More from Africa

I had hoped to be able to post Yonas's story today. Yonas was one of the young men, just off the street, who was living in the Hope Centre in Ethiopia. He told me his story, as I've explained in a posting before, while I was visiting, and it was incredibly inspiring and touching. And even more inspiring was news that he came top of his class at the end of term a few weeks ago when he graduated. I have just received his permission to publish what he told me. However, much as I hate to disappoint, I have discovered that I've left a really important part of it on my laptop in Egypt. So sorry, you'll have to wait until I get home in January. But I promise I will do it as soon as I can after I get back.

So here are a few photos to tide you over....

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and a peaceful and healthy 2009

lots of love

Lyndall


The sun goes down over the dusty African grasslands - Botswana. This is often the time of day we would go looking for lions.





Elephants gather to drink at a small waterhole on the edge of the Kalahari


The mighty Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side. Omus Otunda - The Smoke that Thunders. That little bit of the local language was taught to me by a Zimbabwe man begging on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya.


Playing football in Kasane near the border of Botswana and Zimbabwe only the only sort of field available. Football (or soccer) is immensly popular all over Africa.



The camp helpers Amos and Timan get the water out to allow us to shower. All our water had to be carried with us on safari in Botswana.


The lion and the jackal - there's been a kill, the lion still has a little blood on his nose and fortunately he's too full for us to be of much interest


A hyena watches us warily - Botswana









Some of the children of Khwai village Botswana. We stopped here and visited the general store and these children were delighted to be given lollipops. They were friendly if a little shy, happy, delightful.


An injured young lioness rests up in the shade during the heat of the day - Chobe, Botswana




An elephant threatens with a head shake as we get too close in Botswana. The clapping of ears is a BIG sound up close

A year ago - Ethiopia

It's Gabriel's Day and for almost half of Ethiopia's population this means a day at church, and a holiday for everyone. It was an amazing thing to witness.



At the entrance to a church, crowds wax and wane


The grass is sold to be laid inside the house to freshen it and also in some way to mark a new beginning or "fresh start".


A street seller







Crowded streets on Gabriel's Day


This woman smiles shyly as she sells her candles.


Some of the crowd in one street near a church, Gabriel's Day.


It's Gabriel's Day (after the Archangel Gabriel) and the citizens of Addis come out in their hundreds of thousands to celebrate. Impromptu markets are near every church and everything you could imagine is on sale, including candles and very colourful umbrellas used for offerings.


An Addis street


Koni and Dagem say goodbye with a typical open-handed slap "handshake". The harder the bigger the "slap" (that is how far back the arm is taken, and the slap never hard enough to hurt), the more affection and regard you have for a person (the same in Egypt). Once the hand is slapped a loose and quick shake follows.


The Emperor Haile Selassie's throne, in the Museum.


Dagem, one of the former street boys who lived in Ermi's House, or the Hope Centre, looks at Lucy's skeleton in the Museum. We went to the Museum on a "field trip". The boys were all fascinated with their country's history and culture. The oldest humans known have been found in Ethiopia. Lucy, several million years old, was discovered there in 1974.


"The interestingly named "I Love You Hotel"



Building scaffolding - I used to hold my breath watching the workers go up this ramp, bags of cement and other materials across their shoulders


A man makes his living with a sewing machine at his "shop" on the street


Pedestrians walk past one of the "plastic houses" of the homeless














Shoe shine "boys", some of the homeless of Addis. When Sentayhu asked me about shoe shine boys in Australia and I told him we didn't have any he couldn't contain his amazement and referred to it often.



Just a small supermarket


Near the end of the street that eventually leads to the girls' house (Joy Centre)


One of the small workshops where artists make goods for sale to tourists like me. I bought beautiful beads, a wonderful knitted shawl that I use all the time, saw weavers and artists at work.

G'day. I've been looking through some photos while I've been home and of course many of them are from Africa last year. I miss Ethiopia and all the wonderful kids and even Addis - I really found a heart-to-heart connection there. Sadly Konjit tells me that the Youth Impact Library hasn't opened again yet after the summer break when this year it closed down, not offering a summer program. It's all money of course, that's all, such a simple answer to this particular problem. Not even a lot of money.

Is there anyone out there who knows how to access around $30,000 US to make this amazing project basically self-sufficient for the forseeable future? $20,000 for one year's operation and $10,000 to set up the little business venture that should make it self-sufficient. Anyone who could help or who has ideas don't hesitate to let me know - PLEASE!

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy these few photos of Addis that you probably didn't see before.

Hope you enjoy,

lots of love

Lyndall

PS Tomorrow the kids go away for the day and so I will add some more photos and stories from the African trip

At home in Oz

First solid food












Playing soccer




At Underwater World with Lahni and Lonni

Well I made it home just fine - 27 hours travelling with my stop in Dubai almost 8 hours. But it was at the new terminal (Terminal 3) and as a Silver level frequent flyer with Emirates I am able to use the Business Class lounge so it's not too arduous. I even found a vacant bench to sleep on - had a staff member come and ask me if I needed a blanket - that's service. So I had a couple of hours sleep as well as did some shopping and also had an excellent snack - the food is always brilliant - and free.

Have had plenty to keep me busy, doctor's appointments, doing stuff with the kids, a colonoscopy and endoscopy, shopping for Christmas and of course, Logan. I've put in some of the pics we've taken while I've been back. He's very wary of strangers (as in, he bursts into tears) and after not liking me at all on the first day and only a little bit on the second day, now he is great and tonight I am babysitting. He always has big smiles for me and is happy to be carried, nursed, changed, walked etc. He's a joy. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

On Tuesday I get to go back into hospital for Dr Tarr to work a little more magic but best case scenario is that this time I am out the next day (worst case, 3 days), get my stitches out on Christmas Eve and will now fly home mid January. No heavy lifting for 6 weeks again but still I am sure that Logan and I will manage fine.

Anyway, I still have the ironing and the dishes to do so I'll get going. Mohamed is doing fine in Egypt getting the office organised and says "hello for everyone".

Lots of love

Lyndall

A visit to City Stars

Mohamed bought me all this cake for my birthday and even candles. This was a big deal as birthdays are not important in Egypt.


Well hi, sorry that I haven’t posted for a while, life has been just in the house but without anything very exciting happening. Yesterday we went for a drive and visited City Stars looking for clothes for Mohamed and so I thought I’d better send you something at least, and this is what you get.

I was amazed at how many changes there were to be seen in just over a couple of weeks. At the end of the street, only a couple of hundred metres tops, there’s a new building going up, on the corner of First Street (our street) and the main road into the estate from the second gate (Khefre Gate). There are 3 main gates leading into our estate from the Faiyoum Road and they are named after the 3 pyramids.

As we head into the city we must go through Ramiya Square (well, it’s a huge roundabout really). This is a total bottleneck and almost always busy – for example last night (about 6.30 pm) we were at crawling pace for around a kilometer or more. The roundabout is controlled by police, usually there’s about a dozen on duty. There are 4 divided roads that feed into the square, the Cairo-Alexandria Road in one direction and the Faiyoum Road and the street that leads down to Faisal Street (one of the biggest and busiest in the pyramids area) in the other. It seems that the powers that be have finally decided there must be a better answer and the roundabout has road works happening, which at this early stage look like they are making it into an intersection. All I can say is - I hope not, I think that will make it even worse unless there’s an overpass that goes in. I guess time will tell.

I notice that the police are now in their winter uniform. Egyptian police wear a white cotton uniform in winter and a black uniform in winter. When I last went out they were all in white, now they are in winter uniform. And it is getting much cooler, especially at night, so the timing is good.

As we head into El Haram (Pyramids) Road (yes, it is the main road that leads from Cairo through Giza and up to the pyramids) I also notice there are new traffic and tourist signs looking SO clean and spanking new. Most street signs in Cairo are pretty battered so these really stand out.

The trip on the Round Road is fairly smooth and we have time for a stop at On the Run for a coffee. One thing that's new is the price of coffee there - and the coffee is very good I might add - but when I came a year ago it was 7.50 pounds, now it is 13 pounds for a cappuchino. Inflation in Egypt is running at around 23% at the moment but this still seems a huge price rise. Off the Round Road and into Ourouba Road and down into Heliopolis and finally we arrive at City Stars after about an hour’s trip. City Stars is on the north east of the city, while we are on the south west. It’s not so busy tonight and we jag a park on the first sub-level near one of the doors. To get into the car park we must open our boot and have it swept for explosive traces, a sniffer dog goes around the car and another guy with one of those mirror devices to see under the car also goes round the vehicle. Once we’ve parked and want to enter the shopping centre we must also go through a metal detector and my handbag goes through an X-ray machine. This sort of security also applies at the big hotels and some other shopping areas we’ve been to. It’s a world away from Oz.

So we shop, it’s a big shopping centre, about 6 floors and I never know where I am particularly but I reckon we walked it all, ending up getting one jumper for Mohamed at the Levi’s store. He is a particular shopper but always looks great in his clothes so I guess it pays off. We just shop differently – I always want to go in to take a look but Mohamed just looks from the outside unless something sort of attracts him, I’m not quite sure what, and then he goes in to have a little look. We also visited the Virgin Megastore which stocks all sorts of good things. We can get movies there with Arabic subtitles although they are around 200 pounds which is pretty expensive. They have just started to stock what they call DCDs and these are movies on CDs, which only cost 25 pounds (about $6 at current exchange rates) and are good quality. So we got some movies and also some X-Box games (reduced from 550 pounds to 50 pounds – crazy) and I also got to get a new book at the bookstore. For which I am grateful as I’m reading a book for the 4th time right now. I’ve told the kids I need books to be on my Christmas list.

City Stars is full of designer label shops, big chain food outlets (Pizza Hut, McDonalds etc.), coffee shops like Costas and Starbucks and a cinema complex, with more big name shops opening soon, I notice for example, that Versace is opening next month. They have just opened a new section of 250 shops so there’s plenty to see. Prices are high though - to go with the big rents etc. I guess. Just like lots of shopping centres in Australia. There’s also a section called the Khan El Khalili (named after the big bazaar in Old Cairo) which has all sorts of traditional clothing, perfume and souvenirs.

Monday 17th

Sorry I got to take a break, longer than I intended, yesterday was the usual routine but we went out to the Dendy Mall last night and after looking again for clothes for Mohamed (without success) we sat and had coffee in one of the outdoor coffee shops which wa very pleasant. Today I’ve just been busy washing all the floors etc. Mohamed is out at the moment meeting with one of the companies we work for and I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy, a few seasons ago. I’ve got some bookwork to do yet so I’m going to finish off; sorry it’s a bit abruptly. I’m beginning to get excited about getting home – I fly out on the 1st December and arrive early on the 3rd in Brisbane. I’ve got just about a month and hope to get to Melbourne as well as staying in Brisbane and on the Sunny Coast. As far as I know Christmas is with Lahni and Ian and Logan for as many of us as can get there.

So I’ll go now and certainly hope to see some of you when I’m home. Take care, I’ll write again I’m sure before I get home,

Lots of love

Lyndall