Going to Africa

If making the trip to sub-Saharan Africa hasn't crossed your mind, you're probably normal.  You don't need to go, really.

On the other hand, if you'd like to see it up close and personal, there are some easy introductions.

You can, for example, make friends with a camel in Djibouti;  the little ones are polite enough.  And with a little coaching, you can travel safely for a large part of the country.


There are places with stunning vistas, like the (only) road going north from Doraleh.  It ends at a nice beach and bar area which tourists will never find unless somebody tells them about it.

Bring a friend, of course.  Groups are safer.

It is Africa, and it's often hot, but it's a dry heat.  😀  Carry a case of bottled water with you when you wander around outside the city.  Bring small money for the kids, too.  Most of them will ask very politely for a donation to their family.

There's a stoplight in the city now.  Nobody really pays attention to it, so be careful.

Djibouti is pretty safe, especially if you're in a group of two or more, but don't go to the slum areas after dark.  Driving? It is easy to get comfortable in the moderately paced traffic.  They're a bit imprecise when it comes to staying in their lane, but they're more polite than in D. C.

In Kenya, north along the coast from Mombasa, I stumbled into this flock just minutes from the tourist area.  This is the real world, by the way.  Most of the world lives similarly.

Do not drive in Kenya.  Along one of Kenya's coastal highways, this van is on the shoulder doing about 40 Kph (25 Mph) with a passenger holding on in the open doorway.  They do drive on the left, mostly sort of, but it's a bit non-conventional.  Rent a car with a driver included for the days you want to wander, or join a professionally conducted safari.

Do go see the wildlife.  Hippos are incredible as are the giraffes.




In the mostly-undiscovered Sao Tome & Principe, children play at one of dozens of nearby beaches.  Most beaches are gorgeous and undeveloped.  It's the only country in Africa where you cannot get lost, no matter what.  (It's very small.)  They speak Portuguese and perhaps a few words in English, but that somehow doesn't seem to be a problem for visitors.  A little Spanish is fun; they pretend like you're intelligible, and somehow it works out.

Of the countries in Africa, this is among the safest and perhaps the friendliest as well.  Nice folks, and driving is fairly normal, sort of, if you're careful.



If you're very polite about taking pictures, folks usually will play along.  Kids love to pose for pictures; adults not so much, perhaps.  If you carry a camera you can let the kids use, they'll take fun pictures of all kinds of things that you otherwise wouldn't see and certainly not get photos of.

If you go slow and take the time to talk to folks, some may invite you home for coffee and conversation.  These are friends in Ethiopia, a neighborhood I've visited several times.  They took me home for coffee with mom and dad.  Their English is quite good.  My Amharic is non-existent, but no problem.


If you'd like to understand the world you live in, it takes a little thought and effort.  Just a little is a fine beginning.

APR '13 - Milagrosa community project

Update from Africa today!  Encouraging stuff; made my day.

Our friends are well along with building a community center and preschool.

Nestled in an overgrown former-plantation, Milagrosa is a small community of hard working folks with an associated mob of children. 

The community center/preschool project is their idea and they are doing the work as you can see.  After a year's prep, they offered their plan to our NGO associates.

Materials and other costs were covered by a generous folks in NC.

For those curious about Africa, the Milagrosa community is here on Google maps.

Staged cinderblock for the project

A few miles back from the ocean's edge, Milagrosa is a long way from anywhere to walk and the only transportation is the occasional taxi that makes the trip to the city most days.

Interestingly, despite their small size, the community has a wealth of skilled workers.  These folks have a strong work ethic and are willing to invest personally in their community's advancement.

If you'd like to join in on projects like this one, let me know.  We're connected to folks who actually manage the projects here and in southern Kenya as well.

In Sao Tome, Roberta dos Santos is the

NGO's coordinator.  She's the one who

pulls it all together and oversees the 

projects.  

Our onsite management is provided by a small NGO (STeP UP) in Sao Tome and Principe and by a church group (Jubilation Ministries) in Mombasa, Kenya.  Both are recommended for their accountability.

We've got about 60 kids on scholarship, total, most who wouldn't be able to attend otherwise.  We'll have 100+ next semester.  We have a number of family assistance projects as well.  These are all places we've been, people we've met, and help is applied directly where it's needed.  Feel free to join us.  You'd be welcome to visit personally. (Leave a comment or a note; I'll get back to you with details.)

Stories from Sao Tome & Principe aren't really complete unless you mention the beauty of the place.  Beaches are magnificent, unspoiled, and undiscovered yet by the tourist world.  Here, some of our friends play in the sand while us old folks relax in the sun.  An impressive culture, gracious people; all of them it seems.

Come see!

Few things are harder to grasp or are more exciting than a world we've never seen. One look can change your mind forever, ending years of not knowing.

It's available for the price of a few days on the road.

Come see for yourself!

These are bright, energetic folks who work hard to be good parents, good business people.

The face in the photos is a nice young lady we met in Africa. She and her siblings laughingly waved me down (photo; right) and asked for money. It was more recreational than real begging. They took me home to meet mom and dad; nice folks, tough minded and practical. They raise goats and  camels, generating a small income to support a family of nine. They welcomed me each time I was there and made a place for me in their social circle. We laughed a lot and parted tenderly at the end of my cycle of travels to their country.  I so hope to see them again.


"And can you promise that I will come back?" ~ Bilbo Baggins
    "No."     ~ Gandalf
         "And if you do, you'll not be the same."

Poo Flinging

Poo flinging isn't the normal precursor to great discovery.  In the 1974 Leakey expedition, however, it was.

At the work site in Tanzania, Andrew Hill and David Western were two members of the expedition; they took advantage of cannonball-sized dry elephant dung for a little humorous interchange.  Dodging one flying poo-ball and laughing, Dr Hill fell on the dry river bed and, since he was now close enough to examine it carefully, found an unusual fossil pattern that turned out to be raindrops.  Further search uncovered the animal tracks and finally, bipedal hominids; the oldest such record at around 3.6 million years old.  The well-preserved tracks might well have been parents and child, walking along the migratory route of the animals in the region.  They were nomads, and the first to stand on their feet as they walk, just like we do.

So despite what your mother told you, perhaps poo flinging isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The Laetoli Trail has become recognized as one of the wonders of the world, down which three somebodies or somethings ambled splashily across a mudflat. The smallest somebody or something halted and half-turned for a moment to gaze sideways. The third one came along a little later, and amused itself by putting its feet rather imprecisely in the first one’s prints. They were tiny people or creatures, but the high arch of their insteps and the splay of their toes (the wet mud squeezing up between them) is entirely modern. No relic in paleontology is as charming and touching as the trail of the Laetoli walkers.

Interestingly, the results of the years of labor by the Leakey teams turned much of paleontology upside down. The popularized 'killer-ape' of the 20th century literature turned out to be a fiction as did other extrapolations from similarly small evidence. Thirty-five years later, there's still a bit of contention about who left the footprints; was it Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy's family) as originally proposed, or perhaps the poorly known A. anamensis or even an as yet undiscovered candidate might be in the running. The impact of the discovery remains regardless of the outcome of that particular academic debate.

Because of Laetoli, because of all the archaeological toil of the Leakey dynasty in Olduvai Gorge and Turkana, because of “Lucy’s” skull in the Afar desert, the world now accepts that the human species originated in Africa. More recently still, the so-called African Eve” hypothesis indicates a single common female ancestor, located in Africa at that place where the countless ramifications of the gene tree run together.

Africa has changed in terms of place and relevance. ... the place which Europeans for five hundred years regarded as a stagnant backwater has turned out to be the fountain-head of all human development. Man began there.  Africa’s Lost History JUNE 11, 1992 Neal Ascherson

An emerging understanding, Africa is perhaps the greatest illustration of large-scale human failure. Magnificence and nobility, spoiled by spoiled minds, civilizations shattered by invading colonialists and slavers. It will take further centuries, perhaps, before we understand what has been done. Africa is attempting to recover from the blows; we all have much yet to learn.

(Thanks and a hat tip to the movie 'Madagascar', of course.  Great good humor.) 

FEB '13 A Family's Progress

This is just part of the story of some fine folks.

JAN '10

A family in immediate crisis:  In January '10, the coordinator from STeP Up took me to meet a family; the father of four had lost his arm in a traffic accident and almost died.  Step Up had helped with medical care costs, but he'd lost his only means of income.  He was a taxi driver.  Now, the family subsists on food gathered from the countryside.  When I met the father, he was in the woods, cutting firewood with a machete and carrying it back to the house, one handed.   While we talked, the boys came in with bags of fruit they'd gathered before walking several miles to school.  They have nothing at all and an uncertain future.  We're stretched thin, but we've added them to our efforts to help.  We need help to keep the kids in school and to help the family get back on their feet.

UPDATE: FEB '10

A generous friend of mine saw this and has begun a basic sponsorship for the family through our NGO!  They have a floor in the house and mattresses for the kids, now.  The need is great, though, and there are more opportunities like this one to come alongside and lend a hand.

UPDATE: APR '10 

With some help, the family has repaired their home and built a kiosk out by the road in front of their house.

They'll sell rice and perhaps some vegetables they grow in a little patch next to the house.  Much hard work ahead still.

Oh, and pigs!  They have a breeding pair of pigs now. 

UPDATE: SEP '10

I got to visit the family and drop off a few books and things for the kids.

Inside the family's kiosk, dad and a couple of the kids almost smile for the camera.  The good news that greeted me; all the kids passed their academic year to the next grade. The older boy passed his sixth grade achievement test, a big deal here.  About 75% do not.  Brought him some books in Portuguese & English to celebrate and perhaps prepare for the 7th grade where he'll begin studying English.  The rest of the kids were more excited about some balloons sent by the bookstore manager in Lisbon than they were about the books I brought.

Thanks to help from friends, this family has a plan that's working.  Poppa embraced me warmly and offered sincere thanks as we were leaving.

UPDATE: DEC '10

We've arranged for a business accounting instructor to teach bookkeeping and inventory basics to mom, dad, and oldest son.  Got an email from our NGO rep that coordinates our efforts there, "They're so joyful," she says of the family, "now that they have hope!"  The family photo (right) is typically formal; only the younger daughter is smiling for this Christmas pose.  Note the new floor and walls.

UPDATE: JAN '11

They've purchased the pipe and fittings to bring water to the house from a line running nearby.  Dad and the older boy are digging the trench by hand to lay the pipe this month.  Little by little, they're making progress and again convey their thanks to their friends who are walking through these times with them.  You're so welcome, my friend.  It's our genuine pleasure to be part of your lives.  You've taught us so much.

Update: JUN '11

They've got water at the house now (a spigot in the yard) so they don't have to walk the mile to the river for water any more! 

With a garden next to the house and pigs in the pen in back, they're pretty busy.  They laid the pipes themselves (dad and oldest son).  When we visited, they beamed with pleasure at the good progress they'd made and escorted me to each improvement, explaining with pride what they'd accomplished.  Down the road a quarter mile from the house, they have a field they're cultivating.  Corn, tomatoes, okra; the two acre field is doing well.  And, they're they've begun building a pen for ducks!

Update:  JAN '12, they've finished laying pipe for water to the field!  Financial assistance along the way, tutors for the kids, some medical help, and a lot of hard work by the family have brought them up to being able to feed themselves plus have excess to sell, and to have hope for a future for their children.

The success story is theirs, of course.  They've done all the work themselves, persevering through hard times.  Fine folks, and an encouragement to us all.

Update:  JUN '12,

Stopped by to visit in June; they were happy for the opportunity to show off their progress.  Their cultivated field is now about 500' square and producing well.

Here (left), big sister demonstrates the water spigot that serves their field. 

All but the youngest child are in school beginning September, and each is doing well. 

The family sends their love and sincere thanks to their American friends who stood by them when the crisis came.  What a joy!

Oh, and dad has had his driver's license reinstated!  He'll be returning to work part-time; it will make a big difference for them all.

Update FEB '13 - The country's rural electrification program brought power to their area.  They had been running a generator a couple of hours a day so they'd have light in the house in the evenings, but fuel is expensive.  Now they have cheap power!  And a TV.  And mom can iron clothes which, I'm told, is really a big deal.  Great news, and we get to be a part of it with them.