Day 2 started out well; excellent breakfast, then, off we went to the Mission Rabies Ghana Health Center, to load up our bags, meet with our teams, and hit the road. I saw Jo there testing out one of the megaphones, and I asked her if she could do her very realistic impression of how a dog with rabies barks.…
Today was our last day in Africa, and it was a long one. It started out with a very interesting tour. This tour was called Nai Nami: Nairobi Storytelling Tour with Street Children. It’s a tour conducted by five residents of Nairobi who have had very difficult lives as street kids. They share their story of their former lives, and…
Today’s safari was, for me, the highlight of the trip. Our driver met us early at our hotel (6:00 a.m.) Much to my surprise (and delight), Mark and I were the only participants on the safari. No one else had signed up. It can be fun meeting people on tours, but I was really glad that it was just the…
After a restless night trying to sleep (jet lag plus excitement), the alarm went off at 5:10 a.m. I shaved, showered, put on my Mission Rabies t-shirt, scarfed down breakfast with the rest of the gang, were given our special phones with the Mission Rabies app, and then off we went, to the Health Center (our base camp) where all…
We landed in Kenya and were taken to Acacia Tree Lodge. This was a lovely hotel. We settled in and then tried to figure out what to do on Christmas day in Nairobi, January 2020. In Ethiopia, Christmas and New Years are ordinary days, because they use a different calendar. Their New Year is in September and their Christmas is…
Our final two days in Ethiopia were spent back in the capital, Addis Ababa. We flew in from Lalibela on a short flight, and arrived at our new, beautiful hotel, The Capital Hotel and Spa, around 3:00. We didn’t have much time to spare, because I had scheduled the Go Addis food tour for that evening. We tossed our bags…
Today we set our sights for Lake Bosomtwe! According to my Google maps, it’s about 5 hours by car, although I heard that this depends on what route you take and what shape the roads are in. Either way, it should be an adventurous trip. Driving is often a good way to get to see and know a country. After…
Today we woke up earlier than usual. Sunday is a very important day of worship for the residents of Lalibela, and the procession of people heading to the church for services is an awe-inspiring sight. Our hotel knows that tourists like to watch the processional, so they had breakfast prepared early for us. Hailu came to pick us up at…
Accra, Ghana. 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday – After clearing customs and getting my suitcase, I met my driver holding a Mission Rabies sign, and we were off to the Agoo Hostel, where I can chill out and relax for a bit. At 7 p.m. I’ll have dinner with the other Mission Rabies Ghana 2020 team members who have arrived.…
We woke up early, had breakfast at our hotel, and then met our guide, Haliu. We rode into town in a tuk-tuk while he gave us the history of the churches. – There are 13 churches. They are divided into groups. There’s the northern cluster, which we were going to visit in the morning. In the afternoon, we would explore…
Today we fly to Lalibela, to see the famous rock churches tomorrow. Along the drive from the airport to our hotel, at large crowd of people were marching in our direction. It was a funeral procession. When someone from these villages passes away, the entire community mourns. I discreetly managed to get a video of the procession from inside the…
Mark’s main interest in life is food. He is a big-time foodie, spending nearly every evening watching cooking videos, thumbing through cookbooks, and perusing cooking blogs. When we go into a bookstore, he visits one section and one section only: the cookbooks. There is a travel video blogger named Mark Wiens who makes videos which are a perfect mix of…
The flight from Mombasa to Addis Ababa was only 2 hours, 15 minutes, and passport control was pretty fast. This hotel offers a free shuttle service, so they were waiting when we arrived. A nice big van, just for me and Mark. This hotel, the Golden Tulip, was pretty nice. Accommodations in Addis run the gamut, from major luxury to…
Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya after Nairobi, and it’s on the coast. There’s city stuff to do, and beach stuff to do. In all of the guidebooks that I had read, they recommended staying at a beach hotel and NOT in the city proper, as there are potential safety issues for tourists. Diani Beach was the recommended…
I mentioned in a previous post about how Mark overpaid for a bowl in one of the souvenir shops. Mark doesn’t like to haggle, and neither do I. It’s demeaning to negotiate prices with someone, especially when you know this is how they make a living and you want to pay them a fair rate for their goods. And yet,…