Book reviews

I have put a new book review up on my other blog on the book Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. Also there is a few thoughts about C. S. Lewis' Narnia books. Check it out.

a very strange and haunting true story

This is



http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2008/02/17/new-weird-contest-winner-divers-hands-the-pied-piper-of-the-parking-garage/



Something you should check out.
It piqued my imagination anyway...

Back from Africa

After a long bus ride, a flight to Thailand, a wait in the Bangkok airport for seven hours, another plane trip for over twelve hours, through customs and the NZ biological security check in Auckland airport, I arrived back in NZ. After I have written this post I'm going to read over my blog for the last three months, and I'm sure its going to be interesting to look back on all that I noted.
Its lovely to get back to the New Zealand summer, with its cool winds, occasional showers, cicadas, swimming at pools, having dinner on the veranda and even mum's many chickens clucking around the yard. The afternoons are sleepy, and at last I'm having my summer holiday sleep-ins. Mind you, although Africa was a little full on in some ways, it was definitely more relaxed on the whole, and as PC says in Kituo, "it's back to the rat race".

Anyways, I will be showing a sideshow some time soon, once I have my films developed, and have organized them a little. But here are some pictures I thought I might put up.




This is Patrick, a Congolese pastor married to an Australian lady who live together as newly-weds on the Joshua base, and I having a good go at mixing Ugali. Hard work actually!















We have a shredded tire on my second trip to Magugu to finish off the sponsorship photos (as you can see if you zoom in a little on the tire), and it was a bit of a mission to work out how to set the jack up as it was too small to lift the car high enough to replace the kaput wheel. A new experience in the Pit Stop for me :)




This is the whole en-gedi team while I was there, click on the image to get a better view.



A few friends I made.








Sunset on the beach of Zanzibar, a beautiful place. I'll put more photos up later of this exotic location











Yep, I held a snake at the Mezerani snake park!

















These are some dear little girls from the Joshua pre-school with their mothers during 'music hour'.

Kenya on the 28th of Jan

finale finale

Well, in the middle of a final week, the time seems to fly. Last night I had my last team dinner, which we have every week on tuesday nights. Everyone from all the different houses on the base get together at on families house, so its a full on feed, lots of kai from different countries etc.
It was nice because the team gave me some gifts (a Massai blanke, a kikoi, some african tea, and an nice African shirt) and said some kind things bout me and finally prayed for me and my future. Then we had desert as a bit of a finale'

Tomorrow I'm going to Magugu with Lynda, Patrick who is a Congolese pastor and his wife Rebbecca who is Australian. Its going to be great to have a last taste of Africa before bundling everything up, catching a bus, two planes, and (I guess) a van ride back to 13 Watea rd, Mt. Albert, Auckland, South Pacific, Southern hemisphere, the world, sitting in Gods hand.

This weekend I am going for a walk with Josh out to the village to visit Eframe (whom dad will remember). I will be getting up early Saturday morning to cook French toast for the Carstensens. By the way I have picked up a few African recipes which I will be trying out back home. Then after the morning at the base on Sunday, I will be catching the Impala bus up to Nairobi.

um, yup, so I don't think I will be updating my blog again unless I'm really bored, that is until I am back on Ateorua soil.

So, thanks for journeying with me, I'm sorry if the last few post have been a bit droll, thanks a million to those who posted comments and connected me with home etc.

-_- :D *) 8) (-_-")

saturday's a lazy day

Weelll,
I am totally over my stomach problems, and the sun is heating upi the atmoshpere here in Arusha. It was hot yesterday and it is proving to be hot today.
I've been giving guitar lessons, designing advertisements, working out new worship songs for the 'song book', spending time with my family over here, and reading.
I've been reading Katherine Mansfield's short stories and they are just fantastic, I highly recommend.

I have also been invited to go down to Magugu again at the end of next week(thursday and friday), which will be great. I will be finishing off the photos we didn't have time to complete last week, and it will really be the last thing I'll do before I leave.

Africa is such a huge place, but its easy to forget, because everyone is so local, and communal. When I look over the balchony in the evenings it seems such a normal landscape compared to the sight it seemed when I first arrived. I guess everything will look a bit different when I get back hoome, too.

Inescts, Africa, and only two weeks left!

Two weeks and I will be on a plane on the way home to NZ, God willing of course.
I'm really trying to make the most of my time here, especially spending time with the people here, like the Carstensens (who I live and eat with) and the Mooses (who live in the same house) and all the others. The training teachers are back to begin study tomorrow morning, and I can't wait to spend some more time with my African Brothers and Sisters. Hamisi, who I teach guitar to, has already organised a lesson for tomorrow via text message.
I saw a snake yesterday morning, the first I've seen in the wild here in Africa, although I've seen them before (in the wild) in China. It was just slipping into a rabbit hole as I saw it, brown and probably a harmless garden snake. I'm going to miss the lovely weather here I think, and the wild life, and the amazing smell after rain. But, before I get too sentimental, I better remind myself I have a whole two weeks left.

I am on antibiotics for this stomache problem, the doctor reckened it is bad bacteria. This is my third cycle of antibiotics since I have been here; One for every month!

The insects here are amazing. I was just sitting under a tree yesterday, reading The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, and I began to notice the interesting insect life all arround me. The red earth was covered with browns crickets about half a fingers length in size, and they clicked their wings as the made huge leaps here and there. When they landed they often burrowed in the soft ground, or sat rubbing their legs together, looking constipated. I noticed a small bug that looked like a crayfish with no tail and it was perfectly camoflaged in the dirt but walking in my direction. I poked him with a stick and he immediately played dead, and stayed dead no matter what I did to him. I looked away for a minute and couldn't find him again as he looked so much like a piece of dirt. A centipede like insect with yellow stripes, and as small as a twinky fingernail, climbed up on a tiny clover and looked at me for five minutes. He was just building up the confidence to introduce himself when nature called me away. Pole sana

quick post

Hey, I have Only a quick chance to post today - Im going to dinner in a minute
i've been feeling decidedly sick today, and took the day off the work I'm doing.I'm going in to the medical center tomorrow...
Its really good to hear from Toni and Roger, I replied in the comments.
Ann and Grant Maxwell arrived at En Gedi today, whom some of you will know. I'm looking forward to meeting them again.
A black snake was seen and chased off yesterday, close to where I work everyday, possibly and spitting Cobra...nice huh?
Tensions and riots have increased in Kenya! Check out the NYtimes...
Ok, I'm off to eat some fried bannanas now, yum!

Back form Magugu

I've been away from Arusha for the last two days. I went on a trip to the school connected with the Joshua Foundation started by Lynda Steevenson, but run by Tanzanian teachers in the town of Magugu called The Joshua Primary and Secondary School. It takes about 3 hours drive to get there, and a lot of it on a gravel road. Magugu is a hot little town, filled with people and cockroaches. The school is a pre-school, primary and secondary school, with form 2 being introduced this year. I went down with Lynda and a girl called Justine, the main reason being to take photos of every student there to send back to their sponsers (just like world vision does every year). We didn't finish the job, but got through a huge hunk. Its was HOT down there, nothing like this rather temperate Arusha which gets the rains coming down off Mt. Meru.

So it was a couple of days of pure African meals, and the accomodation Ngorongoru Hotel was typical of an outback guesthouse, with cockroaches which hiss at you when you go to use the log drop, not running water, and is a little notorious for theives. I enjoyed it though. The best part of the trip was just to spend time with all the kids, and practice a lot of swahili, especially saying 'Cheka' which means 'smile'. The kids really knew how to smile, too. They kind of exploded with huge cheesy grins. The kids struck me as being so unaware and naive, very amazed at the sight of Wazungu (Foreigners), especially if they were just new to the school, as the little kids might never have seen a white person before.

One of my friends, Immanuel, who I made at En Gedi, who is training to be a teacher, lives very close to the school and he came over and invited Justine and I to go to his house. Before we knew it we were being fed a full on dinner, with Ugali, chicken, and all. Justine, who was quite aprehensive of the whole thing was doing very well considering, until Immanuel seemed to expect us to eat some of the little fish called Telapia his sister had cooked. I wasn't feeling hungry after eating the chicken's neck, but he was obviously expecting us to eat a fish at least, so I suggested to Justine we split it. She said ok, and I cut it in half with my spoon, and gave here the top half, which was mostly head. She looked at me with a fixed grin and wide eyes, as if to say 'what are you doing', but I paid no attention and just did my part of eating the bottom half. Immanuel had no idea that we were struggling silently, and the whole situation was so funny I just about burst out laughing.

Anyway, there were many more interesting situations from the trip which I won't bother posting up here because I'm not feeling that well today, and have a tummy ache. I've had the Runs again, and although I'm gulping down the Charchol tablets which often do a good job of corking you up, I haven't had much fun the last three days. I think I have a cold as well, which is strange because it's definitely not cold.

Oh, yeah, we saw a dead Hyena on the road on the way back home. We though it was a pig, but as we drove past it was obviously a not a pig. Hyenas are huge and when they hunt in packs are more effective at bringing down prey than a pride of Lions, mostly due to their reliance on endurance and their extremely powerful jaws. I was surprised to hear from Lynda that they used to get Hyenas on the base a recently as two years ago! They used to wander up from the stream, walk up the path and get into the rubbish. Man!

Another thing to note is that the minnimum wage has gone up 300 percent since the beginning of Janurary which is crazy. Actually Engedi was already paying staff that and a little more, but the over all effect will thing in shops and food etc becoming more expensive in general the the very poor who earn less than 1$ a day will have an even harder time at buying things, or at least much more limited. It may not seem so bad, but its sure to have significant effect.

Democracy by other means

Just read an interesting column by Aidan Hartley, of whom I read a great book called The Zanzibar Chest.. He gives a clearer perspective than most commentators, maybe because he has spent most of his life reporting all over the continent of Africa, here.