A few photos from Namibia

Ali of Arabia - waiting for the sun to rise

The dunes at Soussevlei - stunning



The dunes at sunrise



Dead Valley  - absolutely amazing



Same sign, different people, different country, different continent!



Sun set a the campsite!

Couldn't resist the opportunity for a hotair balloon flight!

Bit of a bumpy landing!!!

I take any opportunity to cuddle a little one

Jesus its cold at night and in the mornings

Hi all

A very quick blog today and we have just stopped briefly in a little town.  Namibia is absolutely stunning unlike anywhere I've been before, choosing a few photos was really hard as have loads that I love, so have just put a few here!! I have to mention the cold though.... oh my god, at night its below freezing, no joke, sometimes there has been ice on the ground and when you are sleeping in a tent, its brutal.  I have about 6 layers of clothes and 4 layers of bedding and I'm still cold!! If anyone is considering coming to Namibia, I would definately recommend it, but definately not recommend camping in June, its just sooooo cold.  Thankfully I am staying a lodges and hotels in South Africa where I imagine it will be just as cold at night!! Thats all I've got time for for now. 

A

Bye Bye Teacher Ali ...

The girls sing a beautiful song!

Professional Ugandan Dancers!

Oh dear!! trying to copy the professionals!!

Receiving gifts

Me and some of the kids

The 4 children my friends and I are sponsoring!

Saying Goodbye to Justine breaks my heart!

Jonathan loves sunglasses!

Nakato aged 5

Junior aged 3



Rhoda, aged 7



Playing in the street!

I can't believe how quickly 4 weeks can pass! It literally seems to have flown by. Again I had a wonderful leaving ceremony, this time shared with a welcoming ceremony for 2 other volunteers and also a celebration of African Childs day.  We had a whole afternoon of singing from the children, dancing from a professional dance troup !!! (and of course the not so professional volunteers got roped in to embarress themselves, which the children LOVED) and as is the Uganda way, lots of speeches.  I think in every single speech the 'wonderful' generator was mentioned and hearty and sincere thanks given to me (and everyone who helped pay for it) It truly has made such a difference to the school.  I have taken a video of a fantastic speech that 5 of the girls gave, and they said thank you for buying us the very good generator, it was hilarious and I wish i could upload it to the blog as you would all love to see it and it would make you laugh.  I will try to circulate it when I get home.

Obvioulsy I was in floods of tears again and when it came to my turn to give a speech the words just wouldn't come out and every time I opened my mouth all that came out were sobs!!! I really must get a grip on these tears !!! haha

As I am sure you have gathered I have, once more had the most amazing time in uganda and been thrilled to be part of CALM Africa again. I must say the people I met and have spend quite some time with now are some of the most wonderful, generous and hospitalble people I have ever met! I am very sad to leave them. :-(

I have now moved on and am in Windhoek Namibia, having arrived yesterday afternoon I am struck by the complete and utter contrast to Uganda, so far I have found Windhoek to be thouroughly modern, all the roads are tarmaced andin excellent condition, there seems to be little (obvious) poverty though I expect this will change when we get into the countryside! It is also very sort of dead looking (wish I was better with words) What I mean is that is is such a contrast to Uganda which is so green and lush, where the grown here is very dry and arid looking and its also the winter so whilst lovely during the day, its FREEZING at night, last night I was completely frozen.... and I was in a hotel room so I can't begin to imagine whats its going to be like in a tent!!! So this morning I have been out and bought thermal underwear to wear in bed, a termal sleeping bag liner and a very thick hoody to try to keep me warm in the evenings!!! Wish me luck !!! :-)

Anyway, off now to meet my fellow travellers and to get a good nights sleep before starting off on our trup tomorrow.

Bye for now

X

YES, we had the power .... and now so do they!!!!

Inspecting the Generator

Testing it to make sure it works!

The money changes hands

The little girl in the shop kept me entertained

Traveling with the generator in the back of the pick up

Arriving at the school

Carrying it to its destination

Some of the little ones wondering what it is!

Is baby Paul giving me the finger??!!

Africa can sometimes be very frustrating!!!!!!!


I have now been at the internet cafe in Kampala for approx 2.5 hours and have tried to upload photos 4 times to my blog.  There is a massive thunder storm going on outside so the electricity has cut out (no big surprise there) and we are now running on a generator - which has also cut out twice ( this wont happen with the new flash generator we have bought!), so every time the photos have just about uploaded the power cuts out and I loose them again gggggrrrrrrr :-)

Anyway, I just want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to my fund raising campaign, YOU HAD THE POWER and now, so do CALM Africa and the Jolly Mercy Learning Centre.

By the middle of last week we had reached the necessary target to allow us to go out and start shopping for a generator.  We went out on Wednesday morning and again yesterday.  We shopped around a bit to make sure we got a fair price and yesterday morning we found the ideal generator.  It is a Honda generator which is what the chaps at the charity had hoped for as it is the best brand on the market, it runs on Petrol rather than Diesel as in the long run it will be cheaper to maintain. So yesterday lunchtime we paid for the generator and transported it back to the School and had it all wired into place.  Until next week it will be stored safely in one of the offices when a secure area will be built and where it will remain thereafter. .

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who contributed, the chaps at the charity and the kids were absolutely over the moon and we couldn't have done it with you.  You have truly made a difference to their lives.

 

I am leaving Uganda once again this week and am sure I will be just as tearful as last time and am already dreading saying goodbye!! So I head to Namibia on Friday morning for my 2 week camping trip! so will blog again when I get the chance though I think it may be a little more difficult as we are staying in some quite remote places.

Thank you again to everyone and if you would still like to make a contribution to the 'Power' fund, its not too late, we are now collecting money so that they can buy enough fuel to run the generator for some time, so please donate all you like :-)

Bye for now

 

Africa Time!!!!

How Cool am I in my new Nike Top

We all have a watch now!!

We love our new watches

Could my smile get any bigger (see my Watch)

Little Puffla is still one of my favorites

Swearing in the new Mayor!!

The Police are never far away!!

Teacher Ali helped us do this big picture for our parents day!

Me on a Boda Boda!!

How cute am I!!!

Visiting Justine's Mum again ( my Ugandan Family)

Surrounded by the lovely children

Rhoda is never far from my side!

How smart are we in our new gear!

Trying out our new tops

Hello All

A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who has contributed to the DO WE HAVE THE POWER....?? campaign so far, we have now reached 75% of the target with just over a week and a half left to go before I leave, I really hope we can get to the target of 600 pounds and enable to staff and kids at Jolly Mercy and CALM Africa to experience a convenience that you and I just take for granted....  again if you would like to contribute the website address is:

http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/alisonmichie

Thank you again for your contributions, both the people here and I really do appreciate your generosity!.

OK, so what I have I been up to and what is Africa time!!!

Last week I was lucky and privileged to be asked to attend the swearing in ceremony of the Mayor and town Councillors of a district where the charity operates.  I was a little worried that I didn't have the correct clothes to wear to such an occasion but managed to pull a fairly decent outfit together, I also wore make up which I haven't done since January !!! It was an experience I can tell you. I was told (and the invitation confirmed) the programme started at 8.00am so I was up early, showered (well washed down with a bucket and jug anyway) and waiting at 7.30am to be picked up.  My ride picked me up at 8.45 and we arrived at our destination at approx 9.30 (1.5 hours after it was supposed to start... or so I thought)  No problem, no problem, we're on Africa time now I was told.... when we arrived they were still setting up and we were only the second party of people to arrive.  The whole thing eventually started around 11.15!!, THIS is 'Africa time'!!! Mary (one of my best friends) Dad was recently sworn in as Mayor of Stafford and as I watched the ceremony in Uganda I couldn't help but wonder how different the ceremonies would have been.  I wonder in the UK if there was a booming stereo system?? whether the crowds of visitors blew whistles and voovoozelas?? (can't spell) and whether her Dad danced down the red carpet with all his supporters dancing with him....(hilarious) I captured some of it on video as I just have to show Mary when I get back!!

Another example of Africa time was yesterday when there was a parents meeting at the school, again I had to find something decent to wear as it was a formal occasion (well formal for Africa anyway) and I was required to give a speech. Anyway, the start time of the meeting was 9am, so again I was at the school in plenty of time (8.30) for a 9am start.... the meeting eventually kicked off about 10.45 but still there was only about 15 parents there, and people were still arriving at 12.30 .... brilliant, so funny. My speech went down well I think as they all laughed and clapped (to be honest they only really laughed when I said Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming in Ugandan!!) I can speak pretty much all the basic greetings etc now, but the locals think its hilarious!!  haha

Other than that I have been spending lots of time at the school with the kids, lots of them are sick at the moment, Malaria probably the most common ailment, but also there is an outbreak of measles, a stomach bug and Flu (lets hope anti malaria tablets, a flu injection, and having had measles aged 14 that I'll come away unscathed!!)  On a brighter note, I have had a couple of fantastic days giving out clothes and shoes again which I sent over from the UK, thanks to friends who gave them to me (Sue, Tim and Matty, Sara, Geoff and Emily., Peter, Norma, William and Louis, Sam, Leigh, Thomas and Jessie and Sally, Carl and Freya) this time round we had so many fabulous things, every child (120 of them) got at least one item of new clothing, so much excitement it was fabulous. But even more exciting was that my sister in law Emma's company Peers Hardy had donated 20 childrens watches to the school.  I felt the fairest thing to do would be to give the watches to the children in P7 (their last year of primary school) To say they went nuts is an understatement, they LOVED their watches, of course, this is the first time the majority of them had anything quite a lovely as a watch! The photo's tell the story..... Enjoy

Anyway that's about all for now, more next week.

A xxxxxx