Nosy Be, Madagascar

It has been a long time since I wrote on the blog but honestly it's been a long time since I've been to a country that felt "new". While I have been to two new countries this month (El Salvador and Pakistan), neither felt all that different from other neighboring countries that I have been to.

So the first part of this trip was the experience of Flying While Injured. I had sprained my ankle two days before my flight so was still on crutches. I had called ahead to all the airlines to see if I could get a medical upgrade (the answer on both airlines was no) and to let them know I’d be needing help at the airport (that also seemed to be lost). There was no way I could navigate airports on crutches and also carry luggage so I asked for wheelchairs. This seemed to work well – got to the front of most lines. But then the guy forgot to pick me up from the KQ lounge in Nairobi, and by the time I made a request and they came for me I almost missed the flight. When I got to the gate they said I was too late and then thought better of it. Some people had taken my seat, which I had specifically requested to be next to an empty seat so I could prop my leg up so some nice American missionary boy gave me his seat/row. The Antananarivo (Tana) airport layover was similar and on this flight some French guy was very annoyed at me for wanting my own row (although he ended up with his own row too). And although the wheelchair and help that that entailed was nice, the crazy amount of stairs – some of them too steep and narrow to be done with crutches makes me deeply empathize with people who are severely injured (which I’m really not) or disabled in Africa! The other oddity was that most of the guys who helped with luggage or pushed the wheelchair requested tips, which is annoying because for the most part they were airport or airline personnel. The guys in Tana didn’t speak English but were able to say “money”. I pretended I didn’t understand so they found a group of white French tourists and had them translate – seriously!! I can’t believe the French guys did it! They claimed they had been with me for an hour and a half (which wasn’t true, they left and came back) but they are airport employees who presumably would have been paid whether they were helping me or not, right?

Anyways, I get to Nosy Be, the largest island off of Madagascar (which is the largest island off of Africa). The flight crossed the island and then does a slightly frightening 360 to hit the very small landing strip. But the views of the island as we went past were stunning, very hilly, tree covered terrain in the middle and then stunning water and shorelines. The airport pick up people were great, although the other two passengers – who had been sitting in front of me on the plane making out – looked less than thrilled when they saw they’d be sharing a ride with the crippled lady. The ride was from the west side of the island to the east – about 45 minutes - was as pretty as the view from the plane. One of my first thoughts as we turned a corner from lush jungle landscape and caught a glimpse of the ocean was, I know I have a crazy wonderful life but I want to stop here and get off. I’m sure the island has poverty and problems but for that moment it just seemed serene and like a place I could stay at for a while (say the next decade or so).

I had chosen the place I was staying, Vanila Hotel, at as it was next to the dive center and I had lined up a day of diving the next day. The hotel seems very nice… a little too expansive of grounds for someone who has to hobble around, but I’m sure it’s good for me… and I do like that the hotel services guide advises against pedophilia, right between the check out time and the request to conserve water by reusing towels. Anyway, sadly, the next day my body was telling me that diving was not a good idea. I hobbled down the beach to talk to them and ultimately decided not to go. It was disappointing but I would be so mad at myself if I made the recovery worse. So I spent the day laying by the pool, exercising my ankle in the pool and eventually going to the spa where I thought a Jacuzzi would do my ankle good (I’m pretty sure it had no effect) but ended up with a very awkward soak in that I somehow couldn’t keep my body weighted down so I kept floating to the top, followed by a Gommage which is something I’ve never come across before but you lay on a table and the row of shower heads spray hot water over you while a lady (wearing what can only be described as a 1920s bathing costume) scrubs you with salts and a fiber glove… it was actually pretty wonderful although when she went to scrub my underarms I realized I was feeling horribly ticklish and then realizing how silly this was I broke into uncontrollable giggling which then caused her to giggle so I spent like 10 minutes of the procedure laughing so hard I was crying with someone who I could not speak to (her no English, me no French), followed by a massage that reminded me of the Indian oil massages I used to get that just bored me. I want deep tissue massage… not just general rubbing.

Anyways the last morning there was wonderful and sunny and just what a beach day should be:)

Things I'm thankful for....

Apparently this is my 8^th annual list of things to be thankful for, which means it’s been 8 years overseas, wow!

1. The last 8 years – I have been truly blessed to see so many parts of the world and meet all these incredible people. I have the best friends ever (those of you I met longer than 8 years ago are included too) and am so grateful to be able to call several parts of the world “home”

2. John Bonsignore –I am eternally grateful for 30+ years he was part of my life. His sarcasm, storytelling, writing, and techniques for getting through tough times (including issues with authority figures) are all part of who I am now. I will miss the laughter he brought to my life and will try to emulate the love he lavished on the people in his life.

3. Seeing a leopard – it was on my wish list last year and I finally saw one during my mom’s visit this year

4. The guardian angels coming back – I had a run of bad luck this year with black eyes, bag snatching, shoot outs, several broken iphones, etc. but I’ve definitely felt a shift and I no longer feel “unlucky”.

5. New experiences and travel this year – Myanmar, Nigeria, Ngorongoro crater (Serengeti, Tanzania), Aberdares, Amboseli, Lamu (all in Kenya), Spain (with a special shout out to Beth in Ibiza and Rachel in San Sebastian), and Turkey.

6. That I have another year in Nairobi – I felt obligated to make some big decisions this year about what was most important to me and ultimately the friends, house, lifestyle, routines and weather of Nairobi made staying here my top choice.

7. Kali – at a moment when I thought the world might be throwing more at me than I could handle, the vet called and said I needed to put Kali down (and that she was too “kali” (which happens to be kiswahili for vicious) to take her blood – without irony). But thankfully she pulled through and I’ve realized that she brings enormous amounts of purring and laughter into my life.

8. ESPN – I feel like this year has a rekindling of the love affair between me and US sports, probably because Kenya shows so many more American sports than I ever got to watch in India. A special shout out to MLB games being on when I get home from work and NFL games ending as I get up on Monday/Tuesday mornings.

9. That I’m employed, and I think I’m really going to like this new job! After almost 7 years of loving my job I was in a rut and needed a change. And after considering the alternatives, I also really like having a paycheck.

10. The opportunities and choices available to me. Every time I walk into a clinic and watch these women raising their children and keeping their heads held high in incredibly heartbreaking situations (whether related to abuse, poverty, HIV, etc.), I am reminded that I have everything I could ever need and really, really, really no right to complain.

Madrid and San Sebastian, Spain

I sometimes think I have a complicated relationship with Europe. I've been to like 60+ countries but in Europe I've spent a weekend in London and twice been to Germany to visit mom's exchange family (once I was too young to remember which also included some in Italy I'm told). I have nothing against them - I guess I just always feel that I can always go to Europe and some of these other places might be once in a lifetime opportunities. And then there are places, like Cuba and Bhutan, which I really want to see now before they open up completely to tourism.

But when Beth (friend from India) invited me to her 50th birthday party in Ibiza, I couldn't say no. One reason was that I think it takes that kind of effort to maintain friendships in this crazy world I live in. We don't get to see friends that often, and just showing up means a lot (at least to me). But I didn't want to fly all that way (Nairobi to Ibiza is 3 flights and like 24 hours) and spend all that money for just 3 days. So I was thrilled when Rachel (from grad school) was available to meet me in Spain.

The trip started like all trips do, with a massively delayed flight which resulted in me missing my flight connection from Amsterdam to Madrid. In my exhaustion (from red-eye flight) I decided to use that extra time to buy everything in the airport - including replacing the camera stolen in Nairobi in March and an underwater container for it. As I was boarding the flight to Madrid, I saw these two good-but-not-great-looking young women in the waiting area with stilettos and recalled thinking that "this is the difference between European and American women". Then this short man in a black top hat was suddenly standing next to me in line and I thought... "he looks familiar". "Is that Dave Navarro?" "His jeans have rock-star like prints on them, it could be him." "OMG that's Dave Navarro." I will spare you the rest of my internal monologue but it included "Why does he not have handlers or an entourage or something that prevents him from standing in line in a run of the mill boarding area". He was sitting in "first class" about 3 rows ahead of me (first class was just the closing of a curtain - it was a small plane) and he and his group - which I realized included those two girls, who based on accents were indeed American women - proceeded to play 'name that tune', which I had to almost literally hold myself from joining in. When we landed I followed signs to baggage claim and looked around and suddenly realized that it was just me, the band and their girls. I'm unclear why the rest of the plane didn't go the same way but suddenly I'm chatting with them about the correct baggage carousel. A guy briefly runs up to the blonde guy and says, "Duff, man, can I have, your.... sorry to bother you, man but.... can I have your autograph, man... sorry to bug you dude...". Duff was very gracious. I later had to look up what band Dave plays with and who the hell Duff is ... turns out they both play for Jane's Addiction, Duff was subbing in for a concert in Madrid the next day - he was originally from Guns-N-Roses.

The other weird thing at the airport is I never went through customs or immigration in Spain... I guess since I was coming from another EU country it was ok - sweet!

So the actual trip: Had a day in Madrid by myself before Rachel arrived so went to the Prado first. I was actually a bit bored, a huge portion of it is portraits of stuffy European men from 200 years ago. The Goya exhibit was quite good and there were a few other paintings here and there that I really liked but it wasn't quite my taste. A friend recommended the Reina Sofia so I checked that out next and it was much more my genre of art. More cubism/modern; picasso, magritte, dali. It's not even that I like modern art per se, just not portraits of King Charles Henry David.

Rachel arrived later that afternoon and we left early the next morning on a train for San Sebastian. Donostia San Sebastian is on the north coast, in Basque Country. Known for its food and wine, it has beautiful beaches. Sadly it was a bit cold and rainy but it had lovely walking paths (through the city, not hiking - think the streets bordering Rio's Copacabana beach), with biking paths along the beach. Our first night was also the night of the US opening match of World Cup vs. Britian. I convinced Rachel to find a place to watch the game with me. There were very few bars showing it and very few people watching it - strange. The day after arrival we went walking around town and quickly realized there were hoards of people wearing blue and white striped shirts, waving blue and white striped flags, etc. Since I knew Spain wasn't playing that day we could not figure out what was happening. But it was hundreds of people, all day long. Drinking outside and randomly breaking into chants and songs. We eventually found out there was a local team playing (seems weird to have a game during the World Cup, as if you had good players they might be there) the last game of the season. And their win put them up into the next league.

Anyways - San Sebastian is cute as can be, great walking, eating, drinking, shopping, etc. And that's what we did. Because of the season, the sun doesn't go down until 10 or so, which makes walking to dinner much more enjoyable. The next day we went to a cooking school through a VERY small operation call San Sebastian Food. Highly recommended. Jon, the owner and our guide, suggested we go to a fishing village for a lesson in pintxos (basque's tapas). We made like 20 different kinds; hot and cold and learned tons about anchovies, which I hadn't liked until this class. It was a great experience.

And that was basically it - we went back and had one more day in Madrid and then I flew onto Ibiza (next post). The only thing I haven't stated is how much I enjoy relearning and practicing Spanish - I should definitely find a way to do this more often!

Nigeria

I know, I know – my post titles are very imaginative! I spent the last two weeks in Nigeria doing a clinic audit. We started in Abuja (the capital), then spent a few days in Lagos, which I thought was the biggest city but I have since been corrected then on to Calabar with a day trip to Uyo, back to Abuja with a day trip to Kaduna and finally out via an overnight in Lagos. Most of the travel was flights, which I far prefer to long road trips as was the case in Uganda last month.

Anyways, Abuja (top left picture) was established as the capital of Nigeria only in 1991 as a compromise between the mostly Islamic north and the mostly Christian south. And it’s clearly a created city – with very little vibe or soul. They put us up in the Hilton, which was the craziest hotel I’ve ever seen. Monstrous, we were paying about $315 per night, internet was another $22 a day, breakfast was $30 if you only did the fruit and breads and cereals part (I made the mistake of taking a piece of bacon one day and found out later that going to the meat section of the buffet added $10 to my bill). But the internet was super fast and the gym was amazing! I kept getting lost on the way to my room.

It’s an interesting time in Nigeria. As most probably know, the President, Yar’Aduna secretly went to Saudi Arabia a few months ago to get medical treatment and the country’s leaders weren’t sure about where he was or if he was okay. He gave a brief interview to BBC’s Housa-language radio station. Nigeria’s Senate took that as proof he was outside the country and turned over leadership to the Vice President, Jonathon Goodluck. From when he left to when they turned Goodluck into acting president was about 80 days. Yar’Aduna was then snuck back into the country but hasn’t been heard from or seen since. As I understand it, Yar’Aduna is a muslim from the north and Goodluck is a Christian from the south and that’s part of the problem – there are vested interests in having their man in power. There’s a lot of blame being thrown towards Yar’Aduna’s wife as well but I can’t quite figure that one out. While I was here, there were several very large protests insisting the Goodluck become vested with all the powers of a President and all the papers talk non-stop about the debates.

The other big news while I was here is the revenge massacre in Jos. We work in Jos but after the massacre in January, we avoided it on this trip. While we were in Calabar, another massacre took place – they say 500 people (although reports vary). Apparently they came at 3am, fired shots into the air to bring people out of their houses and then machete’d them when they came out. It was well organized and in about 4 villages all at once so there’s a lot of suspicion that security forces/army knew about it and either assisted or ignored it.

My general impressions are of a proud, talkative (in a loud, debating sort of a way), chaotic and hot country. Several similarities with India. The population is about 150 million (nowhere near India’s 1.5 billion) but in a much smaller area so the density is actually only about half of India's. Lagos is Nigeria's most populous city (and the second in Africa after Cairo) was a lot like Mumbai in the areas near the sea. In fact, they estimate Lagos to have 15.5 million people, which is not far behind Mumbai. There’s entire slums of people living in huts on stilts in the bay, which I would love to know more about. Guys ride by on the back of motorcycle taxis with three goats across their laps! I can see that this city has as much to notice and enjoy and get annoyed at as Delhi. I kept thinking as we passed the most chaotic and overcrowded areas that if I were still in India, this is where I’d get out of the car to work. It was nice to not do that here.

Calabar (the river is pictured above) was by far the most pleasant place we went. A little cooler, had already started raining and was luscious green. On Saturday we did a self tour of the city seeing everything that was listed to see. First we went to the Calabar Museum. It’s in the old house of a British governor (or something) and they insist you get a guide (who rambles lifelessly through the script) so I just went at my own pace which was half the speed of the guide. Calabar was best known for being the "origins" of the slave trade so much of the museum focused on that. They've sealed shut all the windows so the museum is uncomfortably hot and really has more captions than artifacts. Next we went to the Drill Monkey Ranch, a rescue place for drill monkeys and chimpanzees. It’s a tiny little place and keeps them in smaller cages than I would have expected for a rescue operation but their big ranch is a few hours away in the jungle. The drill monkeys are the coolest monkeys I’ve ever seen, with faces that look like masks (picture on left). It’s a matriarchal society and the alpha females pick the alpha males. The females are a quarter of the size of the males but the males will run scared if chased, as they know the females can get other males to do their fighting for them. The benefit of being an alpha male is you are the only one allowed to mate with females whose butts are red (in heat). Other males can mate with females not in heat. They also had 3 young chimps. It’s the first time I’ve really interacted with chimps. I first went over to the two in a play compound who were 4 and 5 years old (they have our lifespan). I was trying to get pictures but the chimps knew better and threw handfuls of sand every time I put my eyes to the camera. But there was one baby chimp Eko (right) who was still being raised by humans and not yet integrated with the others. Eko took an immediate liking to me – or possibly my sparkly red Indian sandals. She would come over and bury her head in my legs or grab my hand (as she's doing in the last picture). They really are just like humans – it’s completely eerie.

After the ranch we had some shwarma for lunch (for some reason the Lebanese dish is every where in Nigeria - second only to endless fast food chicken joints, which also have shwarma) and then went to the Marina, which has a lovely walk and park and houses the slave museum. The slave museum had many of the same photos as the Calabar museum but had an exhibit you walk through with life-sized dioramas. The first was of a slave ship showing people stacked up in the hull - we've all seen the blueprints before but seeing it like this was vomit-inducing. Just horrifying. It went through the kidnapping on this side (first they traded prisoners but when they ran out started village raids), the selling on this side to slave traders, then on to the US side. It was mostly stuff you'd expect to see although all the white men were dressed like today's businessmen, not like men of their time - which was eerie and odd.

There are a thousand other stories including being fooled by a twin pretending to be her sister during the audit. All in all, I think Nigeria is like many other places, if you choose to love it, you can find plenty to love but if you don't there are a million things to complain about. I always try to choose to love it.

Uganda - Sipi Falls

In the midst of what was an exhausting driving tour of Uganda (where I was supposed to be auditing our clinics but in fact I spent 7+ hours a day on the road) I had planned a weekend break to Sipi Falls. It made sense when I made the booking as we would be working in the nearby town the following Monday, but due to exhaustion of the external auditor we had to rearrange the whole trip and I decided to head to Sipi Falls for some rest and relaxation on my own anyway.

Sipi is in the mountains above the "city" of Mbale, which is close to the Kenyan border, about 5 hours drive from Kampala. The falls were called the "most beautiful of Uganda" in the guidebooks so I thought it would be a nice break. Since I had originally booked for both myself and the doctor from the US, I booked the nicest place, Sipi River Lodge - yet I somehow missed the fact that our cottages had shared bathrooms...it felt pretty basic. No electricity in the cottages but the lodge was quite nice. I arrived around 1:30 on Saturday - it took a bit longer than expected because we ended up behind the president's motorcade (which is like 15 cars including two ambulances, one that looks like a brinks truck and the rest having soldiers with guns pointed in every direction). I had a big lunch (I was the only guest that weekend) and decided to go for the afternoon hikes to the two closest waterfalls. I had read you could do mountain climbing or abseiling down the waterfall, which sounded fun but it had been pouring all day so I didn't think the climbing would be that great of an idea. I also hadn't realized that there were several falls and that the rest of the lodges were overlooking the biggest falls, while this camp had views of falls #2. I sound like I'm complaining but I'm not, the location was very nice and I would recommend the lodge. You can see it a bit in the picture to the left, which is taken from the top of falls #2.

So after lunch, me and my guide Jasper (an employee of the lodge who had grown up in the area, had a degree in social work and had previously worked as a counselor for an HIV NGO, and was wearing plastic flip flops on the hike) headed up the hills. It was muddy and slippery from the earlier rains. And I realized that I had packed for the work portion of the trip - not the weekend, so I didn't have hiking boots - just my brand new, white as snow, running shoes. And no rain jacket or sweater or anything warm. T-shirts, that was it. Jasper had a big rain jacket, I just decided I wouldn't melt. The hike was lovely, after the first waterfall we hiked through fields of maize, banana trees, etc. and local villages. We were often walking right through someone's yard. The hut were circular mud structures, the nicest ones with tin roofs. But most of them were immaculately kept. The little area around them had been well swept, with flowers planted. They really seemed lovely and well cared for. The picture is Jasper in front of one of the huts (one that didn't have as many flowers).

We got to falls #3 and turned back. We got hit up for money from the local kids as a "passing through fee" but I wasn't carrying any money - that seemed okay. As we started back it started to rain again. The mud quickly accumulated on our shoes rendering them more like skis. No traction at all, so we were just slipping down the slopes. Jasper took his flip flops off - I tried to keep knocking the mud off (to no avail). These two girls were finding their own ways to keep dry. Towards the bottom of the hill the paths were small streams. And by the time we got back to the lodge I was soaked and covered in mud. I meant to take an immediate shower but instead passed out. When I woke up I showered and tried to wash the mud off my pants. I figured I was out of luck with the shoes.

The next morning Jasper and I headed out for the remaining falls, the big daddy of them all. The pants had dried pretty well in front of the fire and the shoes weren't too wet. About 20 minutes in, I realized that whatever I was feeling in the tip of my shoe probably wasn't just my bunched up sock. When I took off my shoe a caterpillar-y thing fell out (I forgot the golden rule of ALWAYS looking in your shoes before putting them on). Jasper freaked out a bit talking like it was a leech... but I'm going to stick with caterpillar. The hike down to this falls was really steep. At a spot there was a ladder as otherwise we would have had to scale the rocks. And the whole time these women were carrying very heavy loads of maize up the hill! That never ceases to amaze me. We were really close to the bottom, the terrain was getting harder as we were walking over vines and didn't have real footing and Jasper was about 3 steps ahead of me when he sprinted back towards me yelling about white ants. Apparently they bite. He was trying to get them off himself for the next 10 minutes, but he had spotted them before I got covered. I got one bite and the rest were just on my shoes. We had to backtrack a fairly significant amount, cross the river and approach from the other side. The waterfall is beautiful though. And it was so great to get out of a car and move!

On the way back we were resting after a steep climb and ladder up the cliffs. In the cliffs themselves there are little caves and kids were sitting in the openings. One little girl in a purple dress came towards us. She seemed curious and after peeking around corners, came up. She had a crystal from the caves that she showed Jasper. And then she followed us the rest of the way. I asked "what is your name" and she responded "what is my name".

And that was about it. A really nice break. The drive back was uneventful - no presidential motorcade. But I did realize I could play my iphone through the stereo so as we were driving down the mountains some random bluegrass came on and my Ugandan driver seemed to really enjoy it. He was tapping his fingers and feet. The only other songs he did that to were Santana and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! I tried to explain what bluegrass was by saying if we were in poor mountain areas in the US instead of poor mountain areas in Uganda, that's the music we'd be surrounded by:)

Things I'm thankful for

My 7th annual list:

1. This frickin' amazing life I lead... seriously, I get to travel the world, live in the cutest house ever, have people paid to take care of me and the house, make more than enough money, and do what I love....seriously?
   
2. That I didn't have to move or start a new job this year. Being settled is wonderful.
   
3. Great friends; I'm so blessed to have such great friends around the world. I've loved girl weekends with Amy around E. Africa, meeting up with Muna in Thailand, seeing all my great friends and colleagues in India, meeting up with old and new friends in South Africa and Cambodia, the friends I'm currently seeing while in the US, and I can tell I've made some lifelong friendships in Nairobi.
4. Travel; another year of new countries (Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa) and revisiting some old great ones (India, Cambodia and Thailand) and great trips within Kenya.
   
5. Being able to be home for Thanksgiving!
6. New animals; The gorillas were clearly the most impressive but fun times diving with sun fish and swimming with dolphins too. Now, if only I could finally see a leopard!
7. Nairobi climate; after many years in Delhi, I am constantly appreciative the year-round beautiful weather. And am currently appreciative of the much needed rains.
8. Electricity; for a variety of reasons (drought reducing the hydroelectric capacity of Kenya, my company not paying the bills, wiring problems) I have learned how much I love electricity and how much better it makes my life.
9. Routines; anyone who knows me will not be surprised at this but I have some great ones in Nairobi... dance classes, monday movies, frisbee
10. It was a hard decision picking one last one but I think the prize goes to India: I don't know if it's because of India or that it was my first post but I feel like I've learned so many life lessons from my time there - patience, trust, how to laugh in difficult situations, how to let people help me, how to value the small things (walking, breathing, beef), what a truly amazing work environment can be, what real struggle looks like, and that I will always be equipped to handle any situation.