My current "blog" ...

which I personally refer to more as a "journal" can be found on my website www.loveistheanswer.ca . It's the one I've been using since my return to Canada from Africa in the summer of '08.

Even though I don't post updates on my website "journal/blog" very often these days while I'm in Canada, all the ongoing projects I'm involved with for orphaned children in Africa can be found throughout the site, as well as my contact page if you'd like to reach me etc...

Love to you, and gratitude, Catherine

It’s ALL Good!

I’m back on Canadian terra firma, wow, in the land of whew, remarkably high speed internet, consistent hot water that comes out of taps when I shower and imagine, a washing machine for the clothes I’ve hand washed and likely never quite rinsed all the soap out of these past 9 months… feeling quite well and certainly happy to be in the Loving presence and warmth of family and friends.Isn’t it amazing and such a fun life thing how it can feel on some levels like we’ve never been away when we return to familiar people and places… I really enjoy the very magical quality that time takes on when we reconnect with those we know and Love… for me, one of the most simple and fantastic expressions of ‘Love Is All There Is’ around! When I close my eyes though I see compounds and the children and green and orange and brown and I suspect quite strongly that some of me is still somewhere not quite ‘here’!



To my eye, the mountains looked so 'young' and jagged and black as we approached Vanc International, everything about their appearance kind of stark and after countless flights over them since the 70’s it was the first time I can remember seeing/feeling them that way. Just before the plane touched the earth (perhaps you know that moment before landing when everything just seems to take a breath or freeze and then there’s a slight feeling of pulling up) I flashed right back to the similar moment last September following take off and I could remember the feelings I was having in that blank space as I headed out into the great African unknown that lay ahead of me. And right then, these nine months later, right before touching the runway, a spiral appeared in my mind’s eye and I could ‘see’ it spin, loop, twist round… and continue… ‘the wheels on the bus go round and round’ I thought, and now I am in Vancouver! And instantly I had a newly informed perspective about the ‘full circle’ we all know… I could see how if we envision from a slightly different angle we can see the spiral in ‘4D’ emerge beyond the ‘3D full circles’ of life, and that was kind of cool…! Kind of like the wheel on the bus is a circle, but the energy trail it spins round and round is a spiral, a continuum and connects everything to everything in oneness …



The last thing I really took note of before leaving African soil was this giant sized poster filling an entire wall of the walkway from gate 37 at Joburg Airport on the way to the 747 that was going to take me to London… a beautiful warm coral orange African sunset, elephants silhouetted, trees… with the words “This doesn’t have to be your last taste of Africa’ written across the bottom (which I think was intended to urge me to buy some kind of booze duty free..!) And the thoughts that seemed to be around me about leaving only moments earlier flew off as if on a gentle breeze and it all felt perfect and quite natural to be heading up and into the blue for awhile!



I have noticed the very sweet and enchanting sound of robins singing, the soft light of the flowers and even the grass here and prompted by one of my brothers I’ve realized, yes, I seem to want to ‘go camping’ for a time now.

I’ve also realized that for now, I’m going to continue to write here for awhile… In conversation I’ve had since returning it is apparent there is much I am inspired to note, share and this blog being as good a place as any to carry on writing about my journey continues to be a fantastic vehicle of expression for me.



For every story I have tired to share with you over the months in Africa, there are of course many I have not. At times still being somewhat ‘personally’ involved in 'my' journey, things that happened impressed themselves upon me in ways I needed to sit with for a time, and it would have been sort of impossible to note them here as immediately as other times or experiences…. And then were the times when after writing about experiences, I’d set about to publish them to the blog and something I had written would just disappear! Over time I came to understand the instances this happened I could take comfort knowing the Angels were helping me to share only that which would help to inform you in a Loving and uplifting way. ‘Love Being The Answer’ and all, it felt like it is part of the ‘contract’ of publishing under that name or something :)



I’m looking forward to see what wants to be shared now that I can gain some kind of space between what has been and what is currently… It’ll be fun to review the over 3,500 photos I’ve taken and see what is prompted…



To sum up this chapter… I guess if there is one person, one story that most represents for me the energy of this entire recent African part of my life journey… it would be Morning, wouldn’t it…

His incredible and most noteworthy shift from fear to Love, the soulful expression mirrored in his eyes from deep pain to soaring joy! He is the boy who shared the most outward and obvious reflection, I think, of just how ‘Love Is The Answer For Us All’… and that makes such total sense doesn’t it?
After all, following darkness, the fresh day dawns, the sun rises and shines Love and Light on the unlimited possibilities found everywhere in the splendor and beauty of the new Morning…



Thanks so much for journeying with me...

Blessings and Love Love Love
Catherine

Ps…I have heard most recently from a friend in Uganda who tells me the children are all happy and continuing on very well these days… Amen!

Which leads me to say… if there is someone, something that I’ve touched on here over these months that you personally connected with and may have question or wonder about please let me know so that I can share with you what I do know at this moment or what I learned from the experience, or whatever, including photos etc… xoxo C

Bom Dia!

I’m writing from the shores of wow! the Ocean Indien, surrounded by Portuguese speaking people who vary in beautiful and countless shades of skin color, black to olive to white, here in Maputo, the capitol city of Mozambique! Now in the final days of my journey in Africa I prepare to go to Johannesburg, South Africa early next week and fly home to Canada.



I experience a kaleidoscope of emotions, thoughts and feelings these days… mostly, I find I’m once again being reminded of the Gifts of Grace and Strength that are found when I remember to choose Gratitude over all else :)

Hearing from you over these months in response to the slices of life I have tried to share about in these postings, I know many of you have formed ‘relationships’ with some of the children and situations I’ve met with here. Here then are some fragments from ‘Project’s Update ~ June 2008’ (Thanks to you Erynn, the complete update will be added to the Project’s page on this site soon) to let you know a little about how things were for Betty, Gideon and their siblings as well as ACIO and a few others we met along the way, when we all parted in May…

‘PROJECT’S’ UPDATE ~ JUNE 2008

…Understanding most of the following as a ‘work in progress’ I will be continuing to apply my energy and focus towards, it feels like a great moment for us all to consider how, by sharing our collective Love in the form of prayers, uplifting thoughts and material support, the lives of some children here have been richly empowered so far…

Building upon the previous updates from March ’08 and November ’07…

TWO ‘CHILD’ FAMILIES



GIDEON’S FAMILY
When bidding Gideon’s family ‘fare well for now’ in May '08 we had accomplished and/or were continuing to work on the following:

~ Gideon’s school fees for 2’nd term of S4 had been paid
~ Naume and Martha had been supplied with supplementary school text books in Science, Social Studies, Math and English for P6
~ 4 acres had been plowed and planted with maize, beans, g nuts and cassava that the children will be harvesting, eating and storing by July!



~ A new, larger, temporary hut had been built by the family and was being roofed
~ All family members had coats, blankets, sheets and foams
~ The family had been supplied with new bowls, cups, containers for food, cooking pots and wash tubs
~ Helen had been supplied with capitol to start a dried fish business and was earning the needed weekly family income for the purchase of food, etc
~ Gideon had been supplied with capitol to expand his poultry business with the purchase of hens and a rooster



~ We had established a relationship with the nearby clinic ensuring their help for the children in times of malaria and other sickness even in the event that the children do not have the money to pay for such service…I will be notified by email from the clinic over time…
~ We had established a way for the children to get a message to me by them contacting a volunteer in the area from an NGO when need arises who will also visit the children periodically and be able to reach me by email anytime



Longer term plans we are continuing to work on include:

~ The building of a 3 room brick and iron sheet home
~ School fees for Gideon’s final term of S4 as well as fees for S5 and S6
~ Continued expansion of the family poultry business
~ The building, stocking and opening of a small ‘restaurant’ on the well traveled road alongside the families new compound that Helen will run
~ The growing of a cash crop to help raise the funds needed to be saved for Martha and Naume’s senior school fees that will start in 2010.

But… the first thing I’ll be doing for this family after I return home is to send them each a ‘Canada’ hat and a pair of sunglasses cause they sure had tons of fun with mine, along with a photo album of treasured times together!!!



BETTY’S FAMILY
When saying ‘Bye Bye for now and see you soon’ to Betty’s family in May ’08 we had accomplished and/or were continuing to work on the following:

~ Betty, having successfully completed 3 months training in tailoring, received her new ‘Singer’ sewing machine along with 36 meters of start up fabric, lining, thread, elastic, zippers and buttons
~ Rose had been supplied with start up capitol for a dried fish business along side the selling of cabbage and the income resulting was supporting the family in their weekly food needs



~ Moses, Morning and Peter had been supplied with supplementary school text books in Science, Math, Social Studies and English for P5
~ 4 acres had been plowed and planted with maize, beans, g nuts and cassava that the children will be harvesting, eating and storing by July!
~ 10% of the OSB for Stella’s operation to treat hydrocephalus had been paid off and our little darling had joyfully taken her first independent ‘1,2,3…10’ steps!
~ Moses was in the process of building a small hut for his future poultry business
~ All the children had been given coats



~ We had established a relationship with the nearby clinic ensuring their help for the children in times of malaria and other sickness even in the event that the children do not have the money to pay for such service…I will be notified by email from the clinic over time…
~ We had established a way for the children to get a message to me by them contacting a volunteer in the area from an NGO when need arises who will also visit the children periodically and be able to reach me by email anytime.



Longer term plans we are continuing to work on include:

~ The building of a 3 room brick and iron sheet home
~ To pay 80% of the remaining OSB for Stella’s operation
~ To assist Moses with start up capitol to begin a poultry business.
~ To establish a cash crop, probably tomatoes, that will increase the families ability to save for future school fees for Moses, Morning and Peter.

For Betty’s family too, I’ll be sending a care package from Canada once I am home which will include a photo album of some of our many happy moments together as well as a ‘Canada’ t-shirt for each member!



ACIO CHILD CARE CENTER ~ SIRONKO
As of May 2008 we had accomplished and/or were continuing to work on the following:

~ We had helped with costs for the completion of the girl’s temp dorm
~ We had supplied iron sheets for the completion of the temp kitchen
~ We had supplied 2 weeks of food for the 60 orphans in care
~ We had supplied 5 soccer balls, 2 decks of cards, a board game, 7 pkgs of felt pens, 500 sheets of paper along with 14 dz school scribblers, 6 dz pens, 12 dz pencils and 2 dz math sets for the children in care.

Longer term plans we are continuing to work on:

Many of the ‘Immediate Requests’ and most of the ‘Long Term Goals’ noted in the March’08 update below continue to require our attention with special mention at present of the following:

~ Help with the purchase of fabric for school uniforms, backpacks and shoes is requested.
~ Help with the purchase of sheets, blankets, foams and mosquito nets is requested
~ Help with the purchase of kitchen equipment is requested
~ Help with the purchase of a motorcycle for Vincent is requested
~ Help with the completion of the temp nursery/day care center
~ Help with 2 IGA schemes to support the ongoing expenses of caring for the children in full time care… 1) A Secretary/Office Supply Business in Sironko town… 2) A Micro Finance Scheme supporting small business for local guardians and caregivers of OVC’s

Please accept my most heartfelt thanks for helping to bring about all of the positive changes noted here and on the entire ‘Project’s’ page throughout my journey. Whatever form your contribution has been, be it your interest, your encouragement, compassion, your prayers, uplifting thoughts and/or financial support…however you have given of yourself to these children it has added very valuable energy to a ripple of Love that I know, and hope you do too, will be felt in countless ways through out their entire lives.



That we care, that we told them and showed them they are not alone, they are special and so Loved… this is the stuff 'beyond' Miracles for these children and we wish you to know that your involvement will be forever treasured by them and me. With so much gratitude and Love they are praying for us all!

Now, a little about a few others we met along the way…

You may recall our BeLoved orphaned boy, HIV+ with rare untreatable cancer using one crutch to get around… you know, the one with the incredible strength and that smile (‘Re-membering Step By Step’) … when I saw him the day before I left Mbale, he was at the small hospital near his village.



Two days earlier he had fallen shattering both his left arm and leg in numerous places. Being unable to repair the breaks the Dr’s were doing what they could to assist him to live and to keep him as pain free as possible. We left a fund to help cover medication and transportation costs to a larger hospital if it becomes best for him to be moved as well as some warm clothing for him to wear while at the village hospital. He was able to speak when I visited him and offered gratitude along with his beautiful and gentle smile numerous times, while holding my hand the entire time I was at his side. I have heard recently that he continues to remain at the village hospital and while very weak ‘does not forget to thank (us) for what (we) have done for him…’

Do you remember little Sebi in ‘Continued Blessings’ who was recovering from malnutrition at the hospital in Mbale? When I last heard, he was continuing to grow stronger as he navigates this first year of his life… And our little ‘Be Loved Josephine’ is enjoying her early months of life receiving lots of nurturing and Love from her very proud mother.



The man I met on ‘My First Outreach Day’ who was lying on the ground, seemingly very close to leaving his body due to untreated HIV/AIDS received care, medicine and food aid starting that day and, I am told by my friend Doka pictured with him, happily continues to grow stronger week by week regaining his health as he learns to live positively with HIV.

I never heard or read about what happened to the man who was ‘rescued’ by the police I wrote about in ‘Illusion ~ Realty’ but I feel quite confident that the real message was to be found in the Light and Love that followed the experience that day on the street.

It was a very fun ‘surprise visit’ with the first family I stayed with in ‘Love from Uganda’ when I saw them just before leaving the country in May. Darlings Sandra and Denis came running with squeals of joy and huge hugs as did all family members who were home that day! I join my ‘sister’ in prayer for her complete and speedy recovery from an illness that has recently come up for her.



And how about my boys ‘Sunrise and Moonlight’…? Well, over time my family grew and was balanced perfectly by my two girls‘ Autumn and April’ both of whom were gifts from Betty’s family. Now I know you will understand when I say ‘ we can’t hold on to our little ones forever… they grow up so fast… you turn around and ha! they’re ready to fly the coop! So… I gave Sunrise and Autumn to Tom (remember his sister’s 5 orphan children…) to help him expand his poultry business and Moonlight and April were a gift of thanks to remain in the flock of the family whose compound I shared during my many months in Mbale. (I get all misty eyed to imagine how I must be a Grandmother many, many times over by now…!!!)

So hmmm…this being my 51st posting (one of the surprise gifts…I discovered a new depth of understanding on this journey about how much I enjoy and how healing it is for me to share by writing..!) and me being 51, and this being the final week of (this part of) my journey AND this posting being a recap and all… it’s kind of feeling like our get togethers here are soon to end or shift or change or…?!



For now, let’s leave things the way I started with my first posting back in September… which is to say ‘I will write again once I am in’… Canada! Maybe after I’ve logged the miles between here and there I will have found some way to express just what this journey, these children and being able to share about it all with you has meant to me…

At this moment all I seem able to say is …

‘THIS IS AFRICA’… with humility and deep gratitude I hold you tenderly in my heart whispering ‘I THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU’ as we prepare to part for now…

Blessings One And All!
In Love,
Catherine

Miles Of Reflection

The bus rides continue, the scenery changes yet seems to stay so similar all in the same moment! Mile upon mile I pass alongside fields of crops, peaceful looking rural compounds and small villages where several huts nestle closely together, through busy trading centers… seeing women and babies wrapped in 'vitenge' (retangular pieces of fabric wrapped and tied around ones waist, ankle length, usually with a matching piece used as a shawl or to tie and hold an infant on ones back) walking with bundles of food upon their heads, children carrying firewood home or plastic containers for water or baskets filled with oranges, maybe little bags of gnuts to sell…



...sometimes little ones are playing, kicking around a home made ball of plastic bags all bunched together and tied. I see men sitting in shaded areas together sometimes playing cards or occasionally standing behind a bar-b-que roasting meat and maybe maize for sale, or at work building a structure of some sort… all accompanied by the almost constant sound of music wafting through the air… and the scenery that has become so familiar to my eyes over these months, provides the backdrop for my many thoughts these past few days…



My reflections are broad… I see Morning’s smile… I picture Betty at her sewing machine and I envision the maize and beans growing around Gideon’s new hut… I think of the children in care with ACIO in Sironko and see them playing happily in the field with the soccer balls we brought for their enjoyment... I recall the 70 pictures they drew in thanks that I carry home with me… sometimes I am asking questions about the way this world has come to work, how it is all changing now, other times I’m wondering just how and who decided the way in which the collective would define or understand some words, like for instance ‘career’ and how mine seems to be as a ‘care-er’ or how about ‘poverty’… and I remember hearing on the TV recently that the price of oil has really jumped and people somewhere are scared, angry even protesting, and I consider this in the context I am and can’t help but contemplate paradox upon paradox as most people here have little connection with the need and consumption of oil and gas...



...and I think wow, if the fuel runs out somewhere else, I would guess most people here will be carrying on as they are now, growing their own food, fetching their own water, walking where they need to go, building their own homes out of materials from the earth, surviving in this ‘simple life’ that we all must have had a connection with once upon a time.



And I wonder about the big money movers and shakers on this planet and consider all those seemingly entrenched systems I have always sensed would break open one day and how so much is shifting now. I remember the final paper my Dad wrote before he passed that had much to say about our eventual evolution beyond a civilization built upon greed to one of LOVE… and I envision with him...



And my heart and the gratitude that fills it swells… I celebrate this time! I know I have learned and shared so much on this journey and as opposed to forging new deep connections at present, these miles I travel now (all through Mercury retrograde…) are providing me such comfortable time to consider the teachings from where I recently have come.



As the distance grows between Uganda and where I am, I hear very clearly the whispers from connections I made there, especially from the children… I daily feel their prayers and even their wonder if I really will return to their compounds one day as I have said I will… I realize that by having been given this transition time between there and home to journey through a few other countries and see, feel and experience what I am in each, I come to understand I really found all that was looking for me in Uganda! Of course, all things being so, it is quite perfect I stayed there for the majority of this journey… it is there where I completely connected, it is there where I wish to return and continue, it is Uganda and the children there ( for now!) I have come to cherish and LOVE!



But you know… before returning to Canada in a couple weeks (wow! )to see everyone at home (oh Caleb do you know how soon it will be…?!), continue my reflections and focus on just how I will create what feels like my inevitable, eventual return to Uganda…

First… like one great Bob said so well…( get ready to dance!)

’I’d like to spend some time in Mozambique!...


(the final country between where I am here in Malawi and South Africa, from where I will fly home)


...The sunny sky is aqua blue
And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek,
It’s very nice to stay a week or two...'!

HeeHee!
Loving you, Cath xoxo

From The Shores Of Lake Malawi

Happy June! (Hi Mama…!)

So, clues I’m starting to shift from Africa back to Canada are stacking up each passing day in fun and unexpected ways!

I ended staying in Mbeya a few extra nights… ate some delicious but ultimately suspect chicken and was rather reactive for a few days…! While resting at a cozy motel I eventually turned on the TV in the room and did I ever sit up and take notice when on came game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals!!!



The next morning I was feeling pretty good and decided to get on a public taxi heading for the Malawi border. Over the speakers of the mini bus I couldn’t help but laugh to hear ‘Shania’ telling me in rather loud and somewhat distorted fashion how she was ‘so glad we made it, look how far we’ve come my baby’..! No kidding!!!



After spending a peaceful night in Karonga, the first border town south of Tanzania, serenaded by the beautiful sound of Lake Malawi (it is huge… I am told it is only shy in size from being classified as a sea) lapping upon the shore, I woke early the next morning in time to watch fishermen heading out onto the water in their wooden boats carved out of large tree trunks while other harvested rice growing in the wetlands alongside the lake… sunrise was gorgeous, rising from behind the mountains of Tanzania on the eastern shore. Later in the day I headed on to Mzuzu, the first large city when one enters Malawi from the north. The hostel I decided to stay at was a short distance out of the center of town and sure, who did I meet there within moments of my arrival…. 3 Canadians! One from Vancouver, 2 from Edmonton… it was really fun to connect and share stories!



Malawi so far, has been one big surprise for me! The beauty, diversity and abundance pouring forth from the land (and water, here) seen in the other countries I’ve visited continues, while in other ways Malawi seems very different. There are many many whites here who appear to run lots of businesses in the urban centers I’ve visited these past few days, many own ‘prime’ real estate ( backpackers hostels, resorts, homes etc…) on the lake shore. Although I saw the biggest ‘World Food Program’ truck I’ve seen so far during this entire journey as we made our way along the winding highway between Karonga and Mzuzu, I have yet to meet one volunteer or aid worker, many people here seem to be following personal pursuits, traveling through, several I’ve heard, came for a week and have stayed a month or 6! I’ve encountered numerous locals and imports alike in their 20’s and 30’s, many walking about with a glazed fuzziness, seemingly immersed in a life currently centered around activities like chilling out and snorkeling aided by partaking in the local brew and herb! I notice a distinctly layed back touristy feeling interspersed between the many barefoot children and local adults trying to earn their daily bread and the rasta colors, dreadlocks I see, combined with competing reggae and religious songs sung in Swahili and the local language of Chichewa I hear, all makes for some kind of interesting plateful for my recovering system to digest!



An example might be… yesterday, as I made my way along a path, in front of me was a woman and child both carrying heavy bundles of wood upon their heads. They froze at a bend in the path, observing something out of my view further along. As I came to stand side by side with them I could see where the path ahead widens into an open area and several whites who had put up a net were in the middle of a volleyball game. Assessing their bottles of beer court side, the total obliviousness to the woman and child (and me for that matter) and the complete taking over of the path by the game players, I stood for a few moments with the locals understanding their wonder as to if/how they could get around this and continue home with their fuel source. An interesting awareness of feeling both African and imported followed for me as I encouraged the holiday-ers to a short time out while walking alongside, sort of welcoming the woman and child to pass and continue on their path…



I’ve only just begun here and today I’ll visit with a traditional healer in a village not far from where I am right now in Nkhata Bay who I’ve heard is working to provide support for the many orphan children there… will no doubt aid in broadening and informing my perspective of where I actually am…

Much Love, Many Blessings,
Catherine

Shikamoo!

(...literally 'I hold your feet'... a respectful Swahili greeting often heard from Tanzanian children!)



(Most of these pictures were taken in Tanzania through windows from inside moving vehicles...)

I am writing to you today from Mbeya in southern Tanzania (not to be confused with Mbale in eastern Uganda!) where I am catching up on some rest for a little while. Having been on the road this past week covering many miles by bus, I’ve decided to spend a couple days in this bustling city just north of the Malawian border that lies between the Mbeya and Poroto Mountain ranges. Travel through Tanzania has been fast, sometimes furious! and always interesting, but first…



I found Rwanda to be one very beautiful, peaceful and remarkably clean country and I am so happy to have made the journey to visit there! Seemingly a side bar yet so obviously important, plastic garbage bags are not allowed in Rwanda (entering the country my backpack was searched and the plastic bag I had a pair of shoes in was taken) and the benefits show everywhere! I found the consistent cleanliness both noteworthy and refreshing after sighting and stepping over much garbage, most of it plastic of some sort, in many urban and trading centers in Uganda.



After opting for ground travel to Malawi I left Kigali heading east toward the Tanzanian border on a typically crammed public taxi. We traveled through picturesque land with low gentle hills, many with crops of sorghum and maize growing in a beautiful pinkish brown soil, past fenced compounds with flowers around mud and stick or brick homes, most covered with a thin facing of concrete, seeing delightful pride of ownership and colorful creativity! Cosmos, daisies, dahlias, hollyhocks, a neon orange calendula-like flower all bloomed brightly and small, round, close to the ground shrubs of different colors were planted in designs that created messages and symbols including hearts and stars along the road side… just before the border, and a lovely summing up/send off from this small, courageous country striving to move forward as one, was the most inspiring of all the messages I saw… with shrubs and white rocks it simply, beautifully said ‘Thank You God’.



About 4 hours from Kigali we reached the Rwandan side of the border where, as he imprinted my passport with an exit stamp, the immigration officer asked with gentle intent if I would share with him how I liked the country. I told him I think Rwanda is very beautiful and I found the people friendly and welcoming. He said the government has been working very hard educating the people and promoting unity and I said, well, ultimately along with the huge healing in progress there does seem to be a collective desire and intention for peace first and foremost and I am grateful for the examples of acceptance and strength Rwanda has given to me. Perhaps these are among the great teachings Rwanda offers us all, I added. He smiled warmly, thanked me very much for coming and wished me safe journey.



To cross the border one walks across a bridge over Rusumo River/Falls and up a hill to enter Tanzania. The welcome was very happy and pretty layed back at this small border crossing, it was fun and easy to communicate once again, I was back in a land of English and Swahili and noticeable immediately, ug, garbage!



I took off the next day (only a few hours after the scheduled departure!) in a matatu
(mini bus type taxi) toward Kahama, about 4 hours to the east. From there, early the next morning I boarded a bus called ‘Super Zoo’ which in hindsight should have been my first clue that with every step up into the ‘mad max’ type bus, I was leaving rational driving further and further behind, entering an absolute maelstrom I can only call a travel experience! Details and yes, bruises aside, I did find it kind of fun and comforting to pretend I was in a camel race (read B-U-M-P-Y) across the desert (read D-U-S-T-Y) with a marching band cheering me on (read P-O-U-N-D-I-N-G repetitive bass drum sound coming from the rear of the bus as it reverberated over the foot deep washboard) for many, many miles! :) After a serious challenge to all known land speed records by our 'road warrior' driver I celebrated our safe arrival in Dodoma, the capitol city and virtual center of Tanzania about 1 hour ahead of the 10 hour scheduled ETA. Amen!



With bravery I feel a bit proud of, I immediately bought a ticket on the next early morning bus departing for Mbeya, found a quiet place to rest for the night and after lathering my lower back with ‘Tiger Balm’ promptly fell deeply asleep! Up for the second morning in a row in time to witness millions of twinkling stars above and hear prayers echoing throughout the town from the local Mosque, things looked and felt pretty great as I boarded the ‘Sumry High Class’ bus that was warming up and all ready to go in the bus park. And it WAS a delightful ride! We had a great driver, the company supplied everyone with a couple candies, a soda, muffin, bottle of water and plenty of pit stops (one time the driver’s assistant said to us all ‘let’s stop here and dig some local herbs..!’) throughout the 12 hour journey through beautiful and ever changing scenery. Alongside endless happy face sunflowers, sorghum and maize grow, some so tall they bury the little mud and brick flat topped homes amongst them. Cotton, tomatoes, rice, cabbage, beans, onions, many varieties of potatoes, even wheat…virtually everything, including all types of tropical fruit and 'sisol'sp?(jute) seems to be grown here!



I was treated to the first real ‘wild’ looking Africa I have seen so far, through uniformed forests of horizontal fanning trees and game reserves in the Mikumi National Park set between the Uluguru Mountains to the north and the Lumango Mountains to the southeast. I saw large numbers of long lanky giraffes and a family of elephants free ranging…very exciting! In the wide open grass lands I really enjoyed these great
(presently leaf-less) very old looking trees that reminded me of the ones in ‘Lord Of The Rings’ having large wide trunks that support their many arms and fingers stretching this way and that… it was so easy to imagine them all walking about when no one was looking…(a couple looked like they were frozen in dance and another few in an embrace). One of the towns we passed through is Iringa where in the 1950’s a ‘stone age’ site was unearthed containing tools estimated to be from between 60, to 100,000 years ago!



Tanzania (formerly called Tanganyika until the 60’s) is very large certainly when compared with Rwanda and Uganda, and quite a beautifully diverse country. In my travel book it is called the birthplace of ‘humankind’, oh, and Freddy Mercury too! It’s been a quick journey for sure, and thankfully safe, and as I prepare to enter Malawi tomorrow, (just over 100k from Mbeya) I leave this country hoping to return one day, where in the north it’ll be so fun to go on safari in the Serengeti as well as visit Ngorongoro in the Crater Highlands along with Mount Kilimanjaro and in the east, the Indian Ocean Coast and the ‘spice islands’ of the Zanzibar Archipelago!!!
For now though, much gratitude and… onward to meet some of the children of Malawi!

Loving you,
Cath xoxo

Ikiyaga ( Lake) Kivu

Approximately 160k northwest from Kigali is the city of Gisenyi on the shores of enchanting Lake Kivu. The well paved road between is very winding, kind of ridiculously so at times, over and around stunningly gorgeous hill after cultivated hill and through many a trading center including the city of Musanze (formerly Ruhengeri) which lies in the Virunga foothills, gateway to Volcanoes National Park and the renowned ‘critically endangered’ mountain gorillas. This was the place of work and research of Dr. Dian Fossey from the 1960’s until her murder in 1985. (You many recall the film ‘Gorillas In The Mist’ which chronicles her time here and the situation/circumstances facing the mountain gorilla). As the fee currently stands somewhere around $500US to track the gorillas for a day (or is it, once you find them, an hour..!) I just waved and wished them very well as we zoomed by!!!



Lake Kivu is very big and very beautiful! Although I thank Jinja, Lake Victoria, The River Nile and of course Beautiful Sipi Falls for the healing waters I found at each, after being land locked these past months I found it such a gift to walk along a wide open sandy beach and hear the lapping of waves upon the shore. Sparkling in the sunshine amongst the tiny rocks that make up the beach I was quite taken with these small pieces of shell? (I’m guessing) that look like zillions of little mirrors everywhere… I actually collected a few thinking they are so beautiful and a perfect reminder for me of the many facets of humanity Rwanda has clearly reflected for me during my ‘relatively short but right to the heart of it’ time here.



Looking across the huge lake one can see a ridge of mountains on the far shore in the Democratic Republic of the Congo… the city of Goma, DRC, is about a half day trip from Gisenyi… where among ‘other things’ Nyiragongo volcano erupted in 2002 covering the center of the city with lava leaving, I am told, what looks like a moonscape in some areas to this day…again, I waved!!!



I found my safe, peaceful, healing place at the lakeshore among some rocks….between, on my right, a windblown tree clinging its bared roots to one of the lava rocks at the waters edge in what I thought was some kind of terrific display of African strength and tenacity, and on my left, deeply carved, magical ancient rock faces that have been keeping steadfast watch for only they know how long... what they have seen, the incredible stories they could tell, I listened…



I was captivated by the distant sounds of little children laughing in the waves and I thought of Morning, Peter, Moses and all the children in Bukedea and wondered what they would think if they could see this wonderful place! They might be more used to sharing small mud type water holes with thirsty wandering cattle, that grow into ‘splash-able’ size after the rains…and I went off into some kind of dream when I will load them all into a ‘van’ one day and bring them to a lake for a real swim!!!




On the journey back to Kigali we came across a stretch of road where improvements are underway and due to a mini landslide that had just happened we were redirected down an extreme ‘secondary’ road, alongside a valley of tea and through a village that normally doesn’t see much traffic! Children quickly ran from all directions to line the dirt road, waving, calling out for empty water bottles and the occasional ‘franc’…most smiled and offered a ‘thumb’s up’ or even a ‘peace sign’ when they saw me at the window, (I was the only white on the mini bus)… at one point my eyes met those of a woman standing some meters away holding her tiny infant, we smiled at one another, she took the babies hand in hers and together they waved to me... one little girl sitting at the edge of the road talking with her friends let out a huge scream as she glanced up to see me looking out the window passing by only a few feet above her, which brought on a big laugh from those around her and all of us in the bus!




Back at the little auberge in Kimironko now and having visited the Kigali Memorial Center, connected with the project and center Nicole from Canada is working on here and taken the trip through some country side to Lake Kivu and back, I’m making plans to venture on, Malawi being the next country I am most wanting to visit. I will meet up there with two local men I met in Vancouver last year who are working tirelessly and with very limited resources to care for the many HIV/AIDS orphan children in this small, is it the ‘5th poorest' country in the world…? From here though, there’s Burundi to the south and I understand it’s not the best moment in history to visit there right now, and huge Tanzania to the east… so I’m figuring out how I’ll choose to get from here to Malawi and I guess once decided I’ll start out for there after a few more days of rest, seeing to this Rwandan version of a cold (cleansing…) I seem to be experiencing here these past couple days! Ya, there are voluminous, monumental type energies to ‘process’ here… and we’re all approaching our 2’nd consecutive full moon in watery (emotional, transformational) Scorpio :)

Love Love Love!
Cath xoxo

Ps…Correction re: my former attempt at Kinyarwandan… Muraho (Good day, Hello) and Amakuru (I am fine!)