East Africa

I was happy to leave Mozambique and even happier to find a painless hitch! At a small hostel on lha de Moçambique I met a couple and small baby in traveling all the way up the coast and into Tanzania...

The prospect of three solid and difficult travel days dissipated and I spent two comfortable days in the front seat of a 4WD. We overnighted right before the river border, expecting an easy crossover... However, once we saw the dirt ridge that dropped off several meters into the Ruvoma River, it seemed unlikely that the ferry ran at all. Had I been crossing alone, I would have climbed down and taken a canoe. They paid a hefty fee (over $200 US, though his NGO would cover it) to have local men rope together three boats and take us across...



In Tanzania I was all over the place- tiny towns up the cost; Mafia Island (I visited for the name alone); Dar Es Salaam, the dirty and semi-modern, crumpled and terrible cramped non-capital; buses and more buses; on safari (see below!); and Zanzibar...

This is the Ngorongoro crater,

After a while, the lions got a little commonplace while on Safari:


This was one of my favorite moments, if not apex of the safari- it was exilerating to see so many different animals around each other.


Excited Zebra:

Maasai Woman:


Maasai merchants crowding the Land Rover:


The others in my small group didn't want to see Olduvai Gorge, but for me, it was mecca.


Northern Tanzania:


Zanzibar Monkeys:



When things start to get easy, I start to get uneasy, and it was soon time to make my way into Kenya. The highlights: Maasai, safaris, coastal beauty were covered in Tanzania for me, so I made it a quick trip. Soon I headed for Ethiopia on the awful, long and quite dangerous road. I went in a truck- sitting in the cab with 4 others for 25 hours! We left the town of Isiolo at 9pm and arrived the next night in Moyale at 10pm. The day we were traveling, we heard of three bandit attacks. One merchant with a small shop in Archer's Post was stabbed just 1 hour before we arrived.





Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a world away. I had been getting into swahili culture and language (hakuna matata! asante sana!) after nearly two months in Tanzania and Kenya, and again, all of a sudden, everything changed. The faces, the food, the language, the script and customs. Most of all, I never got used to the fact that most Ethiopians believe breathing outside air while in a moving vehicle will make you sick. This meant that bearable -if uncomfortable- transport on long bumpy roads in crowded quarters became insufferable. I always tried to sit near a working window, but the sneaky moments of pushing windows open centimeter by centimeter were met with complaints as if arctic winds had covercome us.

I've taken more than 25,000 photos on this trip (yet to be verified). Some have been deleted and entire cards erased by mistake. There are always themes- jumping children, street stalls and vendors, countryside, dirty hotels, and the people that ask for their photo to be taken:


The staple food of Ethiopia is injera, a sour, cool and damp pancake made from teff and wheat, served with meat, lentils, vegetable or just spices. Below is a photo of the rainbow food ye som mehgib, also known as fasting food, eaten by Christian Ethiopians on Wednesdays and Fridays.


On a side trip from Addis Ababa I visited the spectacular crater near Ambo, Lake Wanchi.

22 Months!

670 nights
250 places slept
2.68 nights per place average

Dorms...................................148 nights..........22%

Transport................................52 nights...........8%

Private Rm w/ bath................146 nights..........22%
Private Rm w/ shared bath.....251 nights..........37%

Shared Rm w/ bath................39 nights............6%
Shared Rm w/ shared bath.....34 nights............5%

Free Nights: 146
-- hosted in Peace Corps Regional homes, Peace Corps
volunteer's residences, with families I met on the street,
with friends of friends, in a dozen countries

Nights with Television............47 nights............7%

Most different places in one month: 18

Longest stretch in one place: 26 nights

Most transport nights in one month: 6
-- buses, trains, airports, trucks, train station floors!

Most places slept in one weeks time: 7

Longest stretch of one night per place: 6

Most dorm nights in one month: 25

Cheapest paid accommodation: $1.60 Private Room with bath; India

Most expensive paid accommodation: $215; Namibia (not paid by me)

Nights Camping: 4 (Botswana and Tanzania; classified as shared rooms

Southern Africa

It has been strange, new, tiring. Alternately, I feel invigorated and disenchanted. Like nowhere else I see wasted resources, corruption and suffering without recourse. The beauty of travel is becoming connected to places on maps. When they become alive in 11 dimensions, multiple senses and emotions, they become difficult to ignore.

Landing in Johannesburg in April was a shock. It had been over a year since I regularly saw white people! Everyone spoke Afrikaans to me, and I usually nodded in ignorant agreement. Warming to the country proved impossible for me. I felt near-constant stress. Many of the white South Africans I met made statements that were outright racist. I'm under no impression that race relations in my own country, the United States, are healthy and happy, but I feel that people usually think about the company they are in before making such remarks. Whites that I met told me how dangerous it was, that blacks would stab you for a phone or wallet, reach into a car window with a club, knife or gun. My fear became palpable and a source of shame. I felt nervous much of the time, and found myself at places with almost no black people. I wondered if I was in Africa.

The goal is making it from Cape Town to Cairo. This is a view of Cape Town:


South African Train:


Hitchhiking to Lesotho:


I spent a couple weeks in Lesotho, which is entirely surrounded by South Africa. It was breathtaking. The country has the world's highest low point, at 1400 meters.



I also spent a short while in Swaziland which was more similar to SA and quite developed.

Since I was so close I decided to go to Botswana. I visited the capital of Gaberone and then heading north to Maun, the base for visiting the Okavango Delta. I took a speed boad trip into the Delta which included a traditional mokoro (dugout canoe) tour and also a walking safari:



From Botswana I headed to Namibia. Near the Tropic of Capricorn on the Atlantic Ocean I saw these flamingos. I also saw the hospital where Angelina Jolie gave birth. An inordinate number of locals I met told me about her visit and how much Namibians don't care about celebrities...


From Namibia I headed to Zambia and Zimbabwe, where I saw Victoria Falls. I made three visits, one during the day on each side and one full moon visit on the Zambian side.





In Zimbabwe I took an elephant Safari:



Zambia:




On of the highlights of Livingstone, Zambia, is the adventure activities. These are all me:






I spent some time in Malawi, which I loved, and I finally started to really feel like I was in AFRICA! I'm not sure why I don't have any photos! Here are some from Mozambique... It was an odd place: fully African, Portugese-speaking, and predominantly Muslim.









Soon to come: bits and pieces of East Africa!

India -> Arabia

Some place other than India meant leaving India. It would be redundant to repeat the myriad of reasons why the thought vexed me, let alone doing it. Beyond anything, I was caught up in the process, in the trains and buses, planes, checkouts, and goodbyes. So much so that I did not plan a thing. This is how it went.

From India to Oman

1. March 29th - The train. 580 INR; $11 USD

I took a long train across central India from Calcutta to Mumbai. The journey had me in near sweltering weather from the evening of the 29th through the 30th and I arrived the morning of the 31st.

2. March 31 - Toilet Bath. 5 INR; $0.10 USD

I was weary, excited, hot. Unfortunately there was not a proper shower available in the train station so I semi-bathed (something I have become accustomed to- necessity often means only a trickle of water, ice cold water or bucket baths). So I did the best I could with water from a high stray pipe in a bathroom stall. Afterwards I threw some of the clothing I had been wearing away.

During the day I walked the streets, looked for African guidebooks, stuffed in as much Indian/Spicy food as I could, attempted to escape the heat, and thought only of what I was leaving behind- nothing of what lay ahead.

That morning I took in an air conditioned café where I enjoyed a $1.30 USD coffee drink and then I went to the movies to see the disappointing Naomi Watts/Clive Owen thriller The International for $1.60 USD. I traded 9 books for 1 book, drank sugar cane juice on the street, had another treat at an air conditioned spot and tried to drink enough water so I would finally need the bathroom- I was all sweating out.

3. “Fancy” Dinner. 200 INR; $4 USD

That evening I shared a large meal with a friend (total 200 INR; $4 USD). Since my flight was in the middle of the night, early early morning April 1st, we didn’t sleep. We went back to his place and I was able to have a proper shower and get my things together. The local train to his apartment outside of town cost .30 cents.

I took an auto-rickshaw to the airport around 1 or 2 am. It cost less than $2 USD. While I waited for my flight I ate Pizza Hut. It was nice to have melting cheese (In India I mostly only had access to paneer, which is delicious, but like large chunks of cottage cheese). However, I am embarrassed that this was my last meal in my favorite country.

4. April 1 - BOMBAY --> ABU DHABI $439 (included onward flight to Johannesburg)

An Etihad Airlines employee agreed to bump me to business class, but then she looked at my shoes (Chacos) and apologized, citing a dress code. Sorry, Ma'am.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the flight. When traveling long hours from place to place no one can begrudge me my favorite pastimes- filling pages with little words and crunching numbers (costs, places I have slept, countries visited).

But I made a huge mistake. I forgot that getting on the plane and enjoying endless trays of food and many hours of playtime meant that I would have to get off the plane and navigate a new world.

5. Abu Dhabi; bus from airport to town; 3DR; $1.25 USD

I got some dirham and scratched United Arab Emirates onto a list somewhere, and stood in front of the airport scared.

My luggage is light; I have one pair of shoes, 2 pairs of pants and just a few shirts. My clothes are modest, kept clean and in fairly good condition. But I felt completely out of place when I arrived in Abu Dhabi. The country has only 13% Nationals; 87% of the population is foreign-born. Now, even though that is made up mostly of blue-collar Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani workers, there are plenty of visible Westerners. These are the people that scared me. Women in high heels and manicured bee-hives, with Fendi shoulder bags and designer wheeled-luggage.

Sitting on the curb I decided to leave the UAE immediately.

6. Bus & Shared Taxi, 15DR, $4.25 USD

After the bus into town I got another bus and then a shared taxi to one of the Oman border posts.

In true unprepared fashion, I was, well- unprepared. In India and similar places, this is alright. I have always found towns on the other side of borders. Why wouldn’t there be a town?

There wasn’t.

I arrived on the Oman side to... Nothing. Beyond the immigration and customs building there was... sand.

7.Hitching +20OR; +$52 USD

I hitched. The Omani man was so kind and helpful that he dropped me at a taxi stand and insisted on giving me some local money- over $50 dollars. This behavior would be indicative of Muslims I met all over Oman- they truly believed they served God when they helped anyone.

From the small town of Ibri I was able to make my way to Muscat and start my adventure out of India...

Going To Die

I arrived in Malawi July 31, after a long stay in Zambia. Aside from adventure activities which included a lot of jumping and screaming, I spent 3 weeks in the capital volunteering.

On a whim, I was invited to Lusaka. It turned out that my friend and host lived nearly next door to a Catholic Mission with a school, orphanage and hospice. In Texas I spent years volunteering in similar places with children and adults, and even ended up doing my Master's thesis at an AIDS hospice. I went back to Livingstone, visited Zimbabwe, then returned to Lusaka to stay with my friend and volunteer.

I spent the majority of my time in the male ward of the hospice/home. But several times a day I would visit the women and when I felt down I would see the dozens of babies- usually at the end of a day. They were in small cribs, 20+ to a room, and often they were alone. However, every time I saw other foreigners they were with the babies or toddlers. The children were lonely. They barely cried, even when 3 or 4 others in the same room seemed inconsolable. Without discretion, they wanted to be held, and those tiny grips echoed on my fingers and neck every night.

I felt more needed with the adults. In Texas, my volunteer work there included bed baths, changing catheters and diapers, wound care, cleaning the deceased, cooking, anything and everything. Soon I was "Sister Maya" ( I am not Catholic), but the job was easier than before since women did not touch or see unclothed men. So, I held hands, asked questions, made jokes, helped serve food.

Remember that film, "The Shawshank Redemption"? Everyone in the prison was "innocent". Everyone at the Mission spoke of TB or Malaria, no one spoke of HIV/AIDS; no one was HIV-positive.

The average life expectancy in Zambia is 42 (up from 37 a few years ago). In the United States, 78.

There was a young man, L., aged 26. He had been a teacher. We talked a lot my first two days at "Mother Teresa" and planned to put a letter together for his 7 year-old daughter. On day 3 he seemed to have deteriorated rapidly overnight. He no longer spoke and vomited blood, bile, water. I left early that day to hold babies- he died in the afternoon. That same evening a man nearby- S., with a beautiful, glowing smile died too. We didn't talk much, but I had spent time with him. The next morning when I arrived I found out the news and decided to accompany the bodies to the mortuary. I was glad to see their faces one last time, to say goodbye.

In a van packed with L., S. and some assistants to carry them, as well as people with hospital appointments, we set off. First we stopped at a police station. This procedure was common and quick, and the forms stating cause of death were soon stamped and signed.

At the hospital we pulled up to an unmarked room. There were drunk and somber people milling about and two waiting bodies already inside the room. We moved L. and S. inside and waited. Once the room was full a doctor was summoned to confirm the deceased. Then we moved the bodies down to one of the several mortuary rooms.

L. and S., not large, were hard to lift and the assistants struggled to push their limp bodies onto long, high shelves.

I stood alone in the ice cold tomb and said a secular prayer. The room was the size of a large classroom, rectangular and sparse, long rows of stacked shelves ran along the walls. There were about 40 adult bodies and 15 baby and toddler-sized bodies mixed in. All of the bodies were wrapped in sheets, feet and hands sticking out, sometimes a torso bare to the cold.

A week later I spent some time having a one-way conversation with a man who was "active", actively dying. He listened to me and I tried to listen to his eyes and small movements. He managed to only say a few words to me. I leaned in, guilty at his effort: "Going. To. Die... I am... going to... die." Those were his last words and he died a few hours later.

42 Things, Part Three

29. Returning to Nepal

Another visit to the children and places I loved so much the first time around was a joy. Thought the children had grown, some rocky steps became more smooth and my experiences in Asia had expanded, the place still holds magic for me.



30. Unpaid Work



31. Bangladesh






32. Safari

After some frustration in a small town dependent on tourism, I was talked into a "safari" at a close-by National Park. It turned out to be a fantastic day, and one of my absolute favorites on the Indian Subcontinent.




33. Swimming

On the way home from the safari, our guide stopped the jeep and invited us to swim in a small river. The Dutch guy I was with, Peter, was too worried about getting sick, but I had a great time! I swam in my clothes...




34. Jeep Dancing

We dried off by dancing in the back of the open jeep on the way back.

35. Gwalior




36. Rickshaws





37. Highway Spotting



38. Babas

A close relative of a friend died young and unexpectedly. I was invited to view the body at the family home and see the body off to be cremated. We waited hours for the body to finish and as the sun started to set a group of 35-40 Babas, or Holy men, descended on the temple.



40. Children






41. Chicken


42. Humanity

42 Things, Part Two

15. New Buddha

In 2005, on my way from Kathmandu into India I stopped and visited a boy lauded as the New Buddha. I was able to see him almost exactly 3 years later when he returned to the spot where he was meditating years ago to give blessings.

16. Dichotomy

At an unexpected t-shirt festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was pulled aside and invited to be interviewed on the radio. Later day I saw a man begging on a sidewalk- his legs bent frontwards at the knees. They were skinny, spindly little things. I could look him in the eye, but I couldn't look at his legs.

17. Boi Mela

In January 2008 I wasted a lot of time waiting for the Boi Mela, or Book Fair, to materialize after protests and complaints about excessive pollution in years past. I was able to attend this year, seeing many of the same Bengali chitras, or artists (like the girl pictured below) I met at the fair in 2006.

18. Rahim and Baby

The reason I went to Bangladesh after having sworn it off last year was because of Rahim and Baby, a middle-aged couple from a city near the capital, Dhaka. I met them one night in Calcutta and for some reason they really wanted me to come and stay with them. So I did.

19. HOT MILK

One of the beauties of Indian travel is street delights, including piping hot sweet milk.