Zanzibar

We arrived safe and sound to Zanzibar, but not with out the typical African HASSLE. I thought I would have a friend meet us in Dar Es Saalem to help us to get to the ferry to Zanzibar, cause my friend Sarah told me that everyone she has ever known, Tanzanian or Foreigner, who went to Dar got robbed. So I called my friend. He met us when we got off the bus, and guided us to the ferry etc. It was really nice. We didn't get robbed. But when we were trying to get our ferry tickets over to the island, i think he may have done more harm than good. SOME GUY was "helping us" aka, running us all over the swealtering country wth our 500pound back packs. So through the whole ordeal we missed two boats, and then i finally got so mad at the guy (21/2 hours later) i yelled curse words in his face and told him we were getting our own tickets. So i went up to the booth that i was originally going to book through, and booked them....NO PROBLEM.....GOSH... i was really frusterated. I have 5 minutes on internet now so this is gonig to be fast. We went on a spice tour, it was boring.....ate fruit, got robbed of 100,000 tz shillings, bought spices, went to the beach. Eat fresh seafood for like a dollar, buy really nice cheap scarves, time is ticking....



i miss you all terribly....love you, write me sometime....its nice to hear from home!

Mombosa, Kenya

I wrote a really crappy quick blog on myspace, i tried to copy and paste it here, but it didn't work, so dang. If you want to read it, you can:

http://www.myspace.com/melanieorr

I am so hot right now, in a supossedly airconditioned cafe. Oh well. We had a great time in Lamu, i want to tell you all about it, but i cant, i am too hot and tired to type. So plese, read Adele's blog becuase she wrote a great long one, and then lost it, and so she is typing it all over, very eloquently.

http://theadele.blogspot.com

I love you all, and am missing home terribly. 7 months is a long time. But don't worry, i am having the time of my life also, see you soon, miss you more.

Love always and forever, Mel.

Sse Sse Islands

Oh wow, the sse sse islands were a fantastic start to the trip. I wasn' t sure whether we should go ahead with it as i hadn't really heard much about the islands. But none the less we left Mbarara at 9am on monday morning and travelled north to the islands in the north of Lake Victoria. A big bus, a small matatu and a 2 hour ferry later, at 9:30 pm we arrived at Hornbell Campsite. It waas dark as we set up our tent (thank you so much dad) but when we were finished we saw a glowing coming from between the trees. A while glowing. We had to investigate, and YES, it was a GORGEOUS white sandy beach. the whitest we'd both ever seen. So we spent four nights a three days soaking up the sun and chilling out. Fires at night, great new people. We met Dom and Andy to great chaps from England, Catherine a beautiful New Yorker who now lives with her boyfriend Alihandro (from Sisily) in Barcelona, and Steve the professional 39 year old traveller. Steve made the big bucks and is now travelling the world for 4 years. So the highlight was relaxation, i think i have finally made my transition from volunteer to tourist. It was a hard one, but good. I am ready to explore and live every day to its fullest, loving life and all the beautiful creation of God here in Africa.
Now we are at Backpackers hostel in Kampala, and we are going to go out dancing with our friend Dom and Andy. We have body guards so we feel safe going out dancicng at some posh clubs. They have some sick mustaches shaved (that i am sure you would love daniel) and iron maiden t shirts and aviators to boot. Should be good time.
Tomorrow we head to the bus for a 12 to 16 hour bus ride to Nairobi Kenya. We spend a couple days there enjoying th big city and getting over our sun burns and then head to the coast for some real indian ocean surf! We decided to start at a Tiwi beach, moving on to Diani, Malindi and south all the way down the coast to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania to Zanzibar!
Missing home, but surely enjoying the travels and new people!
Love mel.

Ps. Happy easter and don't forget my birthaday on April 15th or i'll be sad!

Last group

Dinner in rwanda!
Washing hands!
smiles!
self explanitory!

Pictures, of me...

Shmoop, this one is for you!!

Pictures....

Carla a sweet austrian girl we met in Rwnada. 19 and travelling by herself!
Adele...beutiful!
hah...
Cutsie pootsie
cutsie again!
Adele and I are chilling out at Canada House in Mbarara on the floor of our room. After some delicious Annie’s pasta (some of my fav, brought over with adele from my momsie), we are feeling quite satisfied.
We had a lovely relaxing time on Bushara Island on Lake Bunyoni for de-brief. It is a huge winding lake with beautiful landscaped hillsides and a million shades of green. I paddled around in the huge dug out canoes with Emily to the nursery tree demo sites as well as with Bryony to her swimming lessons. The canoes are one huge tree that they carve the middle out of. It was a killer work out on my arms I tell ya. Not quite like kayaking. It’s hard to believe it’s all over. It was a really really amazing 6 months though, I would never trade it for anything.
I was SO excited the day I went to pick up Adele from the air port. We (me and Ben our special hire driver) were waiting in the upstairs of the Entebbe airport where you can see all the planes come in and the passengers come out. I had to stretch my head around to see her come out of the plane. I wasn’t even sure if I did see her cause couldn’t remember what she looked like. Just kidding. So when I saw what I thought was her, due to the ultra stylish attire, I ran down like 6 flights of stairs to where I thought the arrivals were, but I couldn’t find it. Then they told me it was under construction, and so they came outside. So I ran out there and had to wait another 15-20 minutes till she finally came around the bend of the walk way. I made a sign as I was waiting that said “Adele Pizzy (yes spelt wrong) you are highly welcome” and I waved it in the air jumping up and down. Not really necessary as I was the only white person waiting for anyone. Haha. We hugged and I cried as I was filled with so much joy to have a friend from home to join in the adventure.
We gabbed and gabbed the whole way back to Canada House about anything and everything that came to my tired and her jet lagged mind. Good times. We even stopped at the drum village to grab her a sweet hand drum. Also a quick photo op at the equator.
After two chilling days for Adele to get over her jet leg, we just had a sweet journey down to Rwanda. Our main event was the Genocide Memorial Museum, which overwhelmed our hearts with emotions that can’t be expressed. It is a really touching experience that shows just how evil a human can be, just how sick and twisted Satan is, and how in the midst of such complete horror, God still moves. He moved Hutu’s, the antagonistic force, to care for and hide their fellow brother and sister Tutsi’s, even though majority of them joined with the Interhawe and their sadistic plans to completely wipe out the Tutsi race. It’s sad that the only reason they were divided into these races was, who had ten cows or more, the Hutu’s, and who had less, the Tutsi’s. When the Belgian’s came to the country they only added to the problem by setting up physical criteria to these “tribes”, like long noses, tall, and lighter skin. Over one million people killed in less than 100 hundred days, over two million internally displaced people, and countless orphans.
On the lighter side, we were going to go and see the Mountain Gorilla’s in the Virunga Volcanic ranges, but we decided that it was a waste of money. Money that could fund like two or three weeks of normal living here, plus we saw pictures from some of the other interns. They are intense animals, indescribably human.
We headed to the Hotel des Millnes Collins, aka, Hotel Rwanda, for a classic tourist picture by the sign, hopefully I’ll get it posted at some point. We were going to go swimming and sunbathe for a while, but it was kind of overcast by the time we got there, and plus we realized that it cost like 6 dollars. Then we thought we would enjoy some “happy hour” but quickly realized that the half price happy hour drinks were still more expensive than the local place down the street. At the local spot, Chez Venant, they also had delicious beef brochettes and spicy sausage. The staff doesn’t speak English, and when you think they are coming to check on you or your meal, they simply grab a toothpick and start to clean there teeth. Muah ha ha, awesome, it only added to the fun and laughter. Adele also go the chance to follow God’s calling and buy this really sweet old lady, who was SO skinny, a loaf of bread, the lady didn’t speak and English, but God miraculously provided two translators to tell her what she wanted, and even to pray for her.
So after two nights in St Famille, Roman Catholic hostel, we decided to leave a night early, as there wasn’t much else we wanted to do. It was a huge ordeal that we wanted to leave early and we ended up loosing 2,000 Rwandan Francs. Dang. We had our own room with a sink and a lock, very luxurious. One morning we busted out into a operatic slash RnB version of halleluiah. It was awesome but, we shortly got a tap on the door and a big ol’ finger over the lips and something in French. Ooops.
We had a pretty nice bus ride back, on Gaso. There were some “business men” on the bus that worked with “stones and gold” from Congo. They bought us roasted goat, and banana’s, and tried for water, but we already had some. We caught boda’s from the shell station where we were dropped, back to Canada house, some guy old drunkard grabbed my boob and threw his hand off and gave him the finger.
So tomorrow we are heading to the beautiful Sse Sse Islands, situated in Lake Victoria, Uganda, one of biggest lakes in the world. There are 84 islands and kayak’s available for rent for about two dollars an hour. We are going to camp right on the beach!! I am highly anticipating it, as you now how much I love the ocean and the water. It’s been a long six months in landlocked surroundings. After that who knows, but eventually the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, game parks, white sand, archipelago, sun, music, waves, snorkeling and all around genuine good times.
Please pray for safety in our travels. Realness, truth, and life in our speech. Pray that we would walk in the ways that were made for us, on this journey, and always. Listening to the spirit in all things. Pray we would learn from everything, gaining wisdom in all we do. Leaving us refreshed, refilled, inspired and ready for the next step.
I love you all so much, and I pray that these blogs would truly touch and inspire you in your own lives in some way. That my words would speak something to you, something meaningful and lasting, not just rambling. I pray that you would have a renewing in your spirits. That things you have forgotten about, dreams that are buried in your hearts would come to the surface. That you would be able to make steps in your own life towards your own dreams, you are never too old, it is never too late. I pray you would find joy and peace in every moment. That your eyes would be opened to the undeniable beauty that surrounds our every day lives. No matter what the circumstance. You are all worthy of your dreams. You are all meant for a great adventure. Take a hold of it, every day. Cherish this life you’ve been given. The breath that you breathe. Let the song that resonates in your heart pour out. Don’t be afraid to be someone different. Someone who enjoys there life and is thankful. I pray that today you would all see different. That something in your soul would shift, and from this moment you could make a commitment to your self to live differently. In anyway that is relevant to you. I will be here to support you. You can do it!
Love always, Melanie

PICS PICS PICS

Back packin!
Beautiful Adele!
Beautiful Adele!
Beautiful Adele!
Catching some shut eye...and flies.

More adventures in Rwanda.

Some pics of Adele from a little photo shoot we had in the memorial gardens in Rwanda.

Oh and this is me and her out for some dinner with a beautiful view of the city and the sunset.

Names of the people buried in the mass burial grave sites in Rwanda at the Kigali Memorial Museum.
Funny statue dude in the reflections gardens at the kigali memorial.
Hills of Kigali.
Open mass burial site.
Reflection gardens.

Mel and Adele Adventures!

Sleepy Adele from the Entebbe Airport en route to Canada House Mbarara.
Surfin the Eqautor!
Adele having a swinging good time!
Shopping in Mbarara, sweet used clothes for super cheap.
Adele thinks i am this funny.

Last batch of Bunyoni!

Lake Bunyoni.
Lake Bunyoni Widows group.
Bunyoni Widows.
Bunyoni Widows.
Cute boy at Nutritional training on Lake Bunyoni.

(but really the first batch cause it's my last upload and the first you see....sorry)

More Bunyoni!

I think it's amazing how this tree's center is burnt out, yet it still grows...
Swimming Lessons with Bryony on Lake Bunyoni!!
Swimming lessons!
Swimming!!
Swimming!

Lake Bunyoni...almost done...

Piggy...this one gives birth to others to give away in a pig giving program.
That little island is Punishment Island on Lake Bunyoni, woman who got pregnant our of wedlock were dropped on that island, not knowing how to swim. Men who couldn't afford the bride proce could take them.
Smiles at swimming lessons.
Sorting rice.
Sorting rice (picking out small stones and stuff)