My daily morning routine

Due to popular demand (once again, my mom and dad, the only and the most avid readers of this blog), I'll make an entry about my daily morning routine.
This is my room. I sleep under a mosquito net because I'm a walking target for insects of all kinds. When others boast of no mosquito bites ever in Gabs, I get 3-5 just standing in my kitchen for a few minutes without bug repellent.

Then I walk out to the living room. No reason. Just look around to see what's up in the morning. The tv is out of commission but we've got bunch of books - quite a few on HIV and few fictions as well.

Then I walk into the kitchen to prepare my daily breakfast of Wheet-Bix and dried prunes.

Finally, I sit down at this table in our dining room to eat. The desk at my home back in states is impecably clean but one has to be flexible when living with three other people. (Hmm. I guess I just implicated the three others as the messy ones. Sorry guys! I think my mess is on there too.)

I then usually leave the house. But since I'm showing pics of my house, I will just throw in some other pictures. My house is divided into two buildings. Here is the building in the back that has the garage, two rooms, a toilet, and a laundry room.

Our laundry room has a washer and a dryer.

This is our garden. We often sit outside to read or to chitchat. Very pleasant.

Our two lemon trees. They actually produce a lot of lemon - enough to make lemonade frequently anyway.

This is the main house that has the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, and three rooms.

This is our gate with our Plot number proudly displayed.

...and the view of the house from outside.

On my way to work daily, I walk across this field. In the afternoons it is very lively with students running track, playing soccer, etc.

This is the rotary (or round-about as they call it here) where I always get anxious about crossing the street - cars coming from all directions.

A better view of the anxiety-inducing rotary. It's not that this rotary is particularly bad. I just don't like rotaries. But it's probably because back home, I never encounter them where I live so I am not used to them.

My work is in a building next to Princess Marina Hospital so I walk through the main entrance daily.

Finally, after a 10min-ish walk, I'm at my work, BHP!

Cape Town, South Africa

Since my last post was totally not in chronological order, I'll throw on this entry as yet another blast from the past. Again, it will be more of a photo essay.

Cape Town has always been a place I wanted to visit. There's been more and more hype about it recently and even articles in travel magazine that tout how you can do the highlights of Cape Town in about 2 to 3 days. It's such a beautiful place that even if you can go for a short while, it's worth the visit.
The view from my hostel on Long Street, the center of night life in downtown Cape Town

Silver tree in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

The courtyard outside Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island

A view of the 12 Disciples - much of Cape Town is circled around the Table Mountain

Me celebrating the joyeous holidays with my friend, Luci

The fabulous La Colombe restaurant where Luci works - one of the best restaurants I've ever dined in

Bo-Kaap: a colorful neighborhood near Long Street

Cape of Good Hope: The most south-western point of the African continent

Mulderbosch winery

Chillin with the penguins at Boulder Beach

Zanzibar, Tanzania

A while back, I went to Zanzibar. It was a quick trip and I didn't have much time then so I didn't bother doing an entry but due to popular request (yes, I read your e-mails, mom and dad), I will do a quick photo summary.

My flight landed in Stone Town and I stayed the first few days in Stone Town at a hostel right next to the Anglican Cathedral, which turned out to be a very interesting site. Zanzibar used to be the center of much trade, one of which included the slave trade. The cathedral is built on the site of the old slave market and the alter is above the old slave whipping post. In the shadow of the cathedral, there is a stone monument of slaves in chains - a solemn reminder of the dark past. In the basement of the hostel, there was a slave chamber. One of the most claustrophobic places I've ever visited.Near the alter, there was a crucifix, made from a special tree in Zambia. When Dr. Livingstone died, his body was sent back to England. However, his heart was taken out and buried under a tree in Zambia. This crucifix is said to have been made from a branch of that tree. Much of the path from the hostel to the beach was through a wonderful maze of small streets that take you around old buildings.

Beit Al-Jaab (House of Wonders): This used to be the sultan's palace. This is now a museum with an interesting display of Princess Selma who wrote her experience of growing up as a sultan's daughter in The Memoir of a Princess. A view from the top floor of Beit Al-Jaab. Fordlhani Gardens: My friend Erik and I got totally ripped off here (we paid a mere sum of $55 to eat here, where most brag about eating $1 plates). I know Erik was upset but the setting was unforgettable and I was with good company so I found it overall pleasant and totally hilarious afterwards. Mr. Mitu's spice tour guide Nutmeg. This is where I learned that the mace in this plant is NOT the mace put into the mace guns.The beach we visited after the spice tour. The beaches were so beautiful and the Indian Ocean was like bath water - warm and comforting. Just near this beautiful beach, there was yet another reminder of the slave trade. This is a picture taken from inside of a slave cave. Once slave trade was banned, traders would hide the slaves in these caves before bringing them out to the beach onto the boats. After a few days in Stone Town, we headed up north to Nungwi. Erik enjoyed a day of scuba diving while Katie and I snorkeled near Mnemba Atoll. Afterwards, we met up with Yetty, my roommate from Fogarty Orientation and the current fellow in Dar-es-Salaam. She took the dalla-dalla (kind of like a pick-up truck with over packed wooden compartment in the back) up to meet us. Dhow boats in the background Turtle sanctuary: There was a turtle sanctuary nearby where we got to feed seaweed to turtles. Made me think of Poopa, our pet turtle back home. Though Poopa likes to eat carrots.

Cactus in Gabs

In answer to some people's questions as to why there arn't more cacti when many parts of Botswana is desert... Look what I found in my neighbor's yard!

Mali

It was a difficult decision - to go home for the holidays or to use that time to travel within Africa. And I wish I could say that making that decision was the most difficult part of this trip to Mali. But there were a ton of challenges to this trip: everything from purchasing the airline tickets (Nance and I almost ended up in Maledives rather than Mali, though that would not have been the end of the world) to obtaining the Mali visa (see two entries back for my adventure to Pretoria). However, I have to admit that the trip was worth every second of those troubles.
I was stoked to have a travelmate from the very beginning of the trip. Nance, the Durban Fogarty fellow, and I met up in Jo'burg airport and from the hugging and the rather inconsiderate noise level, onlookers may have thought that we had not seen each other for ages! Both on our way to and from Bamako, Nance and I had to spend overnight in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We didn't really get to explore the city beyond the bus rides to and from the airport - but now we can at least say that we've had authentic Ethiopian food in Ethiopia.

When we finally arrived in Bamako, we were greeted at the airport by Nance's friend, Pierre, a long time resident of Mali. We rested the first day (by the pool! - really felt like a luxury vacation, not an adventure yet at that point) but we set out to explore Bamako the next day. We went to the Artisan Market. There were many excellent parts of the market where we met artisans working on leather goods, furniture, textile and whatnot.

Then we headed to the Mali National Museum. My favorite piece was this life sized model of a combi packed with mannequin passengers - one of whom was dressed like a reggae artist. Here we are pretending to hitch a ride.

Then we went across the museum to the prehistoric garden. It was an interesting place, comprised of a small collection of some ancient looking tools and mannequine cavemen. Once again, one piece stood out as the most excellent of them all for me - the huge cement model of a dinosaur.

Finally, it was time to track down Bre, the Mali Fogarty fellow. She really was the main reason why we all ended up converging in Mali - and made the whole trip possible for all of us in more ways than one. She found a Dogon guide, arranged for temporary visas, wrote letters of invitation, etc. We met her at a restaurant in Bamako on Rue Blah Blah for some pizza and beers.

The next day though, we ate more in line with what is usually offered in Bamako eateries - a delicious dish comprised of various veggies, fish and rice. I'm salivating just thinking back on the meal now!

Day 1 of the tour: Bamako to Sevare. We stopped at a village along the way for a delicious lunch. They cook everything in palm oil there and it is as delicious as it is terrible for your arteries. Yum! We spent the Night in Hotel Via Via.

Day 2: Sevare to Dogon Country. We hiked around a few Dogon villages: Sangha (the cliff dwelling region of Dogon Country), de Banani, d'Ireli (ancient Tellem villages), d'Amani (sacred crocodiles), de Téréli (lunch and Mask dance). We returned once again to Hotel Via Via.

Here is a bird's eye (well a low flying bird anyway) view of a Dogon village.

The traditional mask dance was definitely the highlight of the day and possibly the entire trip! My favorite mask was the one above - the mask symbolizes a bird (that used to be at the water's edge before the desertification of the land started) when the dancer is on the stilts but a young woman when the dancer is on the ground.

Some masks were more elaborate than others. The one above was possibly the longest mask they had.

The rich colors of the costume varies from village to village. The colors shown here are the most typical but there are some villages that use only black.

At the end of our adventure in the Dogon Country, we were offered a taste of chimichama, the local brew. Here is Jr holding up a gould filled with the intoxicant - to me it tasted a bit like sour milk.

The mask dance is only one of the wonderful aspect of the Dogon people. The Dogons carve an illustrative history of their people on their doors. I won't recount the whole story here but there are parts that explain why the Dogons ask the fox about the future, the origin of female circumcision to mention just a few.

On our trip back to Hotel Via Via, our 4x4 (quatre quatre or "Goodbye, Europe" were the local names) got stuck in the sand. At first, we thought we were alone in the middle of the desert. However, we were suddenly flooded with numerous people from a village on a nearby cliff. It really seemed like they were coming out of nowhere in the desert.

Day 3, 4, 5: We then got on a wooden canoe to start our journey to Timbuktu on the Niger River. We left from a port in Mopti where Bre and Erik, the Zambian Fogarty fellow, made what is possibly the best investment of the whole trip - they each bought a wool blanket which was enjoyed by all who were freezing on the Niger River. Here's a picture of me (green turban) and Bre (blue turban) huddling under the blanket.

By the way, the purchase of the turbans in Bamako was an adventure. I have only the most basic understanding of French from high school - like Nance said, she and I knew just enough French to be dangerous. While purchasing turbans, I kept nodding my head enthusiatically and saying "oui oui" and at one point Bre (the only person on the trip who actually spoke French and English fluently) had to tell me to stop as I was now "oui oui"-ing to the turban salesman who had just declared his love for me and invited me to live in Bamako with him for a year!

And that was only the first time I had someone declare their love for me on this trip. Can I say that I love Mali?

The boat cruise on the Niger River was fantastic! We were all happy to finally get to Timbuktu at the end of 3 days on the river but I couldn't have been happier the entire time on the river, just daydreaming and getting to know the people on the boat. Aaron, my source of sci fi lit knowledge among other things in Gabs, thought that the boat journey sounds a bit like Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Now I am jonesing to read that book.

Besides learning about others on the boat, one thing I learned about myself is that, as Jr declared, I am not a product of society. The lack of general knowledge I had about different genres of music (beyond classical and some big band music), movies, etc were just enormous! Of course, I don't have plans to rectify this though I did take a small step in googling a few things once I returned from the trip.

For example, I googled gremlins and the Keebler Elves. We were going down the Niger River in the dark when our boat got tangled up in fishing nets. While we tried to extricate our boat and get ashore, the topic of gremlins mysteriously emerged. I had no idea what they were and asked in whisper to Jr whether they were the ones that made those cookies to which Jr loudly replied "no, those are the Keebler Elves."

I only confided the story above because I know I have the readership of maybe 2-3 people at most and those people already know of the above gremlin incident and we all had a good laugh.

We stopped at various villages along the way. In one of the villages, the children became intensely curious about the insulin pump that Justin was carrying. Here is Justin demonstrating how it works and explaining the basics of diabetes to rural Malian children.

The mud mosques we saw were very impressive given that they were (1) built with mud (2) had to be repaired annually due to the rainy season deteriorating the walls. The wooden sticks are where they step to apply fresh mud to the walls for repair.

The night skies were often so beautiful and colorful. I felt so previledged to be among excellent company and camping (one of my favorite activities) along the Niger.

Then the boat trip was over. We could barely contain our excitement at the sight of the Timbuktu port.

We drove to the north of Timbuktu into the desert where we met a Touareg family who welcomed us with a song and a dance. This was such a wonderful welcome as we had just been on a boat for 3 days and had driven through a rather trecherous desert terraine to the Touareg camp. I'll just say that my stomach was so turbulated that I couldn't really eat much for the next 24hrs.

Which meant that I could not join my friends on this wonderful feast of roasted mutton. At the time, even the smell was too upsetting for my stomach. But looking at the picture now, I am sad that I couldn't even manage a bite!

Day 6: Tour of Timbuktu then drive to Essekane in 4x4. A local guide showed us around Timbuktu. Here he is explaining the "jealousy window." The windows were blocked to ensure that married women were kept from eyes of other men.

This is the well of Buktu. At least one of the story goes that Timbuktu gets its name from an old woman named Buktu. Tim means "place of."

We rode most of the way in 4x4s but we did attempt camels as a source of transportation for part of the way. It was thrilling (and scary) at first but the novelty wore off quickly as we all quickly became saddle sore.

Nance, Bre, and I sported our Touareg women outfits on the camel ride as well as throughout our stay in Essakane. We got the idea from Bre - Bre's PI is friends with Mani (probably wrong spelling), the Touareg man who started and organizes the Essakane music festival. So Bre had been told that Mani appreciates the international press and tourist attention that the festival has been getting, except that he thinks the tourists showing up in their western garb really changes the atmosphere of the festival. Our efforts to wear local women clothes were met with wild enthusiasm by the locals and tourists alike in Essakane. People continously yelled "la famme Touareg!" and couple tourists even asked to take a picture of Nance!

Day 7, 8: Essekane for festival then head back to Sevare/Mopti Via Timbuktu. Many of the performances were on the huge stage but many others were also done on a sand dune. Here is a camel dance where actual camels are brought into the midst of singing and dancing people.

The camels were so closely packed behind the circle of onlookers that at times I was a bit worried about being trampled. But I am happy to report that I only witnessed one camel trampling the whole festival and that person was not seriously injured. (No, it wasn't me who was trampled.)

Most of the day was spent on waiting for the performers to come on stage. Here are Zak (our Dogon guide and friend), Bre and me patiently waiting on a sand dune in the middle of Sahara.

Day 9: Djenne, the world's largest mud mosque. Then to Segou. Visit the village and cities. In one of the villages, we saw a famous tomb for a young woman. Our guide told us that the city had trouble prospering and needed a female virgin to be buried alive as a sacrifice. The above tomb commemorates the spot where she was buried alive. Unfortunately, we could not enter the Djenne mosque. Tourists used to be allowed a peak inside but few years ago, a French photographer came and photographed scantily clad models which scandalized the city. Now we can only admire from outside.

We also had a chance to visit a mud painting artist's studio. He paints with various dyes and mud on a cloth. After a few washings, the mud washes out, giving the cloth a new look.

The last night was spent in a really nice hotel in Segou. The hotel was right on the Niger River and we had to take a small wooden canoe to get there. It used to be a hunting lodge - tourists would come, hunt animals (rabbits and cobras were mentioned), then give the animals to villagers. We had sundowners then a delicious dinner composed of soup and fish. Our last night together before everyone returned to their "real" lives, we gathered at one of Bre's favorite joints in Bamako called "La Tonnelle." Getting there was quite an adventure - suffice to say that Jr and Erik repeatedly accused me of almost leading us to the wrong location with my dangerously short French.

La Tonnelle had a novelty that I truly enjoy - beer on tap! Castel Beer, the "Queen of Beers," was available on tap and we readily partook. There was a surprise band playing lovely live music thanks to Bre's genius idea to turn the night into a celebration for Mac's graduation party.

Mac and I sported traditional Bambara-esque dresses that we had just picked up from our respective tailors. I'm glad I took a picture of me in my head wrap because that's probably the last time the headwrap will actually look proper. (It was done by Jolie, Bre's housemate.)

Nance had gotten really cute western style clothes made from Bambara fabrics. All in all a great night had by all and what a way to end a fantastic voyage!