a blog's eye view of a rapidly changing world

Your Hotel is the End of the 60 km

2009-05-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

We knew from day one this portion of the trip was going to be different. From our day one cycle of 53km (the most I had ever cycled on a bike in one goat that point) to !00km on my birthday. We weren't sure what the motivation was to make us (Sy and I) cycle more then ever have day after day. Either it was the fact that the end of the days ride was where you slept or there was nothing else to do so just get on the bike and ride.
Riding in Turkey, our first country on the list, was a great start. Our day one cycle of 1.1km brought huge generosity out of everyone around us. Seeing we were crazed, stressed and swearing shop keepers young and old would just make us stop and have a cup of tea with them. We could not give or even say anything (thank you meant nothing to them) to them besides asking the only English speaker in the town to give them our thanks. The bent chain wheel got people helping either driving us to metal presses or trying to bend it themselves. Thankfully there was a hotel and the next was a start. My gps guided route through small back roads worked perfectly except in a rather bumpy section the gps fell right off the bike mount and got caught up in the spokes. This left a huge crack going up the screen and a quarter of the digital screen gone. Still after 53km we found a hotel and ate, ate, ate. Day 3 ended up being on a larger road to the Greek and Bulgarian border. We tried to cross into Greece that day but were unable because of lack of accommodation in the near by Greek towns. Our final night in Turkey was spent in Edrine with its huge mosques and bustling pedestrian walk way.
We did Greece in one day spending no nights in the Northern part. It was a beautiful sunny day for a 70 km day (a new record for me at the time). We had no gps route because my map detail ends until Hungary. We managed alright:) We were in a relatively un-touristed part of Greece so all the villages were tiny and the few shops weren't even open. This meant we couldn't get a Greek Lunch anywhere and had to wait till Svilengrad, Bulgaria to eat. Crossing the border was no issue except that the duty free shop had no Greek sticker so we will have to wait till Canada.
Bulgaria the largest country we have passed throught thus far was again differnet from the rest. We crossed from Greece into Svilengrad (a town mentioned on the website of another cycling couple who did a route like ours but after Bulgaria the went to Ukraine and east. Our route brought us from Svelingrad to Topolovgrad, to Nova Zagora, to Tvarditsa, to Veliko Tarnovo, to Pavlikeni, to Pleven, to Belene on my Birthday, to Svishtov and then into Romania and back in to Bulgaria at Vidin before entering serbia. Internet access was less of a challenge then we first thought and many fo the hotels we stayed in had wi-fi. our first 100km day ride was in Bul and on my birthday no doubt. It happened after Amb wrote lets go do 100 on my card (being sarcastic).
From there we crossed into Romania and spent 3 days cycling and 1 rest day. Hotels are even more scarce in Rom and we had to train further a few times.
Crossing the Danube back into Bulgaria was no hassle and the next day we were on our way to Serbia. The Danube cycle trail was a bigger thing in Serbia , with signs and funny quotes (story later) at every turn. Hotels were easier, and it felt that tourism was a bigger thing. Spend three days riding along the Danube and spend a rest day in Beograd before cutting across and crossing the Danube yet again into Croatia. Reach Osijek on the first day and then take a train at five in the morning to Zagreb. Don't have worry about bikes a they are in a bike shop getting repaired (cleaning, tune up , etc). Spend one night in Zagreb at the Carpe Diem Hostel and parents even go to a concert (Leah's life long dream was to go to a classical concert in Zagreb). Train back to Osijek and Head up into the wine region of Croatia. Cross the border into Hungary two days later.
Hungary was a whole new country again. A very controlled environment, felt like it at least. Internet hard to find even though it was probably one of the wealthiest country's we have been in to date. Pasterys got better and better as we cycled further north and they keep getting better. Weave our way though Hungary in order to be in Budapest on the set date to meet Paul and Ed. Hit a small wine village, a thermal spa with long beach like accommodation, and Hungary Holiday Resorts only 9 km out of the nearest city and in a converted horse stable. Last time we book ahead on line. Train into Budapest and stop at the airport to successfully ship a parcel to graham with FedEx. Our panniers are light again!!! Spend three days hanging out doing, math journaling, exploring. Train out again with 5 bikes and 6 people. First day with Ed and Paul is huge hills and we see that even after 1.5 months of cycling Ed and Paul are both still stronger then us.
I will stop my blog there and continue through Slovakia, Czech Rep and Poland in my next one!

I Wish It Had Been Three Months

2009-04-25T07:44:00.001-07:00

It was a drastic change. Going from Muheza one week to Cambridge and then Istanbul. Everything so different and all in two weeks. Cambridge was spent unloading, remembering, packing (again) and realizing what warm cloths we had and didn’t have. We spent our nights at Susan Griffith’s house who is a dear friend of my Dad, but who we missed on our last trip to England because of a family issue. Is was nice to spend time there, the cold weather and all, where we could re group, and get ready for the next big adventure.
Our plane to Istanbul was an early 7:30 flight which meant going to heathrow the night before. We set up a bed of sleeping bags and mats enclosed by our four bike boxes. We were in the new Terminal 5 where sleeping in the airport is not liked so to say so the sleep was not comfortable and short. We check in and find that it was not till you where past security that they brought out the nice couches and chairs. What ever. We flew with BA and arrive in Istanbul Ataturk Airport a few hours later. There a man with a sign that said Mrs. Norgrove picked us up. We were driven to hotel Ararat (recommended by one of our friends. Expensive, but funky). It was located on the top to floors of a small building with a beautiful view of the blue mosque and hagai sofia. We would spend two nights at this place then move to a cheaper hotel/hostel ( the main reason we stayed here was because they had agreed to hold our bikes while we traveled in turkey). On day one in Istanbul we got some of the touristy things done. Blue Mosque, Istanbul Modern, Hagia Sofia and istnabul Archeology Museum. It was amazing to see two mosques so massive and beautiful, and to think we called our small mosque in muheza the “big mosque. On our first day we had an interesting experience when a carpet seller s father pulled us into his shop. His son, a fat bald man, showed us a near by cistern (he said that it wasn’t in any travel guide. It was) \, played some Turkish Music on his flute and offered us tea in his shop saying we would not have to look at carpets at all. We left 45 minutes later after being offered every carpet in the shop. It was hard to leave, not out of like of the carpets, but how low his prices were getting. After that dad was really thinking about getting a carpet, not necessary from him but from turkey.( Mom pulled us out before any purchases were made, Dad was very close)
We spent four nights in Istanbul before getting a lift tot the otogar (bus station) and catching a bus down the Gallipoli peninsula to Eceabat. Here we stayed two nights and saw both troy and the famous Gallipoli battle fields from world war two. Our hotel was crowded house hotel and it was defiantly crowed. There was a group of Young EU residents on a cultural exchange and every night they put on a little country presentation including information, food and dancing. The two countries that did their presentation while we were there was Solvakia and Malta. This got us really looking forward to our time in Solvakia and we even got a little taste of Solvakian smoked meat. MMMM.
It was very neat to see all the trenches and the famous ANZAC cove where the Aussies and Kiwi’s landed and helped the allies. We also got cool hats on the tour. Troy was just like the Simpson’s had shown it. The great Trojan horse and 9 different “citys of troy” (through the centuries) built off of each other.
After the two nights we caught another bus to Selcuk which was where you slept if you came to visit Ephesus. The bus was long but everything is good with Turkish Bus companies. Nescafe 3-1, a small cake and comfy chairs who would complain. On our way down to Selcuk I also got my GPS working with my great map of Turkey and had it scream at me because of the buses route decision compared to its. We finally arrived in Slecuk late at night and happened to be met by someone who ran a near by hotel (he wasn’t there to try and pick off helpless tourists but actually looking for someone who said they were coming and hadn’t yet). Anyway we gave us a good price and since we were tired and it was getting dark we decide to say yes and have a good sleep. It was that night that we had our best meal in Turkey. The Selcuk Koftesi served some of the greatest smoked aubergine, and meat dishes that we had on our entire trip through Turkey and all for a great price. We all slept beautifully that night with full tummies and visions of aubergines danced in our head. Ephesus was just some ruins and the first of a lot more to come. I still picked up on the magnitude of some of the creations and building. The ampatheatre still blows me away by its size and resemblance of a modern day concert hall. We walked through the ruins with an American couple that were staying at the same hotel. They were in Turkey fro the World Water Forum in Istanbul and were doing a little bit of traveling before going back to Istanbul. Before leaving Selcuk we had to have one more meal at our favorite restaurant and since it was closed for our second dinner we stayed till lunch on the third day and had another amazing meal again for very cheap. From there we caught another bus this time to Pamukale and another bunch of ruins Hieropolis and Afrodisias.
We arrived late at night and our direct bus wasn’t so “direct”. It had stopped in many places along the way and didn’t even get us to our final destination. We had to switch to a minivan to drive us the rest of the way. The minibus ended up taking us directly to a hotel that it had “connections” with. Thankfully they gave us a good rate after some bargaining so we didn’t have to move around in search of another hotel. The next day we hike up the calcium deposits in bare feet and walk around the spa town of Hieropolis. Because of human interference with the running water none of the calcium rich pools still are available for swimming and the one main made pool was 20 liras per person. Instead of swimming we walked, explored and walked some more before heading back down to out hotel. The rain picked up on our way down so our toes got quite cold and numb. We arranged a tour with out hotel so we could go to Afrodisias. We left eh next morning and the only thing of real importance from the ruins was the stadium that looked like an old time version of a massive track and field stadium, which they used for meetings, tournaments and concerts. Again we moved on by bus to Goreme in Capadocia.
Snow covers the fairy chimneys as we roll in by bus. Dad and I in our shorts stand out in the crowd of people getting off our bus. We quickly make our way t the hotel we had chose from the lonely planet. Again with a little bit of bargaining we get one of our funkiest rooms yet. We are in a cave on the side of a cliff of volcanic ash eroded away by wind and rain. From there we got tours to the an underground village, an amazing valley with churches craved into the rock and out looking down upon a valley full of these fairy chimney houses (fairy chimney is the name given to the parts of volcanic ash still standing because they are all have points that look like chimneys. The next day we went to The Goreme Open Air Museum with its many churches and houses again carved into the rock………then we got off the tourist track.
We caught yet another bus (this time an overnight one) to Gaziantep (the home of pistachios and baklava. We got I early and spent some time at the otogar before departing into the city. Using the LPG lame map we find a reasonably priced hotel where we all get a bed and have Family kwelada treatment #1 (actually it was #2 for Mom and Dad but Number 1 for Sy and I). This stuff had a weird fell but we had to do it to try and destroy our African scabies. When we try and get our cloths washed it is another story all together. He washes the cloths but by the time we return that night they are not dry and to officially destroy scabies from cloths they have to be ironed or hot air dried. He had an iron but was being a jerk about and charging us a lot of money. And when you think about it why would he care about our problem. We had already paid him, so we were stuck not him. We ended up have to dry the cloths in our room and borrowing an iron from another hotel and doing tit all in our room. In this town we went to a museum, but no ruins and did a lot more walking around this big city then visiting its landmarks. Two highlights of the town were the 1 lira doners which we still great and an atom juice. (A collection of nuts, honey, yogurt and mixed fruit which together created an amazing drink. From there we catch ANOTHER bus to Sanliurfa where we spend three nights. Here we visit the famous castle on the top of a hill where the king threw _________ over the cliff and the story goes he landed in a bed of roses placed by god and that saved his life (Comfy landing?????). There we met Redvon, an English speaking tour guide who help us with a lot of things and even took us on a tour the next up to Golbeki Tepe (a recently found archeology site) that was on his friends land dating back to 7000 bc . He also took Harran which had another set of cool traditional bee hive houses (humans actually lived here) and had a cup of tea together (at this point the Syrian border was a few kilometers away). Then we went back tired and ready to go on. SanliUrfa also had a massive football stadium but as Redvon put it the Kurds aren’t soccer fans.
Deeper into Kurdish Country we go first to Mardin for the afternoon and no nights (LPG said that there we very few hotels and all of them were very expensive) so we have a very nice lunch at a LPG recommended restaurant where, unlike else where in Turkey, all the cooks were women. The meal was expensive but a very special one on our list. That night we slept in Midyat at a 100Lira per night hotel where we spent three nights. We went to the old part of town and stole many elections flags from the night befores storm, and we weaved our way through the many small streets trying to get into one of the small churches. We went to Hasenkeyf , a town (including ancient ruins)at risk to demolishing if a new dam goes in up river on the Tigiris, and we caught another bus…..
…… to DiyarBakir. The walled city as the LPG puts it because of the 6 m wall that stands around the inner part of the town. This will be our last destination before flying back to Istanbul and heading out cycling. We do some bargaining and get a room fro 90 lira. Since this is such a low tourist area most of the hotels are for businessmen, so just a few hotels keeps the price up. Walking along the top of the wall is a Turkish Experience. No railings or bars keep you from the 6m drop to the ground. This got mom a little creped out, but nobody feel. In a search we also found more election flags of the pro Kurdish party and had three cups of tea with a group of heavy smokers and likely unemployed and politically fervent Kurdish separatists. Soon our time was over and we flew but to Istanbul on a cheap domestic flight costing us only 68 liras per person. We arrive two hours later and a high paced taxi ride (guy maxed out at 175 km/h and refused to stop in heavy traffic riding the shoulder instead with his hazards on). Our 2nd time in Istanbul is spent shopping, doing the last of the touristy things and preparing out selves for the next big adventure.
I would like to apologize for my lack of blog lately. With internet back after leaving Tanzania I starting connecting with friend on facebook and stopped updating my blog till now. (thanks Maria for reminding me) Another blog about cycling is soon to come.

Photos of Our trip

2009-03-20T10:27:00.001-07:00

Please check out some of our photos

Gallipoli : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69561&id=584266324&l=d52a5ee257

Troy : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70489&id=584266324&l=72762d687c

Ephuseus : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70697&id=584266324&l=6405208f8f

more photos from istanbul

2009-03-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

Photos from Istanbul

2009-03-15T07:27:00.001-07:00

A little late but still useful information

2009-03-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

The feeling of being cooped up in a large car for 10 hours a day watching some of the largest and most prehistoric creatures has its ups and downs on many levels. Over all it was fantastic! What we saw on day one was well worth our money. We traveled with 2 medical students from teule and their friend who was also doing an elective but in malawi. One day one we drove from arusha to the Serengeti and out the other end where we stopped at Ikoma Safari camp run by pepe (an old bracelona businessmen man who just steeped out). By the end of out 5 day safari we saw 4-5 big five (elephant, lion, water buffalo and rihno), 4-5 small five (ant lion, leopard tortoise, buffalo weaver, and rihno bettle) plus tons of other things. Dad who doesn't call him self a birder racked in over 100 species of birds with a great deal of help form our knowledgeable driver Lawerence. He was a nice guy, spoke good english but got a little edgy when we would ask about a common bird name. All he would was "come on I have told you 100 times" which as you could guess got on our nerves as well. Our safari inculed 5 days, 3 parks, 3 catan games and a whole lot of bear and soda.
Muheza was god when we left. All regulars sad to see is leave especially sylis (bike fundi) and jafari (grocer). Our last day consisted of many a bike fundi trips (he is adding a new extension on to his shop which we are calling the marsh-norgrove extension for all the money our bikes have brought in to him), packing which was a brutal task, goodbyes (very sad), and a final pizza dinner with Ally, Sefu, Kevy, Maxee, and Zacka, which ended badly as ally neglected to tell his mom and got a few slaps!!! The next morning was final packing, more sad goodbyes are our final drive though and out Muheza with tears in our eyes. Good Bye Muheza We Will Be Back Soon!

25 days to go!!! (I don't want to leave)

2009-02-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

With us in our last 4 weeks we are slowly bring everything to a close. We all don’t want this last month to go fast but with the amount of stuff that needs to get done it just may. Our last month consists of the Serengeti next week, a workshop at bombo hospital for Wednesday and Thursday of this week plus our goodbyes and maybe we will try to squeeze in a trip to Lushoto (a town in the heart of the Usambara mountains).
School is back in full swing! The new buildings are going up fast and the Africans say next week but Sister G knows that not true. I am in Standard 7 and Simon decided to stay in 5 (I think it was because he wanted a reason to be able to do his own math because I was ahead of him. (Always competing!). My teacher was Simon’s teacher last year who moved to my class. He is very kind and wouldn’t dare to hit a kid so the corporal punishment has ended. The kids enjoyed Rose’s computer lesson so much that when ever one of our visitors (Joel and Paula, Stephanie and Fiona) come up to the school the kids are always asking me if they are here to teach computers.
We were all choked when massive dump trucks started bringing truck after truck of a dusty soil mix with large rocks. We knew it would be something that would not do our bikes very well. Ally (our new bike partner who just showed up at our house on morning calling out “simon , simon” over and over again. He is in neither of our classes and neither of us knew him at the time. We are now good friends with him) said they are paving it which will not be done in the time we are here so I think it is all very bad timing. It is now almost impossible to ride with the big piles spilled across the road.
Last week we went to Peponi with Joel and Paula, who left in the middle, and then were met by Stephanie, Fiona and their two daughters Eva and Hailey. This meant we had two sand island trips in 3 days! The meals were just as good as we remembered and I had something new every night. For the first three nights we shared the family banda with Joel and Paula which is a double bed with a side room with 4 singles. It was perfect for what we needed. When Steph and Fiona arrived we moved for the one night where Joel and Paula and Steph and Fiona overlapped, but then Sy and I moved back to the double bed the next night. Simon woke up on the Sunday morning feel as if something was in his ear (like water) and he couldn’t shake it out. After a day where he was almost in the water all the time it bleeds during the night and we realize he has punctured his drum. We think it happened by the water pressure of diving down but we don’t know. We just today got and email from the ear doctor in Sidney who said it should heal up fine with a few drugs and there is no need to cut the trip short. Anyway by the end we were there for 6 nights which was awesome!
Our visit with Joel and Paula (besides going to Peponi) was lovely but short. Paula loved Muheza just like so many of our visitors and she even told us in a recent email that she had strongly considered coming back for a week to ten days but realized it would be hard to pull off. She loved the scene in general and we even relaized from her walks in Muheza she loves shopping as was buying kangas or ktangas on every trip. She left with 2 tie fisher pantsade by the fundi. We went to Amani on there first weekend here which they both loved. We saw chameleons and tons of other creatures. Again she shopped at the gift shop up there.
Internet connection is in Muheza but it is our access that is limited. After a server crash in late December our laptop has never connected SO I am having to ride my bike up to the local “internet café” to bring our emails back on word documents and send others. This is the reason for the delay in the email you sent us. All I can tell you is we are trying and we all can’t wait for internet in England!! Plus just to add another effect to the whole this is that the Café owner hates me and will do anything to make it as hard as possible for me to get stuff down. A few cases are I walked in and she was on her computer and all the other computers were full so I waited. Less then 30 seconds later a woman walks in the owner gets up and this woman sits down. They both look up at me and laugh. I usually end up with the slow computer on purpose.
We leave for our safari in a few days. We got a very good deal with one of Sally’s ( the doctor) nurses husband who runs a safari company. The final cost was $800 per adult and he doesn’t charge the kids. Two medical students and their friend from Malawi are also joining us which knocks the price down again. We will have our cameras tuned and ready for the experience of a lifetime (I think).
I said it last week that I was looking forward to some cold weather but I don’t know if healthrow being closed because of snow is too cold. Haha. I will try to get yah posted.
G

Tons of Stuff

2009-01-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Wow long time no post. Tons of stuff has happened in the past weeks I need to tell. School is back in full swing with me in Std 7 and Sys staying in Std 5. There have been no wazungu teachers yet which is different from last year when there were so many. Sister G is busy but doing fine. She has squeezed her office into the staff room while Std 7 resides in her old office until the new buildings are done. From what I hear the builders are more picky and not as willing as before. Sister is no tot happy about that.
Joel and Paula’s visit was nice but short and we finished if off with 4 days at Peponi on the Indian Ocean. Tons of Fun! After they left Stephanie and Fiona Manning cam and we spent another 4 days on the beach. Oohh yahh. Very hot here which is unlike what I am hearing of Canada. Obama is the president and my dad miss calculated the hours so we missed the speech!! History History Lots of Politics. Feel out of the loop here
Especially with NHL no scores and no time to check. Haha
g

back from dar and off to amani

2009-01-16T05:32:00.001-08:00

A weekend in Dar for meetings, shopping, a wedding and just plain wandering. We arrive in Dar after what seems to be a longer then usual bus which sucks when it already fells long enough. We are with Alex and Emily this time so we take up two cabs instead of one which can really be a hassle. We take everyone out for lunch at what was our faviorite restaurant when Sy, Dad and I were late November. Some of the waiters still reconied us as regulars. They all seem to enjty yhe meal. I think the worst part of that day was the realization that our rooms A/C was not working and not going to ever work in the period of time we were in this room. That night the heat was unbearable. We had a fan which you could say keep the hot air moving because all it did was move the already hot air just enough for the room to be toerale to sleep. Thankfully I could feel no mosquitoes in the room but Dad did say he got bit by something. That night Alex and Emaily were off to the “sending off” party for this wedding that they then attended on Sat Afternoon. From what I can tell it was a experience for sure and the food was great! They described one moment when during the party the waiters just kept bringing you the same soda you ardered at the beginning so they ended up drinking 6 bitter lemons between them. Heaven!!!! On Friday which was my parents first day of meetings we hung out with A and E for the morning and to endeavour our painfully hot room just a few times during the day. Emily had her first experience with the overwhelming Katanga shops which are very near our hotel. Mom then had the same oerwelming experience sthe next day when she went in to the ow of shops saying she was going to buy 3-4 and then left what I would say was 8. I found and ordered a Tanzanian Keeper Juersey from the nathinal team provider which we came across with some very variable directions that lead us to many different soccer shops all over town. On our last night in the Jambo Inn we moved to a different room which was the same room we stayed in on our last visit and has a ice cold frezzer box A/C which made us feel cold and put on more clothing during the night. Then we were back on the bus the next morning and on the treacherous 5 hour bus ride but at least were back in Muheza.
School starts tomorrow! I bet by the time I ge this on the blog we will have completed our first first day at HFPS. Joel and Paula arrive tomorrow and I bet they are in Dar right now or will land soon. Can’t wait to see them. Sadly Catan 5-6 player seafarers etension was not in the packing list. She gave it her best shot. Even with some help from Graham. No luck. We will survive! Wish me luck at school. Email a big hassle lately so don’t worry if you haven’t been replyed to yet. Theare trying. Internet had to come by lately and same with water. Regional shortage. Teule only place with water and even we sometimes don’t have any. I have been carrying buckets out the the outskirts for those with out water. Sefu, Julliette and so on. Lots of fun. Talks soon.
G

rats = musty

2009-01-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

Thankfully the musty smell of a dead or decomposing rat is now gone. While Dada and I were in Tanga Simon and Leah had an epic day where first they found the rat in the back of the oven disintegrating in the control box (which would answer the question of the shorting out every time the oven was turned on). Mom and Juliette were put to the task of cleaning this, which she says she was almost throwing up during the entire event. Just to make matters worse the water was coming out of the faucets a little dirtier then usual and when Juliette went and checked the tank there where worms on the surface and when then tank was then drained from the bottom black liquid came out and from what I here this was a thick black substance of silt that had built up on the bottom. My mom all a little creeped out by this felt sick for the rest of the day and the next day. All of this happened while dad and I were out.
We already start school next week. When taking out the major things we are doing like Pangani, Peponi, Safari in mid Febuary, a visit by Joel and Paula plus maybe another trip to Amani so Mom can see the chameleons. It will be nice to get back. I haven’t seen Sister G in a few weeks so that will be nice. Get back into playing marbles and all.
Yesterday and the day before we had a new king of power problem. This was surges and then very low and then up so high it looks like the fan will come off its wheel and then so low that when the fan was on high it was doing maybe 10-20 rotations a minute. This was happening all over Teule hospitali so Ben was rushing around trying to get someone on the job.
There is no water in Muheza for three monthe (we think). The constant rush of people getting water from our outside tap has steddly grew and the sound of buckets filling is now waking us up and keeping us from sleeping. Right now in Muheza almost every 2nd or so bike will be piled high with between 40-60 litres of water. Lately I have also been riding up water on the bac of my bike to Juliette’s house and Sefu’s Mother’s house. We (Kevy, Sefu and I) will usually bring 60 litres between the two houses which are very near each other to be split evenly. It is a very fun thing to do as you get to ride out in to the outskirts of Muheza to deliver this highly cherished substance. HAHA
We are going to Dar on Thursday with Alex and Emily. My parents have to do some mre Morphine meetings to try and get the medication to Bombo hospitali which is in Tanga. We will end up going with them to all these places if you were wondering!
That’s all for now. We are having a little bit of computer email problames but that should be resolved soon. Sorry if your email has been lost in all the transferrering. We should be back into a good system soon. See yah Later.
G

Pictures from Zanzibar

2008-12-31T00:56:00.000-08:00

Back in Muheza

2008-12-31T00:46:00.001-08:00

This is the after shot of my first major wipeout on the bike. As Sefu called that I am now black. Many major cuts all over my body. I feel I got away un scathed and I was laughing 5 minutes later. Sefu lately has been riding with us and taking some enjoyment of it. We have our usual loop that he has done 5-6 times and on the occasion we will do our long loop which involves a 10 minute no peadleing segment which he and I love to race.
Julliette was booged down with cloths from our 8 day Zanzibar trip. The laundry basket was overflowing. Having left the flash drive in the pockets of my shorts I realized that that was now in the wash. Quick moements saved the fob and all the documents on it. It didn’t quite get fully water drenched so it was easily savable and was then tested on the big computer at the hospital because if any computer here is going to need some reason for replacement it is that one.
We have now become somewhat into Turkey and Bike Trip planning. With the help of google maps we got down some distances and starting to give others who might join us some idea of where we are going to be. The route is slowly taking shape and google maps may tell us that the highway is fastest but that is not really what we are looking for.
Zanzibar finished with a bang. A 2 and a half hour truck/daladala ride with at least 30 people meant that there was some amount of money being handed over at the police stops. The classic moment was when our little truck licenced to carry 20 drove past a larger bus licencedto carry 30 when we had 30 oursleves. Met some Solvakian volunteers who were just finishing there time in Uganda doing teaching about “good” agriculture with the aspects of composting, no deforestation and land consevation. They were saying a lot of the same stuff about time that we say in the sense of they were there for 6 months and it took 3 months to get the compost up and running. First just apile of waste, then a hole with garbage and yard waste and so on. We got there email and wl contact them again.
We are back to our usual routine of Math, and English. Brain needs a refresher from not doing it for a week. Nice to be back in Muheza. Will post again soon
G

Merry Merry From Zanzibar

2008-12-25T03:14:00.000-08:00

It is seeming that a lot of my blogs are starting with ``it has been a long time since I have posted'' which it has. We are in Zanzibar for Christmas on a postcard perfect sandy beach. Yes the postcards dont lie. Lately the weather has been overcast here on Zanzibar but a couple of days it has been in the high 30s to low 40s. Dad and Mom found Stone Town a little to "lonely planetyyy" for them and I aggree it was alittle over the top. With people hassling you almost every time you step out the door it got a little much. It took until the thrid day to figure out the meal thing with us paying 40 the first night, 22 the second night and 8 the last night. Mom and Dad have satified there coffee need with two latte's from the Zanzibar Coffee House and a expresso from on the street. Our hotel was the Flamingo in which was a little our from tourist ville and had tons of tiny streets near to go exploring. We found that there was one alley that was the true tourist hot spot with all the gifts and souviners at your finger tips. We rode a converted truck out to the beach. It is like a small pick-up truck are staying with a roof and bench seets. We are staying at the Red-Monkey Bungalows which is true to his name with enough Monkeys for it to be able to be a consevation site for the Red Monkey which is endangered. It is quite nice with a massive sand bar and swimming. The tide is the only problem beacuase whzen it goes out it goes out and it is only in for a short period of time. We have found ways around that with us walking out on the sand bar before diving in. Tons of creatures to see and just today I saw a mini squid shot out black ink beacuse i spooked him.
Muheza seemed ok when we left. We took the worlds fastest Daladala out to the airüpport which left almost immediatly which is very unusual. The pilot of the plane was from sidney. Yes sidney BC and he reconiced my Canucks Tshirt. He said he remembered Tanners Book Shop and all that. That was quite funny. The Amos family (Ben and Sally) had all come down with a cold just after there safari in the serengetti which brought back many great stories from Maxee (4) and Zacha (7). Now that we have left it looks like Alex has cuaght the cold to so we left at a very good time. Sunday night Catan carrys on as usual with the medical students. Now that we have just recieved Seafarers(another extension) we will be even more popular. I have just started to work and give my input on the Teule website and school is already going to be back in 2 weeks. ahh. Mom is back from Canada which as you all know happened a while ago but I am just that slow on the posts. Another AT news will be sent to rose soon and a christmas special plus pics whn i get around to it. I will hopefully write again soon. Merry Merry again and Happy New Year. Love to all. G

Things in and around Muheza

2008-12-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

In the case of the punch buggy I got everyone on no punch backs. Simon was to busy taking photos of the car so I have to give him credit for the photo and Mom and Dad just don’t have the cat like reflexes like I do but I have to admit we are were a little late to start having not done it in a while.
We are just returning from a day in Tanga where Mom and Dad were on rounds at Bombo so Sy and I were off to our usual Mkonge rotation of Breakfast, Soka on TV and Schoolwork. We for the first time got to watch a Champions League game from start to finish. The first one was Lyon vs. Berlin in the champion’s league and arsenal vs. fc Porto also a champion’s league game.
As you can tell Mom is now back Jet lagged see was but is now getting back into the sort of routine. We had a 4-day weekend because of a Muslim holiday and Independence Day so that came a t a perfect time. She has brought back tons of reading material so none of us have been talking to each other at all over the last week.
I hate to tell yah this but I am already bored of being out of school. It was just starting to get to be a part of my daily routine when it ended. I will just put it out there that it is not fun with a bugging brother, relatively easy but sometimes challenging math, heat and 6 weeks with no summer camps. I now it sounds fun but I found that after the first week or so I was deadly bored. I know I know it sounds unreal but it is true.
Mangoes and Plums are now ripe and it looks like carrots and cucumbers are going out of season. Bananas are still going strong as I like to say as well as tomatoes, onions etc.
For all of you corresponding with L and A we are having serious problems with the downloading of emails. And no we have not just fallen off the map. I am trying very hard to fix it all as it is very slow and Ben is away in the Serengeti so there is no real computer technician to speed it up. We are really bummed about this and we will try to stay in touch.
There seems to be water rationing going on in Muheza as we cant tell but from the schedule, which is in Swahili, we either have water on Tues. and thurs or no water on those days and just to throw in another problem our water pump was on its last days and choose the best time to give out so we even f we had water had no water which caused great hassle and the using of the dreaded shower bag just to keep cool. Thankfully the fixing process took less then 30 min when we finally had someone go out and buy the new pump but all together it could have been a lot longer.
We are now starting to get a steady stream of letters and snail mail and now just before Christmas Parcels. Keep up the good work on the mailing front. It looks like most things from NA are about 2 weeks.
Anyway that pretty much summed up what we have been doing lately. Christmas is coming and you wouldn’t know it here. Ha-ha
g

A.T. News

2008-12-14T21:51:00.000-08:00

Fun in the Sun in Dar

2008-12-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

With us just back from a great weekend in Dar and Alex and Emily cleaning and fixing up there new house things were a little crazed when we got home. We had a wonderful time in Dar and the match was great with Tanzania winning 3-1 over Sudan. There was a great atmosphere when they scored but when Sudan scored you wouldn’t have known only that the ref brought the ball back to center. The crowd just did nothing. Not even a boo. Dad says his meetings in Dar were worthwhile but we might need to go back later with Mom but he received all the necessary emails and numbers to get at least an application in to get morphine at Bombo (Tanga’s Main Hospital). We had a couple brutal cab rides especially the one back a forth from the TFDA (Tanzania Food and Drug Agency) which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and was a half and hour drive or more both ways. We tipped heavily on that ride. We had some very good meals and then some not so good meals. We found this amazing restaurant just around the corner from out hotel that had rice, chicken, mutton, samosa and sodas fro lunch and chicken and chips with some pastries for dinner. It had a little bit of every thing that would please us all. The dinner at the hotel was good but expensive so we only ate there on the first night when we were exhausted and didn’t want to walk around. The breakfast was a minute omelet, 2 slices of toast, a banana (on good days) and your choice of jam or blue band from the tiny selection that is scraped on to your plate that when spread very well could not cover more than a quarter of the toast. Our room had 3 single beds a bathroom, AC and a fan, which was really, all we needed accept my Dad really wanted a TV, which we didn’t have.
With school out for six weeks we are going to get very bored thinking of all you back at home struggling through a day of school while we lounge around. I don’t think it is going to be like that for us. We will be doing our home school package that we brought so don’t worry about us not having something to do and no, J7asper we don’t need some of your homework.
Our internet has been own so I don’t know when I will get this finally up but hopefully soon and I will post again soon.
G

A Walk in The Woods

2008-12-05T03:24:00.000-08:00

The mosquitoes may have been bad but with what we saw it was well worth the the bug dope. The sights were amazing on the “chameleon walk” with us seeing massive grasshoppers the size of our hands and little tree frogs hidden so well beneath the leaves but best of all was the chameleons!! They came in all shapes and sizes with the colors sadly staying the same but people say that it takes a good while for the color to change.
A group of us meet at the Amani headquarters at about 8:30. Dad , Sy and I. Alex , Emily and the two Irish girls who had just finished teaching at Holy Family Primary School. The seven of us had high hopes for this walk and we were ready to see sights that made the $30 entry fee worth while (We only had to pay 5000 shillings or $5 because of our residence permits but the Irish girls had to pay full). We meet our two guides who know this stuff like the back of there and which makes us all walk a little easier. All of us “Americanized” folk with our 6 bulb super LED lamp and them with a light hardly right at all and they are the ones who can find these magical beasts.
We, sorry The Guides, spot the first Chameleon. A pigmy chameleon standing very still on a branch. We found out that once something a whole lot bigger then them approaches them their only tactic for survival si to stand very still and not move. This one was very small and its eyes ooo it eyes were very cool. They are almost a little eye on the end of a funnel they are very neat to look in close at.
With these creatures standing amazingly still it made it quite easy to get in close and “check them out.” The guides would even break off the stick that they were on to bring it close for us to see and then out it back very gently. It was very good we had these guides because first of all we would not have known our way and wouldn’t have had a clue what to look for and these guys knew.
Now it is back to the campsite for a nice long sleep because I can tell we are all so tired but again it was well worth it.
g

Internet

2008-12-04T04:51:00.001-08:00

The hospital is having major internet problems
Right Now i am up at a internet cafe
no idea when it will be back up
they are doing a complete refitting
g

Movie

2008-11-24T06:25:00.000-08:00

My movie is on the bottom of my blog
for those who want to see it.
g

After A Hard Days Cycle

2008-11-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

From Amani

2008-11-23T04:43:00.000-08:00

We have just got back from an awesome weekend at Amani Nature Reserve. We stayed at this campsite way up on the top of a cliff. We did a lot of walks in and around it and then a night walk on Saturday night where we saw camelons, large crickets, stickbugs and tree frogs. It was very cool to look in close at a chaemelons. Alex and Emily’s tent is in worse condition then it was in Peponi. Two poles have now broken. We only ate dinner at the lodge and brought up all our own fixings from breakfast and lunch. The two Irish girls stayed down in Amani village at the rest house there. They then met us for the night walk. The road up was not as bad as first though and our residence permits saved us $85!!!! We only ahd to spend 5000 shillings instead of $30 each person.
We have a Catan game scheduled for 7:30 tonight with the medical students for our usual Sunday night Catan. Mom has arrived safely in Toronto and has now visited her Dad. We will send usdates as we get them.
Just a little one for now
Talk soon.
g

Lots of News

2008-11-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

Having not blogged for many day lots of new has come upon. Mom is leaving tomorrow, being Thurs, to head back to Toronto to visit her Dad who is in hospital with a broken hip and complications. We are all going to Tanga tomorrow so she can fly down to Dar and then fly KLM home. Many thanks to Sal and Rose who made this possible my finding the flight and booking it. What would we do with out them!!! She will be gone for what looks to be about 10 days to 2 weeks. In that time we will have gone to Amani Nature Reserve, Sudan vs Tanzania at the big field in Dar and most likely a couple hundred Catan games.
Our weekly Catan game with the medical students is going well. I was very close to winning last week but one of them is a Catan expert and has won both weeks. Now that Rose is home she has clarified many rules from Catan.com. I don’t know if she has started to play online yet at playcatan.com. Haha.
Just finished week of exams at school with Sy and I only having to write the English and otherwise just helping Sister G with odd jobs. Our marble skills have plumted. We have lost something around 50 marbles and counting. It is a good thing it is only 2 cents a marble. Mom went into Tanga last week and bought a used bike like Sal and Rose’s so she can actually have some left over energy after the short ride. She likes her new bike and now we fly all around on them except we are still suck on getting up the hills which is going to take some time!!!!
Hope you like the pics I was finally able to get up on the blog. It took some definite re-sizing to very small pics, but fro m what I can tell they aren’t half bad. If you saw my very short blog I said that I has figured out the computer problems which was just a small problem that was right under my nose. Almost had to call Graham in Ottawa but solved it a good hour before our scheduled calling time. I am very proud of myself.
Really gotten into reading here with all my extra time. Just finished my fifth book so far. The first book I read really challenged my reading and excelled me ahead once completed.
The Swahili, ah yes, the Swahili I didn’t realize how hard a new language is to learn and we all agree that if could do one thing differently in that last year it would be to have learned just some of the basic Swahili before coming here. It is just the pronouctation that has got me stuck but I am slowly pushing my way through the teach yourself Swahili which I was doing in school before this week.
My movie has made it on to the website but has not won yet. I you want to see it go to www.guardian.co.uk/canonfreecording and it is under the more movies section. Don’t let the little blurp about it fool you. The only reason it says Graham was because I am not 18 and I am not a resident of England. Since he is older then 18 and used to live in England he put his name in the entry form. It is also on youtube under Guardian Movie Entry. Hope you can find it.
We are getting a new fridge which is big news around here but my not be as big back home. The only reason I am saying this is because of me self urge to fill up and entire page of a word doucument so you proble don’t need to liten to the next new but I guess I am out of something to tell you so I will just sit here and keep you reading till I sign out and say goodbye. G

Computer Problems

2008-11-17T05:09:00.000-08:00

I think I have fixed the computer problems. And this is very big because I did it without the help of Graham. I am so proud of myself. G

This is just getting ridiculous

2008-11-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

Even more Pics

2008-11-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

Here is some more pics

2008-11-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Finally a picture maybe more to come

2008-11-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

hope you enjoy your one pic
g

2008-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

internet is very slow so posts will be limited
computer not connecting any more
bye
g

Photo Post From, Ontario!

2008-11-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone check out a photo post below!!

http://ambleahgriffinsy.blogspot.com/2008/11/photo-post-from-ontario.html

And a video post below!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSbGVJtdagM

hey all

2008-11-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

A big congratulations to Barack Obama for his us election win. This will really change the world having a African-American President. We are reading a history book out loud that has all the history about the slave trade and the first settlements in Africa and now there is a Black President of The United States of America. Wow the world has come a long way.
Sally and Rose leave tomorrow. So we are all going I to Tanga for the day and then we are staying the night at a hoteli. Today was Rose’s final day of teaching at the school and Sister Gwyneth gave her and Sally a map of Africa carved on a slab of Banana tree. Their final week has gone so fast with my parents in Tanga and us up and down to school everyday. Good time to have a three day weekend.
Graham should be posting some photos on the blogs son. Hopefully! We just sent him the passwords so any day now.
School is getting more and more boring. We write are exams on Thursday of next week. That should be interesting. I might be helping Sister with the laptops and maybe even running some little practice times so that the kids don’t lose touch of the skills. I now can’t wait to ride S and R’s bike everyday since it is so much better and so quiet. I am making new friends at school and playing tons of marbles. This week was a rather bad week or a up and down because you never know how you are going to do.
Sal and Rose have now left That just shows you how long it takes to right a blog. We had a very nice visit with them, but just the same it is very sad to see them go. I guess now all those guys in Victoria will hear some great stories. They right now are in Zanibar and will be until Wednesday before they head home.
We have now received two pieces of mail!!!! One from the Victoria clan at Thanksgiving and one from Rachel (Rose’s daughter) in Korea. Please keep them coming. We figure that it seems to take about 2 weeks form Canada and some where around that from Korea.
I have a massive sunburn from being at the Mkonge with Sally and Rose on Friday. The doxychycln makes your skin more sensitive to the sun so I am much easier to burn. That really sucks.
I will talk again soon.
griff

Hello All

2008-11-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

School has changed from "fine" to "boring." What can i say. I am doing all my own work and reading in class. We write are school exams on Thrusday if next week. So those might be interesting.
It is now quite hot here and hit 40c last week. And the worst part is it is still going to get hotter.
I will do a longer blog later
got to run
g

Happy Halloween ( you couldn't tell it here)

2008-10-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone
happy hallowen
i hope candy is saved for me
g

Happy Halloween ( you couldn't tell it here)

2008-10-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

At times I feel it is good that I am having a very easy time at school or I would be very tired at the the end of a week. I know that it is not the end of the week yet but as I sit here sewing together my Halloween costume I think how these people go there entire life with out collecting candy for a full day and then finally fishing it all weeks later. I know it is such a “Americanized” thing but I am struggling not to be able to do it this year. NOT! It is always good to take a break from something you love eve if it is Halloween. Any way. All the really big news is I saw bug with a cool diesign on the back and that is really all I have done. NOT again!
Lets see the big news is Amb finally won his first Catan game after what seems to be like 50 games. Mom comment that this was just like poker got a little to personal. Haha. Sy and I seem to be coming home with lots more marbles them when we lleft for school which in the scheme of things is a good thing. I hope. We have tabs for kids who owe us marbles. Can’t get ripped off. I finished my entry movie and sent it off with graham so hopefully he will enter it with his Potters Bar address that he got when he was on his gap year to enter it. Cross your fingers. Can’t get my hopes up though. It was fun to do anyway.
Graham showed us some faster ways to get internet and that has worked quite well. We are now able to connect quite frequently. Thank god. I love the market here. It has a great atmosphere. It is just lovely to be in.
I bet now by the timwe I post this it will be Halloween. Ooooooohhhhhh
Later. g

More info about me

2008-10-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hello All you who read my blog.
Rose and I have been talking about our blogging saying that when you are typing your blog it is like a private diary that you just go let out to the world. Funny that. We have bogged down the cloths fundi (mechanic) over the past few days with Graham and his stuff for Leslie and all of Momís and Rose Pants. I got Pin striped pants in the market and I am getting them turned up on the bottom. I am picking up Swahili pretty fast. I have an ear for the numbers and I am doing my own Swahili in class. Rose has been uploading lower quality pictures, so I will start trying that. The internet is just not fast enough for a good quality pictures. Rose has two weeks left to be my IT teacher. She is stressing out that she still has to do Excel Spread-sheeting. Rose has just started a time management book that she realized that if she didnít start it now she would not finish it on the trip. Bad Time management!!!! I just finished my third book of the trip. AIRBORN for all you who have already read it. I loved it. I couldnít put it down. Sal and Rose have a very efficient bike that I am eyeing for when they leave. I know I am terrible. We took the day off on Friday to say goodbye to Graham. It was sad to see him leave. Luckily we still have two more weeks with Sal and Rose. Simon is quickly doing his math to catch up to me since I have been doing it at school. He is always competing. I was looking at facebook last night and saw holly had said ëíyou have Internet!!!íí I hope all realize that we doo have internet it is just very slow and hard to get a chance to use it. That's all. Hope you are all well and I will talk soon. G

hello

2008-10-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

It was so sad to see Graham leave. It felt like he just got here and he left. But that is what it is like with all visits with someone you love. Sal and Rose leave on the 7th for Zanzibar for a week before heading home. We have 10 Anglicans visiting for a week. So my parents are going to be very busy but luckily they are not staying in our house. Karilyn also arrives on Monday. She is the doctor who recruited my parents to Tanzania. We saw her in England so it will be nice to see her again. With Rose teaching us IT and leaving in two weeks she is stressing out about finishing the curriculum because we are still on paint and my class has to do Excel spread sheeting. More time away from school is all I get out of it. But it is still a start as school is quite easy. The schooling is two years below what i would be learning at home so i am ending up doing most of my own stuff. I am still making friends and playing marbles which we are getting very good at. When we rode home yesterday the temp hit 40c. It was almost to hot to ride. The internet did speed up in the middle of Grahamís visit but not by much. It was at least fast enough that Graham didnít cry for long periods of time at least. HAHA. Having French toast this Sat morning. Canít wait. Will post this soon. Not before breakfast. Write again soon. g

2008-10-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

One last thing
Graham brought me and sy ministicks and skittles
thank you bill and shauna
even though graham scratched out our names and wrote his
but thank you and i guess we will have to share with graham
g

Internet=a little faster but Graham still wants to cry

2008-10-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
I am doing very well. Wait that what I said last post. Lets give them the truth Griff. Ok

I am still doing well (see itís a different sentence). With Graham here his has figured out loops to get a little faster internet which has dad happy. There is now 5 laptops as we have one, Graham has 1, Rose has 2 and Ilse has 1. We are so westernized. The PE teacher at school is not running a good class if you know what I mean. Sally and Rose have moved to the hoteli just while Graham is here. School is quite easy and I have brought my textbook in to class because they are teaching stuff I learned 2 years ago. And it is completely the opposite in Swahili where they are way ahead and I am just reading a teach yourself Swahili. Riding our bikes to school has been a great success and we have almost been able to make it up all of the hilly path. Lots of marbles are played around the school yard and we have some marbles but have not yet brought them out. SOON!! We go through soda like nothing here because it is so hot. The days seem to be getting hotter and hotter and then the next day it will rain and when it rains it RAINS! We took Graham for his first trip to Tang and we will be going again on Sunday. For a swim and shop. The fan is your best friend and it sucks when the power goes out. I have found it quite easy to sleep through the Mosques late prayers. Other people have been up most of the night because of it. My movie is coming along nicely. For those of you who have not read my last post i am entering a Guardian contest for your best home video and i am doing mine on Muheza. For more info go to www.theguardian.co.uk/canonfreecording . The camera looks pretty nice that you can win. I am picking up a little bit of Swahili but it is a very complicated language. I know the most for my family so everyone uses me to translate. Lately we have had a break from Catan but I am looking forward to a great game tonight. Sadly we are not going to b able to post pixs on the blog until Graham and Sal and Rose go home to some faster internet. It would take all night if we did it here but we will send home a big disk with them which they can then transfer to the blog or email out. I have been told that ˇou are a very good keeperî a couple of times. I would like to thank Bobby Stankov and IKC(island keeper clinics) for getting me here. Lots to do here. Graham is going to cry because he has not had internet this slow before. Talk soon. G

What More Is There To Say

2008-10-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Habari all,
I am doing very well and school is going well and that’s all I need to tell you. G

Just kidding,
Yes as I said before and said in other posts I am and still am doing very well. I think I have gotten over the malaria medicine that was playing with my mind. Not completely over it by almost. I school is getting easier and easier day by day. Our teacher has been away lately because of a death in his family so we have really not done much. Graham has arrived safely. It is lovely to see him and to thank him for all the stuff he brought for us. A Catan expansion and tons of reading materials. The guardian, Globe , New York Times, and so on. I found a ad in the Guardian that was about a contest to make the best Home movie. I am going to create a movie about Muheza. Wish me luck. If you want to find out more about it go to www.theguardian.co.uk/canonfreecording. It has been quite rainy here and we had to get picked up from school early because it was too hard to ride in. We are getting very strong on our bikes even if it feels like they are going to fall apart underneath you. I will write again soon. Send me emails. G

hello all

2008-10-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

Habari Canada and some other countries.
I am doing really well. I think I have gotten over my sickness which is a big relief to me. I had to many sleepless nights that I lost count. Glad that is over. It is very rainy here with tons of huge rain storms. Like today it rained all day. Lots of Catan was played. For those of you that haven’t heard sy got a game from Sal and Rose for his birthday. It is called The Settlers of Catan. It is so addicting. We just finished a game like 10 minutes ago. I have won 3 of 8 games. School is going well but the academics are super simple. They are just finishing percentages which I did like 2 years ago. I asked the sister about the corporal punishment and she said she would deal with it. I hope I don’t have to worry about that any more. Sy and I got marbles after school on Thursday. We a getting rather good at it.. I think Simon is cheating he says not. Email is very slow or down so it is hard to stay connected. Rose and Sal are doing well and we all can’t wait to see Graham tomorrow!!! My snail mail address is
c/o Dr.Leah Norgrove
Hospitali Teule
Private Bag
Muheza, Tanga District
Tanzania

Internet=Slow

2008-10-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the gap between posts as I am very busy with school and when i do get on it crashes. It is a very unsequre network. I will try harder to get on when ever possible. Tons of stuff to talk about. Sick to a lesser extent now. Still unable to go to school 3 of 5 days. but i hope i am getting better. Saal and rose brought simon The Settlers of Catan for his birthday. I t is a very addicting game
we are trying to get graham to bring the extention along with 50 punds of other stuff. School mis going well and i hope the corpral punishment is over. Sister is hoping that the teacher has left. I am hoping to. it leaves a very wierd feeling in your stomach. I am glad that that is over. The resort was wonderfyl. Please read my post on the snnorkelling
like one post back.
sy is good and so is all of us. Graham arrives on sunday so i cant wait to see him
i am planning a nice relaxing weekend to just chill out.
talk to you all soon
Griff

A great time snorkelling

2008-10-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

I wrote this document for a L.A. assignment that Mom had brought me. It is about our snorkeling adventure at Peponi resort. My parents loved it and they said I should put in on the blog. Hope you enjoy it!

The fun began at about 10:30am. We gathered and made our way to the Pepi. There were 19 of us. 12 boys and 7 girls. We headed out towards the almost visible reef. As the doul motored across the rolling waves the crews starts to move and orders are being yelled until finally a massive sail is perched high on the mast. The boat rolls with the waves as we look out on the Indian ocean and some surronding islands. The horizon is clear, like a pencil line on the earth. Not a cloud I t eh sky. The sunscreen is passed around because we all know we are going to need it. We anchor to reeef stretching for miles down the coast. There is about a meter of water between us and a beautiful coral reef with hundreds of fish and sea life. The sun beats down on your face as fins and masks are passed about and we move ourselves into the water. Only a few seconds and your eyes are amerced in color. From the brightest of pinks to just plain black and white these fish are where graffiti artists pick their colors. They come in all shapes and sizes. The really neat ones camouflage into the seaweed to even the extent that it looks like the fishes body moves with the weed. The mention of stinging jellies scares me a bit, but I would have had no fun if I let the freak me out. I didn’t see one myself the entire time. I don't want to leave the water but we must to move to other fun things. Within minutes the sail was high and full of wind and heading northwest of the reef to a disappearing sand island. We arrive and the sand is hot on our toes. It is the color of parched wheat just before harvest. Everyone quickly lathers up with sunscreen as the crew unloads our lunches and builds a quick shape structure. Lunch consisted of whatever you ordered at the bar. I had a crab and mayonnaise sandwich like so many others. The water is warm and lots have come to the consensus that it is saltier then at home. Dad doesn’t believe it. I spend most of the rest of the day in the water. I circumnavigated the rather small island only with arm power (crawling along the sand. In the water) Dad didn’t believe I could do it but I did. We return to the Pepi and sail o home with a full sail. We return tired with crusty sea hair bit if you ask any one of us we will tell you they had a great Day. BY GRIFF

The bad night

2008-10-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

Dad said I should right a little thing for my blog about my terrible sick night at Peponi resort. It may get a little graphic for some people. No just kidding! Please enjoy a in-depth picture of my night at Peponi.

I bet I can speak for a lot of people in saying I hate nausea. I hate the feeling of puking or vomiting for those more in to the big words. In this essay I am going to give you in depth feeling of what it was like for me on the night of October 4th I was up all night with cramps, nausea, loose poops, hallucinations, puking and a couple of other things.
At diner I started feeling weird. I was truly bummed because I had ordered octopus and was looking forward to it. Once everyone had completed his or her meal I was still feeling uneasy so we headed back to the tent.
I have to warn you that I am only writing what I remember so don’t blame me if there are big gaps in the information. I remember only a small portion of the night and I will tell it to my best memory. Now where was I, oooo yes the tent. Now that we have returned to the tent and I was lying down I was starting to feel a little better. Dad read aloud and then it hit. I felt almost immediately that I was going to puke bit I didn’t. I decided to sit outside to get some fresh air. Dad came out to because he knew what I had and was worried I would get confused. Just to be safe he sat with me. I realized that he knew what I had and I had no idea. I was so confused. I was feeling quite hot and needed a cool shower. Together we walked to the bathroom and I cooled off. Ahh. Much better. After that I realized that I was not going to be able to stay at the tent so we headed to Sal and Rose’s banda. We tried to sleep of even rest because the mozies weren’t that bad and we didn’t want to disturb S and R. At this time I wasn’t really having nausea but more stomach cramps now. I was quite hard for me to sleep and I knew I couldn’t do it. I just lay awake feeling…weird.
I remember later on being positive that the monkeys were coming out but I was wrong. It was just a leaf. I finally puked at about 12:00am. I ran to a near by ditch and let….I would recommend not eating or drinking for a little bit because this next section gets quite in-depth…At the rail everything went. The octopus, the salad, the sprite. What a waste of food. I felt much better after doing this but here my mind goes blank on what happened for a few minutes. I don’t remember anything until my Dad returns with a bottle of water to swish my mouth out. When I woke he had walked past the tent and was dancing around because he had stepped on a ant hill and was getting bitten. After I saw him with the ants I was positive for the rest of the night that there was ants crawling all over me.
Then the rain began. It sounded like someone had a knob and was turning it up and down and up and down. It went on for about and hour and when it finished the breeze died down so we knew we would have to return to the tent because the mozies would start biting again. We slowly made our way back to the tent to the sound of a bird that was like a baby getting punched. I know very weird. At the tent the breeze came up again and I sat outside until finally I feel asleep in my dad’s arms and slept like a baby still eight, This is pretty much all I remember. This was a very weird night. For more in-depth stories like this one keep checking my blog.
Griff

all is well except i puked

2008-10-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

hello all
yes as you now know i puked.
it was from teh malaria medication so we are going to put me on a different one.
it has happened several times and just last night i started to hollusinate
(however you spell that)
we decided that that was enough so i am stoping that drug
we have just returned from a long weekend trip to peponi resort
it was awesome
we went snorkelling and had lunch on a sand island
we will deffinatly be going there again
school is gone well so far but the is a little bit of corpral punnishment
sometimes lots
it is alttle scary but i know i won't get hit and if i do i won't be going to that school no more
we are talkiing to the principal tomorrow because from what we have heard she does not tolerate beating of children
so we thank that this teacher might be doing this behind her back.
we are doing lots of biking
we bike every where and lots of times to the fundi(the mechanic) because these bikes fall apart easily
it is a good thing that it is on;ly 50 cents a trip or we would be broke.
tons of soccer
almost everyday
it is cool to see all the different moves kids have
some are also very fast
we ahve also watched a couple of organized game sin and around muheza
i love all the fruit
tons and tons of it
tons more come into season soon!
i am very tired so this is all i will say for today
sworry for the distance between posts
internets is hard to come by
overall 8i am well and so is the rest of the family
i wi;ll try to update again soon
griff

finished week 4

2008-09-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

We have just finished week four of this massive trip.
I feel that we are staying contacted with everyone rather well
School has gone well and the biking has been awesome.
I hear that it is raining in Victoria.
Is this true?
Sal and Ros ecom ein a few days and then Graham after that.
We will ahve a very full house.
Keep staying in touch.
griff

Sorry

2008-09-27T02:10:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
I am very sorry for the long delay in posts as it has been very ahrd to find internet and then we are having some small conputer problems.
Sya and I started school on Tues after buying bikes in Tanga. The first day of school went well as did the rest of the week. We have this week off as it is Ied and mid term. Couldn't fall on a better week. Sal and Rose are in there safari park just north of DAR and will arrive in 6 days. The food at the school is revolting as it is salty spinach and mass produced rice.ugh. Have started to make friend s at school and all is well. Graham arrives on the 11th so we weill have a very full house. Both sy and I got little bugs mine we think from the malaria medicine and sys we have no idea. They were just for a day or so and we are all good now. We have our bikes and we are riding everywhere. The ride to school will definatly prepare us for the cycle trip. They are one geared bikes and there is a lot of walking. Going for a swim after this. will try and stay a little more on top of it. will blog again soon. griff

Post from Muheza

2008-09-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

Habari everyone,
Got to Muheza safely, long long journey but lots of free stuff from biscuits to toiletry bags along the way.
I start school on Tuesday and will ride to school , just like at home.
Played lots of soccer already, our ball is like a magnet. You can bring it out for 5 minutes and have 20 kids around you.
Slowly picking up some of the language which is Swahili. I don’t know if I will be fluent by the end of it, but I should be able to have a conversation. Pops are like 50 cents, so you have to be careful not to drink 5 of them one day.
The weather has been hot as planned, around 28-35 degrees and this is in the cooler season. Apparently it will get close to 38 in Dec or Jan.
Tons of fruit and veg at the market, which is always a really hoppin’ place, so many different kinds of things being sold there from Billabong T-shirts to handmade woven baskets all at amazing low prices.
There are a few trees near our house which are swarmed with fruit bats, who make tons of noise and I have not been crapped on yet . they have yellow poo so it blends into the ground. Had been sleeping with the fan on all night and mosquito nets to prevent diseases like malaria and dengue fever.
Limited internet connection has made it hard for us to email and there has been a mass power outage at the hospital which no-one knows the cause of. Internet access should get better when that is solved.
Please keep checking the blog for further updates. Should be easier when the internet problem is solved at the hospital.
Griff

First Post From Tanzania

2008-09-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

I have made it safely to Africa
The flight went fine.
Emirates is a awesome airline!!
fly with it when ever possible
There best flight is Vancouver to Chicago.(NOT)
Writing From Intrenet Cafe in Tanga
We start school next week.
Bye for now
g

From Heathrow Airport

2008-09-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Wow
this is a big airport.
we are in the departures lounge and it is the size of mayfair mall or bigger(for all you victorians).
we leave for tanzania in 2 hours
will update when get to tanzania.
talk to you soon
g
ps funny story
i went to get new baggage tags for the bags
i just went to air canada because it was closest.
then when we went to check in with emirates they had the sweetest baggage tags
we stole a bunch and are going to make brand new tags
i guess i am lazy
what ever

Pictures From Past Few Days

2008-09-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our few days with Tilly in Wales

Update From Wales

2008-09-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for leaving your comments. It has been a very nice way to here what you think of my blog. I have tried to keep it update when ever possible, but who knows if it is going to come to a abrupt stop when we get to Africa or if, with much help from Rose, we could still update from Africa. As most of you know I was in charge of collecting all the technology that we would need on the trip. As I was doing this I received a lot of help from many people and would like to say thank you to some people.
First I would like to say thank you to Dan Nevin who helped set up the laptop with the right operating system and some on the GPS and Video Camera. Jane Eert you helped me figure out how a GPS really worked and got the necessary maps I would need. Lukas Blakk (Rose's Daughter) who helped set up the blogs and a torrent download site. Bill Marsh and Shauna McGarvey who helped out picking the right portable hard-drive, Patrick Baud who helped set up the email or "gmail" and Graham who set up many things like the transferring of files from our big computer to the laptop, Rose who is in the process of setting up internet in Africa and The people of Future Shop, Staples and London Drugs for supplying all the goods I would need. I hope I did not forget anyone.
If I did I am very sorry.

Today was Sy's Birthday. He got many things will probale tell you about them on his blog. Today the very neat thing I did was go horse back riding with tilly and we skyped with 5 different family's. Please leave you Skype address on the comment board so I can add you. Bye for now.

g

Pat's Talk

2008-09-06T08:20:00.001-07:00

Just to let you all know
Pat talk went very well and we are very proud of him
g

Waterfall

2008-09-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hey
I hope you all saw those departure photos.
They will be on the big blog soon
Today we went to the waterfall near tilly's house that is bigger then Niagara.
Pics to come.
Keep Checking
g

Good Bye Pics

2008-09-06T02:52:00.001-07:00

Hey check out all these cool pics from deb
thanks deb

More Pics From Deb

2008-09-06T02:50:00.000-07:00

A small update from Cambridge

2008-09-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

I write to you from kate and tims house
we are visiting them on a late wednesday night
Sy and I picked up a mini rugby ball and have had a lot of fun with that already
leaving for pat presentation tomorrow

g
ps soroy for the speeling msitkaes lsat psot

Post from England

2008-09-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

As I sit here in this cambridge internet cafe I just go through all what has happened over this past month, week or even day. So in this past day we have flown across the atlantic ocean and Canada aswell as enjured a 23 stop subway ride, visted platfrom 9 and 3 quarters, met my cousin right on schedule and had a 1 hour train to cambridge. And know I sit on this computer after a good meal missing you all but ready for more.

g

We are away for....

2008-08-31T22:47:00.000-07:00

just to keep you on your toes we are away for:

-303 days
-7272 hours
-436320 minutes
-26179200 seconds
-and the calculator had an error when i tried milliseconds

I hope this is correct
i could be way off
grif

Pictures of Trip

2008-08-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,
Please check out all our pictures from the trip on Flickr.com.
Just search up my name on filckr and it should come up.