The Chouwara tanneries.

Workers dye leather in vats with natural pigments...

...after the leather is softened in white vats of pigeon guano.

The Qarawiyin madrasa (founded in 859) is the world's oldest university.

The Bou Inania madrasa (1361) is the only one open to non-muslims.

The shrine of Moulay Idriss II (791-828 AD) who is the patron saint of the city of Fes.

Wandering through Fes el Bali (the old, walled city) in the rain.

Bahia Palace archway & ceiling.

Jars in the Spice Souk.

Marrakesh Express
by Graham Nash

Looking at the world
Through the sunset in your eyes
Trying to make the train
Through clear Moroccan skies
Ducks and pigs and chickens call
Animal carpet wall to wall
American ladies five foot tall in blue

Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind
Had to get away to see what we could find
Hope the days that lie ahead
Bring us back to where they’ve led
Listen not to what’s been said to you

Would you know we’re riding
on the Marrakesh Express
Would you know we’re riding
on the Marrakesh Express
All on board that train

I’ve been saving all my money just to take you there
I smell the garden in your hair

Take a train to Casablanca going south
Blowing smoke rings from the corners of my my,my,my,my,mouth
Colored cottons hang in air
Charming cobras in the square

Striped Djellabas we can wear at home

Don’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express (X2)
They’re taking me to Marrakesh Express
Don’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express (X2)
They’re taking me to Marrakesh
All on board that train (X3

Storks at El-Badi Palace.

Hotel Riad Rahba courtyard.

Escher corner

Traffic under a covered souk.

Veiled vendor.

Koutoubia minaret.

Cyclist wearing a striped Djellaba (like we can wear at home).

Charming cobras in the square.

Kogelo, the hometown of Barack Obama Sr., is on the equator.

Chadrick tries my Cruzbike at a rest area under construction...

...built by Obama's half brother Abong'o Malik Obama (who is Moslem).

Schools were named in his honor when Obama was just a US Senator.

Kogelo villagers gather 'round as in the rest of Africa.

...and kids run alongside our bikes.

Bike safaris are permitted (and popular) in Hells Gate National Park.

Hakuna matata

Twiga is the Swahili word for giraffe.

Warthogs

Hells Gate is Kenya's smallest national park.

Angelina Jolie filmed scenes of Tomb Raider...

...in this slot canyon.

Dhow crossing the Pemba Channel to Wete.

Approaching Stonetown's dhow harbor at dawn.

Getting lost on the narrow streets of Stonetown;

...reminiscent of Cartagena, Colombia.

The slave trade (& spices) enriched Zanzibar.

Saint Monica's hostel was a hospital...

...built atop slave chambers.

Henna designs on girls' arms for Eid al Fitr (end of Ramadan)

Maasai beach boys test ride my Cruzbike.

Alex Mathews with Saidi, a Tanzanian volunteer.

Alex Mathews (21), a senior at UCLA and my second cousin, is spending her second summer volunteering with One Heart Source in a village near Arusha. Alex’s grandfather (my Uncle Stan Mathews) connected us when he realized we’d be in Tanzania at the same time. We stopped in to visit and were impressed with her dedication and commitment to helping others, a passion we felt in all the people we met in the organization, all younger than 26.

College students volunteer for 4-week or 8-week sessions.

]]> http://recyclingtheworld.us/wordpress/2010/08/25/one-heart-source/feed/ 0 http://recyclingtheworld.us/wordpress/2010/08/25/jbfc/ http://recyclingtheworld.us/wordpress/2010/08/25/jbfc/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:12:54 +0000 David http://recyclingtheworld.us/wordpress/?p=3927 Kristin Danielson Bender, who I grew up with in Amery, serves on the board of JBFC in northwestern Tanzania; which we were not able to visit. Both charities were started by college students. Many young travellers we’ve met, both in Africa and South America, spend some time volunteering while exploring the world.

We went on both a sunset & a sunrise game drive in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, Africa's oldest established protected area.

“You must be very careful. It is very dangerous there.”

I was hoping to begin my summary of our travels in South Africa by writing “Though we heard this warning again and again from so many people our experience was very different. We found only a warm, embracing hospitality from everyone we met.” I would like to write it now with the addition of “except for those few moments in Mtubatuba when we were mugged” (see David’s blog for May 28^th). And really, that was our experience of South Africa. We talked with very many wonderful people from very many different walks of life and cultures who were interested in us and wanted us to feel welcome and to enjoy their country. Their hospitality rivaled anything we found in South America. Speaking the language has made it so much easier for us to ask questions and have conversations about people’s lives, families, philosophies, apartheid, politics, the World Cup, religion, racism, culture. South Africa has been a fascinating and beautiful country to visit.

To ignore our mugging, however, would be Pollyannish of me. It was a scary and maddening experience, though the picture I carry in my mind of brave Glenda chucking groceries at the muggers still makes me laugh. After knowing we were unharmed, my first reaction was anger, that though I yelled “Rogue, rogue, rogue, help, help!!” at the top of my lungs and people were around, no one came to help. Later, our hosts at the backpackers explained that people don’t help because they are afraid of retaliation. That understanding made me feel better but it also makes me think there is a hopelessness and acceptance of crime which helps to fuel it. Though I feel that some of the warnings we received were more about fear of “the other”, segregation, and racism– theft (petty and grand) is a huge issue in South Africa. The majority of victims, however, are not tourists, or even relatively well-to-do South Africans, who can afford security systems, guard dogs, and high walls topped with barbed wire, but they are average people living in poorer neighborhoods.

Glenda’s visit with us was one of the highlights of our tour in South Africa. It was geat to catch up with her on her life and to share our journey, seeing it a bit through her eyes. In the two weeks she was with us I felt she had a good taste of what our experience has been, from the warm hospitality of the bike shop owner and staff who picked her up, toured the city, had lunch and dropped her back at the backpackers with her rented bike, to climbing 1000m with the bike in the beautiful and peaceful Swazi countryside. We had great conversations with Ebby and Joanne, South African business women, with Sumeshini, the widowed hotel owner, with Mlonde the manager of the bar and restaurant next to the dive hotel we stayed, with the cook Tulie in the fancy hotel we stayed, to name just a few of the people we met. We also had fine interactions with countless school children and people along the road. Finally we toured a game park and wetlands area where we were treated to sights of some of the African animals Glenda had first been introduced to long ago on the Sunday night TV show “Wild Kingdom” and I got to see my first rhinoceros.

We first spotted "the almost impossible to see" African Wild Dog (this one lost his tail).

Baboons sauntered right past our Land Rover.

A Cape Buffalo.

Nyala

Giraffe

Heading upriver towards Lake St Lucia, Africa's largest estuary.

Hippos!

Julie holds a hippo tusk.

A very large crocodile (4 1/2m).

Fish Eagle

Giant Kingfisher

The Water Monitor is a lizard who hunts on land & water.

Something like a Preying Mantis.

A large beetle

A herd of Impala.

Bunny Chow is a meal of curry served in a loaf of bread.