|
|
TRAVEL BLOG AND ITINERARY
a travel blog
|
This is going to be my informal travel journal keeping track of a random collection of thoughts and events for the next 6 months of my life. This will allow 2 things: firstly, being able to record these memories for myself, and secondly, confirm to the people back home that i'm still alive. From January 15th to the 26th of March i will be traveling through Eastern Africa with the Canadian Field Study School based out of McGill. I will be accompanied by 36 other Undergrad students and several professors from McGill and local universities. On January 16th we land in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya and will stay at ICIPE, a local biology-oriented university campus. Once we've acclimated to the time change we will fly from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda where we will board some trucks and drive to Kibale National Park where i will be taking a course in Primatology. Our travels will take us from Kibale through Uganda along the shore of Lake Victoria until we reach Kenya. From there we head inland to the Southern portion of Kenya through the Northern Serengheti and the Masai Mara. We will end up back at out base in Nairobi for a few days, then head to Mount Kenya, Africa's second tallest peak. We will again board the buses and drive to the coast of the Indian ocean to Mombassa. we will then fly to Zanzibar for a week and a half (apparently its the closest place to paradise on Earth.) We head back to Nairobi for our final projects and presentations. On the 26th, i become free from the constraints of group travel. As for what i will do with the following 3 months, only time will tell. Perhaps a trek up Kilimonjaro, an internship with an NGO or the UN...
| Trip Itinerary (Travel Blog Entries) | |||
1 |
Montreal | Nov 21 '05 | Still at McGill
"i've been told that it usually gives the person some Really FUCKED Up dreams ranging from the vividly erotic (which honestly i wouldn't mind ;) to the freakishly psychotic." |
2 |
Montreal | Jan 13 '06 | Two days to takeoff
"god has given you two eyes and two ears, but only one mouth. Thus you should be listening and watching four times as much as you speak. And the only time you should open your mouth should be to ask questions." |
3 |
Nairobi | Jan 16 '06 | Here at last!
"I guess its better off to be paranoid than to be cocky, but i hope that it wont prevent them from approaching this academically, professionally, but most importantly with a sense of reverence and respect for the people who we will be visiting." |
4 |
Nairobi | Jan 19 '06 | Random Musings, Mutterings, and Delusions (First of many)
"The one exception to all the kindness bestowed upon me was a drunkard who jokingly (god i hope so) said "i could rob you if i wanted to right now."" |
5 |
Nairobi | Jan 21 '06 | ICIPE then off to Uganda!!
"This policy of universal benefits for human economic needs and evironmental health is a commendable objective and for this and their altruistic policies of educating farmers and not imposing patent protections on their discoveries to provide as much acess to them as possible has attracted many notable scientists from around the world." |
6 |
Kibale Forest National Reserve | Jan 22 '06 | Kibale and Kyanyawara
"Luckily, there are resident baboons and extremely rare Red Colobus populations which visit and raid our bunk rooms daily. Thus I am getting a great viewing of primates and unlike many students on this trip, I have gotten the unique opportunity to visit local villages and meet some absolutely amazing people. Plus I would like to add that the primatology class had the honor of being urinated and defecated upon by their objects of study" |
7 |
Kyanyawara | Jan 28 '06 | “Not saved but definitely moved.”
"I find that the lack of a local guide also makes me more vulnerable, but in a good way. I no longer have this buffer whom I can turn to explain things or talk to people for me. Now I have to rely on myself, my instincts and reactions, to get messages across to those with whom I am interacting. I no longer have the option of hiding behind an interpreter or running back to the pickup truck so that it can whisk me back into my comfort zone" |
8 |
Fort Portal | Jan 29 '06 | Random musings, mutterings, and delusions of a mad hiker: II
"I thought that if I tried to write it out I might be able to express these mostly confused series of thoughts. Thus this is a warning to those hoping to read about monkeys throwing feces, hippo encounters, and/or nights of drunken revelry." |
9 |
Fort Portal | Jan 30 '06 | Health and our education in Africa
"With the memory of this visit I approached the excursion the following day with a great deal of apprehension." |
10 |
Queen Elizabeth National Park | Feb 01 '06 | Elephants and Hippos and Warthogs OH MY! And did I mention lots and lots of Ungulates?
"The local species gave us a grand farewell on our last night as many people spotted a Potto, a rare nocturnal primate and some Civet cats. Doctor John even received a house call in the middle of the night by a swarm of army ants that decided to build a new highway through the living room of his cottage." |
11 |
Lake Nabugabo | Feb 02 '06 | A Justified Journey
"On the back of one of the seats on the bus the message “Safari ya Haki” is scrawled upon it, which translates to “a justified journey.” I don’t know why this phrase has stuck with me so much, but I find that I regularly think about its meaning and how it fits in with the purpose of this trip." |
12 |
Jinja | Feb 04 '06 | Jinja and an unexpected sunset
"Like any other trip here, we always have to account for delays, like people being sick with GI disorders, running out of gas in the middle of nowhere, lengthy border crossings, and roads which look like they were designed for all those crappy “I drive a hardcore SUV commercial.”" |
13 |
Mbita | Feb 07 '06 | Mbita and the AIDS orphan home
"When I pressed the interpreter to explain what it was, he repeatedly dismissed it as a stupid superstition held by uneducated locals. However, I finally expressed to him, at least in a limited sense, my fascination with non-biomedical interpretations of illness and health. So he indulged my curiosity and allowed the enthusiastic traditional healer to explain the basics of chiara." |
14 |
Mbita | Feb 10 '06 | More than just a game
"But to think of it, establishing regulations on the fishing industry would increase the burden on these poor fishermen, many of whom are on the brink of poverty. Yet a paradox lies in this: if this unbridled exploitation of the fish continues at its current rate, their livelihoods will crumble completely when the fish disappear. Signs of this stress are already prevalent as fishermen rarely catch mature fishes anymore, the catching of immature ones means they are removed from the gene pool before reproducing, eroding the genetic diversity and greatly reducing the population at an unprecedented rate." |
15 |
Kisii | Feb 11 '06 | Neem: the new “magic bullet” of the developing world?
"I used to complain about Montréal roads. I swear I never will again." |
16 |
Maasai Mara | Feb 12 '06 | Pastoralism and its discontents. Oh yeah, there are lions here!
"Even cultural traditions like male circumcision have been accelerated to make their sons group members at a younger age, before the subdivision begins. Now Maasai society is filled with pre-teen “men” who are now expected to take on the responsibilities of Morans – the youth warrior class." |
17 |
Maasai Mara | Feb 14 '06 | A preservation of Culture within a 21st Century Paradigm
"The whole time I was there, I kept bursting into a smile thinking of a Gary Larson cartoon (Far side) which portrayed a group of indigenous peoples (with grass huts and bones through their noses) running around wildly with TVs and toasters in their arms, trying to stash them out of view, while yelling “the anthropologists are coming!!!!” I felt like I was stuck in that cartoon." |
18 |
Nairobi | Mar 01 '06 | A muslim cat called Jesus and President Mwai Kibaki
"He had covered the walls with cloth and covered these with posters of European football teams (Liverpool and Real Madrid – we got along well lamenting about Real’s perennial failures), Beyonce and most importantly, Bob Marley. Aside from the fact that he had to buy water and access to a local latrine, at a glance it could easily be a generic cramped college student’s room in a residence." |
19 |
Nairobi | Mar 01 '06 | Random Musings, Mutterings and Delusions of a Mad Hiker III
"Although I am aware that they represent only a small percentage of the population, I believe that the existence of this tendency of disillusionment followed by a substance dependency is one of many symptoms of structural problems in Kenya." |
20 |
Nairobi | Mar 02 '06 | Dancing and bowling!!!
"We ended up having a bowling competition at a posh mall/entertainment complex called the village market. Interestingly, the trend for most of us was the more Tuskers we had, the better bowlers we became. I got my highest score ever with a 116." |
21 |
Nairobi | Mar 03 '06 | Matatus and dancing in the rain!!!
"These rides revealed to me something that I had been suspecting for a while about Kenya- that EVERYTHING is negotiable here, from the matatu fare [depending on the time of the day (rush hour fares tend to be higher) and your degree of mzungu-ness also affects the rate] to the actual drivable width of the road." |
22 |
Nairobi | Mar 04 '06 | Wheelbarrow races and carnivorous appetites
"I must acknowledge that never have I felt more out of place at a bar. In Montréal, there are two guys who usually know how to dance well and the rest (myself included) usually just bob our heads off beat and clumsily shuffle our feet unless the “spirits” compel us to go a bit crazier." |
23 |
Kimunye | Mar 05 '06 | Don’t Go Chasin’ Waterfalls…and Elephants!!!
"There is no better feeling than swimming through a waterfall (also bathing) that is so cold that is sucks the air out of your lungs and even the mosquito bites shrink to miniscule proportions. From there, you can climb out, and run shivering up to the stone lodge, which is warmly furnished with wood tables, billowy couches and lit by kerosene lanterns." |
Would you like to comment or ask a question?
Sign up for a free account, or sign in (if you're already a member).