Monday July 25, 2011 9:12 p.m. I’m in Terminal 1 of the Addis airport in Ethiopia, and it was another colossal mess. I wish one thing on this country would be easy for me First of all Arsenal cab drivers car broke down so he sent his friends car, we couldn’t find a pharmacy after the third one we finally got one that carried Imodium. When we arrived at the airport the new driver wanted more money than was reasonable, I ended up giving him what he was asking because it ended up being just $5 extra dollars. It becomes about fair exchange, nobody wants to feel ripped off or taken advantage of but it’s important to keep in mind that it was about 5:00, less than the cost of a good sandwich. I was dropped off at the wrong terminal at the airport..again so I walk over to Terminal 1, the bank wasn’t open,, Hilton bank was closed, Sheraton was out to lunch, Terminal 1 bank was closed, I went back & forth between Terminal 1& 2 three separate times. Nothing seems easy in Ethiopia…nothing. But! good news, I found a rock I liberated from Kili! it is tiny but I found it! 4:03 p.m Christie & I FaceTimed as much as we could only getting sporadic connections. It was nice to see her pretty face, see my best friends in the world besides Christie the dogs & see how incredibly green & wet it is around the acreage. It was a beautiful morning in Sherwood Park, the sun was coming up & I could here the birds singing & it occurred to me how beautiful it really is in Canada. The desert & rocks of Somalia were fascinating but I only suspect i feel that way because of the novelty. 3:11p.m. I’m all packed up, there was a large cockroach in my Roots bag, that scurried over the National Geographic backpack as well so I flicked him off. I emailed brother Dean a happy birthday from Africa. Christie & I are trying to FaceTime but we can only talk for a minute or so at a time before we either lose the connection or the computer freezes up. The Internet has been...
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Saturday July 23, 2011 Rain & Thunderstorms tonight 9:10 p.m. I’m back in my room, I visited with Carolyn the older volunteer lady from New Mexico & Stephanie Crosby from Maine. It was a nice visit. I was treated to a great spaghetti meal at the school that I wasn’t expecting, it was marvellous. It was really quiet & everyone was in their rooms or elsewhere. 7:21 p.m. I am in my room & the Internet is up but pretty sketchy. Watched some tall Somali boys play basketball in the pouring rain on the court using equipment that Amanda Smalls & Lindhout donated to the school. 3:43 p.m. Jeff, Steph (teachers at Abaarso) & I wandered into the village of Abaarso. Jeff & Stephanie got goats milk or something & I just stuck with my water. We walked across the stony ground & sitting there I felt a little uneasy, everyone was lying around chewing khat & like most mind altering substances affect people differently. Some men all were whacked were incredibly agitated and edgy, one man was walking around in his bare feet in delirium. Another approached our table teeth stained green with khat flakes covering his teeth shooting bits out as he spoke in broken English in a gravely voice. 12:48 p.m. Back in my room after a short visit to the office, no go on the cave painting field trip but we may go into town in a few minutes. I was ecstatic to get Internet! I quickly sent out messages to everyone before we lose the internet again. 7:24 a.m. I’m lying here reading ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro & other short stories’ with a rooster crowing in the distance. The heavy winds are whistling, heaving & shaking everything. The pigeons are scurrying & cooing in my ceiling. I woke up with the steely claw gripping & squeezing my intestines, I went to the toilet & had the contents of my bowels spill into the white porcelain like poring a bucket of brown water into the bowl. I’m leaving tomorrow morning and I’ll still approach today with happiness & laughter. I’ll try & get to see the nearby cave paintings in the Land Rover. I also have to ensure Stephanie that...
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July 8, 2011 We turned into bed relatively early after eating supper & visiting with Tommy & Hannah. We are in a nice little camp ground that is more like a Canadian camp ground ( sans mosquitoes) we walked for four hours on this little path of desert past one camp then through the coolest little forest on a path that appeared to be a dried up stream bed. What we as North Americans see as inconvenient is just a way of life here. Walking for four hours ( with a bag on your head like the porter in front of us) is just another day for them & they think nothing of it, no big deal. We left camp & I still felt a little shitty but the drop in elevation helped that. 10:25 a.m. Christie is sleeping in the tent right next to me & I’m a little concerned about getting heat stroke or sun stroke. After the odyssey of summitting Kilimanjaro they have no water here at this camp. I am so sick, we’re supposed to move camp in a few hours but to be honest I’m not sure that I can. Each day of the 6 day trek leading up to Kilimanjaro’s Base Camp was progressively more difficult. Finalizing with summit day which was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.We chose the Macheme route but most of the routes all have the same summit day leaving at midnight to get to the summit for sunrise. Tommy, Christie Hannah & I were supported by a guide each & 19 porters. The trek leading up to summit was difficult & a lot of fun & never really prepared us for what it was like to reach the ‘roof of Africa’. Summitting Kilimanjaro was the most difficult physical feat that I have ever undertaken in my life. To be honest with you if I knew going in that it was going to be as difficult as it was I’m not sure I would have taken on the task. It wasn’t helped by the fact that I was only able to get a few hours sleep over the previous two nights and only a handful of hours since arriving in Africa....
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Dear Ethiopian Airlines, On July 2 our Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa was delayed for some reason in Frankfurt. Consequently we were late making the connecting flight from Addis to Kilimanjaro. My wife Christie & I were among the first to arrive to the Gate in the Addis airport and since we had our seats on the flight from Addis to Kilimanjaro booked for quite sometime I was confident that we would make the flight. Mass confusion ensued & it seemed like there was no rhyme or reason to who was allowed to board the flight to Kilimanjaro. This was confirmed when one of your agents told me that I could board the plane yet my wife had to stay behind in Addis, despite the fact that we both had boarding cards with assigned seats AND as I mentioned had our flight confirmed for weeks. What happened to our seats? Why were they given away? Although I acknowledge that due to no fault of our own the Lufthansa flight was delayed yet we still arrived when the flight to Kilimanjaro was still boarding. After being left, the agent walked away without so much as a word. I walked over to another Gate to ask what was happening with us I was referred to one agent who then put me on to another & yet another. Finally an Ethiopian Airline representative took my wife and I along with 6 other passengers, three Italians, 2 Americans, & this poor young German girl who was crying down to the Ethiopian airlines office. There was a mass of probably a hundred or so people crowded at the office and in front of my fellow passengers the Ethiopian representative promised us that we would be in a hotel with food vouchers and a ride with in his words ‘hundreds of dollars’ from the airlines and Business Class seats for the remainder of our flights within 30 minutes. We waited and waited and waited until finally I walked up to the desk, still crowded with many people and my wife & my passports along with the other 6 in our group, all of our passports were just sitting on a table unguarded with crowds of people...
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The other day in the office I sat & mainly listened to Yousef talk to Carlos, Aschiana’s lawyer, who comes from Spain. Carlos focuses on legal issues involving children’s rights here in Afghanistan. Karzai’s first request was that international forces leave by 2014. Many people here are expecting another civil war at that time & many say Karzai is also expected to leave Afghanistan at that time to presumably live a life of luxury in the United States or Europe. The Afghans simply do not seem capable of holding this country together without our support yet I would guess most do not want us here. There is so much poverty & too many different groups vying for power. The lives of the Afghan people simply have not improved enough. What it comes down to if people’s lives do not see improvement there will be chaos in 2014. Karzai’s appeal for us to leave aside would we have the political will to see this project through to it being an acceptable situation? Will it take too long & cost too much financially not to mention losing the lives of soldiers? We spoke about what to do in 2014 as if it were a foregone conclusion that Afghanistan will fall into more civil war. If Yousef stays he most likely would be killed if extremists took over. The same with Nazar, general program manager and second in charge to Yousef who has already had death threats issued against him. When the coalition leaves Aschiana many here will also have to leave. Nazar will go to Pakistan. What is inspiring about these men is that the contingency plan is more about being able to keep Aschiana operating & providing education to the children of Afghanistan if the country falls into disarray than their own personal safety. Several countries were discussed on where would be safest & best to run Aschiana (which means ‘nest’ in Dari the countries official language.) Perhaps it will be Turkey, or perhaps Dubai but what impressed me the most is the selflessness of these people. Unlike the greedy politicians, besides their families legitimate safety concern the main goal is to keep teaching the children of Afghanistan. Aschiana doing their part & risking their...
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As determined as I was to see the poppy fields of Afghanistan it appears as though it is not going to happen. Besides the fact that I couldn’t convince anybody to take me due to safety concerns as most fields are in dangerous areas. With 2 Americans kidnapped or killed just outside of Kabul yesterday & 75 deaths this month & the fact that NATO troops are losing 20+ soldiers here a week it may have been a blessing. It turns out that I missed the poppy harvest by a few months, taking risks is all part of the package but I didn’t feel like getting shot at to see a dirt field. Poppy production is allowed here. For those who do not know poppy sap is the base that is used to manufacture heroin & Afghanistan which is the world’s largest producer of heroin. Banning poppy production or eradication as it was known was originally implemented by Coalition governments & only pissed off the locals as growing poppies is their only means to survive. Consequently a decision was made to allow the farmers to grow the poppy crops & try to stop heroin from being exported a policy known as interdiction. The Americans originally tried to encourage locals to grow other crops for a fraction of the profit however they were unsuccessful because growing apricots is obviously far less lucrative than growing poppies used to make heroin. Furthermore with Afghan president Karzai’s brother being one of the largest exporter of heroin in Afghanistan one wonders how difficult it is to stop exportation or how hard they’re even trying. In addition coalition forces have had to align themselves with drug lords in order to defeat the Muslim radicals who also fund the purchasing of weapons through exporting heroin. The skin of the poppy pod is slightly cut horizontally with a knife, usually in the afternoon so nothing like moisture can spoil it. This allows a kind of sap to form from these cuts. Incisions are made three or four times at intervals over two to three days, and each time the poppy bleeds it turns into a dry to a sticky brown resin, which usually collected the following morning. An acre of poppies can...
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