Warriorbern on the Move

I was up before the crack of dawn this morning to pack my suitcase once again and head off. This time though it was to start the three day journey home. Yesterday Kamardine changed our meeting time three times from 06:00 to 06:30 to 06:45, with 06:45 being the last time selected. I went down to reception and checked out at about 06:40 and then proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait but there was no Kamardine. We had been told that we were to be at the airport at 07:00 to check in so I got really concerned as 07:00 arrived and disappeared with still no sign of him. At 07:15 I sent him a text message to see where he was and got no reply. I was about to go and ask the receptionist to call a taxi for me when Kamardine finally arrived. He said that he had struggled to find a taxi because all was still quiet in the village. Eventually we got going though and arrived at the airport just before 08:00. Of course the only people there were those from our group! There were no airport staff ar...

All our plans to go on a small tour of Anjouan fell through today unfortunately. We had a morning of problems. First of all the database’s server had a problem. This was fixed quickly once we realised that it was the database playing up and not the Internet connection. I made a quick call to South Africa and within 5 minutes the Blue Box (the service providers) had sorted out the problem. I was so grateful that this didn't happen yesterday when South Africans were all enjoying a public holiday! We had just gotten started again when the electricity went out. The Fisheries School has a small generator but it doesn’t provide electricity to the room we were in but we were able to move to another room where the generator’s power was available. Eventually we got down to working again but there was no way we would finish early so the tour was cancelled. The going was slow because the discussions were long and sometimes quite heated. They have acknowledged that next year we will mos...

After yet another sleepless night, it felt like I spent the day clawing my way through a haze of exhaustion. Fortunately things are going well in the workshop so it was not too bad. This morning Kamardine came to collect me at the hotel. He caught a mini bus to my hotel but would not allow me to go in one of those because he thinks it will not be safe for me. According to him someone may either try to touch me inappropriately or try to steal my bag. Not much faith in his own people! The taxis here also operate as the buses i.e. when you get in a taxi it is not yours exclusively but it may pick up other people. So Kamardine also insists I always sit in the front so that I don’t have to come into contact with anyone else! The good news is that work has started n the road and the section in front of the fisheries school will be finished tonight. Even that little section will make a huge difference to the daily trip back and forth. Road repairs get underway Today was m...

Last night just before I retired to my room from sitting in the passage, lightening started to streak across the sky and thunder rumbled all around. I really thought (hoped) we were in for a cracker of a storm. It was not to be though. The air just seemed to get stickier by the minute and that was all. This morning when I awoke, it was cloudy and the thunder was still grumbling. The clouds moving down from the mountains over the bay I was awake way too early and, with no hope of more sleep, I dressed and wondered around the hotel garden looking at all the flowers. Eventually it was time for breakfast and it was once again it was very nice: fruit and fresh, hot croissants. Oirdi was due to collect me at 8am so I went down to the reception area early hoping that the internet was working so I could check emails while I waited but this morning the manager had other things to do. It seems like there was a problem with the generator. I think I appreciate electricity m...

This morning I went off to breakfast at 7am and had some lovely fruit, a croissant and a cr ê pe washed down with grapefruit juice (not my favourite) and tea. In all it was a nice meal and the waiter was very friendly. I went early because I was told I would be collected at 8am for a 9am start. While I was sitting there munching away, I saw the manager connect the Wi-Fi transmitter so I finished up quickly and went to the room to get my laptop to see if I could connect to the internet. And yes there was a connection! What a difference from last year when we had, little to no electricity, no internet and no cellphone signal. This year I feel like I am not quite so far out in the wilderness. I decided that I would probably be picked up late so it was a good opportunity to post the blog that I wrote on Saturday. I finished uploading it and checked out all the accumulated emails before switching off and getting ready to be collected. I waited and waited and no one arrived for me so ...

Sunday morning was yet another early start but fortunately not as early as Saturday. I got up at 5am, had a lovely HOT shower and then packed whatever I had taken out of my suitcase the night before back into my suitcase. At a quarter to six I dragged my suitcase downstairs. This was quite tricky as the stairwell was very narrow and manoeuvring myself and my suitcase around the bends was interesting. I got downstairs to find everything locked and not a soul in sight. I was not worried about getting out as I had a gate key but did not know how I would return the keys. While I was standing there contemplating this small dilemma, a man walked towards me from the garden and in my really bad French I managed to explain to him that I was leaving. It was okay he said, he would let me out and return the keys. He took me out front to a waiting taxi but since I was going to be picked up by Ibrahim, I explained that I did not need his services. An awkward period followed for the next 15 minutes...

I have some catching up to do as I have only just got back on the internet so here is my blog from Saturday as a start. What an early start! I got up at 3am, had a shower and packed the last of my things into my suitcase. I dragged my stuff to the courtyard of the Minalove Hotel desperately hoping that my taxi drive would be there. I came across another taxi driver and two very drunk receptionists from the hotel (clearly they had been in the onsite disco). I got bombarded with questions about where I was from and where I was going. They had never heard of the Comoros so then they wanted to know where it was. It is not so easy to explain these things to a drunk person J . Fortunately my taxi arrived and I could get out of there. My check in at the airport went smoothly and it wasn’t long before boarding commenced. The flight to Nairobi was only 40 minutes so there was no food served, just nuts and drinks. We arrived in Nairobi at sunrise which was not spectacular at all since...

Yesterday, we managed to finished all the work and still had time to have a good discussion about what each organisation could do in the near future as a result of what they have learned over the last week. There are so many gaps in their information that can be filled without requiring extensive amounts of funding and they made some good suggestions of where to start. I said goodbye to all my friends at KMFRI and headed back to the hotel to drop off my things. I headed up to the Nakumatt store to buy coffee for a friend and some supplies for the next part of my trip, just some crackers and marshmallows (the essentials!). On returning to the hotel I settled down to read a book and  I could not put it down. I read non-stop and finished it at two thirty in the morning! A price has to be paid for this though. Even though  I went to sleep so late and I didn't have to wake up to go anywhere this morning I was still awake frustratingly early! I got up and we...