In this section, we would like to highlight a few interesting characters who have we met during our trip and tell you you a bit about them.
COLOMBIA
Dona Rosaria (Tolu)
BOLIVIA/PERU
Carlos (Cusco)
Marco Antonio Gonzalez (Cusco)
Nelly & her niece (Uros island on Titicaca lake in Peru)
Anthony & Chris (London)
Carine & Kai (Bristol)
CHILE
German (San Pedro de Atacama)
Bessie & Louis (Santiago)
Rene (Berlin)
Hamish, Dominique, Salvador and Dominique's Mum (Bayview in Hawkes Bay)
Vic Herring (Gore, South of Queenstown) & Pam Williams (Waikaka):
Carol & Stan (Wellington)
Adrien & Aurelie (Saint-Etienne):
Sophie & Xavier (France & Belgium):
Emilie & David (France):
Arnaud & Marina (Namur, Belgium):
Lovely German couple (The Catlins):
NEW CALEDONIA
Gaelle & Jerome (Noumea):
Christine and her old friend (Pines island):
MYANMAR
Nwe & Tony (Yangon):
Khyo & his family (Yangon):
Marie & James (Yangon):
Momo (Yangon):
Piaw, his parents and nephew (Inle):
NEPAL
Madan Rai (Kathmandu):
Usha (Patan/Kathmandu):
Kritika (Diktel):
Roshan (Diktel):
Roshan is one of the two 16 years old students sent to us by Madan Rai after our first Gokyo trek to do Lukla - Diktel by foot which is unusual for standards trekking trips. Roshan joined Madan's school a long time ago and was like experimenting Madan school concept together with private school. He lost his Mum when he was two, has not seen his father for three years and feels like in his family in Madan's school. Being one of the oldest students among 70 individuals gives him an important role. Roshan is very mature for his age, speaks a very good English (probably the best in Diktel) and was very helpful all the way to our destination. He would like to become a civil engineer or be a teacher in Madan's school. Personnaly we can see him as a strong politician...Finally, after a few days trekking with us, Roshan changed the time of the trek by creating two categories: when we asked him in the end how long it would take to reach this place today? He would answer: "4 hours for us...for you...7 or 8 hours ;-)"..we laughed so much...how crual!
Rojina, Ninam and Hikam (Diktel):
Again, we can say that we found a "Mum" in Diktel with Rojina even if she could be our younger sister as she is 27 years old (or 28...I forgot). She is acutally a Mum for all the kids at the school. And how sweet she is...this must help her to better control the kids as they seem to be calm, respectful and mature. Every morning we had the chance to have Cafe Latte (fresh from the cow....mmmh...what a delicassy). Rojina is married with Madan's right arm and got two boys. Ninam, 3 years old is so funny, cannot stop talking, grabbing things (such as knives, matches ;-) for example) and playing music with whatever he finds. Again, this young boy seems to experience so many things and to be grown up for a young age. Ninam, was born prematurely and an helicopter had to rescue them from Diktel to spend a few months in Kathmandu. Ninam's younger brother is Hikam, "Mr Smile"....
Ram (Lukla):
We were not supposed to have a porter for our Everest trek but as our bags were either too big or too small, we had to take one big and one small bag. The big one weighted 17kilos and as my physical conditions are not great ;-), we decided to take a porter at our arrival in Lukla. We then met Ram, 23 years old man who was not a Sherpa (not from the high altitude mountain) but from slightly below Lukla. He did not speak much English so our communication was mainly working thanks to our imagination ;-) Each evening at our lodge, we played cards with him but not any games....we just played Memory. Easy to play and understand....Ram kept on improving all the way to Gokyo and down. We usually played together with other guides or porters. As for Kilimandjaro, we would not have had the luck to reach Gokyo Ri and see Everest and the Himalaya range without him so big thanks to him.
Pempa Jembu Sherpa (Thare):
Dipesh (Diktel/Kathmandu):
Unknown kid (Kathmandu):
During our first day in Kathmandu, we realised that Usha was leaving walking distance to Patan Durbar Square, so we enjoyed a nice walk with Dirigham, Usha's husband. We saw this kid in one of the Hindou temples while his parents were praying. So he grab an opportunity to eat big pieces of fruits...his mouth is full as you can see...
UAE
Islam (Dubai):
We had the chance to find Islam via Air Bnb. Islam is 33 years old, Egyptian, has 2 other brothers and has been living in Dubai for the past 7 years. Islam was so nice and wanted to show everything to us. He likes very much his city that he saw becoming bigger and bigger for the past few years. Islam has 2 cars (one brand new 4x4 and his first car: a 307 Peugeot), one big motorbike (he reached 280km/h once..crazy?!!?), a brand new bike, a surf board...and a Hamam in his flat. He likes his motor vehicles, partying, dancing, doing sports and travelling. His dream is to travel for a year as well but he would do as many countries as possible....Very funny and warm individual. Thanks Islam!
SRI LANKA
Mimi or "Mr Jones" & Vinz' or " The beach is for everyone" (Lille/France):
Waouuh! What a pleasure! Mimi is my 29 years old sister and Vinz', her husband, is my best friend's 29 years old younger brother. Mimi & Vinz joined us for 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. What a delight after 3 months without our beloved ones. Mimi bought this wonderful cap near Sigiryia rock and thus looked like this little young chinese actor in Indiana Jones who could not stop yelling "Mr Jooones...Mr Jones!!"...Vinz' was then called "Indy" for the rest of the trip....Whereas the below picture does not highlight this strongly, Vinz' is an adventurer: climbing coconut trees, fighting against wild dogs & monkeys and playing with the waves. On the latter, Vinz is a rising star in the waves and likes to be respected...if not "The beach is for everyone" will remind this to anyone who dares telling him to go further...
Gamini (Mirissa):
We met Gamini in Mirissa after walking along the beach to reach the 3rd little bay (West side) where we have heard we could do snorkelling. My sister, Mimi, Vinz' her husband, Agnes and I started snorkelling when we realised that there maybe turtles with us. We could not be sure as visibility is not great (High season and better visibility in South of Sri Lanka starts in November/December), so we started to talk with Gamini. He explained us that there was a family of turtles: 1 Mum, 1 Dad and probably 10 kids...He invites us to have fresh coconuts at his home. We met his wife, mother in law, niece and lovely girl Wishmini. Gamini has a Brittany flat in front of his house as his god father is French. He looks after his house during the year and use it as a small guesthouse when the French family is not around. We left Mirissa with Mimi & Vinz to go to Galle...Mimi & Vinz then went to Colombo to catch their flight back to France...Agnes and I thus decided to come back to Gamini's....To relax, enjoy our breakfast looking at the sea and turtles, sharing dinner with Gamini's family etc...what a pleasure! If you go to Mirissa, feel free to knock at Gamini's. You won't regret.
Dona & Luca (Uppuveli):
Dona & Luca were our host in Uppuveli where we stayed for 4 days to only do our PADI open water exam for us to be able to scuba dive up to 18m deep on our own. Dona is a typical Italian Mama...which means she cooks like probably the best chefs in the world....Luca is Lazio Roma fan...we called him "Mr Grumpy" (a nice version though) as it was the end of their season and was really really tired. For the Frenchies who knows, he is the Italian version of the French actor Jean-Pierre Bacri. At Dona's & Luca's we had a break of Rice & Curries and we enjoyed some of the best pastas we had in our life: my favourite was the Crab pasta (see pic in our foodies section) and Agnes particularly enjoyed the classic Carbonara pasta (with real ingredients and the Italian touch)...We can tell you that having them every evenings was a pleasure...particularly after the dives...
Kamal, Selvi and Aby (Karainagar):
Mayoran, Theeban and Edinparo from left to right (Karainagar):
These three guys are very good friends and indeed their cricket team is called "Good Friends". They are one of the best cricket team in Karainagar as they often reach the final of tournaments. Edinparo (pronounced Edinburgh), 26 years old, lives at Kamal and Selvi's. He lost his mum a couple of years ago and his father works abroad. Kamal and Selvi consider him like their son and he is very close to Aby who is now like his little sister. Edinparo studies media in Jaffna and passed his exam to get the Tuk Tuk driving license so that he can earn pocket money. The other 2 guys are 24 and 23 years old. They live nearby behind the church, they work as plumber and electrician. In the evening, the 3 guys usually come to Kamal and Selvi's to have a chat, use the internet, eat a bit and play cards together. It's worth mentioning that Mayoran is a very good singer...He gave us a good demo with very romantic songs!
Kowsika (Oori):
Kowsika is a very serious pupil in grade 7. She is 12 or 13 years old. Kowsika is always smiling. She lives in Oori and her father is a fisherman like most of the pupils at the school. Her mother is a housewife...again like all mothers in Oori. All the families in Oori belong to the low cast. The cast system is very much present here in North Sri-Lanka amongst Tamil people.
Hariharan & Mithuharad (Karainagar):
We met these 23 and 24 years old men at Kamal's and Selvi's. They are working for a NGO linked to the UN and are responsible of educating people on the minefield risks. Mines have been partially taken out from this region and thus people need to be able to recognize them and call a specialist to remove them.
Nithursan, Vithursan, John and one of their friends (Oori):
We met these 3 boys for the first time at a cricket match without knowing that we would see them everyday for our English courses. They are all 9 years old, are very good students, can easily introduce themselves, and participate actively in class. But very good students does not mean quiet...
Mithursha (Oori):
Mithursha was not here during the holidays period so we discovered her one week after the English lessons started. She is 11 years old, speaks very well English, but is so talkative and makes consistently her girlfriends laugh that I had to ask her to go out of the English class once. We like this talented clown though.
Unknown (Jaffna):
Unknown (Jaffna):
Nilmini & Christian (Kandy):
Nilmini & Christian were our host for 3/4 days in Kandy. She is from Sri Lanka and he is from Austria. They met on January 1st 2000 in the Cure Center owned by Nilmini. A few years before, she was told that a white man would come at her place and they would marry each other...So it helped convincing Christian ;-) They are a lovely couple, very calm, zen etc. We shared our breakfasts and dinners together and thus talked a lot about the country, politics and the civil war which will be useful for the following part of our trip. They took care of Agnes who had high temperature (39.1 degrees) with natural medicine and great food.
Thissa & his son Isura (Kandy):
We met Thissa and Isura when we found our location in the street of Kandy to watch the famous parade of Esala Perahera. Thissa kindly gave us lots of explanations about the parade's different items. After two hours, we left and say each other good bye. By chance we met them again at a cafe to have a tea. Thissa insisted to offer tea and biscuits...again, we are amazed by the Sri Lankans' warm welcome. Thissa has two boys and two girls, is electrician and lives south of Kandy.
Dijen and his family (Colombo):
Dijen, Nirupa and their kids hosted us for our first 5 days in Colombo. We have been so lucky to find them. They are a catholic and well educated family. We even met one of Dijen's sister who is a surgeon in the UK and we will undoubtedly meet her again in London when we will be back. We shared lots of conversations with them, dinner etc. Nirupa has a small business - she bakes some great cakes like lemon, chocolate cakes and lots more….we tried them and yes they were amazing…we will definitly share recipes (if they accept)…
Danu (Genk & Colombo):
Piyaseeli (Mount Lavinia/Colombo):
Piyaseeli is 72 years old, neighbour of Danu, who invited us for a great dinner. What a lovely lady. She has been working at the Mount Lavinia hotel for 25 years as the housekeeping supervisor. She was managing more than 70 people. She took the time at her place to show us her certificate of "Employee of the Month" in 1972, her family pictures etc. You could see that she was very proud of what she and her family have achieved.
Mouhamad (Colombo):
Mouhamad works in the Pettah market from Monday to Sunday from 6am to 7pm. His specialities are fruits and vegetables and was so kind to explain us what they were all about. He has 2 girls and 2 boys. Lovely man…great smile...again!
TANZANIA & ZANZIBAR
Omar (Kizimkazi):
Omar seems to have succeeded in his business...he has a big house slightly outside the village with a nice garden. He is currently building new rooms to welcome guests. Most importantly Omar was driving our boat when we swam with dolphins and we were very lucky to have him as he knew what he was doing. We were alone in the sea...swimming for 2.30h in the water to have the chance to swim near dolphins...check the video out in our Welcome page. Finally Omar took some time with us to visit his village (the brothel as well hum hum...) and meet with the locals.
Mohamed (Jambiani):
Mohamed has a small place on the beach...specialised in sea food. You come at lunchtime to see what fishes and sea food he got from the morning and order for the night. We had our first crab and lobsters there....our feet on the sand...that was great!
Carola & Mado's family (Kiwengwa):
We stayed at Carola & Mado's new business "Kamili View" via Air Bnb and that was great. First of all we had all the comfort we needed to relax after a journey in Kibweni, but more importantly, we had a great time with them. They kindly invited us to share their sunday in the North of Zanzibar with their kids, they gave us lots of tips about Kiwengwa, about the best local spots to buy food (and that was great)...and they were very nice to us offering us presents etc...Carola, Mado, if you want to come to London from July 2014, feel free to come to us ;-) It would be a pleasure to have you at our place.
Tatu (Kiwengwa):
Tatu is Carola's daughter (Carola is our italian host in Kiwengwa - North East coast). She is so cute! She is 4 years old and speaks Italian, English and Swahili fluently although she is reluctant to speak Swahili to the locals and reply in English to them!
Kibweni kids (Zanzibar):
Kids from Kibweni (a village located 6km north of Stonetown where we stayed for 6 days) were so cute...they always came to us to shake hands, to speak the English that they learnt at school...and to speak Swahili as we tried to do so: "Jambo", "Mambo", "Karibu"..etc
Maoulid (Milainani):
Maoulid is 70 years old and still a fisherman. We were walking on a beach north of Stonetown (6km) and saw a beautiful sailing boat coming to shore. We waited for it...expecting namely to buy some fresh fishes...And we met Maoulid...he sold us 4 fresh cuttle fishes that we used for dinner.
The Kilimanjaro stars:
David (Arusha), "Pole, Pole"
David was our head guide for the Kilimanjaro trip. He has a natural charisma, he is zen and keeps his calm in all situations. He was heading a team of 48 porters, cook, guides & logistics staff like a true leader...and kept all of us (24 participants + 48 staff) motivated all the way through! David told us from the beginning to walk "Pole, Pole" which means slowly in Swahili to have better chances of reaching the top...and WE DID IT from the beginning...So we were almost the last ones all the way through! But it meant we reached the summit without getting sick!
Arnold (Arusha), "the Choir Master"
Arnold is Agnes' life saver for the ascent, he kept on singing all the way through to keep us motivated (check the video out in the Welcome section for evidence)! Arnold is indeed a choir master at the Church; that's why he kept on singing Swahili songs during the 6 days! He also has one of the biggest smiles seen on the camp at Kilimanjaro. Arnold was part of the Logistics team and made sure the camp was ready before we arrived every single day.
Methew (Arusha), "Eat, eat, eat...drink, drink, drink"
Methew, Mathei (or Matteo as we called him at the beginning) was like a Mum to us. He woke us up everyday with a cup of tea or coffee in our tent (like a breakfast in bed) and then made sure we ate enough food (4000 calories a day) and drank enough fluid (4/5 L a day)...he always whispers "eat, eat, eat and then drink, drink, drink...". We will say that a lot in this section but Mathei's smile is always there and I can say he is pretty good looking:) (dixit Agnes).
KENYA
Isaac (Nairobi)
Isaac has so far the greatest smile that we have seen. He works in a restaurant located in the centre of Nairobi which is very popular among workers. We went to the restaurant on a Saturday so was quieter than usual but we were happy to be able to talk to him. He was going back home at 3pm and was looking forward to going to church the following day. He also told us half of people from Nairobi are muslims and half are christians.
Adriel (Nairobi)
Adriel was our first host when we arrived in Nairobi. I initially thought he looked like Morgan Freeman (a smaller and older version though), but the more time we spent with him, the less I was talking to the actor. Anyway, Adriel is a very interesting character and probably one of the pioneers in using AirBnB in Nairobi. He started in 2009 with one guest a year, then two the following year to be the best place in the Kenyan capital nowadays.
COLOMBIA
Dona Rosaria (Tolu)
Dona
Rosaria was the chef of our canteen in Tolu (on the Colombia
Caribbean coast) where we stayed for a week. Her small restaurant was
a treat for us: with a view on the sea, we had loads of fresh fruit
juice such as mango, pineapple or guanabana (a typical caribbean
fruit)...what a treat! In terms of food, we had some great seafood
dishes: calamars and its delightful coconut sauce and langostinos al
ajillo (garlic king prawns...)...We also had fishes or prawns with
these two sauces. Everytime the sides were the same...a yummy coconut
rice with the fried banana plantains (which is in the end like
fries)....a bit stuffy...Anyway, we have enjoyed a lot eating at Dona
Rosaria. On the picture, you can see her wearing a typical headband
most of the women from 3 years old to 99 ;-) wear. I really like this
and you will see that Agnes has adopted this caribbean style.
Alejandra (Tolu)
We
met Alejandra in small paradise that is called El Babilla in Tolu...a
small villageon the Colombian carabbean coast 4hours by bus from
Carthagena. Tolu is reknown for Colombian people from all over the
country but not at all for foreigners...so it was paradise for this
reason. But not only...the air of Tolu (warm and slightly windy), the
hammocks on the roof terrasse of Alejandra's house, the seafood of
Dona Rosaria, the sea, the sun, the tropical rain, the laid back
atmosphere of the people chilling out outside their homes on rocking
chairs, the colors, the tropical fruits etc. were also reasons why we
felt in paradise a few weeks from going back home....to come back to
the point...Alejandra is a funny charactere, always over enthusiastic
but also very shy...she did not even want to have her pic done (as
you can see on the pic)...she is marrie witha German guy, Joerg, and
is managing her house with two young boys....the room we had at
Alejandra's was voted by us the best room in our entire world
trip....firstly it had a massive double bed with very firm mattress,
a very effective fan and most importantly 2 windows and a terrace
door which we kept open to get some nice breeze! It was great to
sleep with this nice natural breeze which was warm and fresh from the
sea... Another paradise thanks to Alejandra.
Carlos (Cusco)
Carlos is in
his 50's and lives in Cusco, Peru. We met him and his wife in Cusco where we
stayed at their wonderful colonial house. As you can see, Carlos loves his
pyjama! We could see him in his pyjama until midday everyday!! We shared
delicious breakfast with him and his wife and breakfast consisted in fresh home
made fruit juice, fresh bread from the market, home made blueberry jam and
granederia fruits which looks like grenade fruits but better. I forgot the
local cheese which Guillaume was keen on. We also loved when Carlos was
praising all the good things about Peru (best food in South-America, nicest
people, most beautiful country...etc). Carlos & his wife Jackie were the
perfect hosts sharing lots of tips and entertaining us with good discussions! It
was a relaxing time in Cusco at locals'. Muchas gracias Carlos & Jackie!!
Marco Antonio Gonzalez (Cusco)
Marco
Antonio Gonzalez was a special guide to show us Cusco around!! He is part of
the free walking tours in Cusco and relies on tips to get paid!! And guess
what, it is working very very well!!! This mainly due to Marco being quite
talented! He keeps on making jokes in his microphone, sharing tips on how NOT
to pay to visit the Cathedral or museums. I took the time (in between the
speeches and the other 50 tourists) to ask Marco where he went to learn English
as his English was excellent! To this he replied that he never went to an
English speaking country...Marco was born in the Amazonian part of Peru near
the Brazilian border...64hours' journey to Cusco!! He left the jungle when he
was 7... He told me he lived in the street for 5 years and was a shoe shiner..
As he was hyper active and always needed to learn new things, he decided to
study English on his own and study archeology/ history... He said that because
of his hyper activity he learns fast but forgets quickly as well unless he is
passionate! And we could feel his passion when he walked us around Cusco to
share his thoughs on the history, culture, people and the local traditions!!
Thanks Marco for this entertaining visit and the free Pisco sours.. We are sure
your walking tours are a success and we wish you all the best for the future!!
When in Puno/Peru, we did the traditional tour of the Uros floating islands
and Taquile island. Although the Uros islands are very touristy, we
quite enjoyed this trip over there. On the picture, you can see Nelly
and her niece... As you can see, the Uros women are a bit over
sized:)... It's because they live on these tiny floating islands and
they don't move much. Also they eat very fatty food. Los Uros are people
who originally came from the north of existing Chile. They had their
own language and own traditions. When they settled down on these
floating islands on Lake Titicaca, they started to mix with people from
Puno and their language is now Aymara. Legend says the Uros have black
blood in their body and they can't drown! They live indeed on islands
made of reeds and everything on the island is made of reeds including
their houses, their boats... There are about 40 of these islands on the
lake and each island is a small community living of hunting, fishing and
now of tourism with the handicraft tourists buy. What we found funny is
that there is a special island for all toilets for everyone!! So
imagine if you need to go in the night, you have to take a boat and go
to the "toilet island":)
Anthony & Chris (London)
Anthony is my ex-colleague from Insight Investment. He used to work within the investment writing team and decided to resign at the exact same moment as me, to go on a two year world trip. We had the chance to meet Anthony and Chris, his wife, in Cochabamba/Bolivia where she is actually volunteering. For the past 10months, they have been travelling overland throughout the Americas, North, Central and South, starting in Alaska and finishing soon in Patagonia. The will then enjoy New-Zealand, Asia and Europe. Anthony is not only an investment writer, he is currently writing a book on his trip...Cant wait to read it! Funny note on Anthony: he can also be a security adviser in South America...he had two wallets...(a true and a fake one), he hides money in his pants ;-)...we made fun of him...even if it is worthwhile to say that they never had any issues..."bon"..he admitted he was a bit paranoied...hein Anthony? We shared a lovely day all together in Cochabamba...and we look forward to see them again in London! All the best with your travels!!
Carine & Kai (Bristol)
We met Kai and Carine in San Pedro de Atacama in the bus on our way
to Uyuni and the salt flat for a 3 day trip to Bolivia..Little did we
know at that time that we will have dinner with them every single night
for the following 15 days!!!
Kai and Carine are British or "Roast beefs" as we like to call the
English! They are respectively 29 and 23 years old and they live in
Bristol. Kai is half electrician half hairdresser...we have seen his
hair dressing talents when he took his cisors to improve
Guillaume's self made haircut! Carine is half French from her Mum and
half English from her Dad. She studied foreign languages at Uni and we
were glad she spoke Spanish fluently to be our official translator!
Kai loves SHOPPING!!! When we were with them, he bought one T-shirt
(mainly football T-shirt) every single day!! So Guillaume was ashamed to
wear the same 2 shabby T-shirts all the time next to Kai who looks like
David Beckam;). Kai is also a real carnivore
and nobody can beat him in a meat eating competition...We shared with
them numerous meals...but the best one remains the "Fondue de Carne" or
Fondue Bourguignonne in Potosi! We went there 2 evenings in a raw to eat
this delicious meat! Carine is also always
very chic and she always laughs at Guillaume´s jokes or when he speaks
Spanish with his legendar French accent. Carine is a Foodie like
us...French roots of course! We loved talking about the French food
we miss! She also likes ordering wine or cocktails at
dinner and...we have never so much drunk and eaten during this trip
than with these Brits;)..well me at least!
We really loved spending time with you "chicken";) and can´t wait to
see each other in Bristol or London after we are all back to normal life!
"Muchaaaas Graciiiaaas Amigos" dixit Kai exactly like Brad Pitt when he says
"Ariverdacci" in Inglorious Bastards with a very strong
American accent...
CHILE
German (San Pedro de Atacama)
We met German ( to be pronounced "Herrman") in San Pedro de Atacama as we were walking on the main street. He must have heard us speaking French as he straight away talked to us in a perfect French. German initially told us that instead of us going on a tour to visit the surroundings with a big bus, he could take us with his own jeep privately. We felt like in good hands straight away. Anyway, we spent a full day with him to visit the salar, some lakes an volcanoes (see our pics in the Chile section) and we had time to speak about each other. German left Chile when he was 10 to go to France with his parents, brothers and sisters. After being harassed or tortured ( his Auntie) under the Pinochet dictature, his family decided to quit everything and go to Paris. German thus spent all his life in France and only came back to Chile 6 months ago. He is ths very French and for example knows all the jokes of the famous "les inconnus"...we laughed a lot about this. He met his Chilean wife in Paris and decided to come to San Pedro to start a new life. All the rest of his family are still in France including his 15 years old daughter he had with a Chilean lady. His feedbacks about France are mixed especially in terms of integration. He felt like a kind of "wild indigen or indian" in the eyes of a few Frenchies. Anyway we know that we, the Frenchies, are not a model in terms of integration, welcome and difference acceptation. Anyway, it was great to discuss with him, to visit the country, to share drinks afterwards etc...I almost forgot to mention a funny moment when we saw a fox in the desert coming to our car... He was so closed that I kind of panicked and yelled at him and Agnes to close their windows... He then shouted at me so hard that I felt like a little boy...he explained to me that there was no way the fox would have attacked us etc etc....anyway, if you come to San Pedro ask for German, you wont regret.
We met Louis and Bessie thanks to our London Spanish close friend, Miguel. Bessie is working for our group, BNY Mellon, here in Santiago and Miguel introduced us to each other. Louis is from England (Bradford) and Bessie from Santiago. They have a lovely 4 years old little girl, called Grace. She is so funny when playing dominos against me...she kept on singing "Yo Yo, vamos a ganar..."..and I lost against her ;-). We had the chance to spend some times with them at their home or in Santiago, enjoying some nice drinks (especially for Louis and Agnes..Pisco Sour, White Russians etc...) and some proper food. We were for Easter at their home, and Bessie cooked the best fish soup ever....forgot to mention that as a starter we had an Octopus with an olives marinade. Worth to say that Louis is a video games addict (it is his job to create games) and a whisky lover (he does not remember, but he told me lots of things ;-) Bessie is very sensitive especially if you mention her driving skills...be careful...We feel very lucky to have met them!!
Rene (Berlin)
We met Rene, a 32 years old German guy from Berlin, at the Grey refugio at Los Torres del Pain in Patagonia. What a nice guy. He is doing a 6 months trip over South America after having worked for FIFA and separated from his girlfriend. We shared some nice moments smoking cigarettes while being outside one afternoon relaxing after long walks....We mentioned to him that we would do the kayaking session near the glacier but unfortunately he did not have enough cash with him, nor his visa. I decided to lend him money....and we all went kayaking. What a terrific moment....! The following day when we left each others, Agnes and her Mum kept on teasing me like..."you will never see your money again ;-)..." Oh Guillaume did you get an email from Rene?"...People from the North of france, like me, are very nice ;-) and generous ;-) at the contrary of the people from South of France so we kept on teasing each other on this...but anyway, Rene's Mum transferred me the money in two days....Agnes & Yolande could then apologise to me. Anyway, we met Rene one week later in Puerto Varas....to exchange on our travels. We may see him again, in Bolivia or Peru..you never know...
Elena & Alfredo (North of Chiloe)
Elena and Alfredo are from Santiago but we met them in Chiloe, on the North East part of this island before walking on the beach. After our car adventure, we decided to leave our vehicle before a rough road to reach the ocean. A 4x4 came in our direction and invited us to jump in there car to reach the ocean quicker. This was Elena and Alfredo who were going to fish. We ended up spending the whole day with them, walking in the sand dunes, fishing (nothing as usual...), finding some nice Agathes on the beach, having lunch and drinking a lot ;-) This afternoon was very special and once again we can say that Agnes and I are witness of the Chilean people's kindness.
Nyi Nyi (North of Chiloe)
Yolande (Montpellier)
NEW ZEALANDElena and Alfredo are from Santiago but we met them in Chiloe, on the North East part of this island before walking on the beach. After our car adventure, we decided to leave our vehicle before a rough road to reach the ocean. A 4x4 came in our direction and invited us to jump in there car to reach the ocean quicker. This was Elena and Alfredo who were going to fish. We ended up spending the whole day with them, walking in the sand dunes, fishing (nothing as usual...), finding some nice Agathes on the beach, having lunch and drinking a lot ;-) This afternoon was very special and once again we can say that Agnes and I are witness of the Chilean people's kindness.
We met Nyi Nyi after we had a nice walk in Chiloe, in the North East part of the island where there are usually pinguins; but they were already gone to their next place. He was hitch hicking on the way back to our hostel and Agnes decided to help him. Nyi Nyi is from Myanmar but has been travelling and working in South America for more than 20 years. He has two kids, one living in the North with his Mum and the other one in the South with another Mum. He is not the kind of man to stick to one place or one family... His life is about travelling. He used to work in big boats all over the world as number 3 after the captain role. We had a long journey with him. We were supposed to drop him off near our farm, at Sonja's but it will end up differently. For info, on the way to the beach the countryside road was very tricky at parts with steep hills made of rocks etc. which was quite tough for our rental car, a Samsung (is that not a mobile phone brand?). On the way back with Nyi Nyi, we took the wrong road which at first looked similar but little by little we realised that it was more and more difficult. Chiloe being the wettest area in Chile, we were soon surrounded by mud, pond of mud etc...i was driving and at one point we got stuck. It was 6.30pm (we were around 20min away from our farm hostel) and with no house nearby. We thus decided to find wood and leaves for the tyres to get a grip, Agnes took the driving wheel, and Nyi Nyi, Yolande and I where at the back pushing the car. For info Nyi Nyi and I already had our shoes and bottom parts of trousers covered with mud. This operation lasted around 30/45min. We were soon in the night but luckily it was full moon so the visibility was not that bad. The car was already dirty inside and outside ;-). Agnes kept on driving while Nyi Nyi and I were walking ahead with a torch to check the road state. When we left the first area, a few meters ahead, we got stuck again. Same story, we were full of sh...i even put my whole right shoe in a big cow poo ;-) but at this stage, our only wish was to get out of this situation. We were supposed to have dinner at 9pm at Sonja's. It was soon 8.30pm and we decided to call Sonja but no answer. Little by little we realised that we had 3 choices: 1. Sleep in the car or 2. Leave the car behind and try to find a house or 3. Get out of here ;-) that is why for each operation we did our best: agnes was like Schumacher, Nyi Nyi and I the ones pushing the car wih our feet and hands dirty and Yolande...??!? (As a typical mother in law she was just commenting everything without doing anything useful...arrghhhh ;-). No sorry I forgot something: Yolande took the driving wheel once for us three to push the car from behind...but it did not work...she accelerated so much that the wheels threw mud on our faces and created some smelly smokes...i remembered having screamed like "stooop this "...Yolande later admitted that she forgot to pull in the hand break :-)))))). (Mothers in law are always like this ?!?!;-) Anyway, to cut it short, at around 10pm, we arrived in front of an "ocean" of water and mud...we thought "ok, we will have to leave the car here and try to find help;-) ("i screamed more than once "ayuda...ayuda")...luckily there was a house nearby with light on. Nyi Nyi and I screamed, Agnes horned and 3 men came to us. It was a 60's years old man Alphonso, Sonja's brother in law, and his two 30ish's sons. So funny and lucky to find them. One guy took our car, knew the pond and found a way to get out of this ocean of mud. Then Alphonso explained to us that we were not far, we arrived at 10.30pm at Sonja's who was worrying about us. We had a great dinner all together, washed our shoes, took a shower and went to bed, relieved. We ended up naturally inviting Nyi Nyi to sleep over (as otherwise he should have used his tent and gas cooker outside) as without him, we would have probably slept in the car that night in Chiloe. What a great small adventure we had with Nyi Nyi, a Burmese in Chiloe.
Yolande (Montpellier)
Yolande is Agnes' Mum and thus my mother in law (for the sceptical yes yes she is ;-). She celebrated her xx's birthday recently and thus Agnes suggested her to come along with us in Chile. Being xx's old, Yolande is still young in her mind. And her physical conditions follow too. She managed to come with us trekking in Los Torres del Paine national park for 4 days!!! She could have been a pain in terms of needed comfort but she was very easy going... The only thing she wanted was "heating system" in each accommodation we were, dormitory or private rooms. It is worth saying that Yolande spoke Spanish very well and was thus our official translator for our first two weeks here in Chile. Then, as you could have understood in Nyi Nyi's portrait, Yolande is also a mother in law which implies lots of tiring and annoying stuffs but this would not counter balance with the great two weeks we ha with her in Santiago, Patagonia and Chiloe. By the way, Yolande does not like talking about her age...that is why "xx´s" ;-)
Hamish, Dominique, Salvador and Dominique's Mum (Bayview in Hawkes Bay)
Hamish looks like a
wild guy at first impression…for sure he is but also very amiable! We found him
by luck! After we spent some time at Pam’s dairy farm, we asked her if she knew
someone who was working in a vineyard for us to give a hand. She contacted her
daughter who lives in Hawke’s Bay and she put us in contact with someone who
advised us to contact Crab’s Farm winery…aka Hamish! Anyway long story but
Hamish agreed straight away for us to come and do some gardening! We were
delighted when we saw the vineyard…nice entrance with a rustic restaurant and
the grape vines everywhere. The ‘wine factory’ was a delight for our
nostrils…as Hamish was tasting red wines and what would be a nice 2014 vintage!
So here we were…we started gardening as we became experts and Hamish offered to
pay us in wine bottles! Oh yeahhh!! Also we were fed at the restaurant with
mussels, fresh fish, scallops, fries and all you can drink beer…Paradise!
Hamish is 50 or so and
he spent 2 years in Corsica a long time ago to learn the French wine
techniques….that is why his red Puketa is so goodJ and also why he likes us froggies. We also met
Dominique, his wife who invited us to spend the last day at their own
house…waouhhh…what a nice atmosphere! Gardening with tea breaks under the tree,
some Sauvignon Blanc, toast with pate, fruits from the trees…I remember the
first time I tasted their Golden peaches…which look like apricots…this was such
a delight! Dom and her son Salvador (who has a perfect bodyJ) welcomed us like
family and it felt good after living from campsite to campsite in Nicky’s (our
van). Hamish and Salvador are both huge fans of Lords of the Rings and they
wanted to share their passion with us! There was an argument on which part of
the movie was the best and we finally ended watching the Rohan war in Hamish’s
room on the big flat screen (this is Salvador’s best part). I mistook one of
the characters for a girl and we started to throw jokes at the movie (which to
our point of view is OKish)….Hamish was watching from his bed which made it
even funnier. I forgot to say that Dom is a fine cook and we had our best lamb
roast with a superb gravy at their place!! With nice wine of course!
For a bit of story
about the vineyard, the land used to be sea back in 1936 until the big Napier
earthquake raised the ground to earth level and created additional land. That
is why Hamish called Crab’s Farm as it used to be full of crabs at low tide
back in the 30’ies. This experience at this vineyard gave us a strong
willingness to own a big house with a big garden and maybe grow our own grape
vines one day…who knows!
Vic Herring (Gore, South of Queenstown) & Pam Williams (Waikaka):
Vic
& Pam were our first hosts in NZ. After spending our first week here/Queenstown
with my sister, husband & kids, we headed south to Waikaka (near Gore) to
try to find a job (“woofing opportunity”= 6h/day job with no salary but free
food & accommodation). We stayed overnight at a campsite, cooked one of our
first proper meals, Moroccan keftas & couscous, and went to bed after a
nice walk in a typical NZ bush full of birds, dense forest etc. Early morning
(roughly 8am), Agnes could hear someone horning at us…I was deeply asleep…we
did not wake up until 10amish…I went out of the van in light clothes when a man
(Vic), came to me with a mowing machine…and said in his very funny Kiwi accent
something like:”hey..oh…gosh…lazy you….did not you hear my horn this morning?
Didn’t you feel the van shaking this morning? I tried to wake you up”. I
replied something like: “euhhhh, no….”…he then said something like: “no, I did
not shake the van, but I saw it shaking a lot this morning”…chicky Vic…here we
go…we straight away saw that we were dealing with a really funny character….but
also very Kiwi…Let me explain you why…So we kept on talking and after 2
minutes, when he realised that we were French, oh my god, he straight away
swore at us (with a smile and chicky face of course and moaned about the
Rainbow warrior story that created a big diplomatic clash between France &
NZ in the 80’s after France and its secret services decided to blow in the
Auckland harbour a Greenpeace boat that was protesting against the French
nuclear test in the Pacific ocean (Mururoa). By the way the French secret
services killed two Greenpeace people…The story was big as two French secret
services employees were arrested….France threatened NZ on the economical
front…and NZ ended up freeing the two Frenchies who were guilty of having
killed two people….Anyway (big shame on us) and to cut it short…we loved Vic,
who was actually working for the local council and thus the campsite…. And we
told him about our wish to work in a dairy farm….he straight away thought about
his new girl friend…Pam, who is heading a 680ish cows dairy farm. We were
welcomed at Pam’s as true kids….having our own comfy bedroom, proper food like
roast lambs, cottage pie, BBQ etc…We also cooked a typical French dinner for
them once including my sister’s chocolate fondant recipe….yummy…Hope Pam will
be able to do it again on her own next time. Regarding work, as the dairy farm
was very automatic and required some technical skills we ended up cleaning the
hens’ field, carrying some woods from one place to another, mowing the grass of
her fields with a mini car (that was really great as a job…) and more
importantly cleaning the glasshouse, change the soil, planting new seeds,
creating a new irrigation system to create a real veggie garden! We loved our
time at Pam’s…we are so grateful to her! Long life to you both!
Carol & Stan (Wellington)
We met Stan & Carol
via Air BnB in Wellington. We wanted a break after sleeping in the van and also
to be able to meet nice people. And it worked well. Stan & Carol are in
their 60’s…have their kids working in NZ and China and have enjoyed meeting
foreign people via this Air BnB concept. Stan was very very very talkative…and
nice of course. We arrived around 11.30pm from our boat coming from the south
island and he was here to wait for us, and to explain everything to us….so
funny character…he could not stop. He kindly came with us in Wellington to show
us around. The following morning, we met Carol, his wife who was working in
their lovely garden and veggie garden…Agnes thinks that Carol fell in love with
me ;-) …for numerous reasons: 1st: she was keeping on saying to me:
you are so charming…so charming”. 2nd: she took my chicks between
her two hands once and looked at me like a real lover. 3rd. She
asked Agnes: “ How did you find him?”. Anyway, Carol was a very nice lady, a
nurse and was still working a few days in the week. She goes swimming everyday
at their local outdoor swimming pool. Stan is busy working in their other house
(central Wellington), to repair things, to create new rooms etc. Actually Stan
repaired two things in the van for us as he had all the equipment needed…We
shared a very nice evening all together around a nice red fish curry (that I
cooked) with some proper red wine from Stan and great fish from Carol, and a
nice cake cooked by Agnes for desert. Stan was so excited (as we were), it took him easliy 20min to take a picture of all of us before starting to eat. Carol was mad ;=) Thank you & see you in London next
year?
Caro. Jordane, Matteo & Ines (Queenstown):
Caro is my 33 old sister. She lives in Singapore with her husband, Jordan, and their two great and lovely kids, Matteo (6 years old) and Ines (2.5 years old)...Ines is actually Agnes' god daughter...My sister is a journalist and Jordan, engineer....we enjoyed seeing them more than usual this year, in Bangkok, in Singapore and here in NZ/Queenstown where we spent 1 week all together. We enjoyed Milford Sounds 9the fjords) together, some nice bike rides, walks etc....We felt so lucky to spend time with them and see the kids growing and growing...Ines was actually talking more and more and this was so funny...she was repeating everything you would tell her....At the end of our stay with them, Matteo and Ines were knowing by heart the following and were actually singing it very well: " Oh Yeah School is finished....Oh Yeah, let's go to Macdonald..."I apologise to both Caro and Jordan for this ;-)
Adrien & Aurelie (Saint-Etienne):
Here we go…another
French couple ;-)…After our skydiving session in the bay of islands, we decided
to head back to Coromandel Peninsula for its bird life and waves. We did not
have the luck to see the famous NZ birds, the Kiwis, even if we tried overnight
(it sounds stupid but Kiwis go out at night…) but we had the luck to meet Adrien
& Aurelie and surfed together for two days. They are both from Saint
Etienne (near Lyon ;-)…sorry guys…! Ok for those who don’t know Lyon and Saint
Etienne football teams are like Arsenal & Tottenham (all comparisons at
their own extents of course) and Aurelie is crazy about her football team
called “les Verts”. She even told us that her younger daughter is allowed to
swear only at one place: inside the stadium ;-). Adrien is more into Rugby though. Anyway,
they are both in their late 20’s and are doing a world trip for 9 months, kind
of honey moon…We enjoyed surfing together, it was their first time so we could
share our knowledge from our previous surfing sessions…(we are still beginners
though…) and what a joy for two days to improve our feelings and skills….We
shared two long days and evenings at a freedom campsite near Waihi beach and Adrien helped us finishing
the home made Brandy bottle (given to us by Hamish from Crab’s farm winery). Oh by the way, Aurelie was crazy about one thing: the Thermomix...apparently a kitchen revolution, a kind of mixer that can do everything...She made us laugh a lot. Let's see...Good luck to you guys for when you are back with all your projects (inc. Baby) & allez
les Verts!
Sophie & Xavier (France & Belgium):
Ps: sorry for the picture as we can't see their face but this will enable us to remember that they did swim with the duskin dolphins in Kaikoura and showed us their go pro videos and pictures.
We met Xavier & Sophie at one of the DOC (Department of Conservation) Campsites in Kaikoura. Xavier is from Lyon and Sophie from Belgium. They met in Belgium as they both studied physiotherapy there. They also lived in Lille up until last year. Now they have decided to take a year off in New Zealand. We liked our evening discussions at the campground talking about Lille, the North of France and Belgium. Guillaume felt at home sipping a nice beer...We also very much enjoyed our fishing expedition with them. They had 2 rods in their van and it was the first time they used them. None of us really knew what we were doing but we had great fun in throwing the rod into the sea!! Unfortunately for all of us, we didn't catch anything and had to eat pasta in the evening:( We came back "Broucouille" as the Frenchies would say....) Hope to see you In Lille...
Emilie & David (France):
Emilie & David are a lovely French couple we met at another nice DOC campsite in Queenstown. They are travelling around the world for 8 months and went to Canada & Argentina before heading to New Zealand for 2 months. Like us, they were the privileged owners of a nice Toyota Lucida Estima and shared with us great tips to sell it properly...We managed to meet Emilie & David again for 10 minutes or so around Christchurch before they caught their flights to Tasmania! Thanks to David who shared with us his experience in Bolivia, we may well volunteer in an animal refugee camp to look after the animals when we will go to Bolivia in May...To be followed...
Arnaud & Marina (Namur, Belgium):
Arnaud & Marina are both from Namur in Belgium. They chose to travel to New Zealand for 3 months or so. To earn some pocket money, they worked hard in a cherry farm in Alexandra, New Zealand where they got paid per bucket! Arnaud & Marina also met Emilie & David at the cherry farm and introduced us to them. Arnaud is a huge fan of Lords of the Ring and he bought a book to visit all the places where the movie was shot. When we met them at the DOC campsite in Queenstown, we followed our Lords of the Ring guide Arnaud for a morning walk to see a spot where a shooting was done in the Hobbits...Nice walk but not much emotion for us as we haven't seen the movie! We met Marina at a backpacking hostel in Queenstown where she was putting an ad to sell their van...guess which car it was? A Toyota Estima Lucida of course...it's like a gang! Now everytime we meet the same car as us on the road, we wave at them...like the bikers do...anyway these guys were really nice and we enjoyed a few 'aperitifs' with them in the campsite!
Lovely German couple (The Catlins):
This lovely couple saved our life...no not quite but they were very nice to us. We went for a late walk to see some nice falls in the Catlins and we left the car's lights on without paying attention. We also had a wee nap in the car...all together we stayed 2 hours with the lights on...and the car wouldn't start...battery was completely down. So we waited there on the car park until people came to see the falls...but it was 7.30pm already...and the car park was lost in the countryside, maybe 7km of gravel road from the main road...luckily one car turned up and it was this German couple! The guy took me in his car and drove me to the nearest village to ask for jumper leads (word we learnt at that time)...and the German lady stayed with Guigui waiting for us to be back...By 9pm, we were all sorted thanks to them! Otherwise we would have slept on the car park, which would have been OK as well as we have Nicky...
NEW CALEDONIA
Gaelle & Jerome (Noumea):
Gaelle and Jerome were not only our hosts in New Caledonia, but also our trip "tourist agency", our feeder, our entertainer all the way long, our driver for almost 2 weeks and became very special friends for us on the other side of the planet. Gaelle and Jerome are both 30 years old and decided last year after their honey moon in New Caledonia to move permanently to this beautiful island which is a small part of France in the middle of the Pacific (18000km from Paris and almost 2000km from Sydney in Australia). Jerome eats biscuits all day long...and is learning how to share them ;-)...Gaelle is a serial fish killer....When GuiGui was harpoon fishing with her once, she missed one parrot fish and straight away told GuiGui: "F..*...Kill it...Bloody F..*.Kill this F...* fish..."...
Christine and her old friend (Pines island):
Christine is a Melanesian (Kanak), she is more than 85 years old and she lives on the Pines Island...which is one of the most beautiful places to live in on earth (seriously)! Christine is the head of a large family with 9 kids. All her daughters followed their husbands wherever the husband comes from and all her sons stayed with her at the 'Family' house near the Kanumera bay. Now she has lots of grand children and also grand grand children...One of her sons (Yves) is heading the Atchu camping with his wife Louise. This is the best camping ever with beautiful sea views, nice fares (small huts with tables and chairs to eat out with electricity and fire), free kayaks to rent to go to small islands, free fresh fruits from the camping garden (limes, papayas, corosols, mangoes...etc), playing petanque with the Mela family, playing traditional cards game "Belotte" with the family and...etc. We met at this camping a very nice couple from Marseille and we shared with them the traditional bougna dish, which is no more than 5 kilos of pumpkin, kasava, taro and ignam boiled in coconut milk with fish or chicken...It was OK but a bit tasteless for us...Anyway Christine is the grandma of the family and she can speak for hours about her story, her family and she will always insist for us to sit down with her and eat papaya! On the picture she is with her very old French friend (we don't know her name). This lady in white lived 40 years on a boat alone and she is now living / travelling around Vanuatu. She seems to have enjoyed her life of adventures and was very delighted to see again her old friend from Pines Island.
MYANMAR
Nwe & Tony (Yangon):
Nwe and Tony were very special to us. They are a very nice Burmese couple. Tony is 32 years old and works for the merchant Marine as an engineer. Nwe is 23 years old and she just entered the job market after long years of study. Nwe can speak French, English and Burmese fluently (she only did 5 years of French at uni!). Tony speaks also English fluently. We met Nwe at the French Institute the first time thanks to Rose-Marie who helped us to find a good translator for the interviews we had with the patients at the clinic. We thought 2 interviewers would be better to get things done faster and Nwe told us about Tony, her boyfriend...that's how we met both of them! Outside the clinic, they also showed us Yangon...the Shwe Dagon pagoda, the Bogoke market, nice Indian restaurant in downtown...etc. We also had the chance to go to Tony's brother's wedding which was very special to us. We were very glad to have met this couple. Nwe is now working at the Chatrium hotel and we wish her all the best! We also hope Tony will pass his exams to get his promotion in the Marine.
The clinic's receptionists during lunch break (Yangon):
These 2 ladies were the main receptionists at the clinic where we worked at. We constantly asked for their help to get people with HIV to interview (for our study). We ended up having 108 interviews in total during 5 days and we can say it's largely down to these 2 ladies who were very helpful! At the reception, they welcolme roughly 200 to 300 patients everyday so one can say they are really busy all day long but they still take the time for a nice lunch break at the clinic's canteen where the picture was taken.
Nyi Nyi Aung (Yangon):
Nyi Nyi Aung is one of the project coordinators at Medical Action Myanmar. He was the one who welcomed us at the clinic, introduced us to the staff and explained the way the clinic was working. Without him we would have been lost. His experience in the microfinance sector was also key for us to well understand a few things + to get local contacts at microfinance cooperatives. For Christmas we went for a Karaoke, and Nyi Nyi was singing like a real crooner.
Florence (Yangon):
Florence is a young French lady who was working at the french Institute. Her main mission was to organise a Myanmar photo event early February. As we spent lots of time at the institute to get a good internet connection, we had the chance to meet her. We then spent a few evenings together...In her spare time, she was "Cine-Mixing" at a cool bar...what a nice French touch!
Khyo & his family (Yangon):
We met Khyo at Medical Action Myanmar (MAM) office. We started working in his small office as there were rooms so we started to chat. He is currently doing a PhD between Yangon, Bangkok and Oxford. He is currently focusing on Malaria and will return to Oxford late 2014. We spent one full day with him, his wife and their cute 6 years old daughter visiting a popular place 1 hour away from Yangon called Bago. We spent a nice Saturday all together, living like Myanmar people: having breakfast in a traditional family place at 7am, visiting temples and Buddhas, enjoying some nice local curries etc.
Marie and James were our flatmates in Yangon. James is a 27 year old American from Connecticut with a bloody strong American accent and who came to Myanmar to work as an independent consultant. Marie is French, we met her on our first day in Yangon at the French Institute and luckily she was looking for flatmates. Marie is working as a French teacher at the Yangon University + at the french Institute where she gives poem & singing classes. She will stay 9 months here. We spent and shared a few moments with her, out in our Hledan area or at the flat, watching movies.We gave her our four seasons of the French serie "Spiral" or "Engrenages" in French... It took her no more than 2 weeks to complete the 4 seasons...We hope to see her again in London or in France. She is so easy going and cool!
Charles (Yangon):
Before being "Charles", the very first days of our life in Yangon, it was "Mr Charles Bonhommes", Directeur Adjoint de la Coopération a l'ambassade de France. Charles has quickly become a nice person to talk with and see at the French Institute, which was a kind of headquarter for our work and get a decent internet access. Charles was also a long time friend of Jean Marc, Green Shoots' CEO...as 20ish years ago, they travelled across south east asia together. Charles was just settling in Yangon (He arrived 1 month before our arrival) with his wife and kid...Before that he had been travelling in the world (Asia/Africa) working for various organisations. He was so busy each time we saw it...and passionate about his work. The pic you can see below is for our last evening before heading to New Caledonia....Charles kindly came to have a few drinks with us....What a pleasure to have met him!
Aung (Inle):
Aung is in his 40's and we met him in the night bus from Yangon to Inle. We started discussing before departure as it often happens in Myanmar. The bus was very comfy but air con was on to prevent people to get sick...So we spent hours freezing + close to Inle at night, temperatures were close to 5-10 degrees... Finally after hours of not being able to sleep and after using my blanket on my head instead of my feet, Aung decided to offer me a nice winter hat ;-). We had a break around 4am during which we had a coffee...and Aung bought it there. Find the pick in the "See Us section". Aung is from Yangon but works in Inle at a cloths shop where you can see ladies sewing with cotton, lotus, silk....We visited him the day after and again we spent some nice time with him drinking nice coffees...Again...Aung represented one more time his country generosity by offering us lots of presents from his shop...Feel free to visit him at Inn Paw Khone in case you are on Inle...
Momo (Yangon):
"Momo" as she asked us to call her was the main assistant at the Medical Action Myanmar (MAM) office. If you have not yet followed MAM is the health partner of Green Shoots here in Myanmar. We spent lots of time there during our project and she helped us facilitating anything..the scanner, the printer,...appointments etc....MAM is lucky to have her and we would like to thank her for all her support.
Piaw, his parents and nephew (Inle):
Piaw is 18 years old and we met him at Inle as he his a boat driver. His boat is not with all the other touristic ones as they are not allowed to stay at the main pier. So we found him and his uncle a bit further. A probably less comfortable ship but what a great pleasure to see the lake from 6.30am to 4pm isn with Piaw. We had the chance to go to his home to meet with his parents and nephew, and share a cup of tea and some Myanmar snacks. Piaw was indeed taking this opportunity to take some cloths his Mum washed and ironed ;-)...He thinks that Inle is developing fast and maybe not in the right direction. There is less and less water (e.g. during summer seasons, there is no water around the on stilt houses...) and this is mainly due to deforestation on the mountains around the lake...
NEPAL
Madan Rai (Kathmandu):
We met Madan Rai thanks to Usha who is neighbour. Usha initially introduced us Madan as an agricultural expert….what he is of course. He has been working for FAO (UN Food and Agricultural Organisation) for a long time, is now "retired" from it and has now a new goal: changing the education system not only in Nepal but also all over the world. He has strong conviction and believes that the school concept that he has been experimenting for a few years by now should "create" individuals with good values, who understand the world basics, the fundamentals, who places priorities at the right places for a "better" and "sustained" world. Madan's education's 10 pillars are: 1. Languages (Nepalese, English, Chinese, Hindi…) 2. Nature/Science 3. Food (How to grow fruits and vegetables for example) 4. Shelter/Home (How to build a house) 5. Cloths (How to create its cloths) 6. Music/Sport (Team sports and art creativity) 7. Technology (Wire/Wheels..understand the electricity) 8. Body health (Sex/Yoga) 9. Social sciences (Economic, history) and 10. Creativity. Madan wants to give Experience more importance compared to Knowledge. In our traditional education systems Knowledge has taken too much place at the expense of the Understanding. Madan believes that the root of the world's important crisis (economical, ecological, moral crisis for example) should be tackled at the roots with a new education. We ended up visiting and living with the kids in the Diktel school.
Usha (Patan/Kathmandu):
Usha is like our second Mum in Nepal as she was the one to welcome us when we arrived there and after our long trek and experience in the Diktel school. We met her thanks to our London friends, Dipesh & Eugenie. She is so nice....and feeding us so well and...so much...it is very difficult to say no when she serves you for a third time ;-) Usha is 52 years old, always smiling, laughing and cooking. She has one girl and one boy, 25 and 21, who both live in Sydney. As she still works as a personal assistant for the Nepalese aviation department, we also spent some time with her retired husband, Dirigha. On their spare time, they like gathering with their respective families and friends to eat and play cards.
Kritika (Diktel):
Kritika is one of the 9ish years old girls living in our building with us and the female teachers (Boys and male teachers stayed at a nearby place. Kritika was very shy and spoke little English. She spent most of her time with her mates, Momota, Susmita and Tara. They usually help preparing meals, grabbing flowers for Dipawali, watching a bit of TV (yes..it was their holidays ;-), playing music and dancing.
Roshan (Diktel):
Roshan is one of the two 16 years old students sent to us by Madan Rai after our first Gokyo trek to do Lukla - Diktel by foot which is unusual for standards trekking trips. Roshan joined Madan's school a long time ago and was like experimenting Madan school concept together with private school. He lost his Mum when he was two, has not seen his father for three years and feels like in his family in Madan's school. Being one of the oldest students among 70 individuals gives him an important role. Roshan is very mature for his age, speaks a very good English (probably the best in Diktel) and was very helpful all the way to our destination. He would like to become a civil engineer or be a teacher in Madan's school. Personnaly we can see him as a strong politician...Finally, after a few days trekking with us, Roshan changed the time of the trek by creating two categories: when we asked him in the end how long it would take to reach this place today? He would answer: "4 hours for us...for you...7 or 8 hours ;-)"..we laughed so much...how crual!
Saujan(Diktel):
Saujan is Roshan's best friend and was helping us for our second trek from Lukla to Diktel. Compared to Roshan, Saujan is a bit more discrete but does not hesitate to express himself to laugh when necessary. According to Roshan, Saujan can be mad sometimes...Anyway we did not see this in him and we really enjoyed his calm in all circumstances...even if when I, Guigui (by the way, it is my name for the whole trip...much easier for everyone ;-), wanted to kill everyone after 8 hours of walking and realising that we still had to walk for 2 hours. For now, Saujan would like to become a environment teacher in Madan's school, enjoying playing football with the kids (by the way, every morning boys wake up at 5.30ish and play football for one hour...)..he is a defender and is a Barcelona fan...like most of the Nepalese that we met.
Sugham (Diktel):
Sugham is one of the 9 years old boys. You should know that they all wake up every mornings around 5.30am...and play football for roughly one hour. What a great idea to start the day. It is good for warming up our body, exercising and fun. Madan seems to insists on latter. Anyway, I had the chance to play in Sugham's team for one hour...and i can reassure you that if you need a number 6 in your team, get Sugham. He has 3 lungs and does not stop running ;-)
Rojina, Ninam and Hikam (Diktel):
Again, we can say that we found a "Mum" in Diktel with Rojina even if she could be our younger sister as she is 27 years old (or 28...I forgot). She is acutally a Mum for all the kids at the school. And how sweet she is...this must help her to better control the kids as they seem to be calm, respectful and mature. Every morning we had the chance to have Cafe Latte (fresh from the cow....mmmh...what a delicassy). Rojina is married with Madan's right arm and got two boys. Ninam, 3 years old is so funny, cannot stop talking, grabbing things (such as knives, matches ;-) for example) and playing music with whatever he finds. Again, this young boy seems to experience so many things and to be grown up for a young age. Ninam, was born prematurely and an helicopter had to rescue them from Diktel to spend a few months in Kathmandu. Ninam's younger brother is Hikam, "Mr Smile"....
We were not supposed to have a porter for our Everest trek but as our bags were either too big or too small, we had to take one big and one small bag. The big one weighted 17kilos and as my physical conditions are not great ;-), we decided to take a porter at our arrival in Lukla. We then met Ram, 23 years old man who was not a Sherpa (not from the high altitude mountain) but from slightly below Lukla. He did not speak much English so our communication was mainly working thanks to our imagination ;-) Each evening at our lodge, we played cards with him but not any games....we just played Memory. Easy to play and understand....Ram kept on improving all the way to Gokyo and down. We usually played together with other guides or porters. As for Kilimandjaro, we would not have had the luck to reach Gokyo Ri and see Everest and the Himalaya range without him so big thanks to him.
Stephan (Germany):
We met Stephan at our 3rd lodge on the way to Gokyo. We were exactly at Phortse Tanga in a lodge where we thought we were alone. But no. We were 4: Agnes, I, a South African 50's years old tourist who was sick and a 53 years old man from Germany, Stephan. At first when we arrived in the lodge, when I said hello...the host responded, a guide also but not him...so I thought this man won't be funny...anyway I was wrong. A few minutes later we started to discuss, drink teas, having dinner. Stephan lives in Germany on the other side of the French border near Metz. He runs a small business which is very very exciting: he produces organs. So we discuss about classical music (as far as we can go ;-) and enjoyed some nice "talitalitala" from him. What a pleasure and how interesting. Stephan is also a funny character and could not stop giving us enigma/challenges: such as: " You have 10 balls, one has a different weight. you have three tries to figure out which one it is?". Stephan was returning from Gokyo and gave us a few tips. A few weeks earlier he was at Everest base camp to celebrate his 53th birthday.
We met this lady on our way back from Gokyo to Lukla...Pempa owns a very special lodge in Thare, which is a tiny village (just her house actually) at about 4000m high. We had been walking for 7 hours when we arrived at the village and found this tiny lodge. We asked for a room and were offered one of the 3 bedrooms in the house. No bathroom, no running water, no electricity and toilets or rather a hole outside. The reception area is very small but very cute with splendid views over the mountains and a fire place in the middle to warm up. Pempa owns this lodge and she is the only person to look after everything (she prepares the fire with yak poo, she cooks for guests with fire (no gas) and no running water, she looks after the rooms). What was surprising is that the lodge is about 20 minutes far from any other house and Pempa is alone in there. But she seems happy about her life. She doesn't speak much English but we managed to share a few words and Guillaume played cards with her and our porter. We can say she has a very good memory as she was seriously competing with Guigui at the 'Memory' game.
Hillary school girl (Khumjung):
This very cute girl is 9 years old, she lives in Khumjung at about 3900m high and she is a Sherpa (cast living in the mountains). We met her with her brother just outside Khumjung and she was picking leaves from the ground to feed fire. We said 'Hello' to both of them and she immediately replied in a perfect English: "Good morning, how are you?"...then we started to talk and we were suprised how good her English was. We asked her if she was going to school and she confirmed she was...but she goes to a very special school called 'Hilary school' which is the very first school built by Sir Edmund Hilary (first climber to reach the top of Everest in 1953). Sir Edmund Hilary dedicated the rest of his life (after the ascension in 1953) to build schools, hospitals, airports and bridges in the Everest mountains. Thanks to him, thousands of kids can go to school and all people have access to a descent hospital. To reward the girl for being so good at English, I gave her a small gift that I received from Wishmi (the daughter of Gamini who we met in Sri-Lanka).
Dipesh (Diktel/Kathmandu):
Dipesh is 16 years old, the oldest of the family that we met on our way from Diktel to Kathmandu (250km by bus in 28 hours - 3 different buses ;-) A group of 13 people, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunties, uncles, spent Dipawali in Diktel and were like us on their way back to Kathmandu...Naturally and by curiosity, his father and him came to speak to us in a very good English to reassure us about the delays, the roads, to ask questions about France, the UK etc...We ended up sharing the evening Dal Baht and a room in a farm with them for 4 hours. The room was very weird...when people walked on the floor above us, one could receive dust and small rocks on its beds (you'd better have your mouth shut when sleeping). Very friendly and helpful individual whois currently studying hotel management....I believe he will definitively improve the Nepalese hotel standards in the future (even if it should not be too hard).
Unknown kid (Kathmandu):
During our first day in Kathmandu, we realised that Usha was leaving walking distance to Patan Durbar Square, so we enjoyed a nice walk with Dirigham, Usha's husband. We saw this kid in one of the Hindou temples while his parents were praying. So he grab an opportunity to eat big pieces of fruits...his mouth is full as you can see...
UAE
Islam (Dubai):
We had the chance to find Islam via Air Bnb. Islam is 33 years old, Egyptian, has 2 other brothers and has been living in Dubai for the past 7 years. Islam was so nice and wanted to show everything to us. He likes very much his city that he saw becoming bigger and bigger for the past few years. Islam has 2 cars (one brand new 4x4 and his first car: a 307 Peugeot), one big motorbike (he reached 280km/h once..crazy?!!?), a brand new bike, a surf board...and a Hamam in his flat. He likes his motor vehicles, partying, dancing, doing sports and travelling. His dream is to travel for a year as well but he would do as many countries as possible....Very funny and warm individual. Thanks Islam!
SRI LANKA
Mimi or "Mr Jones" & Vinz' or " The beach is for everyone" (Lille/France):
Waouuh! What a pleasure! Mimi is my 29 years old sister and Vinz', her husband, is my best friend's 29 years old younger brother. Mimi & Vinz joined us for 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. What a delight after 3 months without our beloved ones. Mimi bought this wonderful cap near Sigiryia rock and thus looked like this little young chinese actor in Indiana Jones who could not stop yelling "Mr Jooones...Mr Jones!!"...Vinz' was then called "Indy" for the rest of the trip....Whereas the below picture does not highlight this strongly, Vinz' is an adventurer: climbing coconut trees, fighting against wild dogs & monkeys and playing with the waves. On the latter, Vinz is a rising star in the waves and likes to be respected...if not "The beach is for everyone" will remind this to anyone who dares telling him to go further...
Gamini (Mirissa):
We met Gamini in Mirissa after walking along the beach to reach the 3rd little bay (West side) where we have heard we could do snorkelling. My sister, Mimi, Vinz' her husband, Agnes and I started snorkelling when we realised that there maybe turtles with us. We could not be sure as visibility is not great (High season and better visibility in South of Sri Lanka starts in November/December), so we started to talk with Gamini. He explained us that there was a family of turtles: 1 Mum, 1 Dad and probably 10 kids...He invites us to have fresh coconuts at his home. We met his wife, mother in law, niece and lovely girl Wishmini. Gamini has a Brittany flat in front of his house as his god father is French. He looks after his house during the year and use it as a small guesthouse when the French family is not around. We left Mirissa with Mimi & Vinz to go to Galle...Mimi & Vinz then went to Colombo to catch their flight back to France...Agnes and I thus decided to come back to Gamini's....To relax, enjoy our breakfast looking at the sea and turtles, sharing dinner with Gamini's family etc...what a pleasure! If you go to Mirissa, feel free to knock at Gamini's. You won't regret.
Dona & Luca (Uppuveli):
Dona & Luca were our host in Uppuveli where we stayed for 4 days to only do our PADI open water exam for us to be able to scuba dive up to 18m deep on our own. Dona is a typical Italian Mama...which means she cooks like probably the best chefs in the world....Luca is Lazio Roma fan...we called him "Mr Grumpy" (a nice version though) as it was the end of their season and was really really tired. For the Frenchies who knows, he is the Italian version of the French actor Jean-Pierre Bacri. At Dona's & Luca's we had a break of Rice & Curries and we enjoyed some of the best pastas we had in our life: my favourite was the Crab pasta (see pic in our foodies section) and Agnes particularly enjoyed the classic Carbonara pasta (with real ingredients and the Italian touch)...We can tell you that having them every evenings was a pleasure...particularly after the dives...
Kamal, Selvi and Aby (Karainagar):
What can we say about Kamal, Selvi and Aby apart from the fact that they are now officially our Sri Lankan family. Not only, we have been so lucky to find this volunteering opportunity in Karainagar/Oori, but we also had the chance to find them and share a bit of their life, living at their place...with them. Their place is actually open to anyone and is great if you wantto meet with locals. Kamal is 32 years old, is a pastor who just go from people to people with his motorbike to discuss and help if necessary. He wants to bring foreigners to Karainagar to broaden their thoughts and open their eyes to the rest of the world. Selvi is 29 years old and was a Mum to us. She is the best chef of Sri Lankan food cooking everyday something fresh and different....oh my god...you finish your plate, she gives you some more, you say no..it does not work and she even serves you a third time. We probably put on weight..but it was worth it ;-). Their young daughter, Aby, is 2 years old. She is so cute and very cheeky. She called us "Andai" (Auntie for Agnes) and "Tata" (Oncle for Guigui).
Mayoran, Theeban and Edinparo from left to right (Karainagar):
These three guys are very good friends and indeed their cricket team is called "Good Friends". They are one of the best cricket team in Karainagar as they often reach the final of tournaments. Edinparo (pronounced Edinburgh), 26 years old, lives at Kamal and Selvi's. He lost his mum a couple of years ago and his father works abroad. Kamal and Selvi consider him like their son and he is very close to Aby who is now like his little sister. Edinparo studies media in Jaffna and passed his exam to get the Tuk Tuk driving license so that he can earn pocket money. The other 2 guys are 24 and 23 years old. They live nearby behind the church, they work as plumber and electrician. In the evening, the 3 guys usually come to Kamal and Selvi's to have a chat, use the internet, eat a bit and play cards together. It's worth mentioning that Mayoran is a very good singer...He gave us a good demo with very romantic songs!
Kowsika (Oori):
Kowsika is a very serious pupil in grade 7. She is 12 or 13 years old. Kowsika is always smiling. She lives in Oori and her father is a fisherman like most of the pupils at the school. Her mother is a housewife...again like all mothers in Oori. All the families in Oori belong to the low cast. The cast system is very much present here in North Sri-Lanka amongst Tamil people.
We met these 23 and 24 years old men at Kamal's and Selvi's. They are working for a NGO linked to the UN and are responsible of educating people on the minefield risks. Mines have been partially taken out from this region and thus people need to be able to recognize them and call a specialist to remove them.
Thambaya (Karainagar):
Thambaya, who is in his 50's, is Kamal's church treasurer. But we have also seen him delivering a speech at the cricket tournament, distributing water to poor families, playing cards with teenagers near roads....he is almost everywhere. He has lost his right leg after walking on a mine in the sea and has, thus, a prothesis instead.
Nithursan, Vithursan, John and one of their friends (Oori):
We met these 3 boys for the first time at a cricket match without knowing that we would see them everyday for our English courses. They are all 9 years old, are very good students, can easily introduce themselves, and participate actively in class. But very good students does not mean quiet...
Mithursha (Oori):
Mithursha was not here during the holidays period so we discovered her one week after the English lessons started. She is 11 years old, speaks very well English, but is so talkative and makes consistently her girlfriends laugh that I had to ask her to go out of the English class once. We like this talented clown though.
We met that lovely man for a few seconds on the way to Nallur festival. As soon as we saw each other, he made this nice gesture to tell us Welcome. Fantastic smile...but unfortunately we do not know his name.
Unknown (Jaffna):
We met this lovely man on the way out of the Nallur festival. Again, us being there created a sort of curiosity from him. He took us 10 minutes to explain him that we were from France. We finally used his walking stick to write "France" on the sand...we both agreed despite our accents difference ;-)
Nilmini & Christian were our host for 3/4 days in Kandy. She is from Sri Lanka and he is from Austria. They met on January 1st 2000 in the Cure Center owned by Nilmini. A few years before, she was told that a white man would come at her place and they would marry each other...So it helped convincing Christian ;-) They are a lovely couple, very calm, zen etc. We shared our breakfasts and dinners together and thus talked a lot about the country, politics and the civil war which will be useful for the following part of our trip. They took care of Agnes who had high temperature (39.1 degrees) with natural medicine and great food.
Thissa & his son Isura (Kandy):
We met Thissa and Isura when we found our location in the street of Kandy to watch the famous parade of Esala Perahera. Thissa kindly gave us lots of explanations about the parade's different items. After two hours, we left and say each other good bye. By chance we met them again at a cafe to have a tea. Thissa insisted to offer tea and biscuits...again, we are amazed by the Sri Lankans' warm welcome. Thissa has two boys and two girls, is electrician and lives south of Kandy.
Dijen and his family (Colombo):
Dijen, Nirupa and their kids hosted us for our first 5 days in Colombo. We have been so lucky to find them. They are a catholic and well educated family. We even met one of Dijen's sister who is a surgeon in the UK and we will undoubtedly meet her again in London when we will be back. We shared lots of conversations with them, dinner etc. Nirupa has a small business - she bakes some great cakes like lemon, chocolate cakes and lots more….we tried them and yes they were amazing…we will definitly share recipes (if they accept)…
Danu is from Sri Lanka but has been living in Belgium for 15 years. She is the kind of super active Mum who loves her cloths and perfumes…full of energy. She has a "baby" who is 19 years old and studying in Genk/Belgium. We met her at the department of Immigration where we had to extend our visa. Time was running out and we did not have enough money…without knowing us, she gave us $40. We then met her in her neighbourhood where we spent some time with her family and friends.
Piyaseeli (Mount Lavinia/Colombo):
Piyaseeli is 72 years old, neighbour of Danu, who invited us for a great dinner. What a lovely lady. She has been working at the Mount Lavinia hotel for 25 years as the housekeeping supervisor. She was managing more than 70 people. She took the time at her place to show us her certificate of "Employee of the Month" in 1972, her family pictures etc. You could see that she was very proud of what she and her family have achieved.
Mouhamad (Colombo):
Mouhamad works in the Pettah market from Monday to Sunday from 6am to 7pm. His specialities are fruits and vegetables and was so kind to explain us what they were all about. He has 2 girls and 2 boys. Lovely man…great smile...again!
Antonio (Colombo):
Antonio (I did not believe him at first) is half Spanish (from his dad), half Sri Lankan. He has been living in Marbella for 15 years and was proud to speak spanish with us even if we could not understand him much ;-). Very curious man, very nice individual who ended up our conversation with a request to get a coke from us.
TANZANIA & ZANZIBAR
Omar (Kizimkazi):
Omar seems to have succeeded in his business...he has a big house slightly outside the village with a nice garden. He is currently building new rooms to welcome guests. Most importantly Omar was driving our boat when we swam with dolphins and we were very lucky to have him as he knew what he was doing. We were alone in the sea...swimming for 2.30h in the water to have the chance to swim near dolphins...check the video out in our Welcome page. Finally Omar took some time with us to visit his village (the brothel as well hum hum...) and meet with the locals.
Mohamed (Jambiani):
Mohamed has a small place on the beach...specialised in sea food. You come at lunchtime to see what fishes and sea food he got from the morning and order for the night. We had our first crab and lobsters there....our feet on the sand...that was great!
Hadji or Mosquito (Jambiani):
Hadji is a fisherman but he took us on his boat to fish Octopus...that was an amazing experience even if we caught just one ;-) With the money that we gave him, he bought a bottle of cognac and we found him drunk the day after ...If you look well at the below pic, you can smell alcohol...Carola & Mado's family (Kiwengwa):
We stayed at Carola & Mado's new business "Kamili View" via Air Bnb and that was great. First of all we had all the comfort we needed to relax after a journey in Kibweni, but more importantly, we had a great time with them. They kindly invited us to share their sunday in the North of Zanzibar with their kids, they gave us lots of tips about Kiwengwa, about the best local spots to buy food (and that was great)...and they were very nice to us offering us presents etc...Carola, Mado, if you want to come to London from July 2014, feel free to come to us ;-) It would be a pleasure to have you at our place.
Tatu (Kiwengwa):
Tatu is Carola's daughter (Carola is our italian host in Kiwengwa - North East coast). She is so cute! She is 4 years old and speaks Italian, English and Swahili fluently although she is reluctant to speak Swahili to the locals and reply in English to them!
Kibweni kids (Zanzibar):
Kids from Kibweni (a village located 6km north of Stonetown where we stayed for 6 days) were so cute...they always came to us to shake hands, to speak the English that they learnt at school...and to speak Swahili as we tried to do so: "Jambo", "Mambo", "Karibu"..etc
Maoulid (Milainani):
Maoulid is 70 years old and still a fisherman. We were walking on a beach north of Stonetown (6km) and saw a beautiful sailing boat coming to shore. We waited for it...expecting namely to buy some fresh fishes...And we met Maoulid...he sold us 4 fresh cuttle fishes that we used for dinner.
The Kilimanjaro stars:
David (Arusha), "Pole, Pole"
David was our head guide for the Kilimanjaro trip. He has a natural charisma, he is zen and keeps his calm in all situations. He was heading a team of 48 porters, cook, guides & logistics staff like a true leader...and kept all of us (24 participants + 48 staff) motivated all the way through! David told us from the beginning to walk "Pole, Pole" which means slowly in Swahili to have better chances of reaching the top...and WE DID IT from the beginning...So we were almost the last ones all the way through! But it meant we reached the summit without getting sick!
Arnold (Arusha), "the Choir Master"
Arnold is Agnes' life saver for the ascent, he kept on singing all the way through to keep us motivated (check the video out in the Welcome section for evidence)! Arnold is indeed a choir master at the Church; that's why he kept on singing Swahili songs during the 6 days! He also has one of the biggest smiles seen on the camp at Kilimanjaro. Arnold was part of the Logistics team and made sure the camp was ready before we arrived every single day.
Methew (Arusha), "Eat, eat, eat...drink, drink, drink"
Methew, Mathei (or Matteo as we called him at the beginning) was like a Mum to us. He woke us up everyday with a cup of tea or coffee in our tent (like a breakfast in bed) and then made sure we ate enough food (4000 calories a day) and drank enough fluid (4/5 L a day)...he always whispers "eat, eat, eat and then drink, drink, drink...". We will say that a lot in this section but Mathei's smile is always there and I can say he is pretty good looking:) (dixit Agnes).
KENYA
Isaac (Nairobi)
Isaac has so far the greatest smile that we have seen. He works in a restaurant located in the centre of Nairobi which is very popular among workers. We went to the restaurant on a Saturday so was quieter than usual but we were happy to be able to talk to him. He was going back home at 3pm and was looking forward to going to church the following day. He also told us half of people from Nairobi are muslims and half are christians.
Adriel was our first host when we arrived in Nairobi. I initially thought he looked like Morgan Freeman (a smaller and older version though), but the more time we spent with him, the less I was talking to the actor. Anyway, Adriel is a very interesting character and probably one of the pioneers in using AirBnB in Nairobi. He started in 2009 with one guest a year, then two the following year to be the best place in the Kenyan capital nowadays.
