Chad & Shira's Travels

2005-10-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Link to photos:

*hopefully* this will allow you (once you log in to Snapfish) to view photos from various aspects of our trip (Tanzania is in sizeable segments). Click below or paste it into a new window.
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=62171129573525335/l=63616256/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB Let us know if there are problems accessing the albums...

-s&c.

2005-10-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Salaam Family & Friends,

I hope this finds you all healthy and happy. I'm currently killing a bit of time at the airport in Dar Asalaam, Tanzania after spending a wonderful two weeks on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, just off the coast of Tanzania. God willing, after a 42 hour journey I will be arriving back in San Francisco tomorrow afternoon.

A little on what I've been doing and seeing... Zanzibar is very beautiful. Lush and dense inland and powdery white sand beaches and turquoise waters on the coast. Oftentimes, only the wind's rustling of the palm frauns and the slapping of water upon the side of a dhow (an ancient styled Arabic sail boat with the most graceful sail you could ever imagine) floating past are the only sounds to break the silence. We spent a couple days wandering around the picturesque streets of ancient Stone Town, the capital city of the archipelago dating back some 1000 years. After our fill of Stone Town we headed to the northeast of Zanzibar where we stayed at a truly amazing house (read: mansion) for 5 days courtesy of one of my traveling companions. Visit: http://www.zivilla.co.za/index.html to get a sense of this place. Needless to say, it was quite a bizarre transition to go from backpacking and hiking up Kili to staying in a mansion with its own stretch of idyllic whitesand beach. I was able to do a couple days worth of diving over the Mnemba Atoll, a beautiful coral paradise set in 10-25 meters of water 4 km off the coast of Zanzibar. I was treated to a beautiful underwater world and caught glimpses of white-tipped reef sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, blue-spotted rays, various types of moray eels and countless other marine animals.

After our stay at Zi Villa we boarded a 12-seat aircraft and flew 50 kms north to Pemba Island. Delayed nearly 2 hours in Zanzibar because a plane which proceeded us blew its tire upon landing at the Pemba Airport and had to be dragged off the runway, we were racing the sunset during our 2 hour drive to the north of the island where we were greeted by a small zodiac and brought out to the boats that make up the floating hotel: Pemba Afloat. Here, upon Pemba Afloat, I spent the last six days. [ http://www.pembaisland.com/] The staff, comprised of an Australian dive instructor, a Kenyan dive instructor, the owners- a wonderful English Kenyan couple, and a fun lackadaisical "Gappy"(a highschool-college gap year student traveling the world) named Julian, treated us remarkably well. There are three boats which make up Pemba Afloat. They're more or less permanently moored in a beautiful, protected little bay. Many of Pemba's best dive sites are within a 10 minute speed boat ride. I had never previously spent time on a boat and was absolutely taken by the quietude and peacefulness that boats can provide. The lapping of the sea on the boat's hull, the occasional jumping of a fish nearby, and the occasional shout of a passing fisherman are the only noises which break the otherwise utter stillness and quiet. Needless to say, it was an extremely relaxing time and the perfect setting to bring this trip to a close. My days were spent lazing around reading in the sun most of the morning and doing a dive in the afternoon. Upon our return from the dive there'd always be an ice cold beer awaiting me. In the evening we simply sat around drinking beer, eating delicious meals prepared by Charlie, the owner, and visiting with one another. Really, the perfect way to end my vacation.

It's been an amazing time traveling in East Africa these last 7 weeks. My only regret is that it is already coming to a close. As this trip ends I can't help but to feel a bit melancholy. For me, this is not just the end of a 7 week trip to East Africa but also the end of an era in my life. The moratorium I've been holding on adulthood for the last decade or so is finally drawing to a close, for a week after my return to the States I will begin my legal career. In the past there was always that summer break to look forward to to travel. That respite from school or work provided by the transitional period between college and grad school and then most recently between grad school and beginning my job. However, those respites are finally over. While I'm looking forward to beginning my job, to finally applying the largely theoretical learning and skills I've invested my time in over the last 3 years, I must also make peace with the fact that my vacations will be limited in duration to two weeks per year for the foreseeable future. While I fear this statement may be negativel received as it may be heard to ring with a sense of entitlement or a lack of appreciation for how very fortunate I am and have been, that is certainly not my intention. It's just that traveling and exploring this big, beautiful, and complicated world of ours has been one of the major focal points and themes of my life for the last 12 years. It's been a wonderful and unbelievable long strange trip so naturally, it is with a bit of sadness that after I begin my job, my ability to venture forth and explore this world of ours will be limited to bite-size portions of 10 working days or less.

Thank you for coming along on this journey with Shira and me. I hope that I've been able to convey even a sliver of what I've seen and experienced and it is my sincere hope that my lack of journalistic ability hasn't been too terribly painful. ;)

With Love & Laughter,
Chad

2005-09-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

Quick Update....

On September 24th I successfully reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. At just shy of 20,000 feet, it is Africa's highest peak and one of the tallest free standing mountains in the world. I'm now in Zanzibar with my law school friends Jarett & Liz as well as Barry and Michael who I met through Jarett. While I don't have time to elaborate on my week spend hiking Kili or Zanzibar, suffices to say Kili was an amazing and really rewarding experience and Zanzibar (a small island off the coast of Tanzania) is liking being transported to another part of the world. It's one part Africa, one part the Middle East (predominately Muslim with heavy Arab influence), and one part India. The "Spice Island" is warm, humid, and beautiful. Stone Town, the old captial is comprised of a melange of Arabic and Indian architecture and the dhows drifting over the turquoise waters make one feel as if they're staring at a postcard.

More to come....

With love and laughter-
CG

2005-09-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Re-entry.slg

There's an interesting dilemma about how to bow out of the adventure (and the blog), when one partner is still off creating experiences, and the other is adjusting back to life at home. It brings into clarity this question of how does one keep the experience alive while re-integrating into daily life at home. Many people have asked me about this, and while it feels like a very illusive question, it is very important to me as well, so blogging as it generally refers to (babbling like it's my own journal), i share the following...

I'm definitely still in the process of trying to assimilate and integrate my experiences into my life in a meaningful way. In some ways the transition has been swift (I went to work the next day) and smooth (being at work doesn't feel weird), yet the ease of the transition back, in and of itself feels odd... i find the "culture shock" in little evidences of our consumer culture when I went to the shi-shi farmers market on the Embarcadero this weekend where an organic Avocado sells for $3.00. Just last week I was eating some of the best avo I've ever had-- in East Africa the kind with smooth skin grow to the 1.5x the size they do here, and is served as a fruit, pressed into Ethiopian "spriss," layered fresh squeezed juice, or alongside papaya and tangerines in Tanzania, where they sell for about 30 cents... I returned to find that SF has finished the new highway exit/entrance launching the flow of traffic over our neighborhood to drop down into the middle of the city like some spindly tentacle of transportation. Its not that there aren't good paved roads or highways where we were, but it wasn't a given, and more notably, "the maze" the multi-over-under-freeway conglomerate that I pass through daily en route to/from work, is a striking comparison. It raises questions about what constitutes need? How does one evaluate what is important and how public and private monies should be allocated. Are we a "developed" nation because we have avocados at a premium price and freeway "mazes"? I don't have answers, but struggle with the questions. How do i live my life in the US in ways that are more mindful of these dilemmas?

Those of you who know me, know i love coffee. I was in heaven in Ethiopia, where there is a traditional coffee ceremony which includes fresh roasting over a woodfire, grinding, and brewing the coffee just feet from the table. Influenced by the brief Italian occupation, macchiatos and cappuccinos abound, and there is never a problem getting a cup. Tanzania, by comparison, though an internationally-known coffee producer, purportedly sends all the best coffee abroad, and needless to say while camping on mountains and in the bush, we were drinking instant.

Coincidentally, today I received an email announcing Peet's (in my opinion purveyor of the best) Coffee's release "In the shadow of Kilimanjaro" Tanzanian blend. More notably, it's the product of a collective of small scale growers called TechnoServe. "Since 1998, TechnoServe has been assisting more than 8,000 small-holder growers in Tanzania to increase yields and gain market access. In 2001, TechnoServe helped establish and now works in partnership with the Association of Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffee Growers, "KILICAFE" for short, whose members, after training in coffee production, processing, business management and marketing, consistently earn prices up to two times higher than their neighbors."

If you're interested in learning more or supporting such enterprises, info is at:
http://www.peets.com/who_we_are/community_technoserve_tanzania_story.asp

2005-09-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

Jungle love...

Safari was an experience. In fact, it was the Tanzanian photographic safari at age 13 that Chad attributes to opening his eyes to the world and the true impetus for his love of travel, and in many ways shaping the life that he lives today. It was wanting to relive and experience the wild game safari through new eyes, and to share this unique and beautiful experience of viewing large (and small) African wildlife in their natural habitat, and not in some sterile man-made amusement park that is the zoo, with Shira that was one of the major goals of this trip.

It total, we were on the road for 6 days. We traveled in a modified Toyota Landcruiser which had two 3x4' roof panels that opened up so much of the time while in the parks were were standing with our upper bodies outside of the vehicle. It's hard to describe what its like to witness 100+ elephants lazily roaming across the Serengeti plains, munching on trees and grass (250+ kg per day!) as they slowly make their way to the greener plains of Kenya to the North. At times we were within 10 feet of some of them. In one park, a large bull elephant pushed over a 25' tall acacia tree (in order to get to its leafy upper branches) which would have landed on us if not for the quickness of our guide. While on a game drive very early one morning in the Ngorogoro Crater we were slowly making our way through one of the few forested sections on the crater floor looking for elephant when in an intense flurry of motion bore down on us from the bush alongside our vehicle. Wilson our guide gunned it as we realized we were being charged my a large female white rhino and her "baby". If not for a tree lying between the rhino and our vehicle, we likely would have been rammed and quite possibly tipped over. Do to the extremely lucrative market largely in Asia for rhino horn powder (its thought to be an aphrodisiac and enlarge one's manhood) there are sadly only 13 rhinos left in the Crater. We had the great fortune to be charged by two of them and Chad and Jarett have a slew of somewhat blurry photos of the experience which convey the intensity of the experience.

We also had the great fortune of seeing all of the big cats including simba (lion), chui (leopard) and cheetah. As it was a bit late in the season, many of the 4 million wildebeest, zebra and various species of gazelle had migrated north to the greener lands of Kenya but nevertheless we were blessed with the opportunity to look out on the plains and bush and see hundreds of such animals grazing while making their way north.

Aside from being charged by the rhino, perhaps the most thrilling aspect of the safari was the fact that we camped. Contrary to what you might imagine- a fortified campsite with a tall fence to keep the wild animals at bay- at 4 of our 5 campsites there was nothing, and I mean NOTHING between us and the African bush except the thin canvass wall of our tents. Needless to say, this made for very fitful nights of sleep for both Shira and Liz, but Chad and Jarett seemed to love the nearness of danger. The next morning we'd confer with our guide, "Did you hear such and such noise last night?... There were hyenas in our camp," or "there were lions in our camp." The guides are emphatic about using your headlamp to make sure there our no animals outside you tent in the event you need to use the toilet in the middle of the night but other than that, there's a very mellow, lackadaisical attitude about camping in the bush.

It was an amazing experience and one we hope to experience again in the future perhaps with our kids as Chad and Ryan did with their parents.

2005-09-18T00:23:00.000-07:00

Sopai! (Maasai for hello)

Our foray into Maasai culture was an adventure and perhaps one of the most vivid experiences of our time in East Africa. The Maasai are a historically nomadic, warrior tribe that reside in Tanzania and Kenya, and perhaps are best known and recognized for their red robing in patterned cloth. Before we left for Meru, we arranged for an overnight visit to an Ellowai (village/community name) homestead or boma. A boma is generally a group of thatched straw, covered with mud and cow dung, huts in which small livestock and families live in near-darkness due to the lack of electricity. This collection of huts usually house one or two patriarchs, with the nearby huts each housing their respective wives (yes, plural) and respective children. Sorting out family trees can be quite a task, as later wives are often quite a bit younger, so that the two 6 year-olds that sat with us at breakfast were uncle and nephew. Lesikar, who's father is the patriarch of the boma, drove us (Jarett, Liz, Chad and me plus 2 staff (a cook and translator)) from Arusha about 2 hours into the "bush" to his homestead. Leiskar is a "lomoni," chatty, yet not super conscientious character, who married to a British Anthropologist, and together they have established this cultural exchange program in his village. During our visit we went on a walk through the area, learning about various plants which the Maasai use (often boiled into tincture or mottled and mixed with goat oil and applied topically) to treat a variety of maladies from malaria to helping a cow release it's afterbirth. Such knowledge is widely known, though especially by male elders, and Lesikar's brother brewed a special tea to cleanse and improve our health. We also spent time beading, making traditional handicraft jewelry that looks somewhat like Native American styles, while Jarett made a traditional walking stick.

Later on, Liz and Shira had a VERY candid and interesting "information exchange" with the women of the boma. Through Marta (our translator) we asked questions regarding polygamy, their life in the village, misogyny, and female circumcision, which is practiced routinely when girls reach puberty. Our host/counterparts, who varied in age from about 20-70 yrs, asked us about our lives, why we wouldn't marry Maasai men or want to be circumcised, and incredulously asked about monogamy. Our exchanges included a demonstration of condom use on a corn cob and a discussion of female anatomy, all while sitting on a tarp made of stitched together grain bags, with kids between the ages of 0-12 sitting around and on us, and flies swarming. At one point, one the the baby boys, dressed only in a 3 sizes-too-big T shirt began to pee. His mother, or one of the other mothers for all we know, with seamless grace lifted up the bottom of his shirt so he wouldn't wet his clothing and shifted slightly so as to avoid the direct stream to the tarp. When he finished, she gently brushed the urine off the tarp and resumed our activities. No one else blinked or stirred as our conversation went on. The whole thing experience was truly foreign and amazing.

Since then (09/17) we returned to Arusha, and the following day I (Shira) flew home to resume work while Chad (along with Jarett, Liz, and two other friends of Jarett's) left to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Installments on Safari and further adventures will be posted as soon as possible.

2005-09-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

Back from climbing Mt. Meru...

We are back from both climbing Mt. Meru and a 6 day safari in the bush of Tanzania, but since we've had a very long day and are soon to head out to visit a Masai Village, we're only going to check in about the trek now, with details to follow on the latter events.

Meru, Mt. Kilimanjaro's lesser known "little sister," who, as we learned, is actually a steeper and more strenuous climb of about 1000 meters a day, in ~4 hr hikes... In other words, from roughly 6,000 feet to 15,000 feet in 4 days. The hike began by crossing hot, dry savannahs, through almost-rain (cloud) forest-esque wooded areas, to eventually a desolate above tree line lunar-like lava landscape of unearthly quality. The first day we passed a heard of wild buffalo, a handful of zebra, and later, after some ascent, a giraffe grazing only 30' from the trail. Each day we would rise early, and after a prepared hot meal, set out, trek a half day, and then arrive at our campsite, a simple but functional bunkhouse. We would relax the remainder of the day until enjoying a delicious dinner cooked by our hired cook, Emanuel, who later joined us for the safari. Afterwards, we'd retire for the night, hopeful we wouldn't have to use the outhouse during the night, which, because we were camped in the wild, could mean a run in with wild buffalo in the dark.

On Day 3, we awoke a bit past midnight for our "morning" coffee, and to begin our 5+ hour ascent to the summit, aided only by our headlamps, guide Ossie, and Emanuel, another "helper." During the night, Shira had reassessed altitude sickness as well as her mounting anxiety and began to rethink her plan to summit, and with each step after being reassured of the option to turn around at any point, it became more and more clear that to descend in the dark would be more treacherous than continuing, and she resolved to continue on, because daybreak was too far off to hold off and wait for Chad to summit. (The body heat generated by the climb was imperative not to freeze before dawn.)

The climb itself consisted of navigating a sometimes very narrow path (in the darkness), over slippery sandy terrain and scrambling over rough lava rocks necessitating the use of hands. On the way up, Shira felt increasingly sick from the altitude yet given the lack of real options, pushed on to the summit. After pausing to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise behind Mt Kili (on the horizon) and realizing we were now ABOVE the clouds, we summited around 7am, and after a brief photo op we began the 3 hour decent to camp. Once in camp we ate breakfast and took a short nap before hitting the trail for an additional 3 hours to descend further to where we had stayed our first night (Marikamba Hut). After a very sound night of sleep we hiked the last 3 hours back to the trail head and returned to Arusha to meet up with our friends Jarett & Liz.

Check back soon for details on us getting charged by two rhino in the Ngorogoro Crater, an elephant nearly pushing a tree down on our Land Cruiser and our spending nights in camps visited by lions, hyenas and wildebeest...

Maiyesha Marefu,
Shira & Chad

2005-09-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

Jambo Tanzania!

We arrived in Tanzania via Kilimanjaro International Airport Sunday afternoon. While it certainly receives flights from around the world, to call it an international airport may conjure up the wrong image for most. It's basically a one runway strip in the middle of the high desert scrub that is the dominant feature of this area. After the plane slows down enough it proceeds to make a 180 degree turn at the end of the run way and taxi back to the terminal which is no larger than the small municipal airport in San Luis Obispo. We were greeted by a representative of our safari/trekking company and driven the 42 kilometers to Arusha. While certainly small relative to American cities, Arusha is a virtual metropolis by Tanzanian standards. Besides being the main staging point for most of the treks and safaris in Tanzania (given its proximity to Kilimanjaro and Meru -both of which loom in the distance- it is also home to the UN Criminal Court for the Rwanda International Criminal Court proceedings.)

Although I haven't been here for nearly 18 years, many of the cites are familiar to me. The women wrapped in very colorful African fabrics many with babies slung on their back, the dry, dusty roads, the familiar "Jambo" and big smiling grins of the school kids we pass on the street...

Our arrival here was made especially sweet by the fact that we're staying at an amazing lodge. We have our own beautiful stilted cottage with a comfortable king bed enclosed in a mozzie net, a private bath/toilet and best of all, we're 5 km's outside of town so when we open up the large double doors which lead onto our balcony, we have a view of the Tanzanian countryside, Meru, and Kili. Additionally, the smell of wood burning fires, the faroff barking of dogs and the chatter of children and play drift through the air.

Tomorrow, we embark for our 4 day trek up Mt. Meru. At 15,000' it is Africa's 3rd highest peak and while not as tall as Kili, it is reputed to be a much more rigourous climb as it's quite a bit steeper. We'll return to Arusha for a night 4 days from now at which point we'll meet up with our friends Jarett and Liz and then head out the next morning for a 6 day camping safari.

We're both very content and happy and there's really no other place we'd rather be celebrating this day, our first Anniversary.

With Love,

Chad & Shira

2005-09-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ciao Ethiopia-

It feels crazy that we're leaving tomorrow. These 9 days in Ethiopia have flown-by. Since we last wrote we've traveled to the northern historic cities of Lalibela and Bahar Dar and then south nearly 250 km to the southern capital of Awasa where we visited EBCEF literacy project sites. Before leaving for the north we gave Mark and Cassandra a call. Mark is a Brit and Cassandra an American coincidentally from near San Luis Obispo. They have been living in Addis for 6 years; she working for Save the Children and he helping to develop socially responsible and sustainable tourism in the Simien Mountains in the north. We learned of them through a friend of a friend and after giving them a call last Friday afternoon, Mark volunteered to drive the 10 km across Addis to pick us up and bring us to their home for dinner where we were joined by two other ex-pats, a woman that worked for the Irish Embassy and another that worked for USAID. We enjoyed a fabulous meal and appreciated learning about their (and their collegues') experiences in Ethiopia. Early the next morning we flew up to Lalibela, a gorgeous and remarkable historical site comprised of a dozen or so rock-hewn churches dating to the 13th Century. We also visited a distant church, Yemrehanna Kristos, some 40 km away. This day trip from Lalibela was especially interesting insofar as it is built into a giant cave in front of which falls a 30 foot waterfall from the cliff above. Getting to the church required a very scenic drive through the (suprisingly) lush countryside. The countryside is comprised maingly of grass and some crops (mostly maize and wheat). It's been largely denuded of trees as a result of the insatiable need for firewood (for cooking fires). While in Lalibela we met a number of other "farenjis" (white foreigners) with whom we hung out and did the day trip to Kristos. Our last night there we went to a traditional "tej" (honeywine) house where there was impromptu singing accompanied by a one string Ethiopian violin and traditional Amhara dancing. Chad was coaxed up to the dance floor early on and as expected Shira steadfastly refused. :)

From Lalibela we flew to Bahar Dar, another historic city in the North, at the southern tip of 50km long Lake Tana. After a delicious fish-stew and injera meal beneath a GIANT several hundred yr-old fig tree, the clouds broke and, deterred by the rain, we decided to forgo the customary boat trip to visit monasteries on (island) the lake, and instead opted for a "city tour." We, accompanied by our friendly and knowledgable guide, visited a local market (pictures to follow ;), a local tribal village, and Haile Selassi's fomer palace which sits perched on a hill with an amazing view of the city, and lake, including it's headwaters for the Nile.

Our time in Bahar Dar was limited and we returned to Addis for a quick visit before heading south. While back in the capital city, we visited the Mercato (reputed as East Africa's largest), for the usual haggling over handicraft souvenirs. From there we visited the Ethnographic Museum at AA University/Haile Selassi's former palace which hosted an interesting exhibition of the various ethnic populations in Ethiopia. Afterwards, we popped in to see the Sheraton (reputed the nicest hotel in Africa and built by the wealthiest man in Africa- an Ethiopian Yemenite) which was a disappoinment.

Yesterday morning we were picked up by Yohannes, founder and director of EBCEF, and embarked on the 4.5 hour journey to Awasa. We broke up the drive a bit by stopping for coffee (Ethiopia claims to be the original home of the coffee plant and much to Shira's delight they make it extremely strong!) as well as stopping briefly in Sheshamene. Sheshamene is a Rastafarian village. It was established several decades ago when His Royal Majesty Emperor Haile Salassie, the King of Kings, the mighty of mighty, the Lion of Judah, Ras Tafari, gave the area which now encompasses Sheshamene as a land grant to a dozen Rasta families from the States and Jamaica. We went to the Rasta church and were shown around by an old Jamaican Rasta. The whole experience was really quite strange. The man told Shira she looked like a boy for wearing pants all while his wife stood nearby with the longest beard I've ever seen on a woman. He explained some of the basic tenants of his faith (namely that Haile Salassie is believed to be the reincarnation of Christ) all in his sing-song rhyming Jamaican accent.

After spending a little time in Sheshamene and Yohonnes getting chastized for rushing us off, we hit the road again in order to make it to Awasa in time to visit some EBCEF projects. Aside from a beautiful lake, there's not much to see in Awasa. As mentioned, our time there was spent visiting various EBCEF projects, a portable tent library in a rural village, the new EBCEF reading center, a welding shop where a very talented welder was building a prototype of a self-contained library cart which will be pulled by two donkeys and brought to various outlying villages. Yohannes had us to his home for dinner last night and after visiting a couple of the villages this morning which the donkey library will travel to we hit the road and returned to Addis not long ago.

Tomorrow we will leave for Tanzania where we will spend our first year anniversary on the 5th. Although we're excited for Tanzania and all that awaits (trekking, safari, seeing our friends Jarett and Liz) we're a bit melancholy about leaving Ethiopia so soon. Our brief stay here has made it clear that one must spend at least a month to even begin to get a sense of all of the beauty and cultural and historic richness Ethiopia has to offer. In many ways it has reminded us of traveling in India which is on the top of both of our lists of favorite countries visited.

We hope to return here in the not-too-distant future and are excited to share our photos and experiences of Ethiopia with you in person.

We also hope and pray that none of you have family or friends who have been adversely affected by the hurricane/flooding in the South. We've caught only snippets of it on a TV in a bar/restaurant here or there but understand it is a disaster of epic proportions.

We've been thinking about you all and hope you're well.

With Love,
Chad & Shira

2005-08-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hello From Addis-

After approximately 25 hours of travel we arrived safely in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. We were greeted by Jonathan and his wife Hiwot, a young couple loosely affiliated with EBCEF, a literacy organization. They brought us to Hiwot's parents home where we're staying during our time in Addis. Almost immediately upon arrival we were treated to traditional Ethiopian fare (injera, lentils, shiro (hummus)) and coffee. Afterwards we went for a walk around the neighborhood with Jonathan and Hiwot and got a drink at a local bar. Shira tried the traditional Ethiopian honey wine (tej) and not long after we rested our weary travel worn bodies only to wake up at 5am by barking dogs and an Ethiopian sermon being broadcast (sound much like a muezzin's call to prayer).

As our hosts had not arisen and our stomachs were growling we headed out and found some breakfast despite our lack of common language. Later on we visited the EBCEF children's library where we were greeted by 50 or 60 eager children. We were shown around the impressive library, the only children's library in all of Ethiopia, and as the guests of honor were given the privilege of handing out bilingual Amharic/English story books which Room To Read had helped publish, to particularly destitute children.

Early tomorrow morning we will fly up to Lalibela to visit the ancient subteranean rock-hewn churches.

With love and laughter from the road...

C & S

2005-07-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

As said by Nelson Mandela, "Poverty is not natural. It is man-made, and can be overcome by the action of human beings..." He and other known leaders are featured in short video clips on the following site, which describes the impetus and pulse behind the recent G8 summit along with actions you can take to become informed and show support: www.makepovertyhistory.org

2005-07-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

An amazing NYTimes story on children who have been orphaned (mostly but not exclusively) by HIV-AIDS in Ethiopia, as well as the signifcant adoption of these children by Americans can be found at http://www.melissafaygreene.com/pages/afraidsorph.html. I found this to be an amazing and very compelling news piece, including informative, macro, and personal aspects. Perhaps we will be able to visit one of these sites while in Addis. ~s.

The Game Plan

2005-07-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

On August 25, 2005 Shira & I will depart for East Africa. We'll first fly from San Francisco to Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia via Washington DC and Rome, arriving in Addis in the late afternoon of August 26, 2005. We have 8 days to spend in Ethiopia. We plan to spend our first few days with represenatives of Ethiopia Books for Children and Educational Foundation (EBCEF) [http://www.ethiopiareads.org/index.html] a partner organization of the international literacy organization Room To Read with whom we volunteered in Nepal in March 2002 [http://www.roomtoread.org].

We then plan to spend the rest of our time in Ethiopia flying to, and visiting various historical cities/sites such as Bahar Dar and Lalibela, both located in the North of Ethiopia before returning to Addis to catch our flight onward.

On September 4th we will fly from Addis to Kilimanjaro International Airport located outside of Arusha, Tanzania. After spending our anniversary on September 5th in a jungle bungalow outside of Arusha we will embark on a 4 day guided trek to the summit of Mt. Meru. At 4566M (~15,000') Mt. Meru is Mt. Kilimanjaro's ("Kili") lesser-known sister.

After returning to Arusha from our trek we'll meet up with our friends Jarett and Liz and on September 10th, set out for a 6 day camping safari with visits planned to Tarangire National Park, Ngorogoro Crater Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park, and Lake Manyara National Park.

On September 18th Shira will unfortunately have to return to her work obligations at home while I'll stay on for an additional three weeks making the most of this last opportunity for extended travel before beginning my legal career at home.

On September 19th we'll be joined by Jarett's friend Michael Taub and will embark on a 7 day guided trek up Kili via the Machame-Mweka route. We hope to summit (5,896m / 19,344') on Day 5. After descending from Kili we'll return to Arusha for the night on September 25th.

September 26th we head out early for Zanzibar via bus and ferry. It's an all day journey to reach the beautiful and historically signifiant "Spice Island" which lies 30km off the coast of Tanzania. An independent nation until the 1970s, Zanzibar boasts idyllic beaches, wonderful SCUBA diving, and a culturally unique and interesting strain of Swahili Muslim culture. After spending the better part of a week between Zanzibar's beaches and its historic capital Stone Town, we'll head by ferry to Pemba Island 20km to its north.

On Pemba we'll be staying on the "floating hotel" that is Pemba Afloat. Pemba Afloat is comprised of two 60+ foot sailing yachts which are more or less permanently moored in a little bay in the northwest of Pemba Island. Accommodating up to 10 people and sitting atop beautiful tropical reefs just several hundred meters from shore, these boats provide a wonderful respite from the mosquitos and nearly all things artificial. More or less the only noises to be heard are those of the fish jumping and the water lapping at the hull. Additionally, this general area of Pemba is considered by many to be some of the best SCUBA diving of the entire East African coast.

Jarett, Liz, and Michael will depart for Dar es Salaam on October 7th in order to catch their onward flight the following day and I'll follow two days later leaving Pemba on October 9th hopefully in time to catch my evening departure out of Dar for San Francisco via Addis, Rome, and DC.

I'll have one week to make the transition from backpacking to the sedentary life, deal with the inevitable culture shock and ready myself to begin my legal career on Monday, October 17th.

Shira and I will make updates to this blog as we're able to while on the road so please join us for this journey. We'd love to have you along...