The Two Koops

Medicine Hat

2011-06-12T21:04:00.000-06:00

Come check out Local Pub and Eatery. Look at the good times.

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Pictures!

2010-09-03T13:15:00.000-06:00

Because the internet connections are quite bad in Africa, we were not able to upload any pictures. I am going to try and catch up now! I will start posting pictures from the beginning of our trip, and try and post pictures of things we talked about in our posts. Enjoy!

Vicotira Falls, Zambia side

Victoria Falls Bridge - the border between Zimbabwae and Zambia is the Zambeze river, the left half of this bridge is Zambia, the right half is Zimbabwae. This is also the bridge that Greg and I bungee jumped off.

Bunjee jump

Victoria Falls is a National Park in both countries. There are plenty of baboons to see.

This guy followed our boat for a long time. Upper Zambeze, before the falls.

Zimbabwae side of Victoria Falls.

Sunset.

The locals call this "the big tree". It is a baobab tree.

We encountered this guy while on a walk from our hostel to the big tree.

Impressions

2010-08-31T10:27:00.000-06:00

Our team has successfully completed three weeks of Music For Life Camp! Each week was different and had its own challenges and successes. We had to continually adapt and change or plans and our minds as we ministered to these people.

Our first week was in the small city of Entebe where the prominent religion is witchcraft. Our second camp was in the heart of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where the kids were noticeably more needy. Our third week was also in the heart of Kampala but in the slums. News about this camp spread faster than any western media could achieve and our original 80 kids turned into 250 by day four.

Our western ideals and attitudes had to quickly change as we were reviewing and planning for each day. Time is merely estimated by most local people here. Therefore, the beginning of camp changed from day to day. Lunch was at no particular time, we ate when it was ready. People are much more relaxed and laid back, it seems as if no one rushes for anything. In fact, if it rains here, it is acceptable to show up late to work because you have been waiting for the rain to stop before leaving home.

(I suppose I can think of a few exceptions. People seem to be rushing if they are driving. The rules of the road as we know them do not apply here. What seems to be 2 lane traffic can easily split into 5 or more lanes depending circumstances. In this city of 1.4 million people there are only 8 traffic lights, most of which also have traffic police standing underneath them. The police frequently override the lights and direct traffic causing huge traffic jams which they think they are helping. The city is littered with crater sized pot holes, and a whole variety of speed bumps. These only slow people down somewhat, in fact, the solution to this obstacle is to buy yourself a 4x4.)

(AND, when kids line up for food, or line up for anything for that matter, there is utter chaos. We had injuries due to lining up. My theory is that normally if they don't push their way to the front, they don't get anything. We, of course, always planned so there would be enough for everyone, including those at the back of the line.)

Cleanliness and hygiene are also things that we have had to become used to being different than at home. Washing yourself is something that doesn't happen often. Laundry happens but it requires getting water and washing by hand. This is extremely hard work so it is only done periodically. Shoes are expensive and unnecessary and are therefore not used by many. This leaves kids pretty dirty. We handed out toothbrushes to all the kids and they were more excited about them than western kids are when receiving a video game at Christmas. Body odour is a normal, socially accepted fact of life. There is no kleenex, toilet paper, or towels here, you can imagine the result...

Safety is an interesting subject here. Every mall, hotel, restaurant, bank, church, etc. is in a gated compound with security guards standing by. The guards all have rifles, and many places have metal detectors, devices to check your vehicle for bombs, and other security equipment. Some of you may have heard that there was a bombing in Kampala about 2 months ago. I find some irony in this considering there are more security guards with rifles per capita than anywhere I have ever seen.

Socially we've adapted quite well. We've learned some Lugandan phrases that, when used, go a long way in making a friend. Generally, the African people have shown us great hospitality, often going out of their way to offer is help. We've learned that when someone raises their head coupled with a long blink, they are actually acknowledging, not snubbing. We have struggled, however, with peoples vocal volume. No one here speaks up! We haven't quite figured out what the reason for this is yet.

We fly home tomorrow. I am sad to leave the team, the city, the country, and the continent, but happy that we had such a fantastic experience! Stay tuned for pictures!

My friend Taylor

2010-08-25T23:10:00.000-06:00

There are many things that one should be prepared for when heading to Africa. I spent a considerable amount of time researching and organizing vaccines and health care coverage, buying a mosquito net, packing bug spray and sunscreen, finding appropriate clothes, etc. Africa, in my mind, was a big scary unknown place where a countless number of bad things could happen to you.

After being here for a few weeks, I slowly realized that this is simply another place on earth where humans live happily and comfortably. The local people are not overly concerned about mosquitoes, malaria, sun exposure, robbery, health care, and the like. They simply live their lives. And, after being here for a while, we simply lived ours. All of my concerns faded to a point where sunscreen, mosquito nets, bug spray, etc. didn't seem like such an important detail any longer.

Originally, I wouldn't have dreamed of walking barefoot anywhere here, but, time wore on, comfort levels rose, and I found myself wandering campsites, beaches, and more without shoes on. Everyone was doing it. I know, I know, bad reasoning, but when in Rome, or Africa... Especially when you are staying on the tropical island of Zanzibar, it just seems natural to wander the white sand beaches in your bare feet. Little did I realize that this would come back to bite me (more literally than you might think).

As the island became a memory, my left foot became itchy. I thought it was simply a mosquito bite which needed a moderate amount of scratching. After a few days without change my mind started to drift towards athletes foot. I scratched. My nurse friend took a look, she was not convinced it was fungal. This concerned me a bit, but instead of doing something intelligent, I scratched. Several weeks after realizing my foot was suffering from an ailment that could not be diagnosed using the extensive knowledge obtained from my Bio 30 course, I decided I should have a local medical professional have a look.

I have health insurance. I will leave the name of the company out of this post in hopes they will continue to cover me. I decided I should call Blue Cross (oops) before going to the doctor. My card suggests that I call them collect. It was interesting to learn that the Ugandan telecom company does not offer that service. So after 2 hours of phone drama, I finally reached a human being. She took my information down and I explained, to the best of my knowledge, what my problem was. She politely suggested I see a doctor. After my brain finished calling her names, I used my mouth to ask some further clarifying questions. None of these could be answered however, all I was promised was a return phone call.

My driver and I decided not to wait for the call. At this point I was ready to get this figured out. I scratched. My driver said he knew the place where all the westerners go. Considering my heritage, I agreed this would be a good place for me.

The clinic was called "The Surgery". There were many mzungus, including two white doctors. After about an hours wait, I finally saw a doctor. My ears have become tuned to Ugandan English so understanding him wasn't a problem. The conversation was short and sweet. He asked me what my problem was. I showed him. He asked me if it was itchy or painful. I scratched. He asked me where I'd been. As I was saying Tanzania, he said, "oh, you have a tapeworm. Don't walk on the beach without your sandals on next time."

The doctor's desk was littered with normal doctor things: pens, papers, pictures, a stethoscope, and a few pill bottles of random sizes. He sat down at his desk and asked me if I'd like drugs. YES PLEASE! At this point I thought I'd receive a prescription; instead, he grabbed a huge bottle of pills sitting right on his desk, dumped some into a zip-lock bag, and handed them to me. He said, "take one twice a day. You're lucky, this kind of worm affects dogs badly but in humans it can't get to your digestive system. Your body prevents it." Wow, what a relief. For those nerds out there, I have Albendazole, the same drug used to de-worm just about everything imaginable. I am on a strong dose because the worm is in my foot instead of my gut.

Interestingly, as I write this now, it has become incredibly easy to see the worm under my skin. It is like he has been found out and has no reason to hide any longer. So, you may be wondering, who is Taylor? He is the worm in my foot. I named him Taylor the night before I went to the doctor. There is no reason for the name other than it was the first one that came to mind as I gazed upon the small, but significant eighth member of our team.

Week 3!

2010-08-25T12:38:00.001-06:00

We have enter d our last week of camp. This week we are at a small private school in Kampala.

We started our camp the same way we have in weeks past; songs, introductions, etc. At the start of the day we had around 80 kids, all of which were students of that school. However, as the day goes on, word spreads like wild fire about the Mzungus singing, playing, and making crafts. By noon, our number had nearly doubled. This can be tricky because we cannot always sustain such numbers. Classrooms are small, supplies are limited, and the kids can often out manoeuvre the adults making it difficult to maintain order. We can usually find a way to manage even though it is incredibly chaotic.

Our team is pushing hard. 3 weeks of constant interaction with hundreds of high energy children takes it's toll. We try our best to make sure each kid gets as much out of camp as possible; this is a tough task when you are tired, and emotionally strained.

I often stop and remind myself why I am here. Every one of these kids have hidden talents that are begging to be exposed. The sad, but realistic part is that almost all of these children do not have the resources to enable them. What I have realised is that they love us because we offer them hope; they see in us what they can also be, and more. I watch kids play football, for example, any one of these kids would dance circles around a Canadian adult. Almost all the children can sing, play drums, and dance. In many ways they are far more talented than Western raised kids.

I taught a class yesterday about aero dynamics. By that I mean I showed kids how to make paper airplanes. 6 year olds sometimes have trouble with learning the meanings of thrust, lift, weight, and draft. Nevertheless, they have been having a ball.

Craft supplies have been a cause of concern, but appear as if they will last with some to spare. Every night we make a huge mess in our guest house preparing for the next day. I usually make it worse by dumping a bag of foam fish over Lisa's head. We are all looking forward to the day we get to give away all the excess supplies. In fact, we plan on comming home with 4 less suitcases than we arrived with.

More to come.

Greg
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Day Off!

2010-08-23T04:06:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a well deserved leisure day after a week of hard work.

We went to a Full Gospel Church in the morning before driving to the equator. They have funnels set up on both the North and South sides to make an attempt to convince me that water flows in opposite directions. I still don't believe it is true even after experiments. People also say that anything with mass is 3% lighter when directly on the equator.... Another tall tale I'm sure.

In the afternoon we drove to a village that one of our Music For Life volunteers grew up in. His family prepared us a fantastic meal; pork (from one of their pigs in the back yard), rice, avocado (from their avocado tree), chapati (flat bread made of wheat flour), and, of course, Mtoke (mashed plantains). The portions were more than generous; Brad and I were the only ones able to finish our meal.

It was cool to visit a locals home. We got to experience the true home life of the local people. Life here is simple; time here is spent doing everything you need to survive. Houses are very small, dark, and unfurnished. Most villages are without power, and water needs to be fetched from a nearby well.

For dessert they pulled out a 15 foot sugar cane. you don't eat the actual cane, you rip it off with your teeth and chew it until all the sweet juice is squeezed out.

We saw a 12 foot termite hill. Our guide told us a story about when he had to dig one up when he was a child as a punishment. His purpose was to find the 10 inch queen termite so a pregnant lady could eat it (termites are high in fat, and fat of any kind is considered a treat to most people). Apparently it took him 2 weeks to find her.

I bought meat on a stick from a car window. It cost 25 cents. Very salty.

On the way back home we went drum shopping. After at least an hour of negotiating, we found our drums. Unfortunately they aren't finished yet, we pick them up on Wednesday. We bought them from the guy who supplies Music For Life with their drums- apparently they are the best of the best.

Our drums are called "ngolabi" which are long drums with a high pitch- they are unique to Uganda. The skin is made of lizard skin which takes at least 1 month to dry and stretch before placed on the drum.

Day off again tomorrow.
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Going Bananas!

2010-08-22T23:37:00.000-06:00

Uganda is not like the Africa you picture in your mind. It is very green and lush here. Bananas grow particularly well. So far we've eaten the following:

Fried bananas (called gange here)
Baked bananas (matoke - a staple at every meal)
Barbecued bananas (gange)
Mashed bananas (matoke)
Chopped bananas
Yellow bananas
Red bananas (cool hey!?)
Tiny bananas (like seriously one bite)
Huge bananas (2 feet long!)

These people have a banana dish for every time and every occasion. It isn't a normal and proper meal if there aren't some sort of bananas involved.

Lugandan

2010-08-20T18:47:00.000-06:00

Uganda has two official languages: English and Lugandan. Since I already have a mediocre command of English, I have been putting in an effort to learn some Lugandan. Here is what I know so far:

Jebale - good work
Mjebale - good work (plural)
Abana - children
Sebo - sir
Setaga - I don't need that Jesu anjagala - Jesus loves me
Kale - alright
Wagelu - higher
Wonzi - lower
Siinayo muwala - I don't have a girl
Sagala - I don't like it
Gende - go
Jendi - good

Each letter makes a sound; for example, "kale" would be pronounced "KA-lay". G's are hard like in "grass", J's are soft like in "joke".

I learned "siinayo muwala" yesterday morning and practiced saying it all day. By this afternoon I had a blind date set up for me. I guess if you're going to speak the local language you better mean what you say!

Kampala Camp

2010-08-19T08:09:00.001-06:00

We have started our second week of camp here in Kampala. We have had a few less kids the past 2 days than we did at our Entebe camps, probably about 80 or so.

We thought we were better prepared this week than last; our stranded team members arrived, our supplies arrived, we were rested, and everything seemed in place and ready to go. However, it appeared as if we had no clue what we were doing. For some reason kids did not respond to us in the same fashion they did in Entebe. When asked to repeat what we said, we got blank stares and raised eyebrows. At one point, I said "catch" and threw a utility ball underhand lob style to 12 year old. Apparently they don't know this word, it bounced off his face and right back in my hands.

Nevertheless, camp is good. Mike and Shireen have added a Health and Wellness, and a Science portion to our camps. Kids have learned about solar energy, aero dynamics, and first aid (they each made first aid kits).

My job is to plan recreation for the kids. Relay races, mental awareness games, and of course football are very popular. I try to avoid football for most the day seeing as I too get a little excited and turn in to a disgusting, sweaty disaster.

Brad is excited because he has learned a couple Ugandan songs. I'm sure he'll update on it later... He writes the lyrics and music in his journal.

The part I love most about this experience is that each of these kids are so eager to learn. Our camps help improve so many skills for them; you can truly see a difference from the first day to the last.

Greg is tired.

Kampala Out.
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African Children's Choir Training Centre

2010-08-17T10:10:00.000-06:00

Today we visited the school where the African Children's Choir gets trained. Each year a different group of kids are auditioned and selected to form a choir. All the selected kids move from their villages to Kampala and move into the training academy. For 6 months the rehearse singing dancing and drumming for about 4 hours a day. They also continue their regular schooling, do chores, go on field trips, and have time for the all important pastime, football. The centre has staff from Uganda, US, and Canada and the team is currently training the 36th and 37th African Children's Choirs.
When I arrived, I was greeted with several hugs, and the kids would not let me carry my bag - they insisted on doing that for me. Bob, Joshua, Frank, and another guy whose name escapes me all have me a personal tour of their home. They are very proud of where they stay and the activities they do there. We ate dinner with the choirs - matoke (mashed plantains) and ground nut sauce (something like hot runny peanut butter). This is a meal we have had many times while in Uganda.

Somehow the kids found out I could play the drums so they asked if we could go upstairs so I could show them how to play. It turned out that this group of 10 year olds taught me a thing about playing the drums. They were amazing and they've only been playing for about 6 months. More and more kids came in and it wasn't long before the mzungus were treated to an impromptu show. There are no appropriate words to describe the talent we witnessed.

We were asked to teach a few songs to the kids. Blessed Be and Glory Hallelujah Jubilee are our hits so we taught them those. It was then time for devotions. The kids started singing and drumming with no help from the adults. The sound was fantastic, it was like nothing I've heard before. I looked up at the clock and it was quite obviously stuck at 11:01 but deep down inside I wished that time had stopped for real and that we could sit and listen indefinitely. Watching and listening to these kids could make any skeptic a believer. They sang with all of their hearts, souls, and bodies.

Allison pulled a great little message out of butt. She talking about the singing in the Bible: God created singing, David sang, Mary sang, the angels sang, the first church sang, and now, the African Children's Choir sings! All the adults stayed up late jamming and singing together and sharing stories and enjoying each others company.

It was a cool day!

Traffic Jam

2010-08-17T08:43:00.001-06:00

I've been sitting in a traffic jam in downtown Kampala for half an hour.

It's raining.

I'm bored.

Things I see: the post office, a boy carrying wooden sticks on his head, many bus taxis, many wet people on boda bodas (motorbikes), my annoyed volunteer driver, and a green traffic light (one of 8 sets of traffic lights in the city).

Things I hear: a car alarm that has been on since I've been here, my annoyed volunteer driver breathing heavily, Eminem playing on the car radio, and a police officer blowing his whistle for no apparent reason. I could do without all of them.

Things I smell: burning fuel, fresh rain, my annoyed volunteer driver, and assorted deep fried snacks.

Greg
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IMG00921.jpg

2010-08-17T00:49:00.000-06:00

Last Day Of Entebe Camp
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MFL Camp; Day 4

2010-08-15T21:56:00.000-06:00

By the time we were all up and had breakfast eaten we were finally able to welcome our last 2 team members to Uganda! After a dramatic stolen passport and long unexpected delay in London, they have finally made it. This means that the remainder of our supplies have made it too. We are very happy to have them here!

We all went straight to church. Church started at 7am but we didn't show up until around 10am. Church can be as long as 5 hours so we thought we'd sleep in a bit before showing up. We were actually expected at 9:30 but no biggie, TIA. All of the kids from camp were there waiting for us because we were asked to sing a couple songs for service. So service went on until we showed up, at which point we were ushered to the very front of the church and asked to stand up and introduce ourselves. Soon all the camp kids came up with us and we sang a few songs that we'd been working on during camp.

It is amazing that 4 days of camp have come and gone and that we are now finished our first camp. Tomorrow we head to Kampala for a few days rest before we do it all over again!

Day 3

2010-08-14T11:59:00.001-06:00

Everyone was a little sleepy this morning. Don't know why.

Today's camp lesson was the Christmas story. Even though my group of kids were well aware of the story, they still had a great time acting it out.

These kids are great. They are all obedient, respectful, and all have incredible potential. One of the biggest differences I have seen between these children and children in North America is that EVERY child wants to learn, and they all do things as best they can. It is incredible how much they can pick up even with a language barrier.

Unfortunately, it rained all morning which forced us to stay inside. This makes playing British Bull Dog, Blob Tag, and Chicken Fighting very difficult.

In the afternoon however the rain cleared and I was able to take my kids outside. I think the kids got a little over excited by this; a stampede to the field ensued, resulting in a girl getting one of her teeth knocked out. It wasn't pretty. Thanks again Mom for the awesome first aid kits!

After camp I stayed back and played football with some of the local volunteers. I'm hooked. I can't help but practice, practice, practice. Maybe I can help the Dutch actually win a World Cup?

Our volunteers took us to the beach in the late afternoon to enjoy some fresh fish and chips. The fish is served whole here, head and all. My thinking is that if they serve it to you whole, you eat the whole thing. Let me tell you, fish eyes are more crunchy than you think. When we were finished eating, our leader told us that we will be leaving shortly to go have dinner. He wasn't kidding. Apparently 2 whole fish and a mound of chips is considered a snack in Uganda. Needless to say, I am stuffed while writting this.

Gregory
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MFL Camp; Day 2

2010-08-13T22:49:00.000-06:00

Music for Life has a school in Uganda where former African Children's Choir members go when the are finished touring. All of the students have overseas sponsors who pay for them to go to this school until grade 7, and then beyond all the way through university. We were fortunate to be able to visit the school this morning.

It happened to be the last day of school before their short 3 week summer break so we sat through their final school assembly. They began by singing some praise and worship music. All the music was student led. Keep in mind there were no kids older than 15 at this school. It was incredible! I have never heard kids sing like this! And their drumming is second to none. They can harmonize, vamp, and improvise effortlessly. They sang a few songs that were familiar to us, and a few others we didn't know but were stunning, to say the least. The whole room vibrated with vocal sound, drums, and the swaying and dancing of children.

Some of the kids prepared a special song and dance. My initial reaction was one of dread - if this happened at home it would typically be a grin and near it sort of moment. I was more than pleasantly surprised. The only thing more professional looking than their costumes was their act! I guess this is what you get when you have a school full of African Children's Choir alumni! In fact, we were also treated to a song by the former choir!

The principal of the school brought our team to the front of the hall and we all introduced ourselves. Once he found out there was a bunch of musical talent on the team, he asked us to present a song. I was so excited at the opportunity to teach this group of kids some music that I jumped out of my chair and yelled YES in front of everyone. We taught the whole school Blessed Be and within about 2 minutes they had completely learned the song and we're letting it rip so loud that the guitar became useless. The drummers took over the accompaniment and we were whoop-whooping and singing at top volume! Fantastic!

We all had private tours of the school property from the kids themselves. My tour guide's name was Julius; he is a former second grader whose English was too notch. I saw the boys dorm, the classrooms, computer room, library, offices, and kitchen.

We were fed lunch while visiting the school. Sweet potatoes and very salty fish from Lake Victoria which borders the school property. We each had enormous portions which came out of two gargantuan pots. Everything was covered in a very typical Ugandan peanut-type sauce.

The school visit has been a huge highlight of the trip so far. We all enjoyed ourselves there so much that we found it difficult to leave. Our afternoon camp went well, similar to yesterday, but today's high certainly came from visiting the MFL school.

Music for Life Camp; Day 1

2010-08-12T17:59:00.000-06:00

We finally found our team yesterday after some waiting. It was generally a joyous meeting, however two of our team mates had their passports stolen on the flight here and they are now stuck in London! We hope we can connect with them this weekend.

We asked the local volunteers many questions and they asked many of us. They took us to see the facility that we'd be using for camp. It is a primary school that is currently out of session. This is the reason that we are doing camps during these 3 weeks. In the matter of about 2 hours we gained a clear idea of what we needed to do to make these camps a success.

To prepare for camp we packed 5 large suitcases from Canada stuffed full of supplies. We packed enough craft supplies, sports equipment, drama materials, paper, toothbrushes, and science activities for 100 kids for 15 days of camp! Since two of our team members got stuck in London, 3 of our supply bags got stuck with them. We hadn't even started yet and we were already missing 2 team members, all of our sports equipment, our curriculum, half of our craft supplies, and all of our science, health, and wellness supplies. We had time for a quick meeting last night to completely revamp our plans and get prepared for camp using the people and resources we had.

I am happy to report that today was the first day of camp and it went fantastic. 94 kids showed up! We began with an opening where we introduced ourselves, the local volunteers introduced themselves, and then we shared songs with each other.

We split the kids into 4 groups and then each of us took a group to a classroom and taught them the story of creation. "It was good!" every kid had these words drilled into them, and it truly was good.

At lunch time we all marched over to another primary school where a few ladies cooked for us all. The kitchen facilities are difficult to describe: as far as I can tell there are 3 cauldron sized stone holes where fires could be started and a few dirty jugs which supposedly contain clean water. Somehow, over 100 people were fed here and although the adults ate different food than the kids, I heard no complaints, only content chewing.

In the afternoon we split into 2 larger groups; one group did sports while the other group did music. In a matter of 45 minutes Allison and I had taught the kids 4 songs and had them singing a round in 3 parts. Of course, Greg had a backup soccer ball and had the kids playing football in no time.

The local volunteers have been very impressed so far and we are feeling content with the job we've done. We are about to have a meeting to debrief about our day and plan for tomorrow.

Other news:

We are staying in the nicest place we've been in since arriving in Africa. It is a convent. The nuns ride motorbikes and talk on cell phones but are always wearing their habits.

Listening to the local volunteers jam gives us all goosebumps.

Greg has played about 5 matches of soccer in less than 48 hours.

Don't assume! One of the local volunteers is a mzungu.

TIA!

Nkumba University

2010-08-11T09:04:00.000-06:00

It is 9am and Greg, Allison, and I are sitting on the side of the Entebbe Highway in Uganda underneath the Nkumba University turn off sign. We are trying to meet up with the rest of our Music for Life mission team, 4 others from Canada and about 7 others from here. We found some plastic lawn chairs so we helped ourselves, set them up and are now sitting and waiting. We have received many strange looks and lots of staring but little do these people know how used to it we are. So we continue to sit and wait, hoping someone who knows something will find is here!

Kampala

2010-08-10T10:51:00.000-06:00

Kampala is the largest city in Uganda and is the capital. About 1.4 million people live here.

The city is organized according to its landscape; there are 7 hills, each of which have a different name and comprise the 7 different areas of Kampala.

English and Luganda are the official languages here. Many other tribal languages spoken, and most people are still well aware of their specific tribal roots.

Coffee grows well here, but all of the good beans are exported to western countries. This leaves us with nescafe instant coffee for breakfast.

Uganda has about 5 prominent tribes. The Baganda tribe makes up around 60 percent of Kampala's population. This is because former leader Idi Amin was from this tribe.

Idi Amin is a leader that this country is not proud of. He was responsible for long tribal and political civil wars of the 1960's, 70's, and 80's.

There are just as many vendors who have physical buildings as those who do not. People line the sides of the streets selling anything; candy, shoes, fruit, hardware, bicycles, hot food, and more can all be found displayed on old newspaper in dirt on the side of the road.

Beggars are common. Social programs are poor if they exist at all. They are not persistent like in other countries; they will ask for money once then leave you alone.

Ugandans are the most friendly, happy, and polite people. They may have no shoes, be incredibly dirty, be poor, or be sick, but this does not prevent good manners or happiness.

Brad

Kampala

2010-08-10T10:50:00.000-06:00

Some Notes

2010-08-09T17:04:00.000-06:00

1. I bought a football. I plan on doing with it what Arjen Robben didn't.

2. I enjoy Africa much more than Italy.

3. Every person here looks the same. I learned this the hard way: smacking who I thought was my tour guide on the ass.

4. Beer in Uganda is the cheapest yet. I just paid $1.10 Cdn in a bar for a full pint. Hey Ralph, how much was your last beer? Hmmm?

5. My camera died. I have yet to return home from a major trip with a camera. I have left one in Cuba, Italy (boooo), Canada, and now Africa. I'm so use to it that it didn't even bother me this time.

6. It took 31 days of being on this continent, but I finally had my first dosage of CAP. That is, Cronic Ass Piss. Sorry children.

7. 2 days ago I traded a label-less, Zambian beer for 4 bananas. Does that make me healthy?

8. Coffee here is shit. Instant shit.

9. I miss seing blonde women. Oh, and gingers.

10. Thanks for all the support blogger fans!
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Serengeti

2010-08-09T07:17:00.000-06:00

Lots to update since last posting.

We arrived back in Dar Es Salam after a very interesting ferry ride. I've never seen so many people get sea sick; garbage cans and puke bags were getting filled at an astonishing rate. We passed the time not by vomiting, but by having contests to see who can stand on one leg the longest.

The next day was a long drive to Arusha- the second largest city in Tanzania. We passed Mt. Kilimanjaro along the way, unfortunately it was covered by clouds and we didn't get to see it. But as they say; "if you can't climb it, drink it". This is referring to a popular Tanzanian beer of the same name.
The next day we started our exciting, 2 night Serengeti experience. On the first day we drove through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and into the Serengeti. Along the way we stopped and had lunch; a box of assorted, day old deep fried meats and starches. We also met a local Maasai warrior. The Maasai are the people who live in the nearby villages and have grazing rights over the surrounding land. They are easy to spot; red and blue robes, shaved heads, stretched ear lobes, and a spear is the traditional attire. The warrior we met threw his spear a few times, thereby encouraging our guide to buy it off of him.

We made a quick stop at a local Maasai village. The locals danced, sang, and made us jump around like morons. They made fire with two pieces of wood faster than I ever thought possible. They then burned cow dung and lit everyones cigarettes with the flaming shit.
This stop was a little annoying to us seeing as we paid $450 USD to see animals, not local grass huts. We spent more time chasing around a Giraffe in the back yard of the village than we did listening to what the guides had to say.

We saw several different animals within minutes of being in the park, including 2 Cheetahs that marched right by our safari truck. More highlights of the day included seeing a big herd of elephants, and spotting an alussive leopard. This means that we have seen 4 of the big 5 to this point in our trip; elephant, leopard, lion, and buffalo.

That night we camped right in the park. This is a bit scary seeing as your tent is a stones throw away from wild Buffalo. If this wouldn't bother you, than waking up to Hyenas scratching at your tent probably will....

On Day 2 we got up early and went on a sunrise game drive. Though nothing really stood out, we saw tons of animals. By this point we had seen so many Zebras, Giraffes, Impala, Buffalo, Hippos, Donkeys, Lions, and Baboons that you rarely stopped or turned your head.

One of the high points of the day was briefly seeing a Black Mamba Snake. In a way its good it slithered away quickly; it's not the kind of thing you want to get to close to seeing as its the most dangerous snake in the world.

We didn't see many new or interesting game in the afternoon. This may have been the reason why we decided to start chugging beers on our long drive out of the Serengeti.

That night we camped on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. Our site was almost 3000m above sea level which meant it felt like Calgary in February. One nice part about the camp was that our tents were set up for us. We appreciated this because we were so full of beer and brandy that any such task could not have been accomplished.

Day 3: Another early morning. We drove down the steep road to the bottom of the crater. This is where the action really started.

1. We saw a baby cub lion for the first time; he walked behind Ma and Pa right by our safari truck. Our otherwise useless guide told us he was 2-3 weeks old.

2. We passed by several heards of Wildebeests. One heard must have had at least a thousand game.

3. Then came the highlight of our safari. We saw a White Rhino, thus completing the big 5 list. The best part is that he ran within a couple meters of our truck. Brad was a quick thinker and took a video.

4. Minutes after our Rhino experience, we stumbled upon a lion eating a wildebeest! This was incredible to see; it made the safari experience that much more real.

Did you know?
The animal characters in Disney's "The Lion King" are named after the Swahili words for each animal? Simba means lion cub, Pumba means wharthog, Zazu means bird, etc.

Serengeti out.

Greg
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Equator

2010-08-08T21:11:00.000-06:00

I just peed from the southern hemisphere on to the northern hemisphere.

Gregory
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Kampala!

2010-08-08T16:36:00.000-06:00

We have just arrived in Kampala, Uganda after 5 extra nights of camping with our tour group. It was tough to say goodbye to all of the friends we've made, but the prospect of hot showers and real beds made the farewell a little sweeter.

We've got a room in the "Tourist Hotel" in downtown Kampala. The hotel is on Market Street, a street that comes by its name honestly. The view from our room is incredible; there are street vendors, cars, pedestrians, fruit stands, bicycles, and more, all scattered about in a seemingly functional mess.

On the schedule for the next three days: sleep, showers, laundry, internet, recharge batteries, and prepare to meet our teammates on Wednesday!

Aaaah civilization!

Uganda

2010-08-07T23:38:00.000-06:00

We've crossed our last border of the trip; we are now in Uganda! Our campsite is on the banks of the Nile and we've enjoyed some Nile Special beers. Amazing that this was once turned completely to blood! We are in our tent now but can hear the party continuing without us. Tomorrow we will finally break away from our overland group and begin to prepare for the mission part of our journey. What an amazing trip so far! What else is in store!?!?

Ebola!?!

2010-08-06T10:38:00.000-06:00

"An extremely contagious filovirus causing an acute, usually fatal hemorrhagic fever and spread through contact with bodily fluids of infected persons and by airborne particles."

I guess its not good that our bus driver supposedly has this hey... We're not convinced, but the doctor did diagnose him and he is on the meds. Only symptoms I've noticed are a bleeding ear and a generally sarcastic sense of humour. And we normally stay on the road so it can't be that bad, right?

Brad

Nairobi and on!

2010-08-05T12:43:00.000-06:00

What's up Mzungus!?!! (local slang for "white man")

We are in Nairobi, Kenya staying at the Meridian Court Hotel, our first hotel stay so far this trip. After our serengeti adventure we figured we deserved a place to relax, regroup, and most importantly, shower! Being dirty is just a fact of life here and any local or experienced African traveler will happily remind you of this. So, we bit the bullet, cancelled our hostel reservation, and stayed in a hotel where we were able to each take two hot showers in the period of about 20 hours. We also managed to get a good 10 hours of uninterrupted (almost - see #2 below) sleep in proper beds. Laundry remains a bit of a challenge; we are all running quite low on clean clothes so we each did some sink laundry to tie is over for a few days. It was most difficult to completely remove the enormous amount of sand and dust from my clothes, and since dirty is just a way of life here, I gave up trying after rewashing my shorts 6 times.

Up until now, we've been sleeping in tents, showering in cold water, using mere holes with no TP for #1 and #2, and reusing clothes that would be deemed a biohazzard at home.

Oh, and, #2 has started to play into things. Allison has been to the toilet more times than we can count. We're hoping that last night's dinner has taken care of that.

Since our Victoria Falls to Nairobi tour officially ended yesterday, the entire group went out for dinner at one of the world's top voted restaurants, Carnivore. As you may be able to deduce from the name, this place is all about meat. We each received a hot wash cloth and some snacks to begin. Small portions of soup and salad followed. Then suddenly huge amounts of rotisserie meat started arriving at our table. Each server carried a different sword or spit, and would happily plunk the tip of it right on your hotplate and carve off a big chunk of meat. We ate: roast beef, pork loin, beef ham, spare ribs, sausages, turkey, chicken, ostrich meatballs, leg of lamb, lamb sausage, ox heart, chicken liver, and camel. Besides the surprise 85 percent tax on our bill at the end of the meal, we all ate way too much and enjoyed the experience.

We have now been in Africa for over a month and have just completed our 21 day overland safari. We totally broke our rule and made some fantastic friends. Team Australia, team Switzerland, and team Holland aka little spoon (a nickname from day one that just stuck) will all be missed. We even made friends with a Canadian from Toronto, and totally hit it off with Paul our bus driver.

Our entire Africa trip was pretty much planned out except the following week. We ended our overland tour having no clue how we were going to spend the week between our tour and our mission trip, or how we were going to get ourselves from Nairobi, Kenya to Kampala, Uganda. In fact, we were mentally preparing to take the chicken bus, get charged too much at the border, and totally wing it. But, it just so happens that our tour company is running another tour from Nairobi to Kampala and since we made such good friends with the driver from our tour, he offered us a free lift! The drive could be done in one day, but it will take us about four days with the tour. Right now we are camping at Lake Navasha for two nights and since we are technically not part of this tour, we aren't involved in any of the activities. This has allowed us to have a relaxing couple days along side the hippos, cranes, and baboons in our campsite.

The wildlife here continues to amaze us. As we were enjoying some beers on the patio beside the pool, an employee came and told us that we left a window open on our bus. I didn't think this was a big deal until I went to close it and found 7 baboons inside the bus helping themselves to our avocados! It is also amazing to see the maribu cranes fly overhead with their 3 meter wingspan. And as soon as I'm finished this sentence, I'm going to go watch the hungry hungry hippos in the lake!

Brad

Don't make friends.

2010-07-29T13:28:00.000-06:00

I just slept 11 hours. I needed it. You see, there are a few rules you should observe when traveling. Some are obvious: be prepared, keep your valuables safe, don't walk down back alleys, etc. Others are less obvious: don't order the cocktail with two chili peppers as garnish, white people shouldn't sit on the top of a boat for four hours in the sun, keep your clothes on in Muslim communities, and whatever you do, do not make friends with other travelers.

Allow my to expand on the last example. You may think making friends is something that you should strive to do; it promotes global community, it represents Canada well, it feels nice. However, making friends leads to jovial evening gatherings. Although these gatherings sound pleasant, I find them to be hard on my hydration level and my bank account. I also find that they make mornings a bit difficult.

Yesterday morning, although it seemed to be off to a decent start, proved to be somewhat difficult. After breaking my own rule the night before, I hopped on a small boat and took a ride on the waves of the Indian Ocean. I am not prone to seasickness, however on this occasion, my disobedience from the night before paired with the boat ride became too much to handle. Upon arriving at our destination, I successfully knocked an item off of my bucket list. I jumped off the side of the boat, was completely submerged, and fed my Spanish omelet to the African fish.

Now folks, please learn a lesson here. This was a multicultural experience that you should only learn by living vicariously through me. Do not make friends.

Zanzibar!

2010-07-28T15:49:00.000-06:00

It is our last day on Zanzibar island. Here's a update of what we have done:

On Monday we walked the streets of stone town in Zanzibar city. This is a World Heritage Site because of it's old stone structures and narrow streets with the Indian Ocean as a back drop. It's kinda like Venice meets Seville. We also toured the fruit and fish market; they were the best ones we have seen yet. If hanging cow legs and inside out chickens are your thing, then come here. You can buy a cut of meat from a vendor, or join the meat auction. Giant squid appeared to be the big hit.

We then toured the site of where the last slave auction in the world was held. Slaves were kept in tiny rooms by Muslim elites and auctioned off in the public square. The worth of each slave was based on their condition after being whipped; if they were weak, they were sold for cheap, and if they were strong after whipping they were expensive. When slavery was abolished in 1873 missionaries built a church over the site.

All the tourists end up at a local hotel for the evening to have drinks and watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean. This isn't the place to be very long however, because after night fall local food vendors set up in a public square. You negotiate a price for skewers of meat, fresh pita bread, etc. They then throw it on the BBQ and serve it to you. I had shark, lobster, mussels, and beef. We also tried Zanzibar pizza, and a sugar cane/lemon drink.

Yesterday we went on a local spice tour. This was more than worth the $10 a person we paid for the 3 hour tour. We saw several different spice plants including pepper, lemon grass, cardomon, turmeric, cinnamon, vanilla bean, curry, cloves, coffee, ginger, and iodine. We were able to taste each one right off the tree. We also tried the areas local fruit: red bananas, tangerines, grapefruit, custard apple, star fruit, and jack fruit. We also watched a local named "Mr. Butterfly" climb a gigantic palm tree and sing a song in Swahili. I also tried to climb the tree, I failed.

After the tour we travelled to the north part of Zanzibar. We spent the next couple nights bumming around on the beach. Brad and Allison went snorkelling today, I stayed behind and caught up on journal and emails.

Zanzibar out.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Malawi

2010-07-26T11:23:00.000-06:00

Jambo! (Hello in Swahili)

We have been having a rocking time in Malawi! Our dress up and special punch party was hilarious! I bought the 14 year old Swiss boy a red short skirt and a yellow ribbon tie up piece with one bedazzled breast. He was a great sport and wore it for the majority of the night! The 19 year old Swiss girl bought my outfit which consisted of a pair of boxers that were a bit too small, an orange spaghetti strap tank top, and knee high socks. Greg was wearing a leopard print skirt, of course. We both wore our outfits until the next morning.

We spent 4 nights on the beach of Lake Malawi. On the third day, we got up at 5am and we hiked from our beach campground in Chipita to the town of Livingstonia, about 17 kilometers away, straight up a mountain. Round trip we hiked about 35 kilometers. It was one of the toughest hikes I've ever been on. We hiked along the road for the majority of the way, but periodically our guide would point is along a footpath shortcut. At times these shortcuts were so steep that I had to use my hands to climb up the path. At the top, we saw a beautiful 50 meter high waterfall. We climbed down to a cave behind the falls and just chilled out for a while. This same cave was used to hid people during the slave trade. Past the falls, we saw a little bit of Livingstonia, a town that was started as a mission by David Livingstone the African explorer.

Right now we are on a ferry going from Dar es Salaam to the island of Zanzibar. This area of Africa is much more multicultural than the areas we've been to previously - there is a large Muslim population here. We will stay one night in Stonetown and then move to the North of the island for two nights. We are looking forward to touring the picturesque town, going on a spice tour, and playing in the Indian Ocean.

It is now time for the most important update: beer. In Malawi, we drank mostly Carlsburg beer, which is an import. The local beer Kuche Kuche (pronounced koochy koochy) was weak and a little tasteless. We all miss the local Zambian brew Mosi (short for Mosi Oi Tunya which means the smoke that thunders. This is the local name of Victoria Falls). Lion was the local Zimbabwae brew, similar to Mosi. The bartender in Zimbabwe suggested we drink Black Label - he called it "the wife beater" or "African Pepsi". We only drank one and then decided it was not the beer of choice. It tasted like there may be a few dead wives floating around in their kegs. Here in Tanzania, we've tried two different local brews: N'dhodo and Kilomanjaro (because, after all, Tanzania is home to this mountain). We drank both of these beers in a restaurant that does not have power and is lit with candlelight. They were only somewhat cold because they are kept in a kerosene fridge. At this particular establishment, our team managed to drink the bar completely dry and we have been a very proud bunch ever since. It is necessary to mention the brand Castle. We've found this South African beer everywhere we've been and it has been the standard go to beverage in most situation. The cider Savanna has been a tasty option, and even though Allison has been seen drinking beer on many occasions, this would be her preferred choice. The further north and east we get, the warmer the beer gets. That's just the way they do it here.

Two words you should know:
Mazungu - what the locals call is whities
Mofipa - what the locals call themselves, the blackies
It is quite common to be addressed as mazungu. We've started responding with Mofipa and always get a great reaction.

I'm going out on the deck for some views of the Indian Ocean.

Mazungu out.

Malawi so far...

2010-07-20T12:48:00.000-06:00

We've been in Malawi for two days now and we're loving it. We spent 2 nights in the forest, elevation about 1000 meters above sea level. Reminded me of the mountains at home. Greg and I kayaked on the lake and everyone went on a little hike. Campfires, dice and local beers at night. We are on the way to a beach front campsite on lake malawi for 4 days. We stopped at the local market in some town, all bought each other the craziest clothes we could find, are going to exchange outfits and then drink special recipe punch on the beach tonight. Last night the bartender had a CD with country music on it so Greg, Allison and I taught the rest of the group how to have a two-steppin hoe-down. A few nights ago we camped with the hippos. One girl didn't close her tent door properly so they found only a mildly poisonous snake inside when going to bed. Only found mildly poisonous spiders so far too. It is raining today for the first time on our trip. No sunburns at all yet. That's all for now.

Bye bye Zambia!

2010-07-18T13:22:00.000-06:00

Today we are leaving Zambia and heading to Malawi. So far we've had a great time. Right now we are on our truck bus thing and we have finally reached a stretch of road that is paved. The roads here can be absolutely horrible - at times we'd be going about 10km/h and people and stuff would be flying all over the place.

But, after all, TIA - This is Africa - and nothing is seemingly out of the ordinary. TIA is a commonly used term on our truck bus. I have heard it used in many circumstances, but mainly it is used as a suck-it-up response to when bitches bitch.

"waa I broke a fingernail"
"that shower was cold"
"I want a vegetarian meal"
"too many bumps"
"I need the front seat"
Etc

TIA bitches.

We have been learning more about the people we are traveling with. The Vikings drink scotch at breakfast, the Swiss family all have high IQs and the daughter is spicy, the Americans truly are annoying (I've nicknamed one Fiona), and the Dutch guy rocks (his nickname is little-spoon).

Our list of animals that we've seen has grown significantly! We went on a game drive in South Luangwa National Park and saw tons of stuff. The park covers 9050 square kilometers and contains the Luangwa river which is home to approximately 40 hippopotamuses per kilometer! We camped on the river and frequently saw hippos and crocodiles approach the camp. We also camped with the monkeys, who would have been a pest if it wasn't for their novelty. The monkeys made many attempts at stealing things from our camp. On our drive through the park we saw: elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebras, lions, hyenas, a white tailed mongouse, an owl, a bush baby, marmots, a lizard and more. Our guide was able to spot a squirrel in the dark from 100 feet away so needless to say, we saw all kinds of stuff.

Yesterday afternoon we visited a local village to see how they live. As the truck pulled in, kids came running to greet us from all directions. There were so many kids surrounding the truck that it was difficult to get out. We were treated to a tour of the village. We saw the kitchen, which was simply a patch of dirt with a small fire burning and piles of pots all around. No building whatsoever. We saw the toilets, the garden, and then the brewery. They make their own "beer" and we learned how and then got to taste it. First, they put maize tops, sugar, and water into jugs and let them sit in the sun for about 3 days. The now fermented concoction gets transferred into a pot and boiled. The lid catches the vapours and then they travel down a tube which passes through an old tire filled with water to cool the liquid. This process is repeated many times. They told us that the first few batches are normally around 100 percent and then they get weaker. The final drinkable product is a combination of all the different batches. We each got to try some - it was unbelievably strong! We also saw their water well. This town is lucky because a well was donated to them. The well supplies 17 villages with water and each families pays 1USD a month to use it. The village we were in had about 85 families living there. That is a lot of people using one well! Periodically the well is maintained (shocked with chlorine) by a professional to make sure the water remains clean and healthy. The kids were all very curious and interested in everything we did - I taught a few kids to pound it and then I had to pound every kids fist before getting back on the truck. They loved getting their pictures taken and then looking at it on the camera. They always laughed at themselves.

Today we had a pee stop just across the border in Malawi and kids came running from everywhere and were asking for pens. Luckily we are smart and we knew this was going to happen so we had just bought pens at the store for this reason. I tossed a couple pens out the window and then watched the dog-pile and fight ensue. So I will have to learn from that and do things differently next time.

It is just about noon, we've been up for 8 hours driving and I still haven't seen the Vikings' scotch. Gotta go inquire!

Overland Tour Begins!

2010-07-15T16:12:00.000-06:00

We got up at 6AM Wednesday morning (It's been years since I've seen 6AM), to meet our group for our overland tour. We took a taxi to our meeting point even though it was literally around the corner from where we were. This has happened a few times this trip; cabbies will be happy to drive you any place even if its just down the street.

We were scheduled to leave at 8AM, however it was around 10AM when we hit the road. I think this is a sign of things to come. You wait for a person to buy water, another to pee, and another to run from bank machine to bank machine trying to take Kwacha out with a credit card. However, hold ups are seen as inevitable and generally humorous; you are in for a long trip if you get impatient or annoyed.

Vehicle:

apparently overland trucks have names. In this case, someone deemed that "Roy" would be appropriate, I have no clue why. We learned upon arrival that Roy is not to be referred to as a "bus". If such talk occurs, you will be subject to random punishments by tour guides. Brad and I have compensated by using terms such as "buck or trus" to refer to our vehicle. Roy is similar to what you would see in a battlefield; it looks like a heavy duty army truck. It's appearance is irrelevant to us, but the unfortunate part is that it also rides like a truck in battle. No shocks on the back wheels means that hitting a two foot pot hole at 130km/hour can interrupt the flow of your nap to say the least. Roy also has narrow seats. If Brad and I are sitting side by side, the person with the aisle seat has to put one ass cheek on the seat, and the other in the middle of the aisle. However, this is not the worst case scenario. Being the last person on the bus means getting the middle seat in the back- a place where NOBODY wants to be. You are squished between 2 viking-like Norwegians and 2 chatty Americans. This person has no leg room (Brad's or mine left ass cheek is often in the way), and you can't see out the windows. The cool part about Roy is that he is efficient. Meals can be pulled out, made, and put away in one hour's time, it can handle any terrain (we think), and drives seemingly long distances without needing gas.

Guides:

1) Paul- Our enthusiastic driver who seems more interested in delivering wet willies, titty twisters, and ass grabs than offering insight in to our tour. Nevertheless, he is well liked.

2) Jabu- our tour guide. He gives us useful information every now and again. He is also the cook, and is quite good at both his jobs.

3) Oliver- we are still trying to pin point exactly what Oliver does. Some say he is the translator for non-english speaking travellers. however, everyone on our bus speaks English better than he does. Oliver mostly just smokes, sleeps, and climbs stuff.

A note on Zambian roads: poor.

Our first day's journey was long.

Highlites:

1) There were none.

Lowlites:

1) The museum we stopped at while Jabu made us lunch. The dollar spent to get in could have been used to buy a Mosi (Zambian beer).

2) Having our group decide NOT to stop and have a beer while watching the sunset on the roof of Roy. %&€¥!!!

3) Allison's squeaky seat that kept me awake for several hours.

After driving deep (and I mean deep) in to the bush on the worst road imaginable to man, we found our camp site. By this time the built up pressure on my bladder was unbearable, as was the weak, hollow feeling of my empty stomach. Upon arrival we were promptly given a very uninformative lesson on the intricate workings of tent poles.

Shortly after, dinner was served. Jabu made a huge pot of spaghetti which I washed down with well deserved beers. Bed time was at 10, due to the 6AM wake up call.

We are loving it.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

More Victoria Falls

2010-07-15T12:33:00.000-06:00

So far, our adventures in Africa have been plentiful. We've only had time for quick blog updates until now. I am now sitting on a buck/trus (more on this in Greg's post) with nothing but time so I will try and expand on some of the highlights so far.

We had a fantastic meal in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwae at a restaurant called Boma. Boma is the local word for "place of eating" and eating is certainly what we did. Upon arriving, we were greeted by two drummers and were dressed in traditional clothes.

We had some time before dinner was served, so I ordered a round of the local scotch for us to sip. After being seated at our table, we had a ceremonial hand washing and taste of traditional whiskey made of corn and gluten and then left in the sun to ferment. It was 3 percent good and 97 percent horrible crap, if you know what I mean.

The restaurant was in a large thatched roof hut with rows of tables moving outwards from a central open area used for entertainment. Everything was dimly lit but the place still seemed vibrant with colour. To one side was the buffet area which, of course, we frequented often.

Appetizers: traditional salads, butternut soup served in mini cauldrons, fresh bread, and crocodile tail. The croc reminded us of pork and was very tasty. I had 2 helpings.

Main course: sausage, chicken, sirloin, ribs, buffalo, warthog, impala, and jellyfish all made to order on an open grill right in front of you, and served on your own personal hot-plate. In another area, there was an entire lamb roasting on a spit. We all enjoyed everything, but we particularly liked the warthog for its tenderness and bold flavour. I had a lamb rib cut directly from the spit which was fantastic.

Dessert: a huge spread of everything, plus a crepe bar - made to order and sautéd in brandy. Also, Mopani worms. From the special Mopani tree, these worms were eaten by the tribes as a delicacy. We each ate one. Very crunchy and chewy, they took some effort to swallow but we were awarded certificates for completing the challenge.

After dinner, the entertainment started. Allison got some hair braids while Greg and I learned about the Boma Cocktail. An old man appeared and gave us this speech:

"the Boma cocktail is made of: vodka, which is alcoholic; cinnamon, good for the heart; lemon, for taste; honey, for sweetness; ice, or no ice; stirred with this special Boma stick. The Kenyans call it medicine. 4USD."

Greg immediately ordered two. They were so fantastic we had a couple more. This helped loosen is up for the ensuing drum lesson.

Every single person was given a drum and then a percussion band came on stage and have is a lesson. They had the whole place playing drums together. I loved it. It turned into a dance party, our table being the first to get up and bust a move.

We heard a sextet of singers, got our faces painted, and then ended up getting our fortunes told by a crazy guy in a hut on the way out.

Fantastic evening.

The next day we decided to take it easy. Breakfast by the pool, a walk around town, etc. We learned about a 2000 year old tree nearby so we decided to take a walk in that direction. Before we left, we were warned that buffalo and elephants sometimes came through that area, but that we wouldn't have a problem.

We found the impressive tree and took some pictures and continued our walk down the road. A truck came by and the people riding in the box told us there were elephants ahead! Greg and I were excited but cautiously continued on, Allison fell a few steps behind us so we'd get trampled first. Before we saw any elephant, the man driving the truck came back for us, and offered is a ride. We hopped in the box and we whirled down the road. About 30 seconds later, we had to stop the truck because there were three elephants standing in the road helping themselves to the vegetation! The driver pulled up slowly until we were about 5 meters away. It was apparent that the elephants knew we were there but they were quite obviously much more concerned with eating than with us.

We starred in awe for a long time, the man in the truck patiently waiting. Our pictures are surreal. I will try and post some next time I find a decent computer. When we were satisfied, the man have a lift back to town and refused any payment, just asked that we tell people about Victoria Falls and how awesome it is. Let this post be a testament to that!

Cheers!
Brad.

Did my last post come through?

2010-07-13T22:20:00.000-06:00

Animals seen: giraffe, hippo, croc, elephant, warthog, vulture, rooster (kokoleoko), all the home grown animals, praying mantis, and more.

Animals eaten: impala, crocodile tail, warthog, buffalo, roast lamb, jellyfish, more and more.

Poop update: all solid.

Bungee jumped off Victoria falls bridge - third highest in the world.

Booze cruise on the zambezi river was a riot.

Golfed 9 holes in livingstone zambia complete with caddy who chose clubs for us and ran for beers when needed.

Loving this life.

Brad.

Zimbabwae!

2010-07-12T06:47:00.000-06:00

We successfully crossed the Zambia/Zimbabwae border with no trouble at all - I only spotted one rifle and it was a very friendly man holding it. $75 visa to enter. We checked out Victoria Falls one more time today - amazing.

Animal list update: warthog, bushnuck (which is the complete wrong name, but it was like a deer)

Poop update: all solid.

Beer update: Zimbabwae beers: Lion, Golden Pilsner, Black Label. Lion is tastes different but good, Pil is light but works when its hot out, Black Label should be avoided at all costs. The bartender calls Black Label "The Wife Beater" or "African Pepsi"

Out for buffet dinner tonight - may eat croc, we'll see.

Goodbye Zambia, Hello Zimbabwe!

2010-07-11T06:10:00.003-06:00

I'm sitting here with an excess in internet time... that never happens! The internet is usually so slow. But today I learnt how to make the most of it and typed all my emails out ahead of time and then logged in to the internet to send them. To my surprise.... the internet is 100 times faster then usual! So, I have time for a quick update.
We are just about to learn Zambia and enter into Zimbabwe. We will spend 3 nights there and then begin our tour. We have loved every minute of Livingstone and we are sad to leave... but more advertures await!
Yesterday we hooked up with team Ireland and headed to the golf course. Ok... I came along to walk in the African sun, take pictures and drink beer! It was a fun afternoon. We went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. There was no one there but the food was very tastey. I came back to the hostel to do a little laudrey and get a good nights sleep... the boys, however, met up with team Ireland and team Norway and had a whole bunch of fun.
We went to church this morning. We listened to a choir sing yesterday and found out they were from the Catholic church... so this morning we ventured over there. This was a highlight for me. What a cool way to connect with the locals and to worship as brothers and sisters from around the world. The music gave me goosebumps. So, my new project is to find someone to pay me to study church music in Africa. Anyone interested?
CHEERS!
Allison

Victoria Falls!

2010-07-10T03:50:00.000-06:00

This is the Zambian side of Victoria Falls - the falls are about 1.6km acroos and about 100m high so they are very difficult to take pictures of... Too big! The mist from the falls makes it seem like you are in a downpour. We tried to keep ourselves and our cameras dry...

Quick update

2010-07-10T03:30:00.002-06:00

- We're in Livingstone
- Victoria Falls is AMAZING!!!
-List of Africa animals sceen so far; dog, cat, cow, chicken, goat.... and then finally we saw monkey's, giraffe, hippo and a crocodile!
-Truth be told, Brad tried to pick up the Welsh guy for me.
-People from Zambia and super friendly.
-Partied with team Irish, team Norway, team San Fran, and many others on a cruise last night. We are known as the Crazy Canadians
Out of internet time....
Allison

Go Holland!

2010-07-07T09:56:00.000-06:00

1. I am writting this on the bus between Lusaka and Livingstone... Don't worry about the the trip, we had a Priest come on the bus and do a devotion with everybody before we left. As odd as this may seem, people here are quite religous and don't hide it.
This guy prayed that we find green pastures on our adventure. However, I have yet to see a single patch of green grass anywhere.

2. We watched the Dutch kick ass last night. There were about 30 people packed in to the hostel bar, all of which were rooting for the oranje. It was cool being around people who actually cared about soccer. I'm proud to be kinda Dutch. WOOOT Holland!

3. Poops are still solid.

4. Allison macked up a guy from Wales.

5. Don't be white and show up at a busy African bus depot. You get surrounded by people from different bus companies wanting your business.

6. I like showering at night now.

7. I changed my pants for the first time this trip today.

8. We ate dinner at Rhapsody. This is an American restaraunt in the entertainment district of Lusaka. It was a much better experience than the day before when we ate fast food in the slums. I had a big spit of meat.

9. Welcome home Nathan.

Gregory
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Lusaka

2010-07-06T11:00:00.000-06:00

1. It is overcast and chilly.
2. English is the official language of Zambia.
3. Kwacha is the currency. 1USD is about 5150K.
4. A beer at our hostel costs 8000k.
5. Our hostel is called ChaChaCha.
6. I am still waiting to see a local point with their lips instead of a finger.
7. A rooster woke me up this morning.
8. Names of beers we've tried: Windback Lager (Namibia), Mosi (Zambia) - this beer gets the kitchen staff in trouble so they say, Castle Lager (Zambia) - most booze (5% instead of 4%) and most taste.
9. I caught Allison putting on make up.
10. Team total mosquito bites: 2. We are remembering to take our malaria pills.
11. Common team sayings: "you can't have a straight with a 1 and a 6", "I'm gonna roll a couple bullets".
12. Today's coffee is a remarkable improvement from yesterday's, however there is still a problem in this department.
13. Team BMs: a little rough at London Heathrow, but generally normal since arrival.

Brad

Update

2010-07-05T16:58:00.000-06:00

1. I'm writting this from my hostel bed. All I see around me is a mosquito net, a white pillow case with yellow stains, and a big bottle of water.

2. I haven't slept more than 3 hours at a time since Friday night. Also, I have not changed my pants sine then.

3. Beer costs 1.70 Cdn. That's why I see a water bottle around me (refer to point 1).

4. Coffee here is absolute crap.

5. Our accommodation are similar to that of Ted's chicken shack.

6. Kwacha: Zambian currency. 1USD=5000K. First one to tell me how much Kwacha a beer is gets 50K. First one to tell me how much 50K is worth gets a van Mofinator.

7. I Shot the moon 3 times in one game of hearts.

8. Zambians are very friendly. I think "momboso" is the term they use for white men- more investigation needed.

9. The Dutch play tomorrow. I'm kinda Dutch.

10. My first poop was solid. Travellers diarrhoea is a a myth .
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Welcome to Africa!

2010-07-05T13:58:00.002-06:00

Well friends... we are here! We landed at 6:00am Lusaka time. Africa is COLD! Let's hope that it warms up just a little bit... not too much though :)

The flights were very long and we are pretty sleepy but it feels great to finally be here. We went for a long walk this morning and looked around Lusaka. After much wandering, we were able to find a decent breakfast; chicken, fries and pizza! We loaded up on bottled water and the headed back to our hostel for a long awaited nap! We've had a relaxing evening at the hostel, playing card, eating dinner and enjoy a few cold beers! One more relazing day in Lusaka and then it's off to Livingstone!

Airport beer number two

2010-07-03T18:42:00.000-06:00

Airport Buzz

2010-07-03T18:39:00.000-06:00

It's 3 hours before our flight and I've already misplaced my camera, phone, and passport. Thankfuly, a thirteen year old boy returned my camera, the hot British Airways clerk gave my passport back, and I found my phone in the bottom of my bag. This is probably happend because of my beer consumption. Be back, I gotta pee.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

IMG00920.jpg

2010-07-03T16:10:00.000-06:00

At the airport!!!
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Departure!

2010-07-03T14:31:00.000-06:00

Day Before Departure

2010-07-02T20:58:00.000-06:00

I never planned on being in a Latin American themed waterpark a four hour flight away from my departure city the day before leaving for Africa. I am in Ottawa with 25 girls and 10 mothers on choir tour and we decided to kill time before our flight by checking out the new waterpark, Calypso. Overall, choir tour was fantastic and there were many successes, but now I need to get my mind on Africa. (if you want to read about choir tour in more depth, check out my other blog: http.//medicinehatmaestro.blogspot.com )

I bought a new Canon Powershot SX20 to be sure I get some great pictures while traveling. Within 48 hours of owning my new toy, my lens cap became lost. So while I have been away, Greg saved my butt big time and managed to buy a new lens cap for me. My new lens cap even includes a string this time.

I am second guessing everything I have packed for Africa (my perpacked bag is waiting for me at home). My huge pack is nearly full and is very heavy. I don't know what to do differently, but I don't like having so much stuff. I guess I'll be prepared if nothing else.

I need to remember to make copies of my documents, both hard copy and electronic, before departure. I also need to remember to disable the various functions that consume data on my blackberry. Traveling with a phone has been against my own rules up until now, but I guess times are changing and so should I.
My mom put together first aid kits for us. It is something I didn't have the time or patience for and I think it makes her feel better about our adventure by doing it.

Hopefully I can get a good sleep tonight. Choir tour has sleep deprived me and we have two very long flights ahead of us. 24 total hours of traveling from Calgary to Lusaka, Zambia. We are staying two nights in Lusaka to recover from jet lag, become accustomed to our new surroundings, and buy bus tickets to get to Livingstone. Once in Livingstone we will be able to settle, we are staying 10 days.

Stay tuned!

Uh huh. Oh ya.

2010-06-25T13:09:00.001-06:00

Farewell beers with the church staff!

2010-06-24T14:32:00.000-06:00

Data stress

2010-06-23T12:57:00.001-06:00

I am not sure if 2MB of data is enough to make receiving emails in Africa work... Smart phones have so many options, and really just do their own thing without letting you know what's going on. I do not want Rogers to screw us over with an enormous bill somehow. If we even receive an email with one picture in it, that has the potential to completely use up our monthly allotted 2mb, or at least that is what some sources say. But I thought blackberries had some sort of special data compression that made things actually smaller!?...

Ahhh I need help. I am supposed to be packing and instead i'm screwing up my phone, stressing about data, and getting nothing done by writing this blog post.

10 days and counting

2010-06-23T06:45:00.003-06:00

Hi Friends!
This is my first blog post, EVER! Just testing things out to make sure they work properly.
The countdown is on... 10 days left...
Today's Africa task: visit the local tanning salon (not that it seems to be working, at all... I'm still pasty white!)
Until next time...
-Allison

IMG00043-20100425-0007.jpg

2010-06-22T18:39:00.000-06:00

Sexy

Hello Two Koops Fans!

2010-06-22T17:56:00.001-06:00

11 days until I bless the rains!

Email posting test

2010-06-22T17:33:00.001-06:00

If this post successfully displays, this means that Greg and I have successfully figured out how to keep in touch with you all while we're in Africa!

We are each purchasing 2MB of international roaming data per month for use on our blackberries. Although that is a relatively minute amount of data by today's standards, it will allow us to send approximately 1000 text-only emails per month while we are away. If need be, we will also be able to surf the web, send pictures, and use blackberry messenger.

I have set up this blog to receive email post updates. That means we will be able to update this blog by simply emailing a secret address, and then it will automatically turn the email into a blog post!

This is my first attempt! Here it goes!

Africa Prep

2010-06-22T13:04:00.000-06:00

A few months ago my friend Allison asked me if I wanted to volunteer with Music for Life, the supporting organization of the African Children's Choir, volunteering in Uganda with children. I decided that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, simultaneously a humanitarian effort, a mission trip, a vacation, and an opportunity to hang out with old friends and make new ones so I accepted. Music for Life is an organization that believes in using education and Christianity to help Africa's children grow up to become Africa's future leaders. Our team of 7 people will be providing day camps for children in Uganda. Each day we will have a Bible study, a health and wellness seession, crafts, games, and music. We will be offering camps in different locations over the course of a three week period.

Finding cheap flights to anywhere in Africa is hard. Our first attempts would have left us paying upwards of $3000 each for flights. Allison decided to google "missionary airfares" and, sure enough, a company from the states poped up. Thanks to EconomyTravel.com we ended up paying about $2000 for our flights because we are going to do mission work.

Now, you can't go all the way to Africa without going on a safari, of course! So we have a 3 week safari booked too! We did a fair amount of research and decided to book with African Budget Safaris. We scoped out a bunch of different options, but chose these guys. So far they've been really great to deal with. We're headed to several different countries: Zimbabwae, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzinia and Kenya.

Things that need doing before going to Africa:

Last Wedensday I spent $550 on vacinations and today I spent another $370 on Malaria medication.
Doctor check up (to make sure Malaria meds won't kill me)
Dentist visit (because I don't want my teeth falling out while in Africa)
Contact Lens appointment (because I think contact lenses are hard to buy in the Serengeti)
Buy supplies: sleeping bag, power converter, new camera with 20x optical zoom (because if there is a hippo on the horizon, I want a good picture of it...), tons of memory cards, etc, etc, etc
Pay for mission trip, pay for flight, pay for safari
Book hostels and hotels
Figure out bus schedules
Shave my head
Figure out travel insurance, health insurance
Try and calm my mom down
Take my dukoral
Plan out VBS stuff, figure out supplies
Inform credit card companies of overseas use
Get my life together so when I come home I am not overwhelmed
and the list goes on.........

There is so much more to do before departing (including taking 25 teenage girls to Ottawa for a week - click here to learn more about that adventure). I have been to Wal-Mart about a dozen times picking up this and that (btw, how much pit stick does a guy bring on a two-month African adventure?), I have been to the mall trying to find clothes that will work when dry, wet, dirty, stinky, ripped, etc. Deciding on a camera has been really hard....... I have been to Mountain Equiptment Co-op in Caglary once already, and it looks like I need to make another trip there before departure.

My po-ang is my official Africa packing pile.

Benefit Concert a HUGE success!!!

2010-05-22T12:39:00.001-06:00

The Music for Life Benefit Concert was a huge success!!! There were approximately 150 people in attendance and I raised enough money to cover almost all of the costs of my mission trip! THANK YOU!

Music for Life Benefit Concert

2010-04-14T22:50:00.001-06:00

Marrakesh

2009-08-15T11:09:00.004-06:00

Goodness me! Marrakesh is a wild place! Here are some highlights:

Jamaa El Fna

This the most famous square in all of Morocco. It is everything a square should be; it has nothing in it. Well, that is until it is filled with wild excitement. Almost 24 hours a day, every day of the week something is going on there. First, there is the 'entertainment' section. This part of the square is filled with street performers, acrobats, snake charmers, fortune tellers, story tellers, musicians, street boxing matches, hema artists, magicians, witch doctors, and on and on. Crowds of people surround each sight and clap and cheer, and of course give money to the performers.

--- Just a side note here, I was ALWAYS the first person that was asked for money. In fact, most of the time I was asked for money within 15 seconds of arriving to watch. There are a few things to consider however. These performers are aware that tourists are good money. About being a tourist: I think I dressed pretty normal. I had no straps, fanny packs, cameras, stupid hats, flags, pins, or anything that should have separated me from any other man there. The problem arises with my skin colour, but even more so my hair colour. I was the only blond for miles. I got stared at from miles away. SO, all that considered, I had to turn down many a street performer's request for money.---

The snake charmers were almost like you see in cartoons. There is a man playing a horrible sounding oboe type instrument (one of which I now own - for all my snake charming needs you know...), other men playing drums or just making noise to grab your attention, still other men who are putting snakes all over themselves, putting them on tourists, kicking at the cobras, pretty much doing anything to make a crowd gasp. They even had snakes in a box (I know, not a clay pot, but close) which they would tease. Now, you could feel free to take a picture, but almost without a doubt, one of the above mentioned men would see you, and then bring a snake over to you so you could pose with it and take more pictures. At this point, you are trapped. Once you are satisfied, they ask for money. Feeling obliged, you offer some change. No matter what you give them, it is not enough and they make a scene. One snake charmer repeatedly yelled 'MONEY' at me for about 2min straight because he wasn't happy with what I tried to give him. Too bad for him, he ended up with none. You learn very quickly to avoid the snake charmer bullshit no matter how dramatic they are.

The dentist man is unbelievable. There is a creepy old man in with a small old cart sitting in one part of the square. On his cart he has a mountain of teeth, some animal, many human. Next to the tooth mountain are some crude dentures which he has constructed. Locals come to this guy when they can't afford anything else (I assume...) to get a tooth pulled. He only had a few things to get the job done: pliers, knives, and some sort of stone that he puts in your mouth once the tooth is out (to stop bleeding or pain I suppose). Then (and I am speculating somewhat here) if the tooth is usable, he places it into a set of homemade dentures for another customer.

In another part of the square are the food and drink vendors. Every night around 100 food vendors set up a tent and portable kitchen and cook up everything under the sun and sell it to the public for cheap. There were probably 20 identical orange juice stands side by side, all selling glasses of orange juice for 3 dirham (about 40 cents). Oranges grow all over here - in some places they are falling off the trees and rotting on the ground. Other rows of vendors sold fresh fish, squid, kababs, salads, and breads. Still others cooked up Tajine. Tajine is the name of the dish that the food is cooked in - a pyramid shaped lid on a shallow bowl all made of clay and cooked on fire. There are many types and flavours of Tajines, all called by the name of the dish. One night I ate dinner for 8DH. I had a bowl of 3DH soup at one stand, liked it so tried another stand selling the same thing. Then I was generous and tipped the man 2DH because he took a picture for me. 8DH is about a buck. I then paid 20DH for a coke to gain access to a roof top terrace to see the square from above. It was worth the over priced coke. Other things being cooked up? Whole sheep heads, cauldrons of snails, and other unknown Moroccan delicacies.

Hamman

A Hamman is a public bath. Sort of. There are many types of Hammans, they range from a room with a tap with warm water for washing yourself, to a full on day spa with all the luxuries. We asked our tour guide which place he recommended. Without doing any further research, we headed to our Hammam. Now, there is the tourist price and the local price. The local price grants you access to the Hammam and that is it - you'd go there to wash and bring your own soap and towel, etc. The tourist price includes the soap, towel, wash cloth, and your own masseuse.

Three of us guys went for the full on experience. After paying, we were ushered into the change room where we left everything but our bathing suits. We were then ushered through a few empty but steamy chambers until we reached the last one. A guy splashed a bucket of water on the floor and then told us: "Dormir" which I translated for the other two: "lay down!" So we lay on the floor of an empty hot steaming room for a while until we began sweating like mad. We were then ushered into another empty, wet, but somewhat cooler room. Again, we were told to lay down. A man came and dumped a huge bucket of water on my head.

Since there were three of us, and only two dudes to massage us, me and Terry (a great Aussie on my tour) had to share. I had the pleasure and the horror of watching him go first. Our masseuse was an ever so slightly balding, mostly naked, ever so slightly chubby, ever so slightly moist Moroccan man. First, Terry got rubbed down with the 'soap'. The soap was a black ball of slime. He then got half pinched / half tickled all over. At this point, I was starting to giggle, but unsure of the etiquette of a Hammam, I just lay in my puddle on the hard floor and stayed quiet.

At one point, the guy pulled Terry's arm straight back in the air and started making a very loud puckering kissing sort of sound while slapping Terry's muscle. I watched in horror as Terry groaned in pain. This happened over and over for each limb in a whole number of different positions. The guy put Terry on his stomach, pulled both his arms back in the air, then stepped on his spine with his foot! Then, he grabbed Terry's leg and pulled it up behind his head so far that Terry started sliding accross the slippery wet floor. To get Terry back to his spot, the guy just grabbed his foot and drug him back. At this point I burst into laughter - the sight of Terry being drug around on the wet floor coupled with the fear of going next was unbearable, I had to react.

My turn was much of the same. That guy stepped all over me, slapped me, kicked me, made lots of kissing sounds, poured many buckets of water over me, and even let his armpit drip in my face. I came out feeling kind of clean, kind of beat up, and kind of confused...

Those are a few highlights of Marrakesh. There are many more, but I have to jet. I'm on my way home now! See you soon!

Southern Morocco

2009-08-11T03:55:00.002-06:00

From Fez, the group headed south to the dunes of Erg Chebbi in the Sahara desert. We stayed in the town of Marzuka (I think) in an Auberge, which falls somewhere between a hostel, a hotel, and a trailer. The auberge sat right on the edge of the sand dunes: the front of the place was all rocky with some palm trees, and the sand dunes came right up to the back of the place. We wandered around the dunes in bare feet for a bit, looking at the mountains of sand. We arrived in the evening so the hottest part of the day had past, but it was still in the high 30's. After dinner, we were treated to some traditional Berber music, from a bunch of Berber brothers (Berbers are the native people of Morocco). One of the guys asked me to play with them (so cool) and then he spent some time teaching me some different rhythms.

The following day, after a small amount of sleep (it is too hot to sleep well), we saddled up our camels and headed straight into the desert. Let me tell you, camels are not comfy - you sit right on top of the hump. OH, and by the way, we actually didn't ride camels at all, we rode dromedaries. The difference? Camel - two humps; dromedary - one hump. Nevertheless, we called them camels, they are just the Arabian type. SO, we headed straight into the dunes. As far as you could see there were mountains of sand, some up to 300m high! We went up and down, over and around the sand dunes on our camels for about an hour and a half before reaching our desert camp for the night. The camp consisted of a couple Berber tents and a cooking shack. I decided before I left that nature would not call me while out there, and luckily it did not. We ate dinner under the stars, then curled up on a mat in the sand. There was really no need for flashlights (or torches that is, if you're from Austrailia) because the moon was so bright. I was generally comfortable, but a little concerned about the desert creatures. We saw some sand bettles on the way in - they were huge. I didn't know what other types of huge creatures were around, so I tucked my pants into my socks to protect myself. We rose with the sun and rode our camels out of the desert very early in the morning.

We spent two nights in the Torda Gorge - a beautiful oasis compared to the desert. We learned how the very precious fertile land is divided and shared amoung the local families. The land in the valley is good for growing crops because it is irrigated by the Torda river. Growing crops otherwise is near impossible - too hot and dry. Our hotel here sat right on the river and we ate breakfast and dinner on the patio by the pool while listening to the river flow by. Our entire group made a special effort to obtain beer and wine - we had to send our driver into town on a special trip. I had two local Moroccan beers.

Leaving the green valley behind, we headed back into desert territory to Ait Ben Haddou - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The old Kasbah (fortress) is sits on a the side of a hill next to a dried up river. There is still no power or water (and likely never will be) but people still live in this fortress just as their ancestors have for the last 1000 years. I may or may not have bought myself some cool dishes here...

Now we are in Essaouira which is on the Atlantic coast. The temperature here is much nicer - it was 25 when we arrived. This is a real typical coast town - there is a fortified, old section of city with a big wall built to protect the place during times of war. There is a port with tons of fresh fish, boats, and shady people. And of course the long stretch of beach. We've had some time off, and I have just found myself wandering around the old medina (city) in awe of the way of life here. Within one block you can find, chickens dead or alive, butchers, fruit stands, shoes, clothes, restaurants, drug stores (kind of), spice shops, etc... you should see the electronic stores!! There are people right in the middle of the street selling anything and everything - remote controls, mint leaves, pants, little packs of tissue, drugs, cookies, melons, cactus fruit...

Thats a small taste of what I've been up to. Tomorrow to Marakesch!

Morocco!

2009-08-04T15:28:00.002-06:00

So much has happened!

I arrived in Gibralter on Wednesday, found my hotel and headed towards the rock! Gibralter is a British coloney situated on a huge rock on a peninsula in the southern most part of Spain. You need to show your passport as you enter because it is considered a seperate country. Not only that, the instant you have crossed the boarder, everyone suddenly speaks English and with a thick British accent! Amazing! I took the bus to the cable car and went to the top of the rock. The views were amazing! Equally amazing was learning a little about the long and complicated history this place has had. It was a stronghold in nearly every thinkable war for the last few hundred years. During each war, caves and tunnels inside the rock were used for a wide variety of purposes. I toured St. Michael's Cave - the formations inside were impressive, along with the space used as a concert hall!

The next day I took the ferry from Algiceras, Spain, to Tangiers, Morocco! Arriving in Tangiers, I realized that I only had a vague idea of where my riad was (riad means 'rich house' in Arabic and many of them are kind of like hotels or hostels). On exiting the ferry terminal, several men approached me asking if they could show me around, take me places, etc, etc. I got a local guy to take me to my place. He winded me up and down tiny streets, crowded markets, and through alleys. Finally I arrived. He wanted money of course, but I had realized that he was trying to turn me around along the way and then wanted me to continue to use him. This pissed me off so I told him where to go and got rid of him. My place was FANTASTIC! The most beautiful place to stay. I wandered around the Medina of Tangiers overcome by the spectacle! Shops and salesmen, liter small streets only big enough for pedestrians. I was in awe! I did nothing but wander around all day!

I met up with my tour in Casablanca. There are 10 of us in the group, plus our tour guide. The group is great - a couple from Austrailia, a couple from New Zealand, four other girls from random English speaking countries, and my roomie from New York. We toured the Hassan II Mosque which holds 25 000 worshipers normally, and during special days, 80 000 more can fit in the square outside!

Yesterday we did a city tour of Fez. Another amazing experience! We walked up and down and through the markets or souqs as they are called. A souq is a working market where the things that are sold are made right in the street. We toured a pottery place, a textille place, a tannery, and a carpet store. The tannery was AMAZING! hundreds of basins built centuries ago where hides are washed and dyed are crammed into a small square. Workers get right inside the basin with the hides and work with them. The carpet stores are an experience too. The merchants are very good at their jobs and try various techniques to get you interested in thier rugs. I had been through several of these experiences already, but somehow, I ended up buying myslef a magic carpet.........

Today we toured Volubilis - some ancient Roman ruins. Very similar to Pompei in Italy. I enjoyed it alot - I like using my imagination to reconstruct the ruins and picture how life was 2000 years ago! Also went to Meknes today and did some other sight seeing.

The Moroccan food is tasty - cous cous is a very popular dish and I have certainly eaten my share of that! Tagine is the name of a dish named after the name of the dish it is cooked in (if that makes any sense). Had a bunch of that too! The fruit juices here are amazing, and I have only shit my pants for one day so far! Since this is an Arabic country, alcohol is not common. There are many cafes, but the drink of choice is mint tea (which is pretty good, but not on a hot day when you'd love a beer). Speaking of hot, it gets down to about 30 at night and the daytime temperature has been about 38.

Tomorrow we head to the Sahara dessert. Last week it was 56C there. I've heard that it has since cooled to about 45 so that is good...

Sweet Seville!

2009-07-28T13:21:00.002-06:00

I woke up at my cousin´s place this morning in Zeist, The Netherlands. He gave me a ride to my bus pick up point. I took a bus to somewhere, then another bus to the Weeze airport. I waited around for 4 hours before I could check in - the only thing there was to do was drink beer. I bought a beer from every establishment possible, then checked in. Then I bought one more beer and left my passport sitting on the bar. Luckily the bartender was friendly and brought it back to me.

Ryanair is truely a no frills airline! I got nothing - not even a hello. Half way through my flight I felt dizzy, light headed and very sick - I think too much beer.

I arrived in Seville and knew I needed to get to hostel - everyone was crowded by a bus, so I hopped on and it took my withing 2 blocks of my place.

This hostel is sweet! I´m in a room with 3 others. I have free internet, air conditioning, free coffee and tea, and a very helpful receptionist. There is a pubcrawl tonight which is tempting me, but I am having flashbacks of my last Spanish pub crawl........

Haven´t eaten in a while - going to find me some tapas!

2009-07-26T15:47:00.001-06:00

Battling jet lag by touring Versailles...

Versailles water fountain show was very cool! These fountains worked 200 years ago! How did they do it?

Sexy babe.

Vimy Ridge.

2009-07-26T15:38:00.002-06:00

Hanging out in Disneyland, Paris. It was cool that we got to do a concert here...

Touring the Champagne cellars in Reims, France.

Vimy Ridge - We sang Land of the Silver Birch and O Canada on the steps of the monument!!

2009-07-26T15:26:00.002-06:00

Kinderdijk - A UNESCO World Heritage Site - 19 windmills prevented the surrounding land from flooding by pumping water over a system of dijks. Very interesting!!

Marching the choir through Amsterdam en route to Anne Frank's house.

Europa Cantat Utrecht Festival - On opening day, boats carried entire choirs through the canals of Utrecht as they sang for the observers...

The Choir watching the choir boats go by. It was pink choir t-shirt day. Yes, I wore one too.

While I was waiting at the bus stop...

Picture highlights

2009-07-26T15:13:00.003-06:00

Mmmmm fresh, warm, giant stroopwaffle.

This is the choir that my girls were in while in Utrecht - they sang Latin American music and the concert was FANTASTIC!

This needs no explaination.

This is Cecile, my new Dutch conductor friend. She laughed at everything I said. The glasses belong to her kids.

A fantastic meal prepared by my cousins... It is great to be back here spending time with the family on this side of the ocean.

Europa Cantat Utrecht 2009

2009-07-26T05:01:00.002-06:00

I am writing to you after 10 days of choral madness at the Europa Cantat Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands! What an amazing time! The festival is for anyone who likes to sing. 2500 participants gather and form many different choirs which rehearse throughout the week, and perform a a concert at the end.

Of course, I started the festival with my Girls' Choir and parent team. After some initial arrival confusion, we figured out where we were sleeping, eating, and hanging out. I always find that moment of confusion somewhat humorous... The Girls sang in the Latin American choir while I took in the conductors program. So, while they rehearsed tangos and merenges with girls from all over the world, I went to reading sessions, workshops, visited choirs, and shmoozed with conductors from around the world. The rehearsals and workshops were every morning, while in the afternoons, we attended many different choir concerts, and musical events. After 5 days of preparation, the Girls' and their new friends put on their concert. It was fantastic! The salsa rhythms and generally fun music made for a great concert. We, the MHC Girls Choir, also got to put on a performance of our own. I was very proud of myself and the choir for all of our accomplishments and the sounds we made.

So after 6 days, the Girls all headed home. They were exhausted and out of money so none of them complained. I continued at the festival for another 4 days. More concerts, workshops, and listening. I think I heard a total of about 30 choir concerts in the last week. I also got to sleep on a sailing ship! My accomadation changed mid-week and I ended up sleeping on a sailing ship parked in a canal in the town of Maarssen. Pretty cool.

Some quick highlights (and some low points depending on how you look at it)
1) wooden shoe and drumstick rhythmic dancer show
2) open singing - 2000 people sight-reading choir music
3) drinking La Chouffe with Hoop
4) Latin pronounciation workshop
5) African Children's Choir concert
6) MHC Girls' Choir performance
7) Having Dutch family come to my concerts
8) sleeping on a sailing ship
9) taking a PACKED bus full of hot sweaty Germans singing at the top of their lungs
10) Riding on the back of the bike of a Dutch woman
11) making 2 phone calls all bymyself
12) eating a fresh stroopwaffle
13) beer o clock
14) free van ride with Germans to Zeist

I don't think any of what I've just wrote makes any sense, but it could be due to the fact that I've averaged about 6 hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks. I am back at my Netherlands home however - the corner room at my cousin's place - and I hope to get some rest here before the next leg of my adventure begins!

Broodje.

Delft, Amsterdam, Utrecht

2009-07-17T06:04:00.002-06:00

In a hot stinky basement of a corner store in Amsterdam right now typing this...

Had a great time in Delft! We took a canal tour and learned about some Delft history, and ended up at the Delftware pottery factory. You know those blue ceramic plates your grandmother has?... usually with a windmill or boat on them? Well, those are all made at this factory. It was cool to see how each plate (and everthing else) is handpainted by some guy. I liked watching how it is all made, but I'm not too fond of the actual end product.

We headed over to Delft's Old Church and warmed up and set up for a concert. It was such a fantastic experience to sing in a church that was built in the 1200's! And the church was HUGE! The girls' voices ressonated for a good 4 seconds. Many tourists stopped and listened, and we all had a great time.

After the concert we headed out the the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kinderdijke. This is a place in the Netherlands where a system of 19 windmills pumped water out of a low-lying area to keep it dry. This dry area, which was originally part of a river, is called a polder. It was truely amazing to see how the technology used in the 1700's is very similar to the technology still used today. Nothing much has changed except for the source of the power that drives the pumps.

Of course, that makes for one long day, so dinner and beers were in order. Beer of the day was Dommelesch, and each one drank got you a free hat. I will not tell you how many hats I got.

Today we woke up very early and got on the road to avoid the traffic. Our destination: Anne Frank's house. This is a very interesting and very heavy museum to visit. You have to deal with simultaneous feelings of horror, peace, joy, and disbelief. Anne Frank and her family were Jews who survived almost two years hiding from the Nazi's in an attic in Amsterdam. Eventually, a Dutch informant found out about their hiding spot and they were sent to Auschwitz. They all died except for Otto Frank, the father of the family, who was the one who worked so hard to try and protect them...

And now, we have a few hours of "shopping" time. This is the result of touring Europe with a bus-load of girls. Shoes, clothes, trinkets, chocolate, candy, and even booze are being bought up in large quantities while I sit here and type this. I've been mostly on my own, roaming Amsterdam and just taking it all in.

Tonight we head to Utrecht for the start of the Europa Cantat International Music Festival. 2500 singers are coming together to make music! It should be a fantastic time!

See U singing.

From France to the Netherlands!

2009-07-15T14:53:00.002-06:00

Hey all,

Lots has happened in the past few days! Here are some highlights...

In Paris, we saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Louvre, did a boat tour, and of course had to do some shopping with all the girls. We performed a concert in the Luxeumbourg Gardens in a gazebo. It was very well recieved and we had a big crowd! It was super hot wearing a tux in the middle of summer!

And, of course, we went to Paris Disneyland! And, yes of course, we also did a concert there! That was really fun too! We performed on a very Disney-like stage, complete with light effects, a forest set, and a sound system. Not sure how many people stopped to listen, but the choir and I had a fantastic time.

Today we made our way from Paris to Delft, the Netherlands. We stopped in Reims and took a tour of the Champagne cellars and had a good taste of the stuff. Then we went to Vimy Ridge and learned about the WWI memorial. We sang a few songs on the steps of the monument and it was a very moving and fantastic experience.

I've had a few Heinekens, some French wine and Champagne, and a Grand Marnier Crepe from a street side vendor. Also ate some pretty nice food while in Paris. All in all, things are going great!

Looking forward to the Dutch part of our adventure! Until next time...

Paris, Day 1

2009-07-11T13:19:00.002-06:00

Hello World!

I have made it to Paris and so have all the Girls Choir members, chaperones, and parent fans! Here is the quick update:

I left Calgary on time, with an uneventful flight sitting next to a friendly Quebecois couple. I knew I had be fast in Montreal as I only had 1 hour to make my connecting flight to Paris. After finding my way through the termanal (and peeing of course), I found the AirFrance counter and told them I was tight on time. I got in shit for that. They checked me in and told me to run. I got in shit for that. I tried to excuse myself through the security line, which yes, I got in shit for. I had to take my belt off because it makes the metal detector ring and then I didn't have time to put it back on becuase I heard the final boarding call for my flight! So I literally sprinted down a VERY long corridor and barely caught my flight!!!

I arrived in Paris's Charles de Gualle airport at 7:30 Saturday morning French time. I couldn't find the guy I was supposed to meet, thus starting the ever so typical airport confusion. I wandered around for a bit, then decided to try and meet my Girls Choir who were arriving a few hours later than I did. Success.

Without a stop, we went straight to Versailles (on a double decker bus which really excited the younger generation) and did a tour of the palace. I was sure to remind the girls that the only conducting causualty happened there: Lully stabbed himself in the foot with his very large baton and died of gangrene. We also got to see the fountain show in the Garden of Versaille - very cool, and something I hadn't been able to see on my last visit here.

We ate dinner at a brasserie, I've had a total of 3 Heineken already. We had a choir parent meeting to decide on how to handle meeting points, etc. tomorrow as we venture off into downtown Paris. I am very tired, but everything is well. The Girls are incredibly exhausted!!! I've never seen them so mellow and grumpy! So, after 30+ hours of being awake, I am off to my huge hotel room. Night!

The night before!

2009-07-09T20:22:00.002-06:00

I think I have everything. Who knows...

Leaving Canada at 12:15 tomorrow. I have a really quick connection in Montreal - I have one hour between arriving and departing. Got to be slick and quick. Six hours after I meet all my Girls in Paris and we're going to Versailles!

Next post from Paris hopefully.

Getting the ol' Blog up and running again

2009-07-04T16:31:00.003-06:00

Hello World,

Time for another worldly adventure, which means time to dust off the Blog and get going! You know the drill, check back for updates and pictures while I'm away.

Itinerary:

July 10 - July 23 -- Medicine Hat College Girls' Choir Europe Tour!
-- France; Belguim; The Netherlands

July 23 - July 27 -- Europa Cantat International Choral Music Festival
-- Utrecht, The Netherlands

July 27 - Aug 1 -- mucho travel adventure
-- Seville, Spain; Gibralter; Tangiers, Morocco

Aug 1 - Aug 16 -- Morocco Tour
-- Casablanca, Fez, Meknes, Sahara Desert, Essouira, Marakesch

Waaaa

2009-01-08T13:42:00.002-07:00

It is been more than a year since my last post. That is because the Two Koops haven't gone anywhere for a very long time.

I want to go back to Europe and visit the family.

I want to go back to Disneyland and ride space mountain.

The best I can do is post a picture of a big-ass tipi from Medicine Hat.

We're Alive!

2007-11-29T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hey blogger fans! So you may have figured out that we are not in Holland anymore... Right! We're back in Canada! It's been about 4 months now. So that wraps that up.

BUT

Our recent trip to Disneyland was a blast!! Check back for photos!

More Holland

2007-08-05T04:00:00.001-06:00

So these Dutch blog posts aren't really in any order...

This is Rita playing Musette in D for us! She practiced everyday since last time we were here so she could play for us!

This is Uncle John, Aunt Anika, and Aunt Rita:
A street and canal in Utrecht (a very cool city):
Look close, you can see Greg! We're having a beer in Utrecht, watching the people go by, mostly on all their bikes:
Here is the Dam that we visited (see last post):

Homeland: The Netherlands

2007-08-05T03:29:00.000-06:00

We enjoyed ourselves so much on our last visit to the Netherlands that we thought we would make time in our trip to return and do it again!

It is great meeting family that you've never met before! Here are some pictures:

This is Aunt Corine! We spent a day with her eating and drinking and seeing some small Dutch towns, as well as the largest section of reclaimed land in the Netherlands.

We had a dinner party last night! Mark and Margriet hosted and cooked a great meal. This is Leon (Husband of Monique; son-in-law of Rita) and Aunt Rita:
Here we have Mark on the right (son of Rita), Monique in the center (daughter of Rita), and Margriet on the left (Girlfriend of Mark):
Cleaning up after dinner:
Rita on the phone with Dad in Canada:

We've been having a great time checking out Holland. Two days ago, Margriet and Rita took us to The Waterland Neeltje Jans complex. It is a museum and park devoted to the massive dam project in south-western Holland. The dam is 3.2km long and consists of 62 huge moving doors to protect the low-lying sections of the Netherlands from flooding during bad weather and high tides. Very impressive!

Yesterday, Corine took us to see a poldar. A poldar is a large section of reclaimed land. We drove along a huge dike, on one side there was water, on the other was the reclaimed land. The water level was significantly higher than the level of the land on the other side of the road. Very cool to see.

Germany

2007-07-28T15:01:00.000-06:00

We left Switzerland and headed for Nurnberg. I had no idea what we were going there for, but Greg said it was home to some important WWII sights. I soon learned that Nurnberg was the city where the Nazis held their war rallies. We saw huge stadiums and parks, all of which was built and devoted to causing hype and excitement over Hitler and his power. I learned a ton of WWII history, and even enjoyed myself in the process!

From Nurnberg we went to Eisenach. Why would we go there? Well we wanted to visit the Wartburg Castle - the place where Martin Luther hid when he was excommunicated from the Catholic church. Not only did we see that, we also saw Luther's house AND the place of Johann Sebastian Bach's birth. Bach's birth house is a huge museum - tons of info from his life and music. They even had a section explaining polyphony, urtext scores, and more.

We made a quick stop in Dresden, especially to see the Frauenkirche. This was once a very old, Lutheran church until it got bombed during WWII. It sat in ruins for years until 1992 when the two decided to rebuild it. They used as many of the old stones in the building of the new church, each of which is visible on the exterior of the church. Next on the list of German cities was Leipzig. Yet another city of music. I went to Bach's house and to Mendelssohn's house. A highlight was visiting St. Thomas Church: Luther preached there, it turned Lutheran after that, then Bach came along and worked there for 27 years. It is quite a place of history and I enjoyed every moment.

We made another quick stop in Wittenberge, being the good Lutheran's that we are. The Luther museum was excellent - we enjoyed seeing Cranich paintings and woodcuts, and some of the original versions of Luther's German bible. We also saw the place where Luther burned his bull of excommunication. And, of course, we saw the castle church where Luther nailed his 95 thesis.

Now we are in Berlin. We have been here four days and have only scratched the surface of what can be seen here. War is a much more present, real topic in this city. You can easily see places where the destruction of war happened. The Berlin wall, although no longer physically here, continues to have a presence that effects the majority of the city. We've visited churches, synagogues, wall sights, museums, and monuments, all of which have been very good. I really enjoyed seeing the East Side Gallery: a section of the Berlin wall now under monument status because of the art that was painted on it shortly after the fall of the wall.

That is the quick German update. We eat allot of wurst, normally drink more than 2 liters of beer a day, and ride the Metro everywhere we go because the city is so big. Off to Hamburg tomorrow and then back to the Netherlands!

Swizterland!!!!!!!!

2007-07-19T16:21:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! and a special hey hey to our buddy Claudio from Winterthur, Switzerland!!

We arrived here on Monday and have been having a wild time. We are staying with a friend that we met in Calgary a year ago. He was coming through and couch surfing on another friends' couch when we met him. Now here we are visiting him!! Here he is BBQing us some food:
Between hanging out with Claudio and his great friends (and always drinking a few too many beer and getting rowdy) we have been able to take in some Swiss sights. This is the Rhine River Falls:
On a day trip to Zurich, we ran across Zwingli's church!! Zwingli was a reformer during Martin Luther's time. He was responsible for the reformation in Switzerland. This is the church that it all happened in:
Some Swiss Chalet's anyone?
A typical street in the old part of the city of Bern. We spent an afternoon here in the rain.

So between sight seeing and drinking beer, Claudio has been very hospitable and let us shower and eat and do laundry and catch up on email. He's also shown us how to party... We spent an impromptu night in St. Gallen when we had a good time with some friends and the city's fountains.

Tomorrow we are off to Germany to take in the many, many sights there. Thanks for reading everyone, and thanks for everything Claudio!!

More pics...

2007-07-12T05:04:00.000-06:00

The Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest, Hungary:

There were so many spiders on the Chain Bridge in Budapest:
This is the Turkish Bath we went to; this is one of about 20 different pools:
The Central Cemetary in Vienna; from left to right, Beethoven, Mozart (kinda), Schubert:
The famous ferris wheel in Vienna:

Picture Catch-Up

2007-07-12T04:56:00.001-06:00

Remember to check our previous posts for more info on the following pictures...

This is one of 21 hill-top monasteries at Metora, Greece:

Yes, it is pink - a fountain in Bucerest, Romania:
Budapest, the Chain Bridge with the St. Something cathedral in the background:
Franz Liszt's house; this is his piano:
Budapest; the Royal Residence at night:

Vienna (Wien) Musicians

2007-07-10T13:25:00.000-06:00

Here we are in the music homeland!! I've had a hayday looking at music stuff!!! So far, I've been to two of Beethoven's houses (not counting the one I went to in Bonn, Germany), Mozart's house and the Musikhaus. Coming up is Haydn's place, a little Brahms and perhaps Strauss if time permits. I'm also headed to the Central cemetary to make sure all these composers are dead.

Mozart shit is EVERYWHERE here. It is very touristy here - Mozart's face is all over everything: restaurants, hotels, stores, maps, etc etc. People dressed in the classical style litter the streets trying to sell whatever they're selling.

Soon we'll be off to Salzburg to see some more Mozart shit and then that is enough for me. I like his music better than I like where he lived it turns out.

Cheers.

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary

2007-07-10T13:11:00.000-06:00

Ahhh yes...

So we took a 20 hour train ride from Thesseloniki, Greece all the way through Bulgaria and arrived in Buceresti, Romania. We were greasy and tired so we crashed at the first hotel we could find and grabbed some food from the train station.

Buceresti was different than the other places we've been. It is by far the least touristed city we've been to. People there happily sit in the streets along with their own garbage. It was common to see piles of garbage and places where the sidewalk no longer exists. People sit on boxes, chairs, old couches, etc right in the street. We checked out the Village Museum which is like Heritage Park in Calgary, or Fort Edmonton only for Romania. We also saw some wild fountains, and the Romanian Parilment building (the second largest building in the world).

From Buceresti, we headed to Brasov, Romania. Here, we payed an old, ugly lady for two beds in her house. We like it quite a bit - she was nice after all. This was our home base for checking out some Transylvanian countryside and also Dracula's castle (actually, NOT dracula's castle, but the castle that was made famous by the story of Dracula). The real Dracula, named Vlad the Impaler, had a castle a little further out which is now ruined.

Onward to Budapest, Hungary!!! We loved this place! Here is what we saw:
- the Chain Bridge
- The Royal Residence
- Parliment building
- Buda Laberynth
- Buda Castle
- Buda Walls
- many, many churches - can't remember their names right now
- Fisherman's Batalian
- I saw the homes of Franz Liszt and Zoltan Kodaly while Greg saw the House of Terror (WWII)
- the main market
- we spent an afternoon at a Turkish Bath (sooooo cool)
- Heros' Square
- and many other things...

We like Budapest so much that we stayed an extra, unplanned day to fit everything in!!

Athens Pictures

2007-07-03T14:13:00.000-06:00

This is it - the Parthanon! Under restoration like most of the famous European sights however.......

This is the best preserved ancient temple in the world:

This is the temple of Olympian Zeus. It was one of the largest ever built:

The changing of the guard at the Greek Parliment:

This is Lykavitos (I kinda made that name up) Hill. We went up this sucker:

Capri and Pompeii Pictures

2007-07-03T13:55:00.000-06:00

Here are some more pics. For more info, check our previous blog posts.

This is Pompeii - check out the volcano in the background, it is the one that covered the city:

This is one of the molds of a guy caught in the erruption of the volcano:

Greg jumping off the boat into the water at the island of Capri:

The island of Capri:

The grotto - that is light from outside the cave coming through the water:

Rome Pictures

2007-07-03T13:41:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures to catch you up with our previous posts...

The famous Colosseum (I really want to watch Gladiator again):

Some Roman ruins, some churchs, etc.:

The Michalangelo Room in the Vatican Museums; this painting has all the Bible big shots in it if you look closely:

The Sistine Chapel. Hopefully the security gaurds don't look at my blog otherwise I'm sure they'll leave a comment reminding me, "NO PHOTOS ALLOWED":

The pillars in the courtyard of St. Peter's Basillica at Vatican City:

Greece

2007-06-29T07:48:00.000-06:00

Hey blog fans. It is been a while we know. We've been busy ya know. Lots to say so lets get started.

We left Rome for Sorrento, Italy. Sorrento is sort of like the Banff of Alberta - really touristy, but beautiful. Sorrento was our base for exploring the area.

Our first stop was Pompeii. Pompeii is (or was) an ancient city from more than 2000 years ago. The nearby volcano named Versuvius (no idea how to spell that) erupted in 64AD and covered the entire town in between 2 and 5 meters of volcanic ash. In the 1740s excavations began to uncover the town. Excavations have continued non-stop ever since. What we have been left with is one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world. We toured the excavated part of town - saw many houses, bakeries, temples, stores, and even fast-food joints. The town has two theatres, a few sports arenas, and a stadium. One of the highlights of the visits were the castings of real human bodies. People were caught off-gaurd by the volcano errupting and were thus burried alive. Their bodies decomposed in the ash leaving 'holes' where the bodies were. When excavations take place, the 'holes' are filled with plaster and allowed to dry, then when the ash is dug up, a perfect cast of the bodies is left behind. Some of the casts are haunting: you can see facial expressions and even the folds of the peoples clothes.

From Sorrento, we also took a cruise to the island of Capri and along the Almafi coastline. Highlights here included jumping off the top of our cruise ship into the emerald green and blue water on the coast of Capri. We sat in the sun on the top of the boat while the Almafi coastline went by, spent the afternoon in the town of Almafi. We took another boat to the Green Grotto. This is a dark cave full of water, but the light from an underwater passage illuminates the cave. Pretty cool, but maybe not worth the money it took to get there.

We made our way to Bari to catch a ferry to Greece. Our ferry ride was only 20Euro each, but that meant that all we had was a plastic lawn chair and a piece of floor for the 16 hour, overnight ferry. So we slept on the floor, with our bags as pillows. Arrived in Patras, Greece and caught a train to Athens.

Athens was fun - things are cheaper there. We saw the famous Parthenon and other Greek and Roman ruins. We climbed a few hills, took alot of pictures and took it easy. I went to the Greek Musical Instrument Museum while Greg took care of laundry!! Actually, we paid some guy to do it for us.

You may or may not have heard that there has been a heat wave in Greece. It is true. It has been around 44 degrees celcius. One day in Athens everything was closed due to heat. Heat waves are hot. It is like putting your face over the oven door when you open it. Normally wind cools you off, but this wind burned your skin. It was hot. But we are alive. Luckily we had AC in our Room in Athens.

Next Greek stop: Kalambaka/Metora. This is the home of the famous hill-top monastaries. There are 21, gravity defying monastaries perched on the tops of cliffs. They were built starting in the 11C, and 6 are still in use today. We toured Grand Metora Monastary. The highlight other than the incredible views was surely the ossuary. This is the room where the skulls of previous monks are kept on shelves. We did alot of climbing and hiking in the area, took a poop-load of pictures and got really hot and sweaty. The sight of monastaries on the tops of cliffs is quite nifty.

We are now in Thesenolika, Greece and we are departing tonight for Bucaresti, Romania. It is a 19 hour train trip through Bulgaria. Should be interesting.

Sorry no pics this time - this computer isn't cooperating, and the majority of our pics are in a locker at the train station anyways. Until Romania, that is the koop-scoop!!!

Roma!

2007-06-20T03:52:00.000-06:00

We arrived in Rome on Sunday afternoon. While we were standing in the train station wondering where in the hell to go, a women came up to us and asked if we needed a hotel to stay in. She phoned a hotel and brought us to a place right by the train station free of charge!

We got settled in and started our sightseeing which included The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, and numerous churches.

On Tuesday we woke up at 7 so we could get to the Colessium before the massive wave of tourists. It paid off as there was no line when it opened. The Colessium is very cool, as was the Roman Forum which is all the ruins from ancient Rome. Palentine Hill is much of the same, and after a while you start to not even turn your head to take a look at buildings that have been there for 3000 years.... By 1pm Brad and I were so exhausted and hot that we had to take a Spanish Siesta (afternoon nap).

On Wednesday we were off to the Vatican. We thought we would be there at the same time as the Colessium, but 5000 other people had that idea as well. So we waited in the longest line I have ever seen for an hout and a half before finally getting into the Vatican Museums. At first I was quite annoyed with the museum, you literally couldn't move because of the crowds and the art was much of the same old things we saw numerous times earlier in our trip. It was all worth it however when we saw the Sistine Chapel. Other highlights included the modern religous art section and Raphael's rooms. We then made a quick visit to St. Peter's square and Basillica which had the tombs of St. Peter and Pope John Paul II.

Today we are off to Sorrento where we will do day trips to Pompeii and the island of Capri. From there it is on a boat to Greece!

Venice!!

2007-06-16T13:05:00.000-06:00

These people were everywhere so we had our picture taken with them:

The Grand Canal:

A Gondola:

San Marco church (the church that has a ton of music history - here is a piece: Giovani Gabrieli taught Heinrich Schutz composition here. The church has two facing choir lofts, and this had a big influence in the polychoral style of writing. I did a polychoral piece by Schutz two months ago at UofC)

This is the inside of St. Mark's (San Marco). It is covered in golden mosaic. The picture isn't great, but that is because pictures weren't allowed...

More Venice!!!

2007-06-16T12:49:00.000-06:00

This is Greg is Venice:

This is some sort of palace that we walked to that was under construction:

This is the Ospedal della Pieta (for those of you who don't know what that is, it used to be a girls orphanage a few hundred years ago. Vivaldi spent the majority of his life working there and writing music for the orphan girls to perform for the public - it all happened here!!)

A canal in Venice:

One of the three bridges that cross the Grand Canal; this is the most famous one. There are shops and vendors all along this bridge, and many, many tourists.

BULLFIGHT PICS!

2007-06-11T11:40:00.000-06:00

Bullfight:

This is the scene once the bull is dead. The live music starts, the horses drag the bull out, the blue smock men rake the arena, and then it is time for another fight!!

Oh, and here is Greg and I re-packing in the Madrid train station:

PICS!!

2007-06-11T11:33:00.000-06:00

If it seems like a postcard, it is becaue it looks like a postcard - Mont St Michel! (but this is really my picture)

The Sagrada Familia - A huge, unfinished church, designed by Gaudi in Barcelona:

A Parc designed by Gaudi:

Our French friends from the Barcelona beach:

The inside of the mosque in Cordoba, now a Cathedral:

PICTURES!!!!!!

2007-06-11T11:20:00.001-06:00

Greg and I have updated you on some highlights of the trip, now you can SEE some highlights:

Greg's Birthday party in our room in Bayeux, France:

Pont du Hoc on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. This is a preserved battlefeild - you can see the remains of the German bunkers and the huge bomb craters!

St. Malo, France - we walked around the entire old city on the top of this wall.

Watched the sunset from the top of the wall in St. Malo.

We did some hiking around Cancale, France. Our hostel was on the ocean near here and we could see Mont St. Michel in the distance.

Bye Anne! Hello Nice!

2007-06-11T08:44:00.000-06:00

June 9 is the day we sent our travel buddy back to Paris. We took a train to Madrid before each taking a night train in oposite directions. The plus side to Anne leaving is that she took all the stuff that we didn't want anymore, now are packs are 20 pounds lighter! Brad and I arrived in Barcelona on the morning of the 10th (happy birthday DAD), only to get right back on the train to make our way to Nice. What we didn't know is that France was in the middle of some sort of train strike so we ended up transferring 4 different times before getting the train that we wanted. Finally, after 34 hours of train, we were in Nice at 10 PM last night.

Today was a day of relaxing. Laundry, internet, sleep, planning, and wine are all in the cards. Tommorow we are leaving to check out the Principality of Monaco, then it is off to Cinque Terre, Italy!

Cheers!

Seville

2007-06-11T08:22:00.000-06:00

This is us winging it at our best. Our goal was to get to Gibraltor after our two nights in Cordoba but it just wasn't possible due to crappy train times. Instead we got on whatever train left next..... Hola Sevilla!

We lucked out big time going to Seville as there happened to be a BULLFIGHT the night we arrived! Expensive but well worth the entertainment. Here are the highlights:

1 The bullring. Old and beautifull, I felt like I was in meidevil times. You even sit on the original brick seats!

2 All the music is played by a live brass band.

3 One bull, after being stabbed in the head with a sword, flung his head up and threw the sword into the crowd. Don't worry, this was a good 10 feet away.

Don't ask us the history of bullfighting, we have no idea. Maybe somebody can research it and let us know. As for now I am just happy I get to tell everyone I saw a BULLFIGHT!

The next day we spent some time exploring the maze of streets in Seville. We also visited the worlds largest cathedral in area, and climbed the 32 ramps of the bell tower for a great view of the city.

The next day it was bye bye Seville!

Bareclona......Cordoba......

2007-06-11T07:30:00.000-06:00

First off, an apology to all the dedicated readers of our blog, as this is our first update in more than a week. Computers have been hard to come by, not that we would have even had time given our schedule. Let me explain:

After enjoying our spectacular flamenco show, we got the experience of Barcelona night life. After 2 bars and a 4 hour chat with some french guys on the beach, we were a little booze happy. Brad went to bed at around 7 AM, but I tried the all-nighter......

Needless to say we had a very slow next day. After a few short delays, we made it to Cordoba where we would spend the next two nights.

Once the largest city in western Europe, Cordoba is unique for it's history and religous controversy. The expulsion of Jews, the changing of Christian and Muslim authority, and the vast archeological finds made this city a true highlight. The main area of interest was the Mezquito, the largest Islamic sight in the western hemisphere. What is unique about it is that it was built on top of a church site. Then, after several makeovers, the building was once again taken over by a Christian King and converted (still with it's Islamic archeticture), back into a cathedral.

Some other highlights of Cordoba

1 I don't deal with 30 degrees celsius well, never mind 40. It's bad when you think the wet drops on your toes are rain, really it's the sweat dripping from your hair. The point is that Cordoba is quite hot.

2 The Sangria here might be the best thing that I have ever put in my mouth. The mojitos in Barcelona come a close second.

Barcelona and More!

2007-06-04T11:37:00.000-06:00

Well, well, well...

Since the last post we have done alot, and since time is short I´ll try and fit as much in as possible...

Beacches of Normandy - saw the Canadian WWII landing beach (Juno Beach) and visited the museum. Went to Omaha beach (where the Americans landed and got their asses kicked), Pointe du Hoc which has preserved German bunkers and guns as well as a field full of bomb craters. The Americans had to scale 30 meters of cliff to get to the Germans.

St. Malo - very awesome place that we weren´t even planning on going to. The entire city is walled and is on the ocean. We ate crepes on top of the wall while watching the sunset on the ocean.

Cancale - hiked around a peninsula in northern France, climbed rocks, played on beaches.

Mont St Michel - AWESOME! An entire island turned into a monastary and city. It towers over the ocean. Sometimes the tide surrounds the mountain and sometimes sand surrounds it. It has been a place of pilgramage for about 1000 years.

Two very kind French girls offered us a ride back to Paris in their van. Along the way, they bought us lunch and check the train schedule for us. So great.

Got couchette train - we slept over night in bunk beds on the train. We were lucky and were only 3 to a room when there could have been six.

Now we are in Barcelona!!! Spain is pretty hot. Temperature and otherwise. We´ve seen all sorts of Gaudi, saw the Familia something or other which is a church that has been under construction for 125 years and they still are nowhere near completion.

AND, tonight we are headed out for Tapas, Sangria, and a Flemenco show!!!

Gotta run!

Rouen / Caen

2007-05-29T13:25:00.000-06:00

Bonjour!!

We visited Rouen yesterday mainly to see the Jeanne d`Arc sights. It was a little disappointing... people in Rouen aren`t as excited about her as us North American folks are I guess. But we managed to see the place where she was imprisoned, as well as her burn site. Then we ditched town and headed to Caen.

Caen has been our home for two nights. Today we saw Juno beach (originally named Jelly beach but the soldiers thought that was chessy so they changed it). Juno beach is the site where the Canadian troops landed when they came to France in WWII. The museum there was quite impressive, and it was cool to stand in the very spot that Canadians fought in 1944. There are still German bunkers right on the beach!!

Tomorrow we are headed to Omaha beach - I think that is the one that the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is about. Looking forward to seeing some more history and some awesome scenery. And then soon we will be checking out Mont St Michel.

Bon Nuit.

Even More Paris.....

2007-05-27T07:31:00.000-06:00

Today we made our attempt to go to Vimy Ridge and learn more about what contributions Canada made in WW1. It turns out that the Vimy monument is very difficult to get to, so we had to be creative. We took the train from Dehli (Paris), to Arras which is a small city in Northern France close to the Belium border. It then became difficult to travel the remaining 26km to Vimy. With no trains, no busses, and no bike rentals available, we wandered around the city untill we found the tourist office for some much needed help. The lady was very helpfull as she phoned a under the table taxi guy who offered to take us to and from the monument for cheap. The monument is a must see: actual trenches that the Canadians and Germans fought in were preserved, as are the 14km of underground tunnels which the Canadians secretly built to move 10,000 soilders toward the German front line the day of the attack. We learned all about how the Canadians captured Vimy, which had been a German stronghold for the previous 4 years. The entire area is land given to Canada by France, so it was neat to be on home soil and see our flag; it made us proud to be Canadian.

Some other updates......

1 Brad ended his 48 hour streak of being it at fart tag

2 It is nearly impossible to buy a loaf of bread in this area of Paris; samosa and naan are the otherwise popular choices

3 Our apartment is being invaded by those renting it after us. They say they come to paint, really they just smoke weed and think they are painting

4 We have eaten at the same East Indian restaraunt three times since Tuesday

Hi Everyone!

More Paris

2007-05-25T15:31:00.000-06:00

What the NE is to Calgary, that is where we live in Paris. I'm not talking so much about location, but more about the fact that sometimes I forget I'm in Paris and think I'm in Deli.

Today we saw Versailles - it was totally awesome!! The Louis's were wild men - they liked things fancy. It was very nifty to see the Chapel Royal and the Opera House. (for you music buffs, this is where Lully stabbed himself in the foot and died of gangrene) As if Versailles wasn't enough, we tackled the Louvre right after. Mona was hot. The Louvre is big. REALLY BIG. But, at a good pace we managed to see a fair share. The nice part is that Greg and I didn't have to pay to get in. It was Friday night, free for young people.

Tomorrow we are going to be good Canadians and check out Vimy Ridge. It should be quite an adventure - we need to find the right train, then rent bikes and find our way.

If you're looking for more on what we've been up to, check out Anne Marie's blog...

I know pictures are popular but we are in the biggest shit-hole computer place - I think they use Atari or something to make these computers work. So, as soon as I have the chance, I'll load a bunch of pictures.

Going to piss in the street like a ture Parisian.

Paris

2007-05-23T04:48:00.000-06:00

We met up with our friend Anne Marie yesterday and found our appartment. It is very small and kind of stinky but I think that we will grow to love it. We saw the Eiffel Tower yesterday qnd it was great. We are going to see it a few more times in the next week that we are here.

Today we plan to drink wine, see the cemetary that Jim Morriosn, Chopin, and others are buried in, and take in some other French sights.

By the way, French keyboards are a huge pain in the ass. Ok I think I just changed it. Ahhh yes that is much better!

Other things on the agenda: the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, more wine, Moulin Rouge and more.

Ok time to go.

Koblenz, Germany

2007-05-20T14:56:00.000-06:00

I never thought I'd be here in Koblenz. I think it would be a cool place if everything wasn't closed (Sundays are still holy here).

We went on a cruise up the Rhine river today and it was totally awesome. We saw tons of old castles and cute German villages AND we had a good German meal.

Places we've been since the last post - Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, Bonn, Bingen (yay Hildegard!!) and now Koblenz. Tomorrow we are headed for Luxembourg city and then we'll be off to Paris.

Greg and I have been going hard, sightseeing every minute of the day. We went to another musical instrument museum in Brussels which was pretty cool, and we say the Beethoven House in Bonn. I saw Beethoven's last piano, and his viola amongst other things.

Well that is it for now - sorry no pictures today, I'm pooped and don't feel like screwing with a German computer with a screwed up keyboard.

Cheers!