AFRICA

I (Greg) got to go to Africa for a few weeks last May for work.  It was a lot of fun.  I started out in Maputo, Mozambique.  

Mozambique

They speak portuguese there, so it was nice to be able to communicate without any problems.  The climate in Mozambique is sub-tropical, but it was the beginning of winter, so the heat wasn't too bad.  The people are very poor there, as you might imagine, and the food was surprisingly expensive.  

I kept forgetting to take my camera with me when I was out and about in the city.  However, the first weekend I was there I was able to take a trip to Swaziland with a bunch of people--mostly Americans from the embassy.  

Swaziland

We drove to Swaziland in a sweet local bus that the group chartered.  Here is a pic of the inside of the bus.  

As we were driving I snapped some random shots of the area.  Not great pictures, but it at least shows a little bit of the area, and how the people live.  If you look closely below, some of the houses are brick, and some of them are grass huts (this was on the outskirts of the city).

Here is another random picture I snapped while we were leaving the city.  

It is kind of difficult to see, but in the center of the photo are grass huts that people live in (this is in the countryside).  It seemed like out in the countryside a lot of people live in grass huts.  There were often a few grass huts grouped together with a grass fence around them.

Our group stayed in this CRAZY nice resort in Swaziland. We all had our own grass roof bungaloes, but it was really cheap. It was cheaper than any of the hotels in the city, and WAY NICER.  Below is a picture of my bungalow.

My bungalo had a living room, dining room, HUGE bathroom, and a large bedroom.  Below is a picture of the inside of my bedroom.  My bedroom was in the shape of a half circle, and all of the walls were windows (with curtains of course, but it was beautiful to open up in the morning with all of the tropical plants outside).

Here is a picture of the grass roof (view from my bed!).

We went to a big music festival called "Bush Fire."  It was pretty cool.  It had good music, good food, and a cool market where they sold really interesting stuff--mostly handmade items.  I forgot to mention it, but everyone in Swaziland speaks English (aside from the different tribal languages).

Included with our rooms at the resort was an AMAZING breakfast.  They had a HUGE buffet spread, and you could also order from the menu.  I ordered the "Hearty Swazi" both days that I was there.  It consisted of a big delicious steak, a HUGE sausage, two eggs, fried tomatoes, beans, THICK bacon, and I forget what else.  I also ate pastries, fresh fruit salad, fresh tropical juices, and just about anything else you can imagine.

Walking around the resort . . .

Relaxing a bit after breakfast...

The second day that we went to the festival we saw the "Giant Mozambican Puppets."  Here is a short video...


More of the Mozambican puppets...

We ditched out on part of the festival and drove to a nearby national park where there is a cultural village (set up so tourists can learn about the traditional way of life in Swaziland).  Near the entrance of the park we saw some monkeys hangin' around.

At the cultural village there was a group that demonstrated some traditional songs and dance.  We got there a bit late, so we only caught the last few songs, but it was still pretty cool to see.  Here are a couple brief videos.

In the cultural village there were some more wild monkeys running around.  Here are a few drinking from a pot of water.

This monkey ran over by our group and was watching us from about 10 feet away.

This old lady was inside the cultural village selling some jewelry.

Here is a picture of me in front of one of the traditional huts in the cultural village.  The huts are made of grass and mud.  The people from this region used to practice polygamy (some still do), and the men would build a hut like this for each of their wives.  Women would normally marry at or around the age of 17 or 18.  Men would normally marry in their mid to late 20s.  This is largely due to the fact that the men needed to work to be able to afford their wives.  In this area, the men would pay the father of the bride-to-be a negotiated number of cows in order to marry the daughter.  Our guide told us that the men normally paid about 17 cows for each wife.  However, there were some exceptions.  For example, when a women had a child out of wedlock, the father of the child would have to pay the woman's father five cows.  Then, when someone wanted to marry the woman (who already had a child out of wedlock), the husband-to-be would often negotiate a lower price with the father.  Oftentimes the price in this case would be 12 cows, since the father had already gained five cows from that daughter.  Thus, the father would gain a total of 17 cows for his daughter.

Here is a view of the inside of one of the huts.  I thought it was really cool how it is all woven, and makes kind of a neat pattern.

Here is a view of the cultural village from the outside.  You can see the tops of the huts, and the grass fence that surrounds the village.  In the background you can see a big rocky mountain.  The people here call the mountain Execution Mountain because when people would do something really bad they would bring them up to the top of the mountain and push them off (their version of the death penalty).

After the cultural village we went back to the music festival.  The video below is of a guy who calls himself the "Silent Conductor."  This act was mainly aimed at kids, but everyone had fun.  Basically, he directed the crowd to make music (by clapping, stomping, singing, and hitting these musical tube things).

On the third day we went to a candle factory, and some stores where they sell handmade crafts.  We spent a little more time at the music festival, then headed back to Mozambique.  

Swaziland was a lot of fun.  The country is beautiful, the people were really nice, and it was a lot cheaper than where I was staying in Mozambique.  Random fact about Swaziland:  Swaziland is ruled by a king, and every year the king takes a new wife for himself on his birthday (I think he has 30 something wives at this point...)  

South Africa!

While in Swaziland I met a guy who worked at the embassy who was planning to go on a safari in South Africa on Memorial Day, and asked if I wanted to come with him.  Of course, I wasn't going to pass that opportunity up, so the next day he picked me up at 5 am, and we drove to South Africa!  It took us about three hours to get to Krueger Park.  The park reminded me a lot of Yellowstone because you are allowed to just drive into the park and explore on your own (though you can also pay to have a guide drive you around).  However,  instead of bears and moose, you see elephants, crocodiles, and water buffalo!  We drove through the park in the embassy employee's SUV.  It is illegal to get out of your vehicle inside the park because it is way too dangerous (with Lions, crocodiles, leopards and such lurking about).  It was seriously an incredible experience.  Words cannot even describe how cool it was to see so many exotic animals in the wild.  Pictures can't really do any of it justice, but I took some, nonetheless.

Little monkey crossing the road.



One of the first animals I saw...

These guys just happened to go walking past us...

Another decided to stop for a meal.

Below is an Impala.  Impala were EVERYWHERE!  Literally.

Some warthogs rooting around in the dirt.

A Hippo lazing around near a big group of crocodiles. The crocodiles are hard to see, but if you look closely you can see them lying by the edge of water. They kind of look like logs- it is incredible how camouflage they are.  And, of course, some more hippos in the water.

A baboon hanging out in the shade of a tree.

One of my favorite things that I saw was a big herd of Elephants.  They came trotting down a hill, tromping through some brush, then crossed the river. This only shows PART of the herd.  It was cool to see them cross the river, and spray water on themselves.

Why did the turtle cross the road?  I don't know, but we randomly saw this turtle cross the road...

Later, we pulled off to the side of the road for a second to just take in the view, when all of the sudden an elephant popped up out of nowhere about 15 feet from my window!  The bank up to the road was so steep that I couldn't see it coming until it was right in front of me.  Needless to say, it startled us.  I was also a little shocked when I realized it didn't care that we were in its way, and just kept walking toward us as if it was going to walk right through us.  So... we quickly drove out of the way.

Just as we drove out of the way three more elephants appeared next to it!  

Here is a random little spot where people were selling things on the side of the road.  It was kind of like an African truck stop...

I really should have taken more pictures in Mozambique.  But, alas, I did not...

Ethiopia

After Mozambique I flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Ethiopia is a lot poorer than Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa.  You also see the poverty a lot more than in the other countries I visited.  Below is a random photo I took while driving around the city.  You can see street vendors selling their goods on the sidewalk.

Here is a place where they weave scarves and other things by hand.

There was a woman in the courtyard of the little compound doing a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony.

I drove about two hours outside of Addis Ababa to see this 400 year old bridge from the crusades.  It was really cool to see the countryside, and get a feel for what life is like outside of the city.  It was really sad.  You could see people from the county literally walking for hours (some would walk all day) with HUGE bundles of wood or dung on their backs (or on donkeys) to sell in the city as fuel.  Almost no one has cars, so the people just walk everywhere.  Huge distances. Even LITTLE KIDS walking long distances with these HUGE bundles on their backs- working SO HARD.

Here is a mud and straw house with a rock fence around it.  I asked my driver about the fences, and he told me that the fences are to keep the hyenas out.

Here are some donkeys carrying wood into the city.  I really wish I got a picture of the women and children carrying the wood.  It was just so sad.  I couldn't even believe they could carry such large loads-especailly for such great distances.

The blue car in this photo is a Russian made Lada.  All of the taxis in the city are blue Ladas just like this one, and the drivers are absolutely insane!!  They drive like maniacs, and don't even look before they pull out into traffic.

The Portuguese christian crusaders built this bridge to escape the muslims during the crusades (approximately 400 years ago).  They then set up on the other side of it, and ambushed anyone who tried to come across it.  They didn't have cement, so they supposedly used a mixture that included ostrich egg shells.

As I was looking out over this huge canyon I spotted this old guy cutting and bundling some grass that was growing on a small ledge.  The ledge was really high up on the cliff, and I have absolutely no idea how he got up there, or how he got down (especially with the large bundles of grass).  Apparently it was worth it to him to climb way up this cliff to harvest this grass.  I watched him for a long time trying to see how he got up there, but never did figure it out.  The cliff that he is on is in the background of the below picture.



Here is a zoomed in photo of the guy bundling up the grass on the ledge.

A random cow walking across the Portuguese Bridge.

A little lookout hut near the bridge (made out of mud and grass).

Near the Portuguese Bridge there is a famous monastery.  By the monastery there is a small mountain, and near the top of the mountain there is a small cave.  Inside the cave there is water that drips from the ceiling of the cave.  The water is considered to be holy because a long time ago a monk with a broken leg went into the cave and prayed, and his leg was healed.   The people in the area walk for miles and miles with empty jugs to get this holy water and bring it home.  Below is a photo I took while we were driving to the monastery.  The road was crowded with people heading to and from the monastery (as it was a Sunday).

So many people! Driving through the crowd was pretty crazy. Just like you see in the movies, where it's super crowded and people come up to your car windows, and start banging on the windows begging for money.

Below is a little local store selling empty jugs to collect holy water, snacks, and other little things.

Some beggars sitting on the side of the road.

More people going to get holy water.  See the huge jugs?  Imagine carrying those full of water for miles...

This guy is a monk at the monastery.  He charged me about $8 or so to enter, then gave me a private tour.  It was really hard to understand him, but he was nice.  That thing in his left hand is for swatting flies away from his face.  The flies were awful, and everyone had flies just crawling around on their faces because they must have gotten tired of brushing them away.

I hiked up to the cave and went inside.  I had to take off my shoes to enter.  On the ground are jugs to collect the holy water.

Just driving around the city in Addis Ababa.  Notice how people just walk out into the road?  People often walk out into the road without even looking.  It was crazy.  I guess a lot of people die from getting hit by cars in Addis simply because they just don't look before they walk into the street.

Well, I have some more safari pictures I need to add to this that I haven't loaded up (they were from a better camera).  So... I will try to update this post later in the week.