Safari Part One

We were so excited. Everything had been packed for days, extra batteries had been bought, flashlights found, etc etc. After months of planning, we were more than ready. Our flight was due to leave at 11:45pm, around 9pm our friends arrived in a taxi to pick us up. Our traveling companions were Emily and Kelly two residents of a tiny northern Ontario town called Wawa. They have known each other since the age of four, been through school together and then University. When they graduated they decided to go into international work together so they headed to Egypt, which is where Valerie and I met them. They work at the same school as Valerie and I.

Anyway we arrived at the airport and checked our bags, everything was going well, no long line ups. Our flight is through Kenya Air, which is fun because I have never been on their airline before. We even bumped into some of the other teachers from the school who were also on our flight they were doing a safari through Uganda to see the Mountain Gorillas. So we board our plane and wait. About an hour after we had boarded the plane there is an announcement that some part of the plane is faulty and needed to be replaced, and that we would be sitting and waiting for the part to be fixed before leaving. Which would be fine except we were all sitting in a closed airplane with no real ventilation and it began to get very uncomfortable. It was hot and the air was very dry, and they wouldn't let us get off or open the doors. The man next to me kept asking for water and I was worried he was going to pass out. Finally after 3 hours they let us back into the airport where we discovered what was going on. The Egyptians had decided that the part the Kenyans wanted wasn't necessary so instead of finding it they told the Kenyans to take off. The Kenyans said no, they wouldn't go without the piece. Anyway they argued about it until 5:45 am, when finally the part was replaced and we took off. The flight to Kenya was about 6 hours from Cairo with a quick stopover in Khartoum. We arrived in Kenya a bit nervous, we weren't sure if we were going to be met in Nairobi or not. And Emily couldn't remember where she had put the contact info for our safari. Also during out wait we had time to sit down and read our lonely planets which made us a little bit more uneasy. According to the Lonely planet, Nairobi is now the most dangerous city in Africa even beating out Johannesburg, it is commonly referred to as Nai-robbery.

We were met by our guide-to-be Joshua, and he was great. He taught us the swahili word for welcome: karibu! As we walked out of the Nairobi airport we saw our first glimpse of our safari van, it was super, a mini-van with a customized roof that pops up and allows for picture taking. Joshua worked for a company called Safari Line who would be taking care of our Kenya stay. We had about an hours drive from the airport into Nairobi proper where we stayed at a hotel. It was an interesting drive, Kenya is much cleaner and orderly looking than Egypt. The people do not look as poor, and there appears to be a solid infrastructure. Even so as we stopped in traffic people started to appear trying to sell us things (see picture). Joshua warned us to keep our windows closed because the sellers would try to grab things within reach. The variety of things for sale was amazing, you could buy Milhouse dolls on sticks, hats, shirts, fruit, perfume, and freshly roasted peanuts. Valerie leaned out and bought some peanuts from a young man with a big smile. We saw lots of brightly coloured buses and several with theme paint jobs, we saw a David Beckham bus, and several Obama buses (his father was Kenyan).

Our experience in Nairobi was strange. We saw so much fear and so much security but we didn't feel threatened or scared. Everyone we met was helpful and kind. We even went out at night to a restaurant and walked back to our hotel (something both the guide book and our tour operator told us not to do). Perhaps we were naive, I don't think so. We went to sleep that night, excited and exhausted. We were in Africa!!!

Happy New Year!

Well I don't have enough time or a fast enough Internet connection to post about the trip right now. However I will say this: IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

Also it turns out none of the courses offered this summer at VIU are useful to me so I will be spending my summer in Cairo again from the end of April to mid July.

For the next few days I will be in the Sinai buying goats and taking lots of pictures.

I arrive back in Canada on January 6th, you probably won't hear anything from me until then.

And tonight...Nairobi!!

We leave from Cairo tonight!! I AM SO EXCITED!!

This is our itinerary, we aren't staying at any of the lodges listed, we will be camping. I started my anti-malarial meds yesterday morning. I wasn't going to bother but apparently there is some new super-duper strain of malaria which can kill you in 24 hours so pills it is.

Kind of a funny aside here but you can walk into a pharmacy in Cairo and buy any pill over the counter. Valerie didn't need a prescription to get her anti-malarial she just walked in and showed them my bottle. Imagine the possibilities...

After a 6 hour flight we arrive at Nairobi (which is apparently also know as Nai-robbery). From there the four of us, jet-lagged and probably confused looking white people, will attempt to navigate our way to the hotel.

I think it is safe to assume that once we are on our way I probably won't have access to the Internet.

I will be in the Serengeti for Christmas morning. :)

Anyway best of the holiday season to all my friends!

The whale has been edited...

The whale has been improved upon. I think the new artistic sensibility comes from the theme of the morning after as the whale is now sporting red blood-shot eyes, and a boner. Really it was just a matter of time. See if you can spot the changes, sort of a fun wheres Waldo kind of game.

My favorite.

This kid is awesome. He doesn't do anything half way. His passion for everything is astounding. I wish I had some of his verve. I took this picture when he was goalie in a footy game, look at that concentration!

I'm just like the beatles*

When my students from last year saw me they screamed! They all came running at me, hugging me, and saying "Miss Naomi! Miss Naomi! Will you do drama with us??? We thought you weren't coming back! Look we can still do your dances!" I was so touched, it was really nice to see them all again.


*Except for the money, adoration of millions, and musical genius.

Its getting cold in here so put on all your clothes...

This morning when we arrived at school there was frost on the ground. We could even see our breathe in the cold morning air! WTF? The sun is out but there is a very dry cold that settles on Cairo at this time of year. The worst is being out in the desert. Guess where we are going after Tanzania and Kenya? The desert. Last time we went out into the Sinai desert at X-mas time it was frigid. The nights were so cold we slept in all of the clothes we had brought with us. Brrrr

In other news I hear my Canadian friends have snow...ha ha!

Total Loss

There is a brand of candy made in Holland called Total Loss. How do I know this? I spent 7 hours in the Amsterdam airport wandering around peering at things through a jet lagged haze.

So lets see where to begin...

My Aunt, Cousin and Clara the German exchange student arrived in Nanaimo on Friday. We spent the day showing exploring Nanaimo. We returned home only to discover that Jimmy had taken over the living room with some of his buddies in order to play some kind of online game. We giggled amongst ourselves, at the follies of geeks killing Zombies, as we went upstairs. Ha ha ha nerds, we laughed as we sat there watching youtube videos of the muppets (Danny boy and mahna mahna). Clearly we were much cooler. Saturday we headed down Island through Chemainus and Duncan and onto Victoria. We checked into the swan hotel down near the harbour and had dinner at the reef (go there!! Best food ever!!). That night we made our way out to Butchart Gardens to see their annual X-mas light display. About ten years ago Valerie treated Heather, Kim, Cameron and myself to the same adventure and we had always planned to go back. It was a bitter sweet evening. The lights and displays were delightful but there was a certain sadness that comes with all things related to Cameron. We left the island Sunday morning.

I stayed in Vancouver until Tuesday night when I flew out to Cairo via Amsterdam. I really like being back in the Gypt. I arrived at 2:15 am Cairo time and Valerie and I stayed up chatting until nearly 6am. I am not quite back on schedule yet, this morning I think I was awake around 4am. yesterday we went to a giant craft fair that was held at a local sporting club. To say the least it was a little strange. To be in a Islamic country walking around booths with home made christian X-mas trinkets was surreal. Some of the items on display: Italian designer knitwear, homemade cookies, Kenyan crafts, alabaster crafts, dollar store style X-mas trinkets, Bedouin jewellery, aprons made of fabric covered in ancient Egyptian designs, etc, etc. Almost all of Valerie's co-workers were there, they all had this week off in celebration of Eid.

I don't know whether or not I will get paid for doing any work at the school. There is a slight possibility I will be working with a sixth grade class for a week. I will be doing drama with at least two of the classes, Valerie's current class and her class from last year. There are a lot of new teachers at the school and they all seem pretty cool.

I have been offered a position teaching summer school again this summer and I am mulling it over.

Valerie has her sites set on positions for next year. I think the most likely scenario is her moving to Syria and working in Damascus. The owners of CISE are opening a new school there and she is hopeful they will consider her for one of the initial positions.

Exit, Naomi, stage right

Tomorrow at 6:30pm I shall be leaving. My flight routes through Amsterdam, I have about 7 hours in the airport. Usually with these trips I have so many last minute things to do and so much running around to get done. This time I have almost everything covered. I need to find some first nations cards and a book to read in Amsterdam but aside from that everything is ready. I will be in Cairo until the 19th and then we fly from there to Kenya, and then onto Tanzania from there. After Tanzania I fly back to Cairo for a few days and then home again, home again jiggedy jog. I don't know if there will be any work lined up for me over the holidays but I will be doing a stomp workshop with Valerie's class.

Pictures!

Finally I have been able to connect my stupid camera to my stupid laptop. So here you go some pictures!
This one is of the little girls in the Dahab who used to walk into stores and restaurants and try to sell tourists bracelets. They rarely took no for an answer.

Hostiles in the hostel

I have my treats that I really enjoy, one of which is organic cherry tomatoes. So I bought myself a small basket of them for $4, and placed them in the communal fridge. Where some fucker took them and ate them!!! Not only that but they took half of my cucumber. LOL Small worries really but how weird is that? Stealing cucumbers and tomatoes!! Life in the hostel isn't bad, my roommate won't be around on weekends because she works on the mainland. However some evenings eating supper can be a bit daunting there are always strangers who want to make conversation and to be honest, I could give a fuck. I know, I know that isn't very charitable but for the time being this is my home and imagine how you would feel coming down to dinner every night and having 6-12 new people there. There was an obnoxious man here the other night who kept trying to sell his bread, he had bought to much and wanted to sell it. He was really pushy, I said I tried not to eat bread and he looked offended. What is offensive about not wanting to eat bread?? In the daytime the location here is fantastic, at night especially on the weekends it can be a bit noisy. Last night and the night before the clubs were really loud. I also heard someone vomiting just under our window sill, it wasn't just some small puke either it was an operatic overture to the tune of the man's entire repast meeting the sidewalk...bleah.

In other news...I am going to Tanzania at X-mas. And, I am coming back to Canada in January. I will be leaving Canada again in April for more fun time teaching at CISE in Egypt. I have to pay for the second trip which I think is fair.

I had a surprise in one of my classes, who should walk in late but Derrick!! Almost ten years to the day we began theatre school together.

Final Day in Dahab

Tomorrow morning first thing in the a.m. we are catching our bus back to Cairo. It has been a quiet few days. Today was weird. We were sitting there quietly reading our books minding our own business when suddenly the speaker above us starts blaring hits from the 90's. We listened to the peaches song, gettin' jiggy wit it, ace of base, and a few others. THEN they put on new country music. One of the songs nearly made me pee myself, something about how she thinks his tractor is sexy LOL!!! I am not a fan of country music, but that was funny. At the cafes here cats and dogs snuggle up to you at your tables in hopes of tidbits, the restaurateurs provide old windex bottles full of saltwater as an anti-animal device.

In order to return to Cairo we must drive under the suez canal, which isn't much to look at you can barely see the boats above. It is however surrounded by a large military presence. Lots of checkpoints and armored cars. All along the road for about a mile there are men posted in fox holes above the street in full on combat uniform, complete with metal helmets, poor bastards. I waved at a few of them on the way through they looked so hot and bored. Maybe on the way back I'll flash them, yeah that won't get me into trouble in Islamic Egypt :)

Dahab Day three

I got a baby tan!! I am now slightly more beige than I was yesterday!!! Also I sunburned my knees. I don't know how I did that last bit but whatever. I am sitting here at the net cafe watching baby Egyptian mau kittens frolic, they are so cute, but their claws are freakin HUGE! I have sent off a whole bunch of postcards today, if you want postcards and you haven't recieved any yet that means I do not have your mailing address please send it to me.

Anyway Dahab is a beach resort town built up around the dive industry and it is growing by leaps and bounds. Almost everything a vacationer could want is available here from manicures, to pedicures to moonlight horse back rides to Bedouin gigolos, its all here. The street sellers are quite pushy and it tends to limit the amount of time one might spend walking around. Today I got called a prostitute, by a police officer LOL!! I don't think he realized I knew what he was saying in Arabic until I turned arond and stared at him, he had the good grace to blush. I was dressed conservatively too, prick!

Dahab day two

I did fuck-all today. Not entirely true, I did read two books and try to start a tan. We sat by the beach in a cabana style restaurant, ordered food, read, slept, and saw some friends. It is charming here until you start to move around and then the hassles begin.
"Hello my pretty, come see my menu"
"Mama, mama, mama, bring you and your sister here for food"
"Mrs, mrs, mrs buy bracelet, why??? why won't you buy bracelet??"
"taxi? taxi? you want taxi??"
You have to smile because if you don't they try to make you smile by flirting or trying to be funny, which usually just serves to piss you off more. So smile damn it!! Business people try to become your friend right away so that when you have something to dispute or you say that the price is unfair they can act wounded, it is an amazing tactic I have seen it work in the most bizarre circumstances. There is also a gender issue, if you have a penis you get more respect. I don't deal well with that, I try but it is an exerscise in frustration.

Not dead

Valerie and I are going on a jaunt to dhab for a few days. I may not have internet access, just wanted you to know I am not dead yet. I will be in touch with you all as soon as I get back :)

Bedouin Teatime

This is the family that we took the goats to first. I was trying to be as subtle as possible when I took this footage so it isn't very good.

Baby Monsters

Some of my dancers waiting for their turn to perform.

F$#king computers

This was not actually the picture I wished to add, but on dial-up internet on an ancient lap-top, I am not about to take another 30 minutes (not kidding, sadly) to re-post. This is Abdullah the swim captain or life-guard at the school. he is very funny, we enjoy our swim sessions with him.

Going to the Pyramids baby!

It feels funny complaining about going to the pyramids. I mean for most people it is a once in a lifetime experience that is suppossed to be almost spiritual.

For me the experience is a really mixed one. Giza the area where the pyramids are located is quite dirty and there is a lot of poverty there. The people who work around the pyramids are all trying to extort money from tourists any way possible. I can't really blame them for wanting more money but their methods are pretty sleazy. A camel ride around the pyramids should cost about twenty-five pounds, but it is not uncommen to hear of people paying three hundred pounds or even more. If you take a taxi to get to the gate the people at the gate will try and lie to you and tell you that the taxi doesn't need a ticket (it does) so that they might later procure you another taxi at a higher rate and thus get a percentage. Small children ask for pens so they can go to school, the pens are later sold at market. It goes on and on.

Anyway, I am going to the pyramids today to take some pictures of garfield at the pyramids. Heather asked me to do this for a tribute to Cameron. I think it should be a nice day. Also it couldn't be any more different from my first trip to the pyramids. Valerie had hooked me up with this character who was trying to marry his way out of Egypt, he was very pretty. Still I wasn't keen on his manly-wiles. I kept showing him pictures of Allan and Dingo. Me: This is my boyfriend, we live together, practically married, see we have a dog! In canada if you have a dog that means you are serious!!!

Maadi Mornings

Stepping out of your apartment in the morning could easily give you the impression that it had rained over night. The streets are wet, and all the cars lining the avenue are dripping. It didn't rain, the boabs (building handy-men do it alls) wash the cars and wet the street to keep the dust down. Dogs can be found sleeping on the roofs of dryer cars, and cats are often scavenging through rubbish bins. Massive buses wind their way through the streets picking up international staff and students for the drive out to the newer area of Maadi where all the new schools are. As you walk to your bus stop taxi drivers drive up behind you and beep, partly to startle and partly to advertise their availability.