SCARF

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Jodie

More Safari Photos

Safari Photos

Tanzania - Safari!!

We had a blast on Safari!!

Jimmy, Julie's Kenyan son (as she calls him), had come to Tanzania from Kenya just to hang out with us and show us around. He arranged for a great driver named Levan who gave us a brief history before we entered each of the national parks. He was very informative and it was great to have a personalised Safari without having to pay through a tour company. Such tours can exceed $10,000 US! When you consider there were 3 of us and we had a 4 day Safari.

Yep, Jimmy had thought of everything from where we would stay to which sights we should see.

In Arusha we stayed at a place called Pomoja Expeditions Lodge. This was just off the main road, great since we were close to everything but didn't have the noise of the busy road. Mr Boniface was the manager and such a nice man. He would greet us every morning and wish us "Lala Salama" each night, which means sleep well. Paul was our waiter and he was exceptional! He would serve us breakfast and dinner and drinks in between.

We stayed in a triple room which had a mosquito net which covered all three beds in a canopy. Which was great because there are lots of mosquito's at night.

There were so many animals in the National Parks it was hard to know if to look left or right. But Levan would stop anytime we came near something so we could get some great pictures. Which after viewing them I'm sure you will agree we did alright.

Our Send Off

More photos from Ruhengeri...

Last Days In Ruhengeri..

Following our last update, we did in fact have a very long day trip to LakeKivu with Teste and 4 Cuban doctors, who are doing some work here at thelocal hospital. We sighted the Congo border, from where empty UN troopcarriers were returning. There was a lot of Red Cross activity, plus Oxfamand UNHCR presence. Just a whole load of foreign aid vehicles camped at theborder. Anyway, despite the striking beauty of the area and the welcome break from our surroundings of the last 3 weeks, it was a tough day trip, so we were very relieved to be back at the volunteer house for a couple of drinks and an early night.

At about 2am we were woken by a low rumbling noise, which sounded as though there were a great number of heavy trucks passing nearby. Then the rumbling grew louder and the vibration started. When the house and everything in it started shaking quite violently, we realised that we were experiencing our first ever earthquake.

Everyone in the house had woken andGregoir, our night watchman, was outside talking to himself. He was alarmed, but alright.

The next day we heard that the earthquake had actually struck the area that we were in exactly one week ago - The Nyungwe forest and tea plantation area. We heard that about 300 houses had fallen down. This area is some 350kms away and the tremor that we had felt was significant enough to demolish some of the housing in our locality. The village where we had presented the first load of goats had two houses completely demolished, so we can only imagine the scale of the devastation in Nyungwe. Anyway, at the time we had considered that there may have been some seismic activity in the Volcanoes National Park, some 13kms from us and where we had trekked to see the gorillas. We were imagining lava flowing down the streets, but we were fortunate that it was nothing as dramatic as we had imagined.

Yesterday was a huge day, as it was our final day at the school and we had also scheduled the distribution of more goats, care packages, as well as feeding every child at the school and visiting Anunciatas house. In the afternoon a group of dancers were to entertain us. It was also the day for our last goodbyes. The recipients of goats and care packages just about hugged us to death - We are talking some serious bruising to ribs! They also sang and danced. We visited a few typical homes to deliver the packages and received great welcomes. We were able to take some photos, which will be thought provoking.

The toughest visit was to Anunciata. We took a care package. When we arrived at the house Anunciata was gravely ill. We had originally agreed that she would complete the floor and internal walls and that we would just be providing the basic structure. Upon seeing how ill she was, we were all in agreeance that some of the remaining funds would be put aside for labourers to spend the next 2 days crushing rock and installing the mud floor, so that she can at least move in. She immediately wrapped herself in the woolen blanket and we asked her children to make her some tea and use the sugar that we had delivered. Anunciata was very weak and barely able to speak. It was very tough to walkaway and say goodbye.

In the afternoon we returned to the school and were entertained by a group of dancers who put on an amazing show of traditional dance and music. The drumming was excellent - Phil Collins eat your heart out! That evening we decided to eat out. Believe it or not, Chinese food in Rwanda.

Anyway, as we stopped at Cathy's house to say a few goodbyes there, Elaine was just hauling herself out of the car when her right hand got slammed in the car door. The door was actually shut and her fingers trapped inside, knuckles on the outside. Surprisingly, her dialogue was not x-rated, but that may be because she was unable to speak for a few minutes. Nothing broken, not even skin, but some darned good bruising and swelling. The good thing is that had it been as bad as everyone suspected, we had a good deal of medical supplies available to assist!

We will provide details of expenditure and completed projects once we have returned to Australia. It is all a bit complicated as funds received were in Australian dollars. This was then converted to US dollars at various rates, due to the volatility of the US market at the time. All of our costings are in Rwandese Francs of which there are hundreds to the US dollar. We are unable to view any of the message board for now.

By this time tomorrow we will be in Tanzania where we hope to update you.

Photos are attached for your viewing pleasure & will add a 2nd blog just with additional photos.

Back to work

Well our feet are firmly back on the ground after the gorilla trek. We had several things to organise including more shoes, the components for the care packages & chasing up the carpenter for the school furniture and windows & doors for Anunciata's house. This in itself was a full days work. On top of that we had scheduled ourselves to go to another goat market and buy the last goats for distribution to families.

Happily all of this was achieved and we even distributed some of the shoes to the children.

On Friday we received a huge welcome at a local school where we distributed exercise books, pens & pencils to 700 students. The reception was so overwhelming and their gratitude seemed excessive for the small gifts that we had given. It just goes to show that something so small can make such a big difference.

The completed windows and doors were delivered to Anunciata's house, where we found her laying on rocks in the rain outside her house. It appears that she is again unwell and has been back to the hospital. There is little that we can do for her but hope she recovers soon.

In completing all of these tasks, it has become apparent that some of the funding provided by the larger Aid agencies simply isn't hitting the target. We were able to buy UN blankets which should have been distributed to refugees and cornmeal donated by US AID, which clearly states on the package "Not for re-sale". This means that someone somewhere is profiting from poverty, which is why we are so determined to ensure that we see where every cent of the money raised is spent.

This will probably be our last post for a few days as we have a full itinerary and need to complete a few projects before we leave here on Tuesday. We will soon be in Tanzania where we will have a few days on Safari before heading home and we hope to be able to update you all between now and then.