks for his Christmas present. WTH, again. What is up withthese people? It’s just rude. I spend a little bit of time talking to my newfriend, Mr. Monkey. He even let me hold us hand for a bit and talked to me. Thekey was in the padlock and I wanted to let the poor guy go. But, I didn’t wantto upset the hotel. I’m surprised the monkey hasn’t unlocked himself though.Monkeys are known for figuring out locks and opening things!!!

After looking for the other restaurants again, we decide toreturn to the restaurant next door for dinner. Leave the car parked at thehotel after last night’s fiasco and walk to the restaurant. Order dinner andsome popcorn. Again the food was great! There was a couple near us that had to beholding their new grandbaby! They would not put the baby down! It made mesmile! Another happy, loved baby!

Head back to the hotel and another night of great sleep.

Wake up on Christmas day! Merry Christmas world. We areheading to the beach. We eat breakfast and load up the car. At some point, thehousekeepers asked me why I did not leave them their Christmas present. Really?Okay. Now, I’m annoyed. Liam goes to check out and gets really upset when hefinds out they didn’t take American Express. I’m not surprised. Thankfully, hegot enough cash out to cover it. Otherwise, we would have been screwed. Theowner was standing there and saw how upset Liam was. Regardless, it didn’tmatter. So, we paid and left. With no plans to ever return to this hotel. TIA.

Get on the road to head to Cape Coast. Or what we thoughtwas the road to Cape Coast. Another wrong turn in Africa. Just another day inour life. Find the right road after a rather knowledgeable Ghanaian pointed usin the right direction. It happens so infrequently, we are all so shocked when itdoes!

This was probably one of the coolest drives of our trip. Wewent from Sahel to Jungle. In about 2 hours. Dryness to sweating, sticking,torture-ess heat.

Made it to Cape Coast and went to check out two hotels. Thefirst was nice, but the 2^nd was much preferred. Checked in, andjumped in the car to go find a cash machine. Our constant problem in life thesedays. Finding a cash machine that works. While on the hunt for money, we cameacross Cape Coast Castle. Another horrible facility used to steal Africans ofthere home and ship them all over the world. However, at sunset and with allof the people around us celebrating Christmas, it was a fun place to be! Iloved watching everyone swim in the ocean and celebrate life next to a buildingthat relocated so many lives. Funny how life works isn’t it?

Canons.

Wandering around the Castle.

Merry Christmas!

May not want to order octopus with flip flop. Thinking foot sweat would not be a good flavor.

Leave the Castle and head to a restaurant on the beach fordinner. Christmas on the beach? I know it’s some people’s dream, but for me. Iwant 4 feet of snow and temperatures below zero. I was out of my element. But,at least Liam and I were able to spend the holidays together.

Head back to the hotel, get online for the first time in acouple of days and tackle the emails, skypes, and Christmas phone calls. What azoo! Mostly because of lag and interference.

Head to bed. It’s been a long day and we are heading toAccra tomorrow.

Wake up, grab breakfast and away we go! December 26^this all about spending time with friends. Susan and Dan were our neighbors in DCand they moved to Ghana this past March. They have two precious children thatwe love to spend time with! We can’t wait to see them!

Driving to Accra can be pretty death defying from what Iheard the boys mumble while I was napping. Something about 10 died on thiscurve, 12 died here, etc. Scary. But, I blame unbelievably poor driving. Oh andthe 5 people hanging on the back of the bus rather than sitting in it. It’s apublic health/safety teaching extravaganza in the making!!! But, will thepeople absorb and practice the lessons? Always a question…

Arrive safely into Accra, check into the Holiday Inn Airport(nicest hotel on our trip) and headed over to Susan and Dan’s. Lots of hugs andhanging out with friends. They had friends in town from Shanghai. I lovemeeting friends of friends. You know you surround yourself with good peoplewhen their friends are wonderful as well! It was such a wonderful day!Including baking with the bigger munchkins!

After a fantastic dinner, we headed back to the hotel andcrashed.

Woke up on the 27^th. At what I thought was 8:30.Well, guess what. Clocks are playing tricks on me too. Cause it was really7:30. So, I was exhausted already and woke up an hour early. Sigh. But, I’mgoing mask hunting. I’m on the hunt for two masks. Both are specific for Ghana.

Another Ghanaian mask.

Head over to Susan and Dan’s and Karen, Susan, and I jump inthe car to enjoy a morning of shopping and woman time. First, we drive by a fewcraft markets that are closed because it is a holiday in Ghana. Head to the open-airmarket. Since their car was broken into, Susan stayed in the car and practicedfor her language class. Karen and I went hunting. I love the way she bargains.She is so nice! She gives her price and then says something along the lines of,“It’s okay if you don’t want to take that price, but that’s all I’m willing topay for it.” She was on the hunt for presents for her two munchkins and anativity scene. I found one of the masks I wanted. I guess the other will haveto wait. Head back to the car and go grab some lunch at a great French café.

After lunch, we headed to Global Mamas (http://www.globalmamas.org).It’s a fair trade NGO. They had a bunch of great stuff. I bought a countingkids book. I’m a sucker for kids book. We have a pretty great collection now!!!But, I’m hoping it only grows! It’s so important for children to have books anddevelop a love for reading at a young age!

Head back over to there house around 1400. Spend the rest ofthe afternoon having great conversation and spending time playing with themunchkins! Head back to the hotel as they were sitting down for dinner. Liamand I spent the rest of the evening catching up on life/work/school.

I’m sad we are leaving tomorrow to begin the drive back toNouakchott. But, I’ve also hit the I’m-done-with-traveling-point. Ready to goback home.

Off to Burkina Faso? Huh? That's a country?

2011-12-26T01:33:00.000+03:00

16December 2011 - 21 December 2011

Iwoke up around 5:30am. I was a woman on a mission. I wanted to take pictures ofsunrise and fisherman at the beginning of the day. But, it was still too dark soI rolled back over for a little bit. About 6:30am, I crawled out of bed tocheck out the light. Decided it was perfect timing and headed downstairs andtried to find a way to the river. There was a gate that looked like it led tothe river, but it was locked. Exit at the front of the hotel and walk down thestreet. Say hello to the locals. Malian people are so friendly. See a farmfield with an unfinished house on the river behind it. Walk through the fieldshoping not to cross paths with a West African snake. Make it to the river bankand take in the noise of the river. Snap a few shots of the ripples in thewater. The sun begins to peak over the hills in the distance. A fishermanpasses me as he looks in his net along the bank for bait fish. I really likeBamako. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to move here one day!

I even beat the sun this AM. That doesn't happen very often.

Fishing on the Niger River.

Headback to the hotel and crawl back into bed. Liam was half awake and wonderingwhere I had gone. He’s so cute in the morning! Try to sleep for a little bitlonger but it’s not happening. Get out of bed and prepare to get out on theroad again. Liam happened to check our checking account and figure out the billhe paid the other day cleaned out our checking account. So, call AmericanExpress to have them refund the payment. What a pain the butt. Liam moved somemoney from savings so we could have cash on hand once we found an ATM. Justanother problem with intermittent Internet. Little things you learn along theway. Thankfully, AMEX was actually helpful and the money should be back in ouraccount within a few days. Since we aren’t using it except to pull cash out onoccasion, it should not be a big deal. Life is easier in a lot of ways withcash only.

Showerand head to breakfast. Pay the bill and away we go. We are planning on stoppingin Sikasso, Mali for the night. It’s about a 4-5 hour drive. Stop along the wayto take a picture of a village name.

Say that 10 times real fast....

Arrivein Sikasso and look for the hotel that someone in the Bamako embassyrecommended. For some reason, they said there were no rooms available. I wouldhave believed them, except it seemed shady. We will probably never know why wegot the shady vibe. Regardless, if they don’t want us at the hotel tonight,there is probably a reason. So, we will continue onto Bobo-Dissolou, BurkinaFaso. It’s not that far away fromSikasso and is a bigger town.

Theborder crossing was fairly easy. However, one of the national police walked upto me and told me I was a nice big woman perfect for him. Um. No. I’m alreadymarried and he’s standing two feet away from me AND you just called me fat. Go,visually assault someone else please. I’m not digging the Muslim men who aretrying to score an American 2nd or 3rd wife. I’ve already got a husband. Liamdidn’t catch what he said, but when I told him later, he laughed.

Continuedriving and arrive in Bobo as the sun is setting. Manage to find the hotel (VillaRose) without a lot of difficulty. The owner recommends a restaurant for usdown the street. We decided to walk over to the restaurant because it was maybea quarter of a mile away. While walking, we passed a poultry and pigeonbrochette seller. Thought about it for a minute and opted for a fine diningexperience. You have to indulge every once in a while!! Besides, the meat on astick in Africa can be quiet delicious going down. Just don’t blame me if itcomes back up!

Enjoya nice dinner and talk about what we are going to do tomorrow. Decide to headsouth to Banfora and look for the Karfiguela waterfalls. After we finishdinner, we head back to the hotel to change our clothes and head to a local barto listen to live music. After getting a taste in Kayes, I just want to hearmore. When we arrive we meet, Franca, Moctar’s wife. She is from Amsterdam,Netherlands. They spend part of their time in Bobo and the other part inAmsterdam. Very friendly! Since they are going to be full tomorrow night, theyhave made reservations for us at another hotel in town and offered to show ushow to get there tomorrow. It’s so nice to see businesses that still want totake care of their customers. I would stay there again in the future!

Moctaroffers to take us over to the bar since our car is full of stuff. We pull thetruck onto the hotel compound and away we go. The bar is hosting a musicalfestival! Woo hoo. What a great way to spend a birthday eve! The music was okayto pretty impressive! I’m so impressed by the fact that they can turn a few gourds,some wood, a couple of reeds, some fishing line, and a cow butt into a full band.Moctar & Franca join us after they ate dinner around 10pm. We listen to themusic festival until around 1am and then everything dies down and it is time toreturn to the hotel. Head over to the annex and get ready for bed. I convinceLiam that he has to sleep with me in a twin bed because it’s my birthday and Idon’t want him to sleep in the other twin bed on the other side of the room. Forsome reason, he agreed and crawled in bed.

Wokeup on my birthday to a stupid rooster crowing, a train passing by, and peopletalking. Oh yeah. There was a goat making goat noises too. REALLY?!?!?!?! So,much for sleeping in on my birthday. Crawl out of bed around 8am and Liam runsover to get hot water for a bucket shower and coffee for himself. The water wasnice and boiling. I had to fill it almost completely with cold water to keep itfrom burning my skin! Then, I enjoyed a nice warm bucket shower in a communalbathroom.

Headback to the room and get dressed. Then, we head to breakfast. Liam wants totake a shower after he eats and has his morning coffee. After he is showered,we check out of the hotel and are on our way to Banfora. On the way to Banfora,Liam finds out about a lake that has hippos in it. It’s about 7 kms south ofBanfora. So, we decided to head their first and back track to the falls. Findthe lake, pay the 2000 CFA fee per person and drive to the end of the road.Somehow we missed that the boat ride to the hippos was included in the entrancefee. When we were told the boat ride was 10000 CFA per person, we opted not totake a ride in the rickety boat. Had I known it was included, I probably wouldhave gone for a ride! But, instead, Liam walked around the lake with me to seeif we could get close enough to them to take a picture. We walked a portion of thelake and didn’t see anything. So, we returned to the car and decided the hippolake was a tourist trap.

Pullout the West Africa Lonely Planet book and find a restaurant for lunch. Head tothe Hotel Canne a Sucre. Order a beef brochette, sautéed potatoes, and a salad.Ate everything but the beef. I’ve decided I don’t like the beef here. It’s toowild meat tasting for me. I feltbad wasting it all, but if you don’t like it. Why eat it?

Sincewe are traveling, I did not have a birthday cake for the first time in mylife. Liam really didn’t believe me at first, but birthday cake is one of myall time favorite things. So, when I get back to Dar, I’m going to make myselfa nice yummy cake! Which was my plan from the get-go – it was just odd being inthe day and not having a slice of yummy cake for my birthday! The other thingthat was a little odd – I’m a December baby. It’s supposed to be cold on mybirthday, preferably with 2-4 feet of snow on the ground. But, we were in 95degree weather. That’s something I’m going to have a hard time adjusting too.Having birthdays in hot weather. I might have to disappear for a few daysaround December 17th to the northern hemisphere in the future.

Afterlunch, Liam and I each had a nice bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream. It wasawesome. Creamy. Perfect texture. Perfect flavor. That’s another thing we needto start working on – Ice cream making. We are going to become a 100% fromscratch kitchen before too long. (If you have any tips on ice cream making –shoot us an email – we will share across the globe with other military andState Department people).

Getback in the car and begin the hunt for the water falls. In theory, we probablyshould have hired a guide – but that takes all the fun out of wandering. Headback out of town. At approximately 10kms, we take a left hand turn onto a dirtroad. Stop and ask someone how to get to the falls and he says keep going onthis road. Well we do, until we see something that we think could be the falls.Turns out, it’s the Dome. Well, we leave the dome b/c it’s a giant rockformation and we have all seen rocks and keep on searching for the falls. Drivethrough a few more farm fields and finally see a sign that says Cascades. YAY!The falls. Turn down a bumpy dirt road. See a booth to pay the entrance fee. Itwas 1000 CFA per person. Pull up alittle past the booth and park for 300 CFA. There are vendors selling wares onthe left hand side of the parking lot. Man. This town is full of tourist trapplaces.

About10 children swarm us and want to take us up to the falls – aka – be our guide.We tell them that we are okay and want to hike and enjoy the walk on our own. Iknow what you are thinking – we didn’t help the poor, starving Africanchildren. But, in reality. We did. We paid to visit the falls and paid forparking. If we gave money to every person who wanted some from us, we would endup filing bankruptcy by the end of the month. The amount of money we have isrelative to what we are responsible for paying in the States (mortgage, studentloans, etc.). But, Africans do not see this. They see an expat and think we areall billionaires. And in some ways we are. But, like I said. If I gave money toeveryone who wanted some from me, we would end up bankrupt.

Headup the trail to the top of the waterfalls. Was able to finally work out a fewof the timed shutter speed settings on our new camera and got a few great shotsof the falls! They were actually really pretty! And I bet they are even betterin rainy season when there is a ton more water. Since sunset was approaching,we hiked back down from the top of the falls and took another path to the base.Yep, rainy season would be a better time to see the falls – but it’s not toshabby today!

Not quite. But, I liked the picture.

Finally figured it out. Now to get the water splashes out. Grrr.

Walkto the car and briefly look at a few of the items for sale. Decide we didn’treally like anything and began our journey back to Bobo-Dissolou. We arrived intown right after sunset. Went to the old hotel to pick up Al’s phone – but itended up being at the restaurant from the night before. Run over to therestaurant. Pick up his phone. The owner called to the other restaurant sheowns in town to make reservations for dinner for us. People are so wonderfulhere! Then, begin the hunt for our new hotel. Find it after realizing we wereon the wrong main road. Check in, put our bags up. For $15/night, we got asuite with no hot water, no blanket, and almost no toilet paper! Liam’s post onFacebook made me laugh – “Happy Birthday my lovely wifey. You’re the besttravel partner in the world. And for that you get a truly African B-Daypresent. A wonderful night in a $15 room with no hot water and no blanket. Comehere and snuggle.”

Changeour clothes and head to Le Saint Germaine for dinner. Park the car. Walk into abeautiful courtyard with lots of African furniture and art for sale. Africanshave some of the best wood working skills I have ever seen! The carvings arefantastic. Pick a table in the garden near the projection screen/stage wherethey are playing music DVDs. Some nights they have various live music, but weenjoyed the DVDs none the less. Dinner was amazing. And the service was some ofthe best we have had in Africa. We weren’t sure if it was because the ownermade our reservation or if service was really great here!

Afterdinner, we decided to fore go another night of the music fest and head to bed.It took a lot of effort to not crash in the car on the way back to the hotel.Crawl into bed and fell asleep. What a nice way to end my 1st African birthday.You know you are getting old when you would rather sleep on your birthday thango out and party all night!!!

Wakeup on the morning of the 18th and ponder a shower. I’m such a weenie when itcomes to cold water. I absolutely detest it and will avoid it at all cost. But,Liam said it wasn’t that cold and I should give it a try. So, I did. And whileit was cold, it wasn’t unbearable. Showered really quickly and finished packingup all of our stuff. We walked outside into the hotel courtyard and found Al.He had already loaded his stuff in the car. We loaded our stuff and then joinedhim. There were a few vendors in the courtyard of the hotel selling theirwares. The hotel also has a ton of maskson display and for sale. But, we opt to head to the market in downtownBobo-Dissolou because the selection and prices are supposed to be a little bitbetter.

Checkout of the hotel and fill up the car. Then, we migrate to the market area oftown. We get out of the car and barely make it across the street before we arebombarded with requests to buy merchandise. We visit a mask shop and see a fewHUGE Bobo goat masks. We ask the price. 150 euros. Um. I choke. Excuse me.Really? That’s ridiculous. Liam asks the price in CFA and we were told 100,000CFA. Again. That’s insane. Liam offers 20,000 CFA and they say that is way tolow. So, we continue on down the street. As we are walking away, the seller atthe store says that he is going to call his friend and we agree to stop back bythe store before we leave. As we walk a few guys begin to walk with us and takeus into the maze of the market. It’s unbelievable. They literally sellEVERYTHING in there. Fabrics, hair extensions, food, electronics, chachkas, etc. We visit a few vendors in the market anddecide we don’t really like any of the masks. So, we walk back to another storethat Al had agreed to visit to check it out.

Liamand I decided we would go back to the first mask shop and see if they wouldcome down anymore. They asked us what the final price was and Liam said 25,000CFA. Well, they finally agreed. Now, we just have to figure out how to get ourgiant Bobo goat back to Dar! I might be shipping some clothes so the goat fitsin our suitcase.

Bobo Goat mask (Tiles are typical 12" x 12")

Also,keep in mind. If you ever visit our house, you may be the recipient of a veryspecial alarm clock. One involving Liam, the goat mask, and goat noises. (Hehas yet to let me video it. But, given the chance in the near future – Ipromise to record it).

Aftersecuring the goat mask in the car, we began the journey to Ouagadougou, BurkinaFaso. This is the capital city and wherethe embassy is. We are staying in a TDY house for free! WOO HOO! Save thetravel budget where we can! Follow themap we have in Lonely Planet to the embassy. Well, it turns out, the embassy onthe map is now the ambassador’s house. Liam calls our contact and finds outthat we are actually right by the house that we will be staying at and tells usthe American Club is down the street. We decide to wander to the American Cluband grab lunch. A couple of the guys stop by the American Club to meet us andcoordinate the Monday’s events. Then, they show us the house we are crashingin. Housing is pretty nice in Burkina Faso. Every house has a pool. This onehas a fantastic screened porch and a beautiful garden. Find our way around thehouse. Since there isn’t an Internet connection, we decide to walk back over tothe American Club for Sunday football and Internet. We needed to figure out where the embassy wassince it was not on the map we had.

Headback to the house around 10:30pm. Move my bag into the bedroom and head to bed.I’m exhausted. Traveling around is wearing me out.

Wakeup on the morning of the 19th and get dressed to head to the embassy. The guyshave a meeting at 11am with the OSC chief. However, when we researched thelocation of the embassy, Google maps led us in the opposite direction. Call theembassy and find out we were completely on the opposite side of town and passedon the info that we would be a little late.

Theembassy is brand new. Went upstairs to meet with travel about our passports.Ate lunch with the DATT. Then, the guys went for a few meetings and I went tothe CLO office to work on some of my stuff. At some point, I wander into the bathroom and giggled. The following sign was on display. And I'm glad it was because when you introduce a Western toilet into Africa, it can result in a few disasters. Better be safe than sorry.

Awesome. AND. Necessary. Apparently.

Around3pm we headed back to the house. On the way home, we passed a few woman ridingscooters with babies tied to their backs. Oh and without helmets. I’m thinkingthis could be a major problem with shorter life-span. It also caused me to say,“You know, Liam, if we end up living in Burkina Faso with small children, weare going to have to make it VERY clear that our children will not be strappedto the back of our nanny on her scooter.” But, this is why I’m glad I’mtraveling with Liam. Cause now I know that’s something to talk to our future nanniesabout.

There are so many things wrong with this picture.

Bythe time we got home it was around 5pm. We decided to head to the American Clubfor dinner because it’s so close to the house where we are staying. We walkover to the America Club, but find out the restaurant is closed on Mondaynights. I hope Ouagadougou isn’t like Dar because most of the restaurants areclosed on Monday nights in Dar. We check email quickly and head back to thehouse to get our travel book and find a place for dinner. We ended up going to LeVerdoyant.

Dinnerwas pleasant until a man at another table started screaming at the waiter forno reason other than to be extremely rude. The restaurant went SILENT. And in aplace where politeness and greetings are one of the most important things youwill do, China just lost a little more respect from everyone in the restaurant.

Enjoyedthe rest of dinner and headed back home and off to bed.

The20^th was a day of organizing and planning. Being on the road, makesit very difficult to plan and deal with paperwork from past trips and my travelfor surgery. So, we decided to spend part of the day at the embassy sendingemails and scanning documents. After a few hours at the embassy, we headed tothe grocery store. They weren’t open until 4:30pm so we spent about 30 minuteswaiting for them to open. This grocery store is in a brand new shopping center.There are not a lot of stores open. But, what struck me was the absolute lackof people in the mall.

Pickup our groceries and decide to head to the other grocery store since the firstMarina Market didn’t have everything we needed for dinner. The other locationis across from the Grand Mosque in downtown Ouagadougou. Around the grandmosque is a pretty large market. It’s like the Target of Burkina Faso. You canfind anything and everything you want. I’m a big fan of the African markets!! It’s also fun to people watch! Thoroughly,worth a day or two of your time!

Afterwe find everything, leave the market and head to the house. Prep everything fordinner. That way, once we are ready to eat, it will only take about 20 minutes.Eat dinner and head to bed. It’s an early night, but I’m exhausted.

Turnsout the 21^st ended up being another day of paperwork. We tried toknock some of it out at the American Club but the Internet connection there isawful. So, after we ate lunch, we headed to the Embassy. Spent a few hoursfiling paperwork and researching the rest of the trip. Once we found out themoney was back in our account from when American Express cleaned it out, wepulled out money from the ATM that accepts our debit cards.

Somehowon the way home we end up missing our turn for the short way home. No big deal.We took the long way home. Ate leftovers for dinner, gathered our stuff, andtalked about the journey some more.

Timeto head to bed because we have a few long days of driving ahead.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, & A Giant Happy Holidays to all!!!

2011-12-25T23:22:00.001+03:00

We are still traveling in West Africa and we wanted to wish everyone a warm and wonderful holiday season!

With Love,
Francis & Liam Connor

Mali...Timbuktu is an actual place...

2011-12-24T21:32:00.001+03:00

10 December 2011 – 15 December 2011

Wake up feeling like we were eaten alive by little critters.It’s an early morning so we can get on the road and get through the border. Because,you never know how the border crossings will go. Eat breakfast, gather ourstuff, and head out the door.

The road to the border was okay. With okay meaning drivablebut rather littered with potholes. Traffic wasn’t bad. There were a few othercars leading the way around the potholes. It was almost stomach turningwandering back and forth across the road over and over again. Finally, make itto the border town. There are big rig trucks on both sides of the road. Wedrive through them looking for the border. End up on the other side of town anddecide we missed the turn for the border. Back track a little and take anotherturn through town. End up on a different side of town out in the Sahel andrealize we must have missed a different turn. Back track and find the turn.Arrive at the Senegalese border. The guards look up and see our dip plates anddecide to just wave us through the border. No exit stamp. No formalities. I’m100% certain that we are going to have to come back and get exit stamps.

Drive a few more kms and come to another barricade. Stop andgo to the immigration office. It was really hot in the office, but there was anice breeze blowing through. One of the Malian immigration officers wanted topractice his English with us. That happens to us a lot. We want to practicetheir languages and they want to practice ours. So, it ends up being us askinginformation in Frenglish and them responded in Frenglish. Good times.

Stamped passports and one ticket (a carnival type ticket forprizes not a speeding ticket) for vehicle registration information and we jumpback in the car. Before, the guy working the barricade will let us through heneeds our ticket. Really. Couldn’t you have kept your ticket and let us be onour way. It’s not like there are a ton of people at the boarder crossing rightnow (we were one of 2 cars).

Cross the border and find a tollbooth. Hmmm. I wonder howmuch this is going to cost us. Turns out the rates are set and it’s a prettylegit operation. Good work Mali. However, the road is horrible. So, can you usethe tolls to actually repair it???? Theheat makes the road so soft that when trucks brake it pulls up the payment andcreates huge bumps and holes in the road. This is not a road that should bedriven above 80 kph. It was an insane drive. I was so nauseous by the end of itbecause of the bumpiness and swerving back and forth to avoid the holes.

Pull into Kayes. It’s a pretty large town. Lots of peoplerunning around. Now, we have to find one of two hotels we have a recommendationfor (Thank goodness for Lonely Planet and Bradt – otherwise it would be threewesterners totally lost in Africa. Drive through the majority of town and don’tsee either hotel. Find the train station. One hotel is supposedly across thestreet. But, we drove up and down the street twice and couldn’t find it. But,all of a sudden a tiny sign appears behind a building and we find one of thehotels. Perfect. Now, let’s go find a room.

Check out the rooms and they are actually pretty nice. Theroom is clean with en suite bathroom and the a/c works. What more do I reallyneed? Baby wipes because there is no toilet paper. But, this isn’t our firstrodeo and we have a giant pack in the car! Grab our stuff and take it up to ourroom. We lay down and take a nap. What else are you supposed to do when its 40+degrees outside??

Wake up and try to go find the first French fort and rapidseast of town in Medine. It’s about 15 kms outside of town. End up near a quarryand figure out the Chinaman has blocked the falls. We spend the next 30 minutestrying to find a road down to the falls so that we can go walk around them andtake pictures. Well, Chinaman has restricted the view with their pool and buildingsfor the quarry. I wonder what else they are taking from Mali. It’s amazing.China has its hand in almost every country in Africa. My question is how longwill it take before China has taken all of the resources from Africa???

Chinaman compound

The fall's behind the compound.

Give up on the falls and head over to Medine to look at thefort. Part of the fort is now a hotel. There were a few little canons butnothing really impressive. While wandering, we drove through a few villages. Ilove the looks people give us as we drive by. It’s like they’ve seen a ghost ordon’t believe their eyes.

We head back to the hotel and clean up before dinner. Therestaurant at the hotel is supposed to be one of the best in town. We all orderkuku and pomme de terre frites. What shows up is a pile of greasy friedpotatoes and half a chicken with an onion and pepper piece on top. While it wastasty, I knew the grease was going to have me running to the bathroom in 20minutes. Stupid Gallbladder.

After dinner, we decide to go check out the casino onsite.We wander in and try to play but someone tells us that you need tokens. We exchanged2000 CFA (~ $4) for tokens and away we went to play. All of the games wereelectronic slot or poker machines. Iwent straight for deuces wild blackjack. My favorite. Except I couldn’t figure outhow to get to deuces wild. So, a few gentlemen helped me figure out how to workthe machine. They then felt they needed to teach me how to play. But, theyquickly learned that I’m not a blackjack rookie. Didn’t do too badly. But,played through all of my tokens because I was having fun!

Leave the casino and Al heads to bed. Liam and I meanderinto a side bar. They have a giant projection screen set up and are playing theMadrid vs. Barcelona game. As we were walking in they were moving a table andtwo chairs to have a better view of the game. The waitress asks us if we wantto sit down. Why, yes. We will. Sitting in the middle of nowhere in Maliwatching a major European soccer match on a projection screen. Wow. Life’s not tooshabby! Order a couple of beers andfigure out who the crowd is cheering for. We haven’t picked our EU soccer team(or teams) yet. But, it’s going to happen soon. Especially, with us moving toItaly.

I love watching soccer matches overseas. The crowds are sopassionate and excitable. It’s great. Every time a team scored or blocked agreat shot, both sides would erupt in excitement or anger. When Madrid scoredfor the last time before the end of the game, I thought the shanty roof wasgoing to come crashing down as everyone ran around high-fiving and celebrating.What a great experience.

At night, the town comes out to play. The discotec wasbumping. The casino was full swing and everyone from the soccer game wasmigrating to other areas of the hotel. Left the bar area and headed over to thehotel garden where they had live Malian musicians. Mali is know for their music.In fact, Liam read in one of our books that famous guitarists from all over theworld to train and improve their technique. Pretty cool. The guitar they playhere is called kora. It has up to 21 strings. It’s an amazing instrument. Thereis a Grammy winning artist who offers lessons in Bamako. If we ever move toMali, we are going to take a few. But, first, we have to find a kora.

After listening to music for a while, we decide to headupstairs and go to bed. We have a long drive tomorrow to Bamako and want to getsome sleep in case the roads are bad and we all end up driving portions of it.

Wake up on the morning of the 11^th as the powercuts off. Wonder how I’m going to take a shower/bucket bath. Have Liam move thebucket full of water out of the shower area and turn on the faucet – just tosee if it would work. Well, it does. But, the water is scalding. Put some hotwater in the plastic teapot and let it sit for a minute. Then, take a spongebath using scalding and cool water. Only thing I didn’t do was wash my hairbecause it was going to be a bit of pain. Felt nice to be so fresh and soclean! Liam wasn’t going to take a shower. However, he broke down. Our firstpseudo-bucket shower is a success!

Gather our bags and head to the car! Load up and get on theroad to Bamako. It’s 612 kms and could be a very long day. We have not beengiven great information about the roads because the conditions changefrequently. Turns out, minus about 60 kms the road was pretty new. The biggestthreat to our safety was the donkeys, cows, dogs, and goats roaming around.

Baobabs in Mali.

Arrive in Bamako and make our way around Bamako to theembassy. We are meeting up with Mike. Mike & Jayne wonderfully offered tolet us crash at their place to maximize the travel budget. Jayne was out oftown but we still managed to play Words with Friends without any issues. Gottalove the Internet!

Met up with Mike and wandered to their house. Arrived to anice home cooked dinner. Their housekeeper is an amazing cook and so sweet. Shedoes not speak a lot of English and I don’t speak a lot of French but we wereable to have a few basic conversations over the few days we were in Bamako andshe taught me some French!

Spent some time talking to Mike that night about life inBamako and the plans for the week. Then head to bed. It’s an early morning foreveryone!

The alarm goes off relatively early on the morning of the 12^thand I want to hide under the covers. I was so tired. But, pull myself out ofbed after Liam gets out of the shower and begin to get ready for my day. Wendy,Mike & Jayne’s next-door neighbor is going to pick me up and show me aroundtown. Since I’ve had a good feeling about Mali the whole we have been here, I’mexcited about exploring Bamako to see if it continues.

Wendy comes over around 9am and we head to her house to letthe puppies out and then off we go. We head to the Botanical Gardens on thenorth end of town. It’s a beautiful garden area. There is also a Nationalmuseum and they are building a zoo in this area. Within the garden, they haveminiature replicas of the famous mosques around Timbuktu area. Additionally,they have a photo exhibit on display. The pictures were taken by Africanphotographers following the theme “Sustainability.” It was very interesting tosee Africans bring light to many of the major issues on the continent. Ienjoyed their interpretations and hope that the exhibit receives internationalexposure.

After the Botanical gardens, we visited to local shops thathad a lot of artwork. We also drove through the major market in town. It wouldbe a lot of fun to come down here and shop. Next, we headed to the big grocerystore. I like visiting the grocery stores to see what’s available and how muchtings cost. It helps to make decisions on where we want to move next in Africa.Also, bought a few more snacks for the road.

After the store, we walk down the street to have some icecream. The ice cream parlor had a bunch of delicious flavors and for 1500 CFAyou get two scoops in a waffle cone. Okay. Bamako is looking amazing. Grantedit’s winter and there is no summer heat to contend with, but, I like it here.

Head back to the house and relax and read. The guys comeback from the embassy around 3:30pm. Mike came home about 5:30pm. There are afew other TDY guys and Wendy coming over to join us for dinner. After dinner,Abu, a Tuareg from Timbuktu, came over to Mike’s to show us knives, jewelry,and camel leather boxes that his family made. It took him about 20 minutes toset up his wares on a cotton mat on the floor. We all gathered around the onthe floor and began shopping! The design on most of the pieces is the map tocross the Sahara from Timbuktu to northern Mali and onto Morocco. We spent alot of time thinking and talking about what we wanted to buy and ended upbuying a knife, a necklace, a camel leather box, and a bottle opener. Abu alsogave us a camel tooth necklace and a small knife in a pink camel leathersheath. I for one had never seen camel leather anything. It’s beautiful. Andthe way they designed the boxes, sheathes was impressive. After everyone hadbought the items they wanted, Abu said that he would be willing to come backover to Mike’s in a couple of days to have tea and talk about life in Timbuktuand the Sahara.

Abu and his wares. (Thanks Al for the picture!)

Admired our new items for a while and then headed onto bed.Tomorrow’s going to be another fun filled day!

Wake up on the 13^th and the guys are going to anexercise or conference or something for work. I’m going to play again. Wendyand I meet up around 11am and we are heading across the river to check out theother side of Bamako. We end up driving past Jasmine & John’s house andstop by to say hello since they are leaving post this week. Jasmine joins usfor lunch at the a hotel café around the corner. Lunch was fantastic. The foodwas great, the company enjoyable and a nice view of the Niger River. Afterlunch, we went for a walk in Jasmine’s neighborhood to check out a smallfishing village. As we walked through the village, we saw an area that hadrecently been on fire. Apparently, something exploded in one of the houses and theyburnt to the ground. Right after the site of the burnt homes, there was a babytoddling around with a singed arm from elbow to the top of his knuckles. Wendy,Jasmine, and I were all concerned. We walked back to Jasmine’s house puttogether a first aid pack and headed back to village to take care of the baby.

Then, we had a 3-way translation to show the mom how to carefor the baby’s arm to keep it clean and hopefully infection free. Jasminetranslated my instructions into French. Her cook, Jeremiah, then translatedthem into to the local language, Bambara. Of course, insert the standard crowdof Africans watching the crazy mzungu take care of the baby. We cleaned the baby’sarm, used a sanitary napkin for an absorbent and protecting pad, and thenwrapped it in that sticky brown gauze that I normally hate. The little guy was a trooper. He barelywhimpered and once we had his arm all wrapped and protected, he began to smile.Jeremiah had just baked cookies so we dispersed those among the people who hadgathered. I just hope that baby doesn’t lose his arm to infection. Such asimple thing to take care of – if you have the right stuff – which they do nowbecause we left everything with them.

Returned to Mike & Jayne’s and told Liam and Al I workedtoday and was hopeful that we might have improved the outcome for the littleboy. First thing out of boy of their mouths, “But, did you get paid?” Insertobligatory eye roll. So, much for being high on my nursing kite. But, at leastI know they have the products they need to take care of the baby. I just hopehis mom actually cleans it and takes care of it.

Funny story. The guys were leaving the conference hotel andAl pulled up to the gate to exit. But, the guard at the gate wouldn’t open thegate. Because, Al did not drive around the circle to the gate. He drovestraight to the gate because it was only a few feet away. The guard absolutelyrefused to open the gate until Al drove back around the circle and re-approachedthe gate correctly. I’m dead serious. Just ask Al. But, be prepared for him toget a little excited and flustered. I think he is still annoyed that the guywouldn’t just open the gate with instructions on how to properly exit for nexttime. We tend to take our higher order of thinking for granted sometimes.

Enjoy another home cooked meal and tumble into bed. It was along day. But, I didn’t sleep very well. I kept thinking about the baby and howI should be doing more to help. So, frustrating. I love what I do but sometimesit’s really hard not to take work home with you.

Woke up on the morning of 14^th. Wendy and I hadtalked about going on a photo safari of Bamako, but Mike made an appointmentfor me to talk with the Regional Medical Officer about working for the StateDepartment. I’m so glad he set up this meeting for me!!! It was veryinformative. If I work for the State Department as a nurse practitioner, theycould move me anywhere in the world. Which could be problematic since Liam willalways be in Africa. But, we will figure it out. Luckily, I’m in a field wherework is fun and I’ll make it happen wherever we are. But, one thing that cameout of our discussion. We can do 10 years in Africa, and then spend the next 10of my career wandering the rest of the globe. Oh the possibilities to wanderthe world. I’m feeling very nomadic.

Hung out at the embassy in the lobby reading my book whilethe guys finished all of their meetings. Wandered around the library at theembassy in Bamako. Pretty impressive. There were a lot of African history booksand I spent some time flipping through them. Around 2:30pm, they were done withtheir meetings and we were able to head back to the house.

Spent the next couple of hours writing and stalking my classto see my final grade for Patho. Final grade isn’t posted yet, but at 96% is anA. Another great score. Amazing how that happens when you have all the time inthe world.

After dinner, Abu came back over to the house to have teaand talk to us about life in Timbuktu since we can’t make it up there due tosafety warnings. There are three pots of tea. The first pot is strong like death.The second pot is sweet like life. The third pot is sugar like love. The firstpot was green tea leaves and sugar. The tea was so fresh. It smelled deliciousin the plastic bag. I know it’s going to taste fantastic. He served the tea intwo small glasses that we shared. The first wife always gets the first cup.Since, I was the only wife there, I received the first glass. So, yummy. But,strong. As we drank the first pot, Mike stepped outside to speak to a coworkerand we asked Abu about life in Timbuktu. He explained how the economy has beenaffected by the lack of tourism. People are not visiting Timbuktu because ofAQIM and other terrorist-like organizations. There have been kidnappings,murders, etc recently. When tourism is healthy, he is a tour guide. Now, tomake money to feed his family, he has resorted to traveling to Bamako to sellthe wares his family makes. He explained that everyone there has been affected.Even the people who do not work directly with tourism. Once upon a time, the Tuareg people were someof the wealthiest. Timbuktu was the center of trade for the region known asSudan many years ago. And now, with decreased rain and lack of tourism, peopleare having to sell treasured family heirlooms to survive. Abu is pretty bright.And we were really impressed with his comprehension of economic situation ofTimbuktu.

Mike came back in, drank his tea, and we prepped the secondpot. The second pot he added mint and sugar. This tea was perfection. It wasdelicious. We also found out there are 3-4 men who travel in caravan to the citiesnorth of Timbuktu. Abu has made the trip 3 times. The first time hisresponsibility was to make tea, set-up the tents, and cook. It’s very importantas a man to make the trip by yourself one time to show to our community thatyou are capable of making the journey. I was impressed. I can only imagine how beautifulthe stars are at night, alone, in the Sahara. He smiled and excited began totalk about the stars. I’m so pissed at the terrorists. They really take all thefun out of life.

Al asked Abu if the Tuareg people were trying to regulate theterrorists’ activities in the area. He said they were because they want thetourists to come back and spend money to boost their economy. It’s sounds likea bad situation. Abu also talked about a drought that occurred years ago. Manyelders are worried that they are seeing the signs of another drought. They areconcerned because the Malian government does not frequently send aid or assistanceto the area. If they don’t receive any help, they will have minimal water andfood. People will die. Animals will die. It sounds like it’s only going to getworse before it gets better. If there is a better.

We make the third pot of tea. It’s even better than the 2^ndpot. Yummy. Okay. I’m addicted. I have to find a small teapot and some loosetea. I’ve studied how he made it. Time to get our tea on. Crap. I’m goingnative. C’est la vie.

After the 3^rd pot is finished, we say goodbye toAbu and promise to visit as soon as we can! I really can’t wait. He has onlyenhanced my desire to disappear into the desert around Timbuktu. Shortly afterAbu leaves, we all head to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.

Wake up on the morning of the 15^th. The guys headto the embassy to meet with the Ambassador. I stay at home to pack and clean upour stuff. We are going to stay at a hotel tonight so Mike can have his houseback to pack and get ready to go to the States for vacation. The guys come hometo pick me up and change and then we are on our way to the NIH malaria lab inBamako. Um. Yes, please. Who knew NIH had a lab to grow mosquitoes in Bamako. Icouldn’t believe how many mosquitoes they were breeding. I felt like a kid in acandy store. They also have a relatively new HIV and TB lab. We were able toview a few microorganisms that they are also studying. Basically, it’s a swankytopical disease lab in the right place! What a great center! We really enjoyed the tour! (Thanks Mike for setting itup!).

Leave the NIH lab and head back into town. Grab a bite toeat at the French institute. Lunch was tasty and around the institute, vendorshave set up shop. We found a mask we liked from the Sikasso region and snatchedit up. The seller said I stole it for the price he sold it to me. But, I toldhim he didn’t have to sell it. But, I’m glad he did. The mask is really cooland detailed. This trip is going to make our mask wall a work of art!!!

Sikasso mask.

Make our way over to the hotel, check in and then head tothe embassy to pick up our passports. Then, off to Mike’s to pick up all of ourstuff! I can’t even begin to say thank you enough to Mike & Jayne! It wasso nice to have a comfortable bed and non-restaurant food while we traveled.And you guys will ALWAYS have a place to crash in the future! Also, any futureIRTers, consider this an open invitation to save money during your travels!

Head back over to the hotel and drop our stuff in our roomand talk about dinner. We decide to eat downstairs at the hotel for ease sincetraffic was so crazy this afternoon. We ordered steak. And the cut of meat wasfantastic, but did you know, well done at this restaurant was still bleedingonto the plate. Sigh. I managed to eat part of it after blotting the extrablood out. Finished dinner and headed upstairs to bed.

Dakar, Senegal and Beyond or Watching the Sun Set over the Atlantic...

2011-12-15T21:42:00.000+03:00

5 December 2011 – 9 December 2011

Wake up to Liam shuffling around the room. He was gettingall dressed up to go to the embassy. Today they have all of their big meetingsat the embassy and need to be there by nine. After being attacked by mosquitoesseveral times throughout the night, I was tired and a little grumpy. Why don’t“nice” African hotels have bug nets? Seriously. Malaria is a rather LARGEproblem in your neck of the woods.

I slowly stir out of bed and begin to ponder what my daywill entail. Since I’m still tired from our rather late arrival, I moving atthe pace of a drugged snail. Manage to take a shower. Put on my bathing suitand sundress and decide to go for a walk around the hotel hoping to findbreakfast out by the pool and ocean. Head downstairs and begin to meander throughthe lobby. Liam was down here this morning and managed to tell me the pool areawas really nice before he dashed out to the embassy. There are a bunch of overpriced shops to theleft of the atrium, a bar in the right corner, a restaurant serving whatappears to be breakfast across the atrium from me and a hallway past the shops.I head to the hallway. Pass a business center (think Kinkos), then a hairsalon. Walk through a set of sliding glass doors into the great outdoors andsee a great pool area. There is also an ocean side restaurant to the right.Head down there and they are not serving breakfast.

Walk past the pool and head down the path to the ocean. Whata fantastic sound as the water hits the shore. I’ll never get tired oflistening to it. Sit on a bench in front of the water for about 15 minutes.Then, decide I’m hungry so I walk back to the restaurant that is servingbreakfast. The hostess gives me a dirtylook. Apparently, now that I’ve adjusted to life on Africa time. I’m late. Andhave only a few minutes to gather the items I would like to ingest to satisfymy huger. So, one of the waiters follows me around and as soon as I grabsomething, he steals it from me and takes it to the table. Meanwhile, I’mdumbfounded. I’m not incompetent. And they apparently have not seen a ravenousAmerican on a mission. I have two minutes to get everything I’m going to eat.Okay. Then, get out of my way and quit distracting me. So, I sent him on amission for tea and juice. That bought me just enough time to grab some fruit,a yogurt, and a pastry. Everything was great. Especially the yogurt. It wasnice, thick, creamy French plain yogurt. I could have eaten a vat of it. It’shard to find yogurt like that in Dar.

Worth the view.

Head back up to the room to figure out the safe and get abook to read. Plus, I need to cover my whiteness in sunscreen. Sometimes, Iforget that I don’t look like everyone around me. Until I’m resembling the highredness of a cooked lobster. I don’t come with fantastic dark skin as a naturalsunscreen. I blame my parents. Western European muts that they are.

Head back to the pool area and absorb plenty of cancercausing rays. Spent about 30 minutes watching three lizards argue over who wasgoing to win the area around a giant palm tree. It was pretty entertaining.They were bobbing up and down and then would turn and stare at me. As if I hadany input. Really, I’m just the giant human with nothing better to do thanwatch lizards. Continue, as you should, lizards.

Try to get into the pool for a nice refreshing swim. Made itjust past the belly button before I decided I was not about to freeze to deathin the tropics. I’m still questioning how the water was so cold. It doesn’tmake logical sense. Oh wait. It’s winter north of the equator. Why was Iswimming outside in winter? See. Africa messes with your head.

Lay down on the lawn chair and warm back up. Read a few morechapters in my current Africa reading material Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working: The Trouble with Africa by RobertCalderisi. (It’s a pretty interesting perspective on Africa’s failedfinances). Finally, start to feel a tinybit hungry so head over to the bar area and order a delicious salad with mozzarella,prosciutto, and pesto. Wow. It’s almost like I’m back in the real world. Exceptfor the lizards. Mosquitoes and general third worldness right outside thehotel. Weird how that happens though. Enjoy my salad and head back up the roomto work on my schoolwork for a few hours before the guys come back to the hotel.

The guys come back from the embassy around 3:30 and I findout that they have another engagement at 7:45 tonight. No biggie. Liam and Ihead to the pool to talk about the rest of our time in Dakar and the rest ofthe trip. Al joins us about 45 minutes later. We decide to have dinner in therestaurant right by the ocean. While at dinner we decide to extend another twodays at the hotel in order to have enough time to get our visas for Mali (allthe other recommended hotels were full) and we are going to Goree Island thenext day since it’s a Muslim holiday.

Next day (the 6^th), we get up and prepare for ourferry ride and adventure on Goree Island. Gather all the stuff we need andmigrate to the harbor. We arrived to the port around 11:00am. The ferry wasn’tleaving for about an hour and tickets will begin to be sold around 11:30am. So,we grabbed a bunch of bananas and ordered a coffee from the local“Starbucks.” An adorable older gentlemenmaking Nescafe coffee. To mix the coffee and hot water he would pour them backand forth between two cups. His pour technique rivaled some of the best bartenders in the world. Impressive performance with a delicious result.Caffeinated and fed is the best way to jump on a boat for an island. Get in line to buy our tickets. Explain tothe ticket counter guy that we were African residents. Of course, we had toshow proof because no one ever wants to believe that we are residents. Ticketsare generally cheaper if you are an African resident. Some places only havediscounts by region (common in East Africa). Regardless, move to the left andpass through a turn still. Have to show that we are residents again. Move intothe sitting room and wait. Somehow we lose Al in the process, but that’sbecause he thought we were going back to get more coffee. Take a seat in thefront of the waiting room (see I’m going native. Gotta be in the front). All of a sudden a woman behind me begins totalk to us in English. Apparently, she thinks I have sucker written on myforehead. Her name is Fatima and she asks us to come by her shop to see hernice stuff. Of course she tells us, “I give you good price.” Don’t they always?

About this time, Liam decides he needs to wander. He leaveshis bag and disappears up the stairs of the ferry waiting room. Al follows suita little while later. While they are gone, two other people sit down. That’llteach the guys to get up and leave their seats. Liam comes back down and tellsme to come upstairs because there are some great areas to take pictures. He wasright. We got a few shots of the Beer boat, the boat to Goree Island. There wasalso a HUGE container ship in port and another ferry that heads to Ziguinchor,in southern Senegal.

Beer boat. Yes please.

Right at noon, they opened the doors from the waiting room(or holding tank) and allowed the masses to move to the boat. From a previouspost – you know how this occurred. It’s always the same traffic flow patterns.Except they held everyone upstairs for a while until the crowd had thinneddownstairs. As we made our way to the boat, we once again had to show proofthat we are residents. Goodness. They are all paranoid that people aren’t goingto do the right thing.

Get on the boat and head straight for the front. Except weshould have sat on the starboard side to get the best pictures of the island aswe approached it. The ferry ride was about 15 minutes long. During the boatride, a few guys were playing with small gourds on the end of a string andmaking really cool music. We decided we would be buying several for presentsand our own entertainment.

Goree Island.

Boat docks at the pier and we all jump off the boat. Thereis a fort on the tip of the island that is now a historical museum for GoreeIsland and Senegal. On the outside of the fort, there are old canons to theright of the fort. What does Liam do as soon as he sees them? Runs over andstraddles it. That seems so logical doesn’t it? Let me jump on a weapon,rocket, missile, etc. Big powerful weapons between your legs make you cool. Hmmmmm….maybewomen really do have all the power in the world…

At a loss for words.

Wander around the fort. It reminded me of the Ship Islandfort in the Mississippi sound. Except Ft Massachusetts is much larger and waymore fun! Leave the fort and walk through the village of the island and visit afew shops with artwork and watch a few children playing drums. Meander over toa restaurant and enjoy a pretty tasty lunch. While we are eating lunch, Fatimaand many other vendors came by several times to remind us to visit their storesor try to sell us their wares. While we are eating. Dude. Lunchtime is notshopping time. Unless I’m home by myself and bonding with Amazon.com. But, it’sa nice island café and I’m trying to enjoy my fish kabob and fruit cocktail.

A pathway

We did break down and buy some of the music balls from oneof the guys on the boat. He let me make a video. Maybe. One day. We will haveskills. But, since Liam and I are both musically un-inclined – probably not.

As we were finishing up lunch, I see a group of guys walking towards one of the docks with a ramp, a bungee cord, and roller blades/skates. Could all my dreams come true in this moment? Could they really be about to do what I think they are going to do? Why yes. They are. FANTASTIC.

After lunch we head over to the Maison-des-esclaves. This buildingwas where they exported large numbers of Senegalese and West African men,women, and children for slavery. As horrible as it is to admit this – all Icould think about was how much nicer this holding facility was than the one inZanzibar. Regardless, it’s a horrible thing that happened to thesefamilies. And they were treated sopoorly. By colonists and fellow Africans.

Leave the Maison-des-esclaves and hide from a few of thevendors because they are literally following us around. Yes, I was hidingbehind buildings and stealthily moving through the streets. Even though, we knewthe vendors know the island better than we do. I just didn’t want to buy anecklace I will probably never wear.

We headed toward the dock to catch the boat. On the wayback, I stopped and took a few pictures of the brightly colored fishing boatson the beach. Senegal is all about color. And I’m all about capturing it.

Boats of many colors.

While waiting in line to get on the boat, a guy approachedLiam about buying more gourds-on-a-string. So, Liam asked him how much. He said10,000 CFA for 2. Well, Liam said that was too much so he started bargainingwith him for fun. At some point, the conversation flipped and Liam started tryingto sell 2 of ours to the guy. Liam said, “I give you good price.” And the guysaid okay. Until Liam quoted his price. “10,000 CFA for 2.” The salesmanreached for his wallet and Liam pulled two gourds-on-a-string out of his bagand the salesman started shaking his head saying “Too much.” Wait a second.Isn’t that price you just tried to sell them to us for? Funny how that works.

Jump back on the boat and take the short ride back to themainland. On the way back to the hotel, we stop by the African Renaissance Monument. A guy from North Korea decided that Africa needed a Renaissance style statue. So, he designed and built one for them. There is an elevator you can take to the top of the guys hat, like the Statue of Liberty. But, the monument was closed by the time we got there. And I don't know about you. But, I'm a little leery of a North Korean elevator in Africa. Plus, Liam wanted to admire the 40 foot boobs.

African Renaissance Monument at sunset

Head to the hotel to clean up and go to dinner. A friend recommendedLa Parrilla, an Argentinan steak place. We found the restaurant online and madeour way there around 7pm. We were the only customers in the restaurant. Must bea place where people late. And I must say. The food was fantastic. Enjoy a nicedinner and head back to the hotel to sleep with a nice full belly.

Woke up on the 7^th, with Liam prepping to head tothe embassy to turn in our passports for our Mali visas. However, his ID wasMIA. We spend the next few hours hunting it down. To no avail. He has to run toa training event and gives me directions to find the Dakar embassy and wherethe travel office is in the embassy. So, I head to the car. Hoping I can findthis place. Of course, I get downtown, make a few wrong turns and it takes mealmost an hour to find the embassy. Finally, find a place to park and this guywalks up to me and in French (at least I think it was French) says that he willwatch my car (I think). I tell him No. I don’t need him to watch my car. It’s atank and will be just fine. So, I run into the embassy and argue with travelabout it taking 4 days to get our visas when it should take 2 days MAX. Theyfinally agree and say that we should have them back on Friday. A day too latebut we can adjust our travel schedule. Drive to the port to see if Liam’s IDappeared there yesterday. Still no such luck. Ended up going a wrong way againand had no idea where I was. But, somehow figured it out and found the hotel. Orderlunch and spend the afternoon relaxing. It was a rough morning.

The guys come back from the training event and we discussdinner. We are meeting another one of the IRT guys and his wife for dinner.Well, right before dinner Liam gets sick. He rallies and we head to dinner. Heavoids food and actually has to leave the table a few times to discard aprevious meal and ingested bugs (aka food poisoning).

As we are walking back to the car, Liam walks over to a palmtree and covers the base in gastric contents. We get in the car to head to thehotel and my stomach starts to churn. CRAP. This isn’t good. Barely, make it tothe hotel room and I am stripping my clothes off to make it to the bathroom.Yep. This sucks. We are going to be fighting for the bathroom ALL NIGHT LONG.

I spent the next day sleeping in bed and waking up andrunning to the bathroom. Liam felt better around 3pm and made it to the grocerystore to pick up some juice and light food to munch on. I spent most of the daythinking I had malaria. But, finally decided I didn’t when I didn’t have afever (Yes, I packed a thermometer). Al was also sick and spent the entire dayin bed. Bottom line. Apparently, we needed to hang out in Dakar for anextra day b/c our bowels had BIG plans for us. Still not sure where we gotsick. But, this is Africa. And it’s part of living on the continent.

Friday morning. We wake up and prepare to check out of thishotel (finally – we are free). Head to the embassy to drop off one of thevehicles and pick up our visas. Park the car within the embassy compoundparking and head out of Dakar.

On the way into Dakar, Liam was eyeing some oranges that women were selling onthe street. So, on the way out of town, that was all Liam would talk about. So,he bought a bag of oranges. They were pretty tasty. Excellent purchase, Liam!!!!

Drove back through Thies and headed towards Tambacounda,Senegal. It is a town near the border of Mali. My stomach was OFF the entireway there between my stomach bug and the bumpy roads. By the time we made it tothe hotel, I thought I was going to die. We stayed at a B&B at the edge ofTambacounda called Le Relais de Tamba. It was a nice hotel. Just don’t ask themabout the toilet in room 109. Somehow, Liam managed to separate the base fromthe floor and we clogged it.

After dinner, we headed to bed. It had been a long week andwe are still feeling questionable. Sleep is going to help – I know it.

Trip 4: Where in the world is Nouakchott, Mauritania???

2011-12-12T19:51:00.000+03:00

1 December 2011 – 4 December 2011

2:45 am. Our ride is here to take us to the airport. Wetried to sleep for an hour, but it didn’t really happen for me. It’s going tobe a LONG day of flying. We are headed to Mauritania. I know. Where is that? Ihad the exact same question when I heard someone say something about it. I hadno idea. So, here’s a picture for you.

So, here we are in the middle of the night riding to theairport. Half awake. Overpacked. But, we are going for 41 days. We actuallyneed 95% of what we brought. The other 5%. Crap we can’t seem to figure out howto leave at home. I don’t even really know what that 5% is. But, somehow, wehave to get all this back home and all the stuff we buy in West Africa.

Oh yes. My birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, and NewYears will all be spent somewhere in West Africa. The exact locations areunknown to us at this point. Because, I married a man who refuses to plan thesetrips. Which I’m starting to agree with, to an extent. It’s still important tofigure out hotels for key dates. Like holidays.

Back to traveling. Uneventful flight to Nairobi. Even thoughthe flight was only 1 hour, we received a breakfast. It’s nice to travel onairlines that still give you “free” food in flight. What a change from Americanair carriers. Arrive in Nairobi. Excuse the generalization I am about todescribe – but its true. Please do not take offense. It's just what people do around here. Everyone stands up to gather their personal belongingsand the Africans and Asians on the plane push everyone else out of the way tobe the first people off of the plane. To stand on the tarmac and wait for thebus. We are almost the last two people off of the plane. And guess what?!?! Wewere still waiting for the bus. When the bus shows up, what do all the Africansand Asians do??? Run to the bus and sit in the front seats. Forcing everyonebehind them to step over them. They have to prepare to be the first one off ofthe bus. Our enjoyment came after all of these people pushed their way throughto cram onto this bus and the second bus showed up. It was of course twice thesize of the first bus. We laughed as the first bus pulled away with everyonepacked in there like sardines. And I know it’s cultural. But, seriously. QUITPUSHING ME. It’s not really going to help you with anything.

Wander around the Nairobi airport to find our next flight toDakar, Senegal. They are in the middle of rebuilding the airport because of theamount of people that travel through there every year. We finagled our way throughthe masses and found our gate. Of course, there was a line. Lots of pushing andcutting. Seriously. I’ve become that really rude person that stands there andblocks the path because I’m so sick of being pushed around.

Get situated in the gate and wait. Forever. Like usual. Iactually think our flight was only 20-30 minutes delayed but it was HOT. And neitherone of us handle hot well. The flight was great. I slept through most of it.Liam told me that at one point we hit some turbulence and the guy across theaisle from him whipped out his prayer beads (Muslim guy) and started saying“Allah Akbar.” This of course drove Liam nuts. Not because he was saying hisprayers but because he was saying it loud enough to wake him up during his nap.At which point, Liam made the comment “I think the guy next to me is aterrorist.” But, then again after three deployments, every person who says“Allah Akbar” in a group of people is a terrorist to Liam. Had one stop inAbidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. More food provided on each leg of this flight. When theplane landed, the same generalization from above happened. Except it was worsethis time.

Land in Senegal and have a couple of hours until our flightto Nouakchott, Mauritania. In theairport, there were tiny baobab trees for sale. It took everything I had not tobuy one. They are such beautiful trees. And probably my favorite in the worldso far. But, what am I going to do with a live tree as we wander around West Africa??? Also, we stopped at a café to have a cold beverage. Of course, the guyrunning it didn’t have change and took over an hour to give Liam back his 1000 CFA(about $2) in change. Seriously, how is it so hard to have change when you arein the service industry. It’s part of your job. Exchanging money. Sigh.

Arrive in Mauritania. Meet the expeditor. Go through customswithout drama only because we had the expeditor. Apparently, Mauritaniansaren’t the biggest fans of Americans or expats. Without an expeditor (even withour dip passports), the customs agents would have found a reason to search throughour bags. Makes me wish I packed a little differently. There's ALL kinds of stuff I could have packed just for reaction expressions of the guards. But, then again. That mighthave put my head on a Most Likely to be Kidnapped by AQIM poster. Must remembernot to stir the pot with people who actually want to kill me.

Head to Al’s. He has a great house with a really cool Aliceand Wonderland courtyard. Settle in, eat some dinner, and head to bed.

All it's missing is the Queen of Hearts...

Wake up the next morning (2^nd Dec). Daylight addsa new perspective to Mauritania. And I must say. It didn’t enhance theview. There was trash everywhere.Donkeys, goats, and wild dogs with puppies chewed on the trash all day,everyday to find any piece of food they could. It looked like all of the nastypictures Liam has shown me of Iraq and Afghanistan. There was a nasty “puddle”across the side “street” of Al’s house. I told Liam we can never move therebecause we would end up with 20 dogs in our house. There is no way I would beable to look at those puppies every day and not give them a good home.

Donkey and trash.

Someone's drinking water to the left, goats, puppies, trash. Just another day in Mauritania.

Across the street, there was a beautiful compound with theirslaves beside them in a make-shift tent. Apparently, until 2007, slavery waslegal. Well, now that slavery is outlawed, these people are indentured servantsbecause there is absolutely no way they can survive without their employers. Howcome this information doesn’t make international news. Oh. I know why. Whoknows where Mauritania is???

The guys head to the embassy for a little while to checkemail and find out what needs to be done before we leave on the West Africaroad trip. I hang out at the house and work on school stuff and information forthis trip. Eat dinner and then head to a bonfire on the beach. Met a lot ofreally cool people. It’s such a different expat community than in Dar. Probablybecause it’s Mauritania and it’s basically a hell-hole that the variousgovernments have dumped people in and said, “have fun for two years”. Fingerscrossed we don’t EVER have to go there for a post.

Spend most of the 3^rd, prepping for the trip andrepacking our stuff. The guys made a trip to the embassy to check email andfollow-up on a few things. A rather boring day overall.

The 4^th, begins our West African adventure. Weare hitting the road. Woke up. Did a few loads of laundry and finished packingmy stuff. The guys went to the embassy again to take care of paperwork and afew other things we needed before we left town. Washed and refilled our water bottles.Gathered snacks.

Got on the road about noon with 30 copies of Ordre deMission, a document that states our reason to be on the road and we are allowedto travel outside of the city. You have to give a copy to a policeman at everycheckpoint. There is a checkpoint about every 50kms. And of course, they speak Frenchor Arabic. Good thing Liam has some French and I’m good with hand gestures. Oncewe figured out which road would take us south to Senegal. Seriously, Nouakchottlooks the exact same in every direction. I don’t know how anyone could actuallychoose to live there. Or find there way out of town. But, I did get some greatpics of Home Depot, the butcher, and camels.

Home Depot. Mauritanian style. (Actually, African style).

The Butcher. See Goats. See dinner.

CAMELS!!!!

We headed south through the Sahel. It was really beautiful. Redsand dunes with sparse vegetation. I can only imagine what is over that duneand beyond. I know it’s the Sahara but I really wish we were closer to see it. I’mgoing to take a couple of pictures on the way back. We were in two vehiclessince we have to caravan to the border and it was too hard to stop for thatkind of photo session.

On the way down, we pass a truck with two camels in theback. I didn’t realize there were two camels until after we passed. To which Istated. “OMG. STOP. Let them pass us. WE HAVE TO GET A PICTURE OF THAT.” Andthen we started laughing. Because the silly camels kept posing. Seriously, theyare very quirky and funny characters. I’m a fan.

Who know this was even freaking possible????!!!!?!?!?! One camel maybe...but two. AWESOME.

Got to Rosso, Mauritania. This is the border town to crossinto Senegal on a ferry. The ferry crosses the Senegal River. Back and forthfrom 8 am until 6pm with a three hour lunch. I’m just glad the boat didn’t fliplike the one in Zanzibar. That would have been pretty nasty water to swim in.Once we were across the river, we met a few people who offered to be ourexpeditors. Even though we didn’t need them. While we were getting ourpassports stamped and approved, a few guys took it upon themselves to wash ourcars with mud, nasty river water which left a horrible dirty film across thewindshield and then wanted us to pay them. I’m sorry but #1 - I did not ask youto wash my car & #2 – Please at least use clean water and a clean rag so that I cansee while I’m driving and don’t die on the crazy roads in Africa. Thanks.

So, we get in our car and head to the gate. Well, in one of the expeditor's minds he helped us get through the border and we must pay him. Even afterwe told him we didn’t need his help. We were able to get through the border gate, but herefused to let Al through without paying the “fee.” GRRRRR. This is the crap inAfrica that makes me crazy.

Crossing the Senegal River.

Drive through Saint Louis and head to Dakar. Saint Louiscould be so beautiful. It’s near the mouth of the Senegal River. There arebirds flying all around. Then, you see the trash. And all the people peeing onthe side of the road. Then, more trash. And it makes you rethink coming backfor a visit. So sad. Some people have no idea what is in their backyard.

Reach Thies. Make a wrong turn, make a right turn, and endup behind a horrible line of traffic on our way into Dakar. Finally, getthrough the traffic and into Dakar. Find our hotel, the Le Meridian, off of aninadequate map. We check in. Head to our room. Since all of the restaurants are closed we order room service from their late night menu. Two cheeseburgersand fries please. Before dinner arrived, I spied a cockroach. In a previousversion of myself, I might have demanded to move to a new room. But, the Africame told Liam to kill it. Only because he was closer to it. Assess the room and decide we are disappointedin the quality per cost and vow to never stay here again. We are both a littleannoyed by the lack of mosquito net. Not really sure why they missed thisdetail. Also, no bug spray. Now, I’m starting to wonder if the ONE can webrought is going to last us through this entire West Africa trip. Probably not.

Dinner arrives and we inhale it. Clean up and head to bed. Fallasleep sans mosquito net hoping that I suddenly turn into a block of ice andthey don’t find me quite as delicious as they normally do. Liam’s safe becausethey prefer my blood.

All in all, it was a MUCH longer day then we expected.

Trip 3: Germany & Italy

2011-12-03T19:45:00.001+03:00

30 October– 10 November 2011

Wake up.Try to wake up Al and head down to breakfast. At some point, we missed the memothat Day Light Savings time ended last night. O. I know why. It was written inFrench. Yep. I need to learn French. And Swahili. And Italian. And German. And Norwegian. My brain is inlanguage overload. Because on a good day, I can barely speak English.

Eatbreakfast, gather our goods, and away we go. This time to Ramstein. Otherwise,known as the Land of the Big PX. For those of you who don’t know, the PX is theArmy exchange. Once upon a time, it was a department store where you could savemoney and buy clothes, household items, electronics, etc. Now, it’s just anokay department store. The days of the super savings are gone. So, I rarelyshop there.

It’s abouta 2.5 hour drive from Zellenberg to Ramstein. We are staying at a bed &breakfast in a little town near by because we were told that there was no waywe would be able to obtain a room on base. Fine by me. I’m not the traditionalArmy dependent. I’d rather explore the world beyond the 8’ fence. Call mecrazy. But, it’s just the way I am.

Arrive toour hotel in Schweldbach. Check in. Score another fantastic guesthouse. Such achange from African guesthouses. In a running water, clean surroundings, lackof burning trash, cool air kind of way. Funny. It’s amazing how quickly you canadjust to what’s in front of you rather than what’s out there. Starting to makesense why some tribes never change.

Figure outwhere Ramstein and Landstuhl are. Drive around to figure out where we need tobe early in the morning. Liam and Al have a conference. I have time to wasteand doctor appointments. I’m broken again. Finally listening to Liam and takingcare of my shoulder, knee, and post-miscarriage blood work.

Grab somedinner at a great little mom and pop diner. The portions in Germany are out ofcontrol. Liam and I could easily split every meal and still have left overs.Head back to the hotel and get some sleep. It’s going to be an early morning.

Woke upearly. I had a doctor’s appointment at 0730. Sheesh. It’s the only time theycould squeeze me in. Drop the guys off really early at their conference onRamstein. Head to Landstuhl for my doctor’s appointment. I arrive really earlysince I was told getting through the gate could be an absolute nightmare. Then,there is the parking problem. But, guess what. I was through the gate andparked in about 5 minutes flat. I couldn’t believe it.

Find theortho clinic and become a fixture in their waiting room for an hour.Thankfully, I grabbed my IPhone before we left Dar and had my old friend AngryBirds to keep me company! Saw the doc. Scheduled arthrogram. Tried to have alla thrombophilia panel done, but it didn’t get put into the system properly.Will have to figure that out later.

Spent thenext two days shuttling the boys to their meetings, hanging out at the hospitalwaiting for all my appointments to be done, and wandering around the land ofthe Big PX. Being back in America is weird. I’m starting to think I prefer the3^rd world. While in Ramstein, had lunch with several other African FAO spouses. It was nice to meet a few more spouses and get their input on living in our crazy world. Leave Ramstein on November 2^nd headed forStuttgart.

Spent a fewdays in Stuttgart so the guys could go to Africom headquarters. We also mailedall of our wine and some of the groceries we picked up at the commissary. Ihope our wine makes it to Africa in one piece.

LeaveStuttgart and head to Munich to pick up Al’s sister-in-law, Christina, andBrian. Brian works with Al at ourembassy in Mauritania. Gather everyone and head to Bavaria. Liam wanted to goto Berchtesgaden to see Eagle’s Nest and hang out inthe Alps. However, since we were there so late in the season, everything was closed. So, we are going to have to come back when we are living in Italy.

On Nov 5^th,we took a stroll to Königssee Lake. Passed a bobsled run. Walked around town and took the tram to arestaurant near the top of the mountain. Walked the rest of the way up thetrail to the top. Took a few pictures and enjoyed the weather. It was anabsolutely beautiful day. I wish I wasn’t broken and we could have hiked somemore because it was perfect weather. Walked back down to the restaurant and hadlunch while fighting off crows.

Königssee Lake

Eagle's Nest.

Bobsled anyone?

Afterlunch, we headed back down the tram to the town and then walked back to ourhotel. Made reservations at the German restaurant down the street from theguesthouse.

On Nov 6^th,Liam took Brian, Christina, and Al to the train station. Since, Liam and Alwere told they couldn’t visit Army Africa, Al decided to go back to Munich andstay with family friends. Liam and I had already paid for our hotel in Vicenzaso we decided we would go wander around northern Italy and check it out. Liamcame back and picked me up, we checked out and were on our way. Stoppedsomewhere in Austria for lunch. Then, back on the road to Italy. We entered theDolomites and the cloud covered lingered overhead. Then, it began to rain. Madethe picturesque views with the castles built into the sides of the mountainpretty eerie. There were also olive trees and grape vines everywhere.

Arrived inVicenza, found our hotel, checked in and asked where to eat dinner. Since wewere worried about parking, we walked the few blocks to the restaurant. Wetried to dodge the rain, but we were unable too. Showed up to the restaurant alittle wet and enjoyed a nice dinner.

Walked backto the hotel. Discussed our plan for the next day and went to sleep. The nextday, we drove to base and completed a few last errands we had. Decided to drivearound and determine the lay of the land. Wandered all the way to Asiago,Italy. As in, Asiago cheese. It’s this awesome town in the mountains with 500km of cross country ski trials and quaint Germanesque culture. After spending acouple hours in town, Liam decided that we should live in Asiago. I spent thenext hour and a half (driving back to Vicenza) trying to convince him that itwas a bad idea because while it was beautiful it was too far away from work forhim (and potentially me). Oh and the roads to Asiago go back and forth straightup the front side of the mountain. This is going to be a long-term discussionbetween us.

Get up onthe morning of the 8^th and head to Garmish. What a great place. Liammentioned that there are some African FAOs slots here. If so, sign me up. It’sthe perfect ski town. Lots to do. Tons of places to play outside in all fourseasons. Yep. Definitely our kind of town.

On the 9^thhead to Munich to pick up Al and drive to Frankfurt. We are flying to Amsterdamtonight and then back to Dar in the morning. Stayed at the Eden Amsterdam Manorin Amsterdam between our flights. It was a great hotel with a special headboardthat we had to share. The bed was so comfortable!


XXX doesn't necessarily mean what you think it might. Check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam#Symbols

I thought the decor was really neat.

The headboard. It took us a while to see it.

While I’msad to be leaving Europe, I’m ready to go home. It’s a weird moment when yourealize you would rather be at your house in the 3^rd world than agreat hotel in the 1^st world. Nothing like the comforts of yourhouse – no matter where it is in the world.

Trip 3: Why yes I will taste your wine...

2011-11-16T23:24:00.001+03:00

29 October 2011

Awake to wonderfully cool, fall air. Decide the bathroom isa little too chilly for showers and close the window. Shower, get dressed, andhead downstairs for breakfast. Today is going to be a GREAT day.

Gather our bags and head back out on the road. We areheading to the Alsace region of France today for some vino drinking. WOO!HOO! A few weeks ago, I had one of thehardest internal debates I have ever had with myself – Alsace or Champagneregion. Alsace has ALL of my favorite grapes/wines. Champagne has champagne.So, Alsace won only because Liam PROMISED to bring me back to Champagne overthe next few years while we are in Europe. (So, it’s in writing buddy – nogoing back now! Hehehehehehe.)

It’s about a 4 hour drive to our hotel in Zellenberg,France. The boys are in the front and I curl up in the back as we are on ourway. Stop around noon for gas, coffee, and I grab a salad. The boys decide they aren’t that hungry andwill wait till later.

See the sign to Zellenberg and turn down a curvy road thatpasses through row after row of grapevines. Keep driving and arrive in the towncenter with a large church and quaint French countryside villas. Pass threewineries and hundreds more grape vines as we wander to our hotel. Life justdoesn’t get any better than this. Find out there is a total of 5 wineries thatoffer tastings. Check into the hotel and away we went.

See. A ridiculously cute town in Alsace.

We rounded the corner from the hotel and discovered that thefirst winery was literally next door to our hotel. In fact, they almost shareda parking lot. Began tasting. Liam was excited because unlike our wine tripthrough Seattle while we were dating, all of these tastings were FREE! Talkabout a kid in a candy store. That also meant my wine-purchasing budget hadexpanded. Needless to say, I was pretty excited as well. Tasted several greatwines and bought a few bottles (as in 2 sealed cases).

Walked across the street to the next winery. Tasted a fewand bought a few bottles. This went on as we walked around the town and hit allfive wineries. Keeping in mind that we had to some how get all of this wineback to Tanzania, we decided to buy 23 bottles. Yes. We thought that onethrough didn’t we??? I went a little over board because there are only SouthAfrican wines for sale in Tanzania, and while they are absolutely delicious,every once in a while it’s nice to have a different flavor.

I was carrying most of the wine in my backpack because Ilooked at it as an increased workout regime as we walked around town, up anddown the hills. Plus, I’m the wine drinker in our house, so I figured it’s myjob to protect it.

Full of delicious French wine. Mostly Pinot Gris varietal. Fingers crossed it's en route to Tanzania and makes it here safely!

We went to the last winery right at 5pm. Since the next daywas a national holiday, we were trying to maximize our afternoon and taste themall. The pinot gris wines in this area were FANTASTIC. In fact, I think that’sthe VAST majority of the wine we bought. In fact, we bought at least one pinotgris at each vineyard. To think, many moons ago, I always said I didn’t drinkwhite wines. Well, I saw the light and haven’t looked back ever since. Whitewine is DELICIOUS. Well, except for Chardonnay.

Since we were all stumbling a little after 15-20 tastings,we decided to find a restaurant for dinner. Walked across the street from thelast winery and were told that the restaurant was booked for the evening.Decided to head back up the hill to see if there were any availabilities atanother restaurant we had passed. There was so we plopped down and proceeded todig our way into a very delicious meal.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. The weather wasdelightful. Nice crisp, clean air. Grapes vines all around. This is the life.Now, I’m really starting to get excited that we are moving to Italy. There isgoing to be SOOOOOO many opportunities for us to wander around Europe. I cannotwait. Now, fingers crossed I find a job in Vicenza so we can have the dreamEuropean vacation while we are living in Italy! We are going to wander all over Europe! It’s going to be so much fun!

Open a window and off to sleep!!

Trip 3: Germany to Belgium

2011-11-14T00:54:00.001+03:00

28 October 2011

Road trip through Europe. Yes, please. After a great nap anda great meal, I’m starting to realize how crazy living in Africa has made me.But, I think that’s part of the appeal of Africa. Who knew it was possible to become crazier?

Indulging in a breakfast of real cheese, real milk, anddelicious food is a fantastic way to start your day. Still trying to processthat there are places in the world where you can buy fresh, safe things to eat.Starting to really see what Third World means. Guess you have to leave thesandbox every once in a while…

Decided to take a walk around the hotel to kill some timeuntil we pick up Al from the airport. Headed down the street towards the Mainriver which runs through Frankfurt. Enjoyed a nice leisure stroll in beautifulfall weather with the greatest person I know. As we passed a few of the parks,we found a see-saw and decided we must. So, here are two over-30 adultsseesawing at 10am. There were a group of teenagers walking past us andlaughing. But, we didn’t care. You can’t find seesaws in the States anymore.They are too “dangerous.” Whatever. Kids are supposed to get hurt. It’s part ofgrowing up. (I think we just signed up for a lifetime of ER visits).

Main River, Frankfurt am Main. Notice the two guys rowing down the river...

"Liam, LOOOK! A tree with leaves that are changing colors. WOW! It's fall. Not constant summer"

A fountain? A sandbox? A multi-functional toy for children AND adults. Yes!!!!

Look at all the fun things kids can hurt themselves on. Germany is a GREAT place. I'll move here any day!! A PIRATE SHIP. Seriously. Germans know how to play!

Head to the Airport to kidnap our friend Al. He’s going tobe our travel buddy through Africa for pretty much the rest of the year. So,welcome Al. To our crazy little world.

Pull up to the airport and reposition our bags in the car.While Liam is cleaning out the suitcase from where the laundry detergentexploded, I walk into the airport to see when Al’s plane is landing. Well turnsout it has landed. So, I sit down and wait for him to appear. Walk out to thecar with Al in tow, and Liam was a little “frustrated.” He claims I disappeared.Whatever. I told him I was going to check on Al’s flight. Well, it was onlylocated in one place. Right outside of the baggage claim. So, I figured waitingwouldn’t be an issue. But, I was wrong. Because I didn’t have my cell phone andI was gone for 30-45 minutes. Oops. I’m sorry Liam!

Jumped in the car and headed to Belgium. One of the thingsLiam really wanted to do on this trip was head to the WWII memorial inBastonge. Jumped on the Autoban and away we went. I would like to discontinue a rumor right now. I was a little disappointed in the speed at which people were driving. The Autoban is just another highway. People were driving anywhere from 60-120 mph. In a German car, it feels like you are walking - slowly. Germans know how to design a vroom vroom.

Stopped at a rest stop to grab some grub. Even gas stationfood is fabulous. Just makes me want to amp up our culinary skills. Game on. Weare moving to Europe now. The Connor kitchen is only going to get better.

Arrive at our hotel, check-in and meander to Bastongehistorical center. After WWII, Belgium built this monument to honor thesoldiers who died during the Battle of the Bulge. The unit Liam was associatedwith for his entire career, until we left Alaska, was involved in the Battle ofBulge. So, he was pretty proud of his history.

Patton's head. In concrete.

I really love this memorial. And it didn't hurt that it was a GORGEOUS fall day.

This picture makes me happy. He's right where he belongs. ALASKA.

It was a gorgeous cool fall day. I think one of the hardestthings about living in Africa is going to be giving up fall & winterweather. It’s my absolute favorite timeof year. Anybody know how I can bottle it up to move with me?

Stop at a pub and have a few Belgian beers. Delicious. Ihave not had a beer since pre-pregnancy. I refuse to drink the stuff in Africabecause it stinks and probably isn’t worth the calories. But, to let thebeautiful flavors of a Hefeweizen hit my lips…now, that is beer bliss! And I think I’ll have another!

Return to our hotel and decide to eat dinner there since thechef is an up & coming star. And for GOOD reason. Man. FrédéricBolis has skills. I’m really starting to feel like our kitchen needs some help.Culinary classes in Italy? Maybe I shall.

After indulging in a delicious meal, wemigrated upstairs to a comfy bed with his and hers covers. Or as we shallforever call them, the end to who stole my covers. Turn off the heat and openthe windows. Fall air feels so cozy. Liam might disagree, but he married apersonal heater. So, he will sleep just fine, all toasty and warm!

Trip 3: A conferencing we go...

2011-10-31T13:32:00.001+03:00

26 October 2011 - 27 October 2011

Since we did trip #1 during the Army Africa Command (or whatever the "official" title is b/c I always get it wrong) conference, Liam looked into going to the Joint Venture Africom conference. Well, turns out the more he started talking to people, the more they encouraged him to go. Then, we found out we were moving to Italy. So, it became a why not? Go the conference, network, find out more information about life in Africa. Okay, sure. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Oh. Wait. Did I mention Africom is in Germany? That means we get to leave Africa and return the real world. And I get to buy CHEESE!!!!!!! I'm a unifocused woman these days.

So, the morning of the 26th. We wake up to NO power. The generator didn't kick in. On any other day, I wouldn't have really cared but we are about to leave our house for a while and we have stuff in the freezer that will go bad. And I don't feel like coming home to that kind of heat. Then, there is the security lights and alarm system. So, put in the calls and wait for the people to show up to the house and fix it.

A side effect of not having power is that I couldn't start my day out at 0700 and get laundry going, snacks packed, etc. So, once the power came on around 1030-1100, I had to scramble. Which meant no pre-flight nap.

The only reason I cared about my nap is because there are a LOT of movies I have missed in the past eight months. The main reason it's fun to fly internationally is all of the movie choices!

Ran around the house until about 3pm, then tried to rest. But, the universe had other plans. A few more embassy employees came by. Then, Liam called to say he was going to be home in a few hours. Decided I should get up and finish packing the lsat few things. Next thing I know, its 6pm and Liam is walking in the door.

Cab driver appeared 10 minutes early, so we skipped eating at the house. And dashed out the door. Arrived at the airport, checked in, and pursued food.

Something odd. Every touristy place in Africa so far has listed prices in USD. Now, we live in Tanznaia. We are used to only carrying shillings. So, we go to order a snack before we get on the plane - and all the prices are in USD. WTH??? It's Africa. Not the States, people. Your currency is Tanzania shillings. Let's stick to using what is the national currency and not confuse the locals. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Jump on the plane. The woman in the window seat looks at me and rudely says "I prefer the aisle seat." Well, Miss Thing I prefer to telepathically appear in Frankfurt. But, that isn't going to happen. I'm going to squeeze into my seat next to your hip fat. This is going to be a fun flight.

Well, based on the sarcasm oozing from my previous statement, I'm sure you deduced that the flight was less than fun. I was cooking between Miss Thing's hip fat and Liam. I was so uncomfortable and restless that Liam finally made me get up and walk to the back of the plane. Which felt fantastic. I'm sure everyone back there was freezing. When I came back to the seats, Liam had moved to the middle hoping that I would be more comfy and actually cool off enough to sleep. And more importantly, let him sleep. I have the best husband! I felt horrible being so restless and uncomfortable and he was doing everything he could to help. I need to have my TSH level checked. These post-Nora hot flashes are KILLING me.

The only movie that appealed to both Liam and I was Hangover 2. I'm happy to say, it was pretty funny. In many ways, I actually think it was better than the first one.

Landed in Amsterdam. Headed to the KLM lounge. On the way, wandered through several shops. So, this is what civilization looks like. Bizarre! You can walk into one store and get everything you need? Wow. Sticker shock. Things are EXPENSIVE in the real world.

Stayed in the KLM lounge until about 30 minutes before our flight. Made it to our flight, jumped on the plane and away we went to Frankfurt.

Arrived in Frankfurt about 45 minutes later. Grabbed bags and the rental car. Away we went. Except. MUST REMEMBER TO DRIVE ON RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD. It's harder than it looks. We are getting to a point where we have no idea which side of the road to drive on...OR....what time it is. So, please be forgiving if we show up clueless and flustered about driving.

Made it to the hotel with only minor turn arounds. Checked in and were greeted with Gummy Bears on our pillows. I heart Germany! What a great way to start our European vacation (I mean business trip)! Found a pub and went to dinner. You would have thought we were in a 5 star restaurant by the way we devoured our food and proceeded to lick the plates. The flavors. The smells. OMG. African living has made us crazy. First World food is 10 times better. Gotta enjoy it while we are here. Because it's going to be a while before we make it back to real food!

Return to the hotel and try to download Lion and Aperture but the internet is so slow, I give up. Off to bed. Another adventure awaits tomorrow.

Cheyenne

2011-10-24T23:41:00.000+03:00

Cheyenne

Our sweet, sweet Malamute. We love you very much and willmiss you forever. But, we are giving you the special privilege of taking careof Nora for us. Watch over each other. K?

Love you,

Poppa and the woman who stole your side of the bed - I'm going to miss snuggling with you.

Huh? Thanks Army. I think.

2011-10-24T23:35:00.003+03:00

1 October 2011 (and a summary of what happened next).

So, we have been without Internet for the past few days.It’s just the way these things work. Allof a sudden Liam says “Well, that’s interesting.” Since I know how his brainworks and he NEVER says things like that in the tone he used, I started withthe question brigade and guess what he told me. We are moving to the Countrythat’s shaped like a boot.

Now, in most circumstances, people who find out informationlike this would be ECSTATIC, maybe even ELATED. I went crazy. “WHAT? WHAT? We can’t move to Italy.We are going home to get our stuff in one place and you have to go to schooland I have clinicals and no, I’m not moving to Italy in August.”

Yes. Not one of my high points. But, I’m only human.

Then, a few days later, I started processing. There ischeese. We can have babies safely. We can buy 220 electronics so when we moveback to Africa we will be prepared (suddenly Scar is singing in my head “BEPREPARED”). We will be in one location for at least two years, but maybe three.We are going to find an amazing fondue pot and pasta maker. And did I mentionthe cheese (yes, I did. But, it’s silly expensive here). Butter. Olive oil.Vacationing all over Europe for 2 years. Okay, I’m over it. Europe, ready ornot, here we come.

But, only for the cheese. AND wine.

Trip 2: Going home again

2011-10-24T23:32:00.000+03:00

26 September 2011

We are going home! While we lovewandering, we both are developing a pull to sit at home on the couch and relax. Traveling every few weeksfor weeks at a time is going to wear us out.

But, first, a village tour. Fundu Lagoon works closely withthree local villages to improve their quality of life. As part of this, theyoffer a tour through the villages to see the school the lodge has built andhelp support the rather poor economy of the village. There is nothing but mudhuts around. Even though the lodge built a school for the villages, thechildren do not attend the school. Children from other villages go to thisschool. These children are running around and memorizing the Koran. That’s it.There is no hope for improvement in their lives. Their parents aren’t fightingfor them to have a better life. It is just the way their lives shall be. A lotto process isn’t it?

A group of children ran up to the mzungus hoping to get somecandy and maybe a little money. Well, we bought a spice bag for 20,000shillings because we didn’t have any change and I didn’t feel like bargaining.The spice bag was probably worth 5,000 shillings. Whatever. We were mzungued.Funny how some days you care and other days you don’t. But, we only had 10,000shilling bills and I knew these villagers weren’t going to have change.

Went back to the lodge. Bought our mask for Pemba and had asmoothie and a cup of coffee before we jumped on the boat to leave our newfavorite place. I haven’t been that relaxed in a long time.

Rode to the harbor with the Spanish couple we had beenspending the past few days with! They are great and I’m kicking myself for notexchanging contact info. But, that’s life.

Went through airport security, if you can call it that. Itinvolved two people asking to see our bags and waving a wand at us. Wow. That’sa secure airport.

Jumped on another tiny plane that was bound for Zanzibar,then Dar. This time I was not as freakedout, but it’s because we had our choice of seats, and I sat in the seat closestto the door. I was fine until I looked up and saw the pilot with his handsbehind his head as we hovered over the ocean. I tried to get a shot of this formy father-in-law. But, he put his hands down before I got the picture.

Leaving Pemba. So pretty.

We were in the last row. Told you it was tiny.

Landed in Dar. Met up with our Dar cabbie! He brought us home. And looks like we aregoing to be home for a whole month while Liam preps for grad school apps. It’sgoing to be nice and relaxing.

Trip 2: Gone Fishin'

2011-10-24T23:05:00.001+03:00

25 September 2011

Hangovers. I hate you. At 6am, I was doing everything I coulddo to pull my old butt out of bed. What were we thinking? Regardless, I mustrally. We had a boat too catch in a little over an hour. All I could think about was “Where’s theibuprofen? Water?”

After a shower, I felt much better. Still very sun burnt andhungover but excited about the day’s events. We were going fishing on theIndian Ocean. Only two more oceans to go...WOO HOO! Raced through breakfast to head out on the water.

Luckily, it was a perfect day. The water was glass. Big puffy clouds. The sun was staying away from our sun burnt skin. We threw the lines in and began to troll. 3.5hours later, nothing. Not even a single bite. But, that’s okay. We kepttrolling and enjoying the water and hiding from the sun. Around 1pm, I hit my donepoint. I was hot, sun burnt, and rapidly entering miserable. But, I wanted to fishin hopes that we would at least get a bite. But, no such luck. Liam was atrooper and still tried to fish with a line and a GIGANTIC lure. I didn’t thinkanything would bite off of that thing. But, I was ready for a nap, shade, andsome juice. Next time, we are fishing day one.

We did find a school of dolphins that we played with. I saton the bow and got a few pictures and a long video. At this point, I was alsokicking myself for not having brought our better camera. I need to find a wayto waterproof it so that it goes everywhere.

A few of the dolphins.

At around 3:30pm, weheaded back in hot, more sun burnt, and exhausted without a fish. They were offin some international business meeting. At least that’s my conclusion. Or, theywere just terrified of our ability to bring the fish in the boat once we havethem on a line. Either way, I don’t know if I would have been physically ableto fight a fish today.

I avoided the bar like the plague. Well, I did have to getjuice. They have a great menu of smoothie type beverages and that’s all I wouldtouch tonight. Ironically, the same went for everyone who had been sharing inthe festivities last night. You know, manyyears ago when I was a kid my parents would hang out with their friends and thenext morning they would come crawling out of bed like death had overtaken theirbodies the night before. I get it now. And I’d like to take a moment toapologize for EVERY annoying noise I made those mornings!!

There were a few couples at the bar trying to get us to takeshots with them. I wanted to celebrate their joyous unions with them (Fundu ismostly honeymooners). I just couldn’t rally. I’m not 22 anymore. A decade hasmade me wiser and I have no problem following Dare’s slogan and “Just say(ing)no.” We did however convene a meeting ofinternational relations for Liam’s trip report. The following countries were inrepresentation: Germany, Tanzania, France, England, Spain, Canada, and USA. Itwas very interesting hearing everyone’s opinion of what is going on in thestates. My awareness of how little Americans actually leave the States isbroadening. Every one spoke several languages, were world travelers and had greatlife experiences. Yet, we were the only Americans most of the people hadencountered on their 2 week to month long treks through Africa. Americans justdon’t get out much. Kind of sad when you think about it. So, folks, here's my plea. Step out of your comfort zone and go somewhere beyond your wildest dreams. It might even be better than you think.

We tumbled into bedearly because we were exhausted.

Trip 2: Misali Island

2011-10-24T22:51:00.000+03:00

24 September 2011

We are going snorkeling. Got up early enough to get in agood breakfast. The corn fritters are so tasty. I wonder where they are gettingsuch yummy corn around here. I haven’t seen corn anywhere yet. Well, except forin a can. And it’s silly expensive.

We meander down the jetty to the dive shop to meet up witheveryone for the snorkeling trip. Find out that we need to meet at the end ofthe jetty. So, we wander to the end. It’s beautiful. Peaceful and a nicebreeze. I love the ocean. It’s simply relaxing.

The boat returns from taking people to the harbor and we areoff. Another couple is joining us. They are on their honeymoon from Spain.

It took about 20 minutes to get to the island. It was hightide. The goal is to swim out to the edge of a drop off and then putz down theedge and see all the fishes. Well, that’s exactly what we did. I’m going to wear a wet suit from now on. The ocean iscold.

Saw a bunch of fish. A few coral formations. But, whatstruck me the most was the amount of damaged coral. They aren’t kidding whenyou hear about reef destruction and over fishing. There were parts of the reefthat looked like someone had taken a saw underwater and just cut pieces off.It’s such a shame that the governments aren’t doing more to protect what isalready here. But, then again, people don’t have drinking water so coral reefsaren’t that important to them, yet.

After about an hour of swimming to keep warm, we migratedback to the beach. There are thatched umbrellas with lounge chairs for peopleto relax on. Enjoyed laying down and watching hermit crabs. Got up and went fora walk down the beach. A group of fisherman had laid out there catch of the dayto dry.

Drying fish...sorry about the smudge. I didn't realize there was a water drop on it.

Misali is beautiful. The water is crystal blue. The beachesare white, soft sand. There are large coral formations that have separated fromthe main portion of the island due to water erosion. As we walked along andenjoyed the view, I began to pick up broken shell pieces to use as pieces forour bao game when we eventually buy a board.

Went back to the loungers and enjoyed our lunch. Liam took ashort nap while I commenced watching the hermit crab migration. They werepretty amusing. They were walking all over the place in the bushes. Then, oneclimbed up a bench, wiggled its way on top and then climbed its way into thepicnic basket to munch on our leftovers. Who knew hermit crabs had that kind ofagility? Liam couldn’t believe I spentover an hour watching them. But, I didn’t have anything else to do. I left mybook at our banda. But, I was entertaining myself.

After lunch settled, we went back and snorkeled a littlemore. This time the water was a little warmer and it was nice being in thesunshine and floating around in the ocean.

We both started to feel a little sun burnt so we headed backto the shade. About this time, the Spanish couple, Liam, and I all decided itwould be okay to head back to the lodge. We packed everything up and loadedinto the boat. What a great day at the beach.

Once we got back to the lodge, we decided to go up to thepool area and have a snack. We played a game of bao and then I jumped in thepool because it was toasty. The pool is amazing. It’s an infinity pool at thetop of a hill. Breathtaking. And the water was so refreshing. My lobster hubbywas staying out of the sun. Somehow, he managed to get a pretty nasty sunburn.Poor thing. I didn’t manage to escape the sun’s torturous rays, either. We needto get better about our sunscreen applications. But, I’m also learning – I’mnot a fan of aerosol sunscreen. I don’t think it covers as well.

We migrated back to our banda to take a shower and head backup to the pool bar for dinner. We had a few drinks before dinner and then startedplaying bao. The Spanish couple joined us for a few after dinner drinks. Then,an English couple joined us as well. It was one of the dive instructor’sbirthday so we sent a round of shots over to his table. Well, that led to along night of celebration and fantastic times! What great people!!!

Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day.

Trip 2: So this is what it feels like to relax

2011-10-24T22:23:00.002+03:00

23 September 2011

Woke up to the sounds of the ocean outside our tent. Yep, Isaid tent. We were sleeping in a 5 star tent with two little bitty ceiling fansto circulate air. Stumbled out of bed and looked out at the Indian Ocean. Lookslike it is going to be another grey day. But, I’m okay with that.

After we showered and headed to breakfast, we were stilltired from our escapades the night before and decided to go back to bed. I’mliking “relaxing with Liam.” Means we might actually catch up on all the sleepwe have missed over the past few months.

Woke up just in time for lunch. Yummy. The food here is sodelicious. I could spend all day in the dining area or pool side café.

Decided to take a double kayak out around all of themangroves during high tide. Mangroves have a root system that needs saltwaterfor survival. Additionally, it’s a type of wood used for dhow boats, furniture,canoes, etc in this area. We have fallen in love with mangrove wood and willhopefully have a few pieces before we leave Tanzania.

So, we get the boat off of the rack and walk down to thewater with it. I get in the front of the boat, and Liam pushes it out and triesto get in. Well, guess what. This particular kayak takes on water like nothingwe’ve ever seen before. I think we were sitting in at least six inches of water.So, we decide that maybe getting in the kayak with waves beating against uswasn’t a good idea and we should try a different technique. So, we flip overthe boat, empty all the water out and try again. This time, we are very carefuland try really hard not to accumulate excess water in the boat. Well, no suchluck. We are still sitting in 6 inches of water. But, the boat doesn’t appear to be trying toflip. We bail out a little of the water and away we go.

We paddled around the point of the peninsula and brokethrough the chop to beautiful flat water. We paddled in and around the mangrovetrees.

Mangrove roots during high tide.

There were a bunch of dhow canoes anchored in this area aswell. Apparently, this is a man only beach. Oops. I wish someone would havegiven me the message. There were about 6 boys playing in the water, barebottomed. They started to chase us and were screaming mzungu. It was prettycute.

Dhow canoe

We are paddling along enjoying being on the water. Notreally a care in the world. It’s nice to finally feel like this. Very enjoyableafternoon with the husband.

Make it back to the lodge and try to float the kayak intothe beach with the waves. Well the tide was rolling out and the waves werebeing uncooperative. Finally, we both jumped out, grabbed all our stuff, andcarried the kayak the rest of the way to the beach. Put it up and headed backto our banda to get cleaned and relax before dinner since the sunset cruise wascanceled due to strong winds.

As we were relaxing in the pool, all of a sudden I looked upto see a monkey on our deck outside our bedroom. Then, there was another. Andanother. Then, a few mommas with the babies. And another blue-balled male. Mustbe breeding season! Now, I understand the need for the padlocks. Of course,ours wasn’t locked. However, the monkeys were too busy watching us take theirpictures. The general manager of thelodge told us that one day a woman was doing yoga and the monkeys began tofollow her poses. That made me giggle. Even monkeys like yoga!

Another monkey...

A momma and her baby...

After all of the monkeys went back into the trees, we wereable to get into our banda and take showers and clean all of our gear!

Made our way down to the bar and while we were waiting ondinner, we learned how to play bao. It is also called mancala. Basically it isa game that is played with 32 holes and whatever “token” pieces you can find toplay with. It’s a counting game. In a very short amount of time, we caught on andfell in love. Now, we need a board at home.

Ate another delicious meal and then headed to bed. Tomorrowwe are going snorkeling at Misali Island. Apparently, it is rumored to be anisland where Captain Cook hide some of his treasure.

Trip 2: Island hopping

2011-10-24T21:40:00.000+03:00

22 September 2011

Well we are leaving Unjuga and heading to Pemba Island. It’san island northeast of Unjuga and one of the three main islands of ZanzibarArchipelago. I’m pretty excited because we scored the deal of a century and aregoing to an AMAZING place. Fundu Lagoon. It should be added to your bucketlist. www.fundulagoon.com. Learn it,live it, love it.

I woke up early and tried to finish up all of my courseworksince I wasn’t sure if we were going to have Internet for the next few days.Then, finished packing up my stuff and took a shower. Liam slowly pulledhimself out of bed and packed up his stuff. Headed up to breakfast and thenback to the room to finish the last little bit of packing.

Migrated down to the lobby and met our cabbie, Rashid. Theairport is not that far away but we needed to get copies of our boardingpasses. We didn’t have a way to print them after booking them a few days ago.

Show up to the airport. Try to go to the ticket counter andthe guys wouldn’t let us in the area because we didn’t have boarding passes.So, we had to schlepp to the other side of the airport (I say that like it wasso far. It was about 25 m away. But, we had 4 bags and it was hot – so it mightas well have been 10 miles. Oh and did I mention, I was wearing that stupidwool sweater again. It’s not traveling to hot places anymore).

We get to the Coastal Aviation office and place our bagsdown and decide who is going in to deal with our lack of boarding passes. Liamgoes in because I couldn’t fit through the door with my pack on. I could havetaken it off, but once it’s on, it’s comfy. He was lost in there for at least20 minutes. Apparently, it takes that long to print a boarding pass inZanzibar. Just in case you ever needed to know that. Lesson #5647 buy all planetickets before you leave your house in Dar to facilitate printed copies of allboarding passes. This eliminates chaotic frustration from an alreadyfrustration filled journey. But, TIA. And we are still on the slow learningcurve of African living.

Go back over to the gate check to check in. The boardinggate guard was really starting to piss me off because he was being such a jerk.But, whatever, gave him my boarding pass and got in line to check our bags.What a cluster. Seriously, if one more person tried to cut in front of me, Iwas going to snap. You would think a series of people would fall into a lineand wait there turn. Oh no. It’s more like 10 lines merging into one randomlywith people cutting in front of you and then 2 more airlines start checkingpassengers in the same airline booth. Yep, cluster.

Make it to the front of the line and I’m not joking - checkingin involved one employee writing our name down on a sheet of paper in pencil.Jesus. What I have gotten myself into. Hand over our bags and proceed to walkthrough the security gate. Walk into the seating area to see a world of Italiantourists. Apparently, there was a gigantic plane from Italy landing and thenleaving. Lesson #5648 make sure big tourist planes aren’t leaving at the sametime you are leaving from an African airport. It was hot and there were 300+extra people hanging out in the waiting area. We walked outside hoping for abreeze. No such luck. Just hot, beating sun.

Covered in sweat, I decided to head inside get a bottle ofwater and take a bathroom break. Took Liam a bottle of water and saw whatlooked like our plane landing. It looked so tiny. As it got closer, I realizedit was that tiny. Crap.

Watch our bags head to our plane and follow them. Get to thedoor of the plane and realize there are a lot of faces in the windows. Walk upthe steps. Put the camera bag in the back “carry-on baggage” section and lookfor a seat. Started to freak out a little because I was REALLY hot (damn woolsweater in 100 degree weather. Again, not the brightest crayon in the boxsometimes), the plane was really tiny, and I started to get queasy. Of course,the closest seat to the door was beside a VERY nice man with a butt as wide asmine. But, I decided being closer to the door was more important than how muchmy butt was sticking out into the 12” wide aisle. And, I didn’t think I wasgoing to be able to walk any further into the plane.

Spent the first 15 minutes of the flight trying not to pukefrom being so hot. Then, I start freaking out about being in such a smallspace. Not really sure what was going on there, but I’m going to chalk it up asI was just really, really hot and needed to get out of there and cool off. HowI’m going to survive rainy season is going to be interesting.

Finally, the runway was fast approaching and I let out asigh of relief. Liam was sitting in the seat in front of me and had no idea ofmy inner angst until we got of the plan. We walked a short way to the “baggage claim.”I use this term loosely. There wasn’t a carousel in site, just one guy handingus our bags through a hole in a stone wall currently being stuccoed. I wouldhave rather grabbed my stuff from the guy as he wheeled it to the building,rather than take the risk of it being covered in stucco. But, then again, I’m apicky American.

Nothing like a little fresh stucco to spruce up an suitcase.

Why they couldn't just hand us our bags outside, I still don't understand.

Walked outside after Liam grabbed all of the bags – I was onthe verge of passing out - and met thevan to take us to the lodge. Had about an hour drive through some pretty sharpcurves. Thanks to an ice-cold bottle of water and a nice breeze, I was finallystarting to feel human again. Arrive at the port and meet the boat that istaking us to the lodge. It was about a 20-minute boat ride through some ratherrough seas. But, the fresh salt-water air felt amazing!

Arrived at the lodge and it was everything and MORE! We fellin love from the first moment. Pulled up in high tide against the Jetty. Nicewind blowing. Signed in and got a tour of the lodge. Walked to our banda. Well,we were upgraded to a suite. We had two bandas. One was our bedroom and theother was a living room/wind shelter. Learned about the padlock to keep themonkeys out, because they have figured out how to unzip the tents. Then, therewas our private pool. Again, I got the “Only this guy” speech. But, you knowwhat? I could have cared less. Because, he’s right. We have a pretty amazinglife. And for the first time in months, we were going to be able to relax andenjoy this beautiful place.

Our private pool on the beach.

The wind shelter with bao board.

One of two mini fridges in our banda.

The bedroom & bath tent.

A view from the beach.

Took quick showers to get out of our sweat soaked clothes.Then, we migrated to the main dining room for lunch. While we were hungry, wewere not prepared for the culinary delights being placed before us. Bar none.The best food we have had in Africa to date.

After licking our plates, we headed back to our room for anap. Woke up from our nap and went to the main lodge pool to enjoy a pre-dinnersnack and a few cocktails. Took a walk along the beach to get some shots of the beautiful sunset.

Went back to the main dining room for dinner. The food justgets better and better. They serve a starter with every meal. The starters areusually soup. Delicious happy soups. We made a decision then and there. We arereintroducing soups into our diets. As starters. It’s a missed opportunity inthe States. Every meal should have a small serving of soup.

After dinner, enjoyed a few drinks at the bar and managed toget a wee bit intoxicated. After being attacked by the mosquitoes, we stumbledto back to our banda for a night of fantastic slumber.