Traveling to Africa - Winter 2009

Women at a healthcare rally

I recently got back from 5 weeks in Africa where I was traveling for work. In case you don't remember, I now run Princeton in Africa, a program that annually sends 25 recent college grads on year-long fellowships in service organizations throughout the continent of Africa. The best bonus of the job is an annual extensive trip to Africa to do site visits to potential partner organizations to make sure they would be good places for Princeton in Africa Fellows. My recent trip took me to Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Kenya.

In many ways, traveling for work definitely felt very different. I was online and connected all the time, checking my work emails and attending to work responsibilities. This was possible because I had much more WIFI than I ever would have expected in Africa. All of this meant I had a slightly different lens to view things from. On the really good side, it was great to be able to visit an assortment of organizations doing valuable work on the ground. I visited health clinics, schools, agriculture micro-lending sites and more. As always the best part was being connected to hard working passionate people working to improve the world around them. This kind of travel connected me to local people beyond the tourist sector which made the places I visited even more real.

On the bad side, my intense work schedule made it hard to find as much time to write about my trip. You will see a few pieces below, but I spent more of my free time taking photographs. As always you can read the titles to hear a little more about the trip. Since Flickr makes it a little harder to see the titles during the slide show function, please be sure to follow the directions that are posted below the links.

Images of Obamania in Africa

Press Slide Show in the upper right corner, then press Show Info to see the titles as the slide show plays.

Photo album of Zambia pictures

Photos from Zambia

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Photo album of Mozambique pictures

Photos from Mozambique

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Photo album of Kenyan pictures

Photos from Kenya

Press Slide Show in the upper right corner, then press Show Info to see the titles as the slide show plays.

Traveling in Africa

I know this might sound strange to most of you that are reading, but I keep thinking about the fact that I am in Africa, a place that most people think is a basketcase and traveling here is so much easier than in India. Yes, sometimes the roads are bumpy or dirt, but planes arrive early. Airports are small and easy. Taxis are available. People have all been arriving on time. There is traffic, but it moves and we never get stopped by a cow sitting in the middle of the road (well, almost never.)

And my overnight bus even served snacks through the ride!

Yay Africa!

Travels in Zambia

Volunteers who go out into the community to teach about HIV

I've see so many new places, new countries and new sites on this trip that I'm just not sure where to start.

So here I am just going to talk about the last 7 days in Zambia and hopefully I will find a way to talk about Mozambique, South Africa and my day trip to Swaziland in future posts.

One week ago I arrived in Zambia. I spent 5 days in Livingstone visiting African Impact, an org that does voluntourism. Through them I was able to visit schools, farm coops and medical clinics. One day I was able to work at the clinic at first taking blood pressure, temps and weight to help the nurses out and then getting to weigh all the babies since Monday was baby weighing day. The walk through the HIV building was sobering. In one way I was proud to be an American and know that PEPFAR now makes it possible to give free ARTs to anyone

Faces in Zambia

Thoughts on Africa

Victoria Falls, the biggest waterfall in the world!

I’m sitting at my Zambian backpackers (hostel in southern African terms) and watching the rain pour down and thinking, somehow everything in Africa is more extreme than others places I’ve been. When it rains it really pours. The streets turn to steams. The full big open sky rumbles. Also in my time in South Africa, the bugs I saw were huge. Everything on steroids. Six inch crickets. Two inch beetles. Bigger, brighter colors, more pizzazz. On safari, I got to see the huge animals of the savanna. I got used to Asia elephants over my last few trips and now I was reintroduced to African elephants, who make Asian elephants seem tiny. Then it really is amazing how much lions and leopards look like kitties except they are bigger, faster, stronger and significantly more dangerous. Then there is just the color everywhere. The women are dressed in bright patterns. Its rainy season so the landscape is lush and green. Most of the time the sun is bright and strong.

And lastly there are the big smiles. The friendliness and openness is intoxicating. Little kids waving from the side of the roads. The rawness and realness of this continent is just incredible.

Happy Valentines Day

I would have thought Africa was a good place to escape all the Hallmark silliness that surrounds Valentines Day, but its turned out to be quite the opposite. I can't get over the big v-day displays everywhere. Every grocery store is selling red hearts, stuffed animals, fake flowers and champagne. Events are being held. Merchants are walking around with single stemmed roses for sale. Here is Livingstone, the movie house in town has a Valentine's Day Special showing "What happened in Vegas" and "Why did I get married" instead of Saturdays normal soccer games. (Something I thought would be really fun to watch on a movie theater size screen in Africa with a bunch of screaming Zambians.)

So it looks like I will quietly sit out Valentine's Day while the Africans revel around me.

Go Obama!

I brought a role of Obama stickers to spread the O fever

Maputo, Mozambique

Cordelia's Journeys is back in business. Yup, I'm on the go again and I promise to try to write a bit more about what I'm seeing versus just posting photos.

So I'm here in Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique. For those of you who aren't as up on your African geography, Mozambique is on the east coast of Africa bordering on South Africa. Its a former Portuguese colony that gained independence in 1975. That was followed by a civil war that lasted till 1992, but at this point it is relatively stable, pretty poor but on the slow road to development. NGOs are hard at work helping it grow and Maputo is where most of those aid folks live. Its an beautiful breezy city on with water on either side.

For me that meant a ferry trip out to Catembe yesterday on the other side of the bay for a long walk on the beach and a great view of the city and a TERRIBLE sunburn! (Hey, that's the down side of warm breezes and bright sun. After the last weeks in NY, I was vitamin D deprived but now I'm all set!)

The reason I'm here is because I have a few meetings with potential partners for Princeton in Africa. I started the morning with Save the Children and ended at a beach side bar learning about Opportunity International, a microlending organization.

But one can spend only so long in meetings and then in between I've had time to explore the city. Today I walked around the city for 4 hours. It was GREAT. I love feeling my own way in a city and figuring out its energy. Maputo has great energy. There is a mix of modern and old. The Portuguese have a liberal live life style and they leave that mark on their colonies. I was expecting more conservatively dressed people and instead I see spaghetti straps. Also there is a tradition of music and we spent an evening at the French Cultural Center where they have a big amphitheater. By the time we actually got there most of the music was over, but the reason we went is because we could hear the music echoing in the street and we had to go in after listening from the sidewalk. Lastly a wonderful thing about Maputo is that there are tons of outdoor cafes. It just a lively social scene.

Gotta sign off for now, but there will be more to come with 4 counties in 5 weeks...

Photos of Maputo

Inaugural Week in Washington

Photos from the Inauguration

Jane and Cordelia get published in the Greenwich Citizen! Read more!

Look Back, Move Forward

A Mother and Daughter Travel the Deep South After Obama's Victory
By Jane Milliken

Unfortunately the link has been taken down... Suffice it to say, my mom and I had a very interesting time exploring Alabama and Mississippi and you can read some of my thoughts connected to the photos in the slide show in the next post.

Photos from Alabama and Mississippi

My photos (Click here)

Shocking fact:

The top 1000 people in the world have assets greater than the lower 2.5 billion.

Obama wins! Live in Times Square

Traveling the World in New York City

Now that I have a job its harder to get away for long trips to exotic locales. Not to worry, I will still be able to travel but just less frequently.

I often feel thankful for living in New York since it gives me a chance to experience the world at my doorstep. This week that was especially true. Each year the United Nations opens it's session with a full meeting of the General Assembly. This means that the leaders of almost all the nations in the world gather here in New York and bring international excitement on a whole different level.

For the last two years I have spent time sitting outside the UN watching delegations go in and out. A small interesting crowd of folks like me usually gather to watch the excitement.

Its amazing site to see some many different faces, colors, languages and forms of traditional dress. Then every so often the excitement rises when one of the leaders comes through with his delegation. I wish I knew all their faces, but I don't But here is a short list of the ones I am sure I saw:

The presidents of Turkey, Georgia, Senegal, and Bolivia (Yes, I saw Evo Morales for the second year in a row!) and the Premier of China. I also think I saw the President of Colombia, but can't be sure it was him.

The highlight of afternoon with A LOT of highlights, was when Georgian President Saakashvili jumped out of his motorcade to address a crowd of pro Georgian protesters who were shouting to get Russia out of their country. When the crowd saw him coming they started singing their national anthem at the top of their lungs. For me it was a moving sight. My knees shook for a few blocks after. The Georgia conflict has been all over the headlines, but this made it real.

Some of you will be mad to hear that I had a pretty strong patriotic reaction to seeing POTUS' motorcade. I know he has been a bad president for our overall position in the world, but watch 20 motorcycle cops stream in before a LONG motorcade and finally seeing the American flag and presidential seal stirred a little American pride in my soul. I might not like him, but he is the President, and like it or not my countrymen picked him. I can't wait till next year when President Obama is inside that limo.

After all that excitement I topped off the week with a trip to Little Senegal on 116th Street for an amazing African feeling. How cool is it that I could see their president one day and then go to a place crowded with his people on another and never be more than an hour from home!

I love that I can see the world in my city. I love New York.

**The photos are of Georgian President Saakashvili arriving at the rally.

The Democratic Convention in Denver

Photos from the Convention (Click here)