Deciding to come home was a heartache. People ask us now, “Was it a surprise for your families?” It was a surprise for US! All along, we’d been hoping to return by air to Cairo and make our way home from there by public transport. But it was Christmas. We’d been away for over eight months. The travel was nearly always fun but rarely easy. The Middle East held huge appeal but it would be chilly at this time. There was a reasonable flight through Cairo to London. We chatted about it and agreed, home for Christmas. We were distraught to have missed out on Lesotho and Johannesburg but I suppose you just have to learn to stop.

- Malachy Harty

It was very nice to come home for Christmas. Everyone looks wonderful – they’ve all been shopping and had the hair done for the festive season. Then there are the lights, decorations and most importantly, presents. Sorry, did I say that? No, it couldn’t have been me. I have come back from Africa a changed woman. No capitalists here! Hell, no!

I’m sorry to say that I am still the same materialist today as I was on April 13th 2005 when we set off on this trip. The first thing I bought at the airport was perfume, possibly the most decadent substance ever created by man.

I had worried that I wouldn’t be able to cope with wasted resources and over indulgence and first world life in general but I have in fact embraced the lot with venom and gusto.

What has been a bit of a shock is the extent to which people are rushed off their feet. The sorry fact is that we have time for no one, not even ourselves. In Africa, when someone enquires after your health, they will also enquire about the entire family. People have time for people, it seems.

Another surprise is how many people have been following our trip. I don’t know how many people have asked about the malaria. It’s wonderful that so many have kept track of us but the timing of our return has been problematic. The articles were not current and many now suppose that because they’ve only just read about the malaria that we came home early.

In fact, we finished the trip ahead of schedule and were lucky enough to be able to find a flight home before Christmas. I hate that people should think that Africa proved too challenging. In fact, Africa was not a problem. Tough in parts, but generally, wonderful. It’s quite damaging for its image if people imagine we aborted our trip.

Now that we are back, we have a few challenges to face. We must wrap up the project - write the last of the articles and organize school visits for the New Year. When that’s done, we face the more difficult challenge of putting our old lives back together again. I would like to go back to college but I loved writing for the Imokilly People and particularly enjoyed taking photographs. I’m not sure what Malc wants to do either. And then there is us. We’ve been in each other’s pockets for the last eight and a half months. We must try to grow our own relationship. Maybe put it back together is more accurate… There’s certainly a lot to do.

Blue? No, not really. I had a great time. I’d do it again in a flash. It was a wonderful trip. The people were fantastic. We saw and did amazing things. It was the trip of a lifetime. But I’m very glad to be home. It’s nice to see family and friends and my piano. I’ve been anxious to get going on the next project – whatever that may be. It’s life that’s really the adventure, not Africa.

PS. Music is wonderful. Keane. The Pixies. Johnnie Cash. It’s all good. My God, how I missed it. A pox on those rats who stole our minidisk players.

- Niamh O Riordan

We met two wonderful people at the hostel and agreed to travel to Cape Town with them. Their names were Justin and Becky. He was from South Africa. She was from England. The two had travelled overland from London through West Africa in their own car. This seemed unimaginably epic to me. They’d travelled down the left hand side of the map and we’d travelled down the right side of the map and we would travel the last few thousand kilometres together.

The roads were wonderful. Tarmac about half the way the dirt the rest but the roads are well maintained so you can belt along them. Namibia is one of Africa’s least densely populated countries. It seemed that all there was to see was roads and more roads. But having said that, the landscape was stunning. Epic landscapes, sunny sandy plains and that tiny rivulet of road stretching to infinity in front of us. That first night, we camped beneath the stars and exchanged stories over the ‘braai’ (BBQ).

Early the next day, we drove out to the famous sand dunes of Sossusvlei. These red dunes are the oldest in the world and the largest. We climbed to the top of one of them and had a wonderful time running down the side of it. Running downhill was surreal – we felt like astronauts. The whole landscape was surreal. Justin had a wonderful time throwing the jeep around in the sand too, much to the chagrin of Becky who anxiously reminded him of the last list of repairs to the car. We jumped on the back for a while, hanging on for dear life with massive grins plastered across our dusty faces as we bounced around the lumpy, bumpy, twirling, swirling sand.

We took off that day and drove hard, stopping only to buy food at well-stocked garages on the road. We arrived late at a motel that night and checked in to sleep. The following morning, we hit the road again. We crossed into South Africa that day. It was monumental. South Africa would be the last country on our route. It was still early December. We might even make it home for Christmas. The guard took photos for us and we were in high spirits indeed crossing the border.

That day we drove all the way to Cape Town. There is something about nearing the end of a journey. All of a sudden, you cannot wait to finish and so it was for us. Malachy and I were happy to take our time but Justin and Becky were anxious to push on. We arrived into Cape Town that night. We watched the city sparkle into view – shiny, pearly lights for miles and miles. The first thing we did was stop off and buy a bottle of cheap sparkling wine. The second thing we did was spend a couple of hours travelling the last couple of kilometres as the car decided to give up at the last hurdle. Then, we checked into our backpacker lodge and then we celebrated.

The journey was finished. We’d arrived in Cape Town. We would spend a few weeks in South Africa becoming reacquainted with modern life. We did some shopping. We did some sight-seeing. We travelled to the wine regions, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa. We stayed at an Irish friend’s holiday home. Every second person in South Africa is Irish, it seems. People would ask not if we were Irish but which part of Ireland we were from. I had my hair cut in Cape Town by a Kanturk lady. Can you imagine?

After a few weeks, we were ready to wrap up. So we decided we would come home.

- Niamh O Riordan

We managed to find a cheap lift from Zambia to Windhoek, the perfectly ordered, model like capital city of Namibia. On the first day we covered 1,200 Km during daylight hours. It was terrific. We have moved so slowly since Cairo and here we were on empty roads of unblemished bitumen that stretched all the way to the horizon like fresh jet trails.

We stopped three times. Once to inspect a hippo, dying slowly in front of a buckled safari 4X4 and a couple of times to buy meat pies and chocolate in clean, well stocked, expensive supermarkets and petrol station shops. We used the word ‘expensive’ a lot once we set foot in Namibia.

Flat Botswana, across the Okavango River and hours of flat Namibia are an awesome sight to behold. Crazy hills appear at last, proudly holding weird quiver trees atop their barren rocks. Farm gates punctuate the unending fences at each side of the road, leading to houses somewhere over the horizon. Warthogs and strikingly handsome oryx liven up the roadside very occasionally. The country seems almost void of people.

We spent the night at a campsite a few hours from Windhoek, in one of those farms in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest road, not to mind town. After an impossibly red sunset, it rained on us just before we could get our leaky tent up. But we dried out as we shared what little food we had with our companions. Our Namibian driver and a Canadian tourist flirted incessantly with each other. It makes those 14-hour drives much shorter when you have someone to chat to, you may be sure.

Before falling into our canvas tent, we watched yet another spectacular African lightening show.

The next morning, we arrived into Windhoek; squeaky clean, too much parking space, not enough cars on its wide, perfect streets, not enough people on its empty pavements and completely without character. Even the smartie coloured houses don’t make it look anything more than a perfectionist’s model city. And did I mention that it’s expensive?

- Malachy Harty

We stayed at a backpacker joint called “Jolly Boys”. What is a backpacker joint? It’s self-catering, cheap accommodation, with a restaurant and pool and filled to the brim with westerners, just like yourself, who imagine that they have in fact discovered “the real Africa” when in reality, they couldn’t be closer to home. We stayed in a thatched hut called the ‘Hippo’ room: it was hardly larger than the bed and the windows were made of netting. What Jolly Boys are good for is organizing activities.

We had been looking forward to the Vic Falls for a long time and Livingstone is the place to be if you plan on doing any of the hair razing activities you can do there. We decided to take a microlite over the falls and to book white water rafting as well as an ‘Adventure’ day.

We arrived at the take-off site just before dusk and would be the last to fly that day. The flight lasts a mere fifteen minutes and brings you out over the falls and back again. There you are, strapped in with a loose, little seatbelt and nothing around you but clear blue skies. No windows. No walls. No Ceiling. No floor. You are a flying bicycle with wings. The view, as you can imagine, was stunning. The take-off and landing were gut wrenching and all I wanted to do was another flight.

I decided I wouldn’t do the white water rafting with Malachy. I had had a taste of near drowning when we tried it in Jinja, Uganda and I was not in the mood for more. I kissed him goodbye, asked him not to get himself killed, and promptly ran out the door to join him. I don’t know what possessed me. But it was worth it. “Talk about the crocodile! The CROCODILE!” yells Malachy, sitting beside me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, as we meandered down the mighty Zambezi River, between bouts of near-death rapids, we spotted a croc, lounging on a rock, working on his suntan. Was that before or after we went for a swim? I can’t quite remember. The rapids themselves were good too. Our guide was excellent. “If you end up under the raft, just shout, and I will swim down to you ‘Rambo Style’ and rescue you. But if I find you smoking a cigarette down there, I will not be happy!” He did a wonderful job. We would shoot a rapid and looking back at that wall of water he would say “You don’t want to go swimming there. If you go swimming there, you wont come up for two weeks.”

Then there was the adventure day. This involved some abseiling in the morning. I tried to rapel down the sheer cliff face (think Mission Impossible – you run down the cliff face first) but didn’t have the nerve. Malachy pulled it off though. Fair dues. Then there was the wire. They harness you onto a horizontal wire that stretches across the gorge and you run off the edge of the cliff and are carried across the gorge suspended from the wire. Malc did not enjoy this so much and I thought it was boring to be honest; I was psyched up for the swing. Imagine a pendulum, which starts from a horizontal position. But it’s actually a swing with two people strapped into it and when you begin to fall, you FREE fall for fifty or so meters first, before going into the swing. It’s difficult to imagine but that’s what we did. There are no words for the terror. I was glad when it started to rain because it meant we didn’t have do chicken out of doing it a second time.

-Niamh O Riordan

The train from Dar Es Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi near Lusaka, Zambia, was delayed by 20 hours, but once we were aboard, we were seduced into the relaxed life of long distance train travel. There was no use asking when we would arrive. This one should take about 48 hours.

Before night fell, the train entered the vast Seleous Game Reserve, where we were treated to the enchanting sight of many giraffes, elephants and gazelle. Despite pointing out these beautiful animals to a group of Hong Kong card players, they were just as disinterested in the passing wildlife as the grazing wildlife were unperturbed by the passing train.

Unlike Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Kampala and Dar, Lusaka lacked the shiny glass towers. Instead, slightly outdated, concrete blocks fringed the wide main thoroughfare. Well-dressed young men followed us on the streets with perfume or clothes, desperate for some money in this time of hardship and food shortages in Zambia. As usual, we were able to fly in the face of local problems… we shared the tastiest, most succulent T-bone steak in the world. We only stayed a single night, anxious to push on to Livingstone and to hit Cape Town for Christmas.

The comfortable bus to Livingstone sped through thinly wooded, unspectacular, flat landscape. It was possibly the least impressive trip of the entire journey. But we arrived early thanks to light traffic and wonderful roads. However, as the roads improved we became more removed from the life around us. As we searched in vain for cheap, local restaurants in Livingstone, it became very clear that the days of mingling with the locals were over. We were funnelled into relatively expensive backpacker hostels and restaurants.

-Malachy Harty

Hello everyone.

We ran out of Moshi before we could be talked into climbing Kili a third time, or taking a super safari to Ngorongoro Crater - supposedly a wildlife wonder. So we ran (by tiny plane) to the fabled islands of Zanzibar.

Ramadan has just finished so the whole place is celebrating Eid al Fitr. This means that nothing but internet cafes and expensive hotels are open for the four days of 'partying'. We roam the empty streets between downpours, searching for affordable meals and a glimpse of the enchanting Stone Town that the guide books promised.

The only redeeming activity is the wonderful open air feasts of sizzling barbecued fish at Forodhani Gardens on the waterfront each evening. The market atmosphere has climaxed for these four days of Eid al Fitr - like our Christmas. The young crescent moon watches over the Muslim families who fill the pretty public lawns and pile their plates with skewers of fish and chips. We had a go at pressing sugar cane with the hand crushers. They mix is with ginger and lime - Yummy.

Okay- maybe Zanzibar isn't so bad after all. We hope to go diving, visit a beach and run to Dar es Salaam before we run out of money.

Take care and send us an email or reply.

Malachy

Ok. Kilimanjaro. We made it. And we didn't make it. We actually climbed the hightest mountain in Africa twice. And it was all fabulous. Our first excursion was marred by bad weather and altitude sickness. Our second trip was perfect in every way.

Here's a blow by blow account of the second trip:
Day one was a short walk after a long drive through a nice wood. Stayed at Simba camp. We slept in tents and ate in a mess tent. We could see the mountain from there. Quite nice. We had one guide, Godi, one cook, and about 7 porters to carry our gear. We actually did no work ourselves other than walk to camps. They would fetch water, pitch tents, cook meals. Great team. Fab food all the way.

Second day was to 2nd cave. Another nice short walk. No sickness. Again perfect weather. Height: 3400m.

Third day was to Kikelelwa. Annoyed that this was only 3600m. We thought it was 3900m so we did an acclimatization walk up towards our next camp. Perfect weather. The idea is not to sleep more than 300m above where you slept the night before and to climb high and sleep low so each day you try to climb above where you will sleep.

Fourth day we walked four hours (short) to stay at Mawenzi Camp. This is a mountain itself and we stayed in a crater. We were at 4300m. We were above the clouds and could see all of africa it seemed. We did an acclimatization walk to 4500m up into the mountain itself. Great fun. The moutain is far more mountain shaped than Kili and it really was breathtaking. Perfect weather.

Day five we walked between Mawenzi and Kili ending the day at Kibo camp at the base of Kili itself. Kibo is 4700m high. That day we ate and slept cos we would make the final ascent in the night time. Managed about four hours sleep before waking at ten thirty. Had bickies and a hot drink. Started the walk at eleven thirty. Amazing stars so high up in the world. Never knew there were so many but it was steep steep steep and cold cold cold walk until dawn.

[DON'T READ IF YOU"RE SQUIMISH] It was so cold that I wouldnt take my hands out of my gloves to wipe my nose so I learned projectile nose blowing (that's actually what they do here - no hankies used) and when that failed I became 3 again and used my glove. I must insist, you'd have done the same - even you Emma!


[OK. IT'S FINE NOW] We were wearing three pairs of socks, three pants, countless tops, fleeces, coats, balaclavas, hats, two pairs of gloves. But we didn't have the snazzy hand warmers all the other tourists brought from home. So jealous of those things. My hands were painfully cold. Breathing was very difficult. We zig-zagged up and at each corner, I would pause to breathe. GODI and the assistant guide began to sing to take our minds off it and I think that's the trick. So I spent a lot of time thinking boring thoughts just so that I wouldn't be counting the seconds. It's too cold to stop for more than water. The temp was -10c. It would have been much colder if there was a wind blowing and I can't imagine what it would be like to summit in rain or snow. A bunch of South Africans were behind us and one of them started vomiting. Can't believe he went on. But we were fine. Malc was feeling a little off for a while but it passed.

Then before we knew it we were at Gilman's point. About 5600m. Couldn't believe it. That's when I began to suspect that I was dreaming. It was only 5 am. We'd made very good progress. But you would too in that cold. So we marched on around the rim of the crater toward Uhuru peak, the summit (5895m). We'd heard this part was relatively easy but I was exhausted. I had to keep stopping to breathe but we were all so cold, Malc especially, that I didn't want to stop. I was very weak. And you don't eat up there (you're only asking for trouble) so there was very little I could do. But we could see the peak getting (achingly slowly) closer and the sun was coming up (glorious sunrise - amazing colours) and we weren't sick. And there were glaciers. And cool clouds. And we could hear people cheering. And it couldn't have been real. It must have been a dream.

So we got there. To the peak. And we did what all the other tourists did: took a few snaps, looked around and turned back. You have to. The longer you stay up there, the more chance there is of you getting sick up there. But it was stunning. So beautiful. I never thought I'd get there.

We walked back down then, slip sliding down the moutain on the scree. Is it ski-ing or skating that we did? I'm not sure. We certainly didn't walk down. What had taken 7 hours to ascend took less than 2 to descent.

At Kibo, we ate but were not allowed to sleep (makes people sick) and started the walk down. First to Horombo camp, then to Mandara. Our guide bullied us into taking a spin down from there. It was 7pm and 3 hours to the gate and his team had gone ahead of us. So Malc did what Godi asked and told the officials he had a sore knee (which he did) and we came down in an ambulance (no cars allowed in the park. We got our golden certificates and drove back to Moshi. Then we showered for the first time in six days and collapsed into bed.


Agus sin sin. It was amazing. For those of you who might not know, this was our second attempt. On the third day of our first attempt we were caught in a terrible snow storm. We walked for hours (maybe 8) and just couldn't stop, even when I got a headache. It was an acclimatization day so we were up at about 4500m. Never knew a headache could be so bad. Summit day was actually less difficult than that third day. But I'm really glad we did it twice. We saw Machame, Umbwe, Rongai and Marangu routes and they were all stunning and all different and all great fun. It's an amazing mountain because there's such a diversity of scenery and landscape.

Thanks everyone, keep in touch
Niamh

Hello friends,

We had to get from the Rwandan border to Mwanza and it was going to take several days. But then I got sick. At first I thought it was nothing. Then all of a sudden I was very ill. Fever, aches and pains. It looked like flu. But in Africa, if you think you have flu, you suspect malaria.

I had malaria. In a dingy hospital, I had a test. "What will we do?" asked the DOCTOR. I was horrified. She'd never heard of the drugs we carried, just in case. While Malc tried to contact home, I started to get very sick very fast. But at last we were told to go ahead with the treatment we had.

It worked. I was feeling better very soon. We were taken to the house of a local Anglican priest who kindly put us up while I recovered and in a few days, we were able to continue.

I'd survived. But I never want to go through that again.

Hugs and Kisses everyone, keep in touch!

Niamh.

Hello friends,

What can I say? Rwanda is a fascinating little country. We only had a week but it's a tiny country so we saw a lot in that time. First we went to Ruhengeri. We wanted to climb a volcano. Don't ask me why. Some sort of death wish no doubt. Did you know I have asthma? The climb was vicious. It nearly killed me. But I did feel quite proud of myself when I stood there at its summit. All 3811m above sea level.

Then we went to a place called Kibuye. We were horrified at having to spend twenty dollars on a room. We usually pay no more than five or six. But the place was gorgeous. It sat on the shore of Lake Kivu so we spent a day resting and swimming. Quite nice.

Then on to Butare, home of an impressive museum I'd wanted to see. There we met a very nice lady indeed called Nicky. She even put us up in her house for a few days. Great to spend time with someone who speaks English as a first language. Very sad to say goodbye to her.

Kigali, the capital, was last on our list. We didn't have enough time there at all. All the time, the countryside is stunningly beautiful and Kigali was breathtaking. Little mud huts climbed up the surrounding hills. Really pretty place. All we managed to do was visit the Genocide Memorial Centre. An excellent exhibition but a very sombre place.

And that was that. We had to leave. Tanzania was coming up...

Hello Friends

We've made it to Kampala. We've been here a week now and I still haven't recovered from my white water rafting we're-all-going-to-die experience.

Rafting on the source of the nile is a relatively new phenomenon. They've only been doing it for the last few years and it's not hard to see why. It is a Grade 5 river which means that it has several Grade 5 rapdis (the most challenging rapid a rafter will raft) without portage (this is where it is possible to walk around the rapids). Yoweri Museveni (Ugandan leader) claims that it is safe but I wonder if he's actually been down the rapids himself.

We fell out on the very first rapid. Imagine bobbing around in churning water as your boat comes crashing down over your head, pushing you under. Imagine then that as you frantically grip on to the rope of the boat, your eyes screwed shut because you never open them underwater, you find that there are two bodies equally terrified between you and the surface. Imagine the terror of having to let go of that rope - the one everyone said NOT to let go of - so that you can finally break the surface. Imagine thinking to yourself "Hey, look at me. Now I'm one of those drowning people so desperate to get air that they will pull others around them down. Hey, don't blame me, you know I can't help it". Imagine, this entire ordeal takes only seconds but in your head, it feels like a lifetime.

Malachy wants to do it again of course. We sat out two Grade fives and he wants to complete them. He's crazy. But I find myself reconsidering the bungee jump over the Victoria Falls. What do you think I should do? Reply poste haste please... Should I do the rafting again? Should I do the bungee.

PS. Who's read Harry Potter? I'm on chapter five and it looks pretty good.

Niamh.

Hello

Have you heard about the Friends of Londiani? They are a local NGO at home and they are doing fabulous work in Western Uganda. I've never been more impressed by the work of an NGO. The communities that they are helping are so grateful. It's truly wonderful.

We visited them and will be writing about them in the coming weeks.

If you are a CSPE class, why not explore the Friends of Londiani. Fundraise for them. They will put your money to good use. Invite them to speak to you about their time in Londiani - they are very local - but don't tell them I suggested it!

They are working on schools and hospitals and peer education and renovations and health care and so much more. Find out about them.

Niamh.

About Nairobi and Mombassa

Well... we made it to Kenya. It was a really tough journey. Five days on a bus and a lorry to cover 1,450 Km, the Ethiopian half nicely paved, the Kenyan side a rough rough journey. Nairobi has been a treat. We saw 'Madagascar' but missed 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. There are some good restaurants which we have enjoyed, such as Carnivore, where they cook all sorts of meat over a huge round barbeque. We tasted crocodile and ostrich among others.

It's a real shame that the streets get so dangerous at night. We had to take a taxi if we wanted to go out after dark for fear of getting robbed.

We did a short safari in the Masai Mara National Park, which was beautiful, and then took the lunatic express to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. The overnight train stopped a few hours before Mombasa due to a derailment further up the track. Mombasa was really nice but on our first evening, we returned from dinner to our hotel room to find that someone had broken in stolen our cameras. Our gorgeous photos of the safari were gone! We were gutted.

The old town is a magical labyrinth of narrow streets, ornate doors with Arab inscriptions and upper balconies with intricate latticed wood and iron work. Through an open gate we spotted the blue sea. When we went over to see more, we saw men unloading sacks of grain from a ship by hand, bending under the heavy weight and the strong sun. We wandered around peaceful Fort Jesus and took a couple of day trips down the coast to balmy Tiwi Beach for swims and sunburn.

We'll write lots more soon. Drop us a note if you can.

Malachy

Oh No… We’re still in Addis Ababa. However, we do hope to be taking a bus to the Kenyan border tomorrow morning. So hopefully, we will be in Nairobi by the next time we get in touch.

We spent last week down in the South of Ethiopia in the Lower Omo Valley. It was pretty rough. We hired a banged up old landcruiser that broke down at every bump on the dirt roads and on the surfaced ones even the smelliest busses overtook us as we bounced along at about 5 miles an hour.

Our 4 am starts were rewarded with amazing visits to some of the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley. We met people of the Banna, Hamar and Mursi tribes, all wonderfully colourful. Many tribesmen and women wear animal skin clothes and drip with elaborate jewellery. Exposed skin is decorated with paint and etchings. We did feel as if some of the people we met dressed and waited for tourists to earn a good living but all along the way we met very ornately dressed people just going about their days.

As always, the best times were when our landcruiser broke down. Then we had a chance to smell the trees and flowers, to admire the butterflies and to engage with the people we met along the roadside. Otherwise we spent our days like the rest of the toursists, sardines in hot 4 wheel drives, being ferried from one (slightly artificial) photo shoot to another.

We also took a boat on Lake Chamo and saw some enormous hippos and crocodiles. It was so much fun. The lake was absolutely choc o’ bloc with crocs! From our safe steel boat we also saw large flocks of pelicans, storks and flamingos, flying like pink sticks with wings.

And now we’re back in Addis, preparing for the hard five day trip to Nairobi. It’s two days on good roads to the border. The bandits of Northern seem to be less of a problem on the road to Nairobi but we will still try to join an armed convoy. From the border, it’s another three days on bumpy dirt roads to Nairobi.

Best of Luck to the Cork Hurlers!

Let us know how things are at home - send us an email or reply to a message here.

Malachy

Hello Everyone,

Hope you're all enjoying the summer. We hear the heat wave is over. Too bad! It rains in Addis Ababa every day so I have to say, I don't have too much sympathy.

This week, we visited the GOAL office in Addis. We'd heard great things about the GOAL projects in Addis so we were delighted to see the programs first hand. In Addis, GOAL operates two drop-in centres and four night shelters for street children and caters for two hundred children at any one time.

These children are fed, clothed and given a place to sleep each night. On top of that they are offered guidance and couselling, informal and formal education and when they turn sixteen they do skills training so that they can get permanent jobs when they turn 18 and have to leave the program. GOAL also tries to reunify children with their families where possible.

There was so much activity at the drop-in centre. It was great to see. Table tennis, draughts, local board games, washing, cooking, tae kwon do. Everyone seemed friendly and happy. It really was inspiring. My only wish is that GOAL could cater for even more children.

Anyway, that's all for now. Please keep in touch.

Niamh.

We are finally leaving Addis Ababa. We have fallen deeper and deeper in love with this city, and Ethiopia. It was tough in the beginning. Nobody in the world can be as friendly as the Sudanese, so in our eyes, the poor Ethiopian's were in their shade. But more and more, we have been shown wonderful kindness and always we catch ourselves saying, "this would never happen at home". People often buy us coffees and bus fares. They turn around on the street to show us our way.

We had a wonderful walk through the backstreets of Addis a few days ago. It was a world away from the shiny buildings which line the quickly sprouting street-sides. Men washed themselves in rivers which wind below tall trees and past shabby houses, old women wove beautiful, tightly stitched, round grass baskets, a young man wove a blanket on a makeshift loom and showed us his craft. It was fantastic. We have seen images from our childhood stories coming to life, even here in this city which puts on such a very modern show.

I hope you are all enjoying the summer in Ireland and elsewhere. We have spent the last month wearing wooly jumpers and avoiding torrential showers. The south should see us shedding a few layers once more.

Thanks for all your wonderful emails and replies.
Keep in touch,

Malachy

Hello everyone.

I'm writing from a little cafe in the centre of Addis Ababa. The internet connection is ridiculously slow - seven computers are sharing one 56K modem. It's annoying. They say it is the centre of town but it is no different from the rest of the city: it's relaxed and easy-going and is more like a village than an urban centre.

The weather today is cloudy but cool. It will rain later in the day - just like every other day. This is the only place on our route where the temperature will be below thirty. We are at such a high altitude that the temperature is lower than twenty - there are two blankets on my bed and I'm still cold at night.

I like the city. The book describes it as 'shambolic' but I don't know what they're talking about. The food, the coffee, the style. It's all great. I might even treat myself to a knock-off Gucci watch - they're on every street corner.

We're busy writing articles and updating the site. Hope you're all having fun at home. I hear the weather's pretty good. Please keep in touch. It's always great to hear the news from home.

Niamh.

Hello everyone! Ethiopia is wonderful. Cool temperatures. 20 degrees versus 40. Everything here is endemic here: wildlife, walking sticks, music. They seem to have the one song here. You hear it wherever you go. I was very sick in Sudan with dysentary and e coli but I'm much better after a few days here. The local food, injera, looks and tastes like dirty dishcloth but it's possible to get good faranji food (foreigner food).

We will spend some time visiting the sights of ancient Ethiopia. Ethiopia was home to the ancient Aksumite civilization and much remains to be seen of it in the North. Then we will head south to visit the famous tribes of the Lower Omo Valley.

Watch this space and keep in touch!

Hello Everyone.

Sudan is wonderful. A fantastic country. It really couldn't be any more surprising. We thought for sure that of all the countries on our route Sudan would be the most challenging.

The reality is that the people here are fantastic. They are genuine and friendly and kind and good. It's actually bordering on the ridiculous. People will buy us tea and coffee even when they have no money. If you show an interest in something - say a dish or a drink - you are likely to be given one for free. There is no trickery here - the people are honest to a fault. If you pay too much money for something, they give you back the extra money.

It's hard to believe that the country is actually being literally torn apart by war and conflict. It is quite likely that it will split in two in six years time and there is the possibility that it will split into several federal states. There is conflict in Darfur in the West and in Kassala in the East. There is tension in the West and the North. In the south, a treaty has just been signed ending thirty years of civil war. There are few here whose lives have not been affected by all of this.

Just the other day, we visited the IDP camp (internally displaced persons camp) at Wad El Bashir in the subburb of Omdurman here in Khartoum. Thirty eight thousand people are living in a five square kilometer area. The houses are of stick and rag or more settled people live in mud brick huts. These huts are likely to fall apart in the rains that come in July and are little protection against the cold in the winter. These people have so little. They have experienced so much. We met one boy who hasn't seen his parents since he was ten (eight years ago) and the two officers from Lokita who took us to the camp had themselves been separated from their families for nineteen years.

We really do not know how lucky we are...

Hello from Khartoum!

We have made the long journey from southern Egypt into Sudan. It has been four tough days of travelling. When we arrived at the ferry terminal at the Aswan High Dam, on Lake Nasser, we were pushed and pulled, along with hundreds of heavily burdened travellers, onto the weekly ferry to the Sudanese town of Wadi Halfa. We slept alongside a group of Egyptian men on the sun deck of the ferry to avoid the engine fumes and sardine tin conditions of the main passenger room and to see the stars by night. Later, we climbed onto the roof of the train from Wadi Halfa in order to feel the wind on our faces and enjoy a panoramic view of the Nile on our right and the Nubian Desert on our left as we made the 36 hour trip to Khartoum.

We were a little anxious as we left Egypt, the hassle of the beaurocratic border control, the long cramped journey (with squat toilets), sharing a room with 400 others, but most of all, the unknown of Sudan. But that fear didn't last long. We love Sudan. We feel safe and happy here in Khartoum and we look forward to getting to know the city and the country better. Today we spoke to Trocarie's coordinator in Khartoum and we will visit a camp for internally diplaced people on Tuesday with one of their partners. There is no denying that there has been trouble here, which we will talk about later. In the meantime, we just have to survive the 40-45 degrees celcius heat.

Hi everyone,

Niamh has just shown me how to post a message here! We are both really happy to read your wishes of good luck. Thank you all. Follow the 'Our Journey' link on the website to read how we are doing.

Cairo is crazy. We are staying in a rooftop hostel in the centre of town. It costs about Euro 1.50 each per night. Food is also very cheap and very different. We are eating lots of falafel, kushari, fuul, aubergines and tahini. The restaurants are often just a little kitchen on the side of a side street.

No bungee jumping yet!

Keep in touch

Hello World.

We're back in Cairo again after our Sinai Adventure. One mountain. One set of dives. One bout of food poisoning (I will never look at Kofta the same way again). We're here to sort out our Ethiopian visa, to see the pyramids, to update the website, to write articles and to get ready for the journey south.

It's great to be back in Cairo. It felt like coming home, arriving to the bus station in the night time. Not many westerners that I've met like the place but I think it's electric.

We would love to hear from you all at home.
Email us: niamh@allaboutafrica.net and malachy@allaboutafrica.net

Ciao.

Hello Friends. Malachy and Niamh are off on their amazing adventure on April 13th. Thanks to everyone in Cork who has supported the project. Keep an eye on the Imokilly People for their weekly articles and make sure you've bookmarked the website. Why not sign up for the newsletter? Just click on Register to receive regular updates straight to your mailbox. And for God's sake, will ye email us lads!

We would like to invite you to our Table Quiz which is being held this Thursay, March 10th at O 'Meara's Bar in Ballincurra. The quiz gets underway at half past eight and we would be delighted to see you there. Good prizes in store for the winners and there will also be a raffle in aid of All About Africa. See you there!

We are delighted to welcome you to the All About Africa blog. We will use this page to tell you all about our trip and to get your comments.