Out of Africa

It is 6am Kenya time. The problem is that I am now in Melbourne. And the local time here is 2am. Hello jet lag my old friend! Wait a minute it is actually 6pm in Kenya . . . whatever, can't work it out.

The cool thing is, although I can't sleep, at least I'm at home! So good to be back with the boys and my beautiful Sharon. So good to be back.

Here is a rundown of our exit from Africa. We left on Sunday afternoon from the Maasai Mara on a stormy day (torrential rain, thunder & lightning), absolutely magic. The airport is a dirt air strip with a hut off to the side. Very cool but a little discomforting in a storm. As usual, waited for our flight and when it came in, it was a 12 seater mono-prop plane. Very exciting! As we waited for take off the one pilot (looked like he was about 15), tried to work out who he was supposed to take and fortunately, it was so booked that I got to sit in the c0-pilot seat! Very cool! So we took off on our 1 hour flight to Nairobi. Incredible! I remember thinking, 'what a trip this has been'! But wait there's more!
Above: on the runway, next to my plane
above: Anton, speaking to the 15 year old pilot - in the rain
above: Ladies and Gents, fasten your seatbelts - 'hey, look at all the pertty buttons!'
above: Take-off over the Mara River - 'later hippos!'
above: landing at Wilson Airport, Nairobi.

We arrived at the Kenyatta International and booked into our Emerites flight home which left at 1130pm - way too much time at the airport! But Anton, did his stuff - he went through every shop looking for a bargain! What a shopper. And the thing is, he was doing it for me! I didn't get any ebony wood carvings of animals that I wanted for the boys, but thanks to Anton, the animals are sitting on the dinning table (right next to me - they look great). I think that burned about an hour. 'Welcome to Africa, what's the hurry?'

1130pm came, 1230am, still waiting to board the plane; an announcement at 1am: 'we are experiencing technical problems . . . we regret'; 130am . . . no news is 'blankity-blank' news; 2am: is that the crew I see leaving the plane? Anton hears the pilot speak to the ground crew to make an announcement to the passangers; 3am - announcement: 'it is regret that the flight cancelled to Dubai . . . we inform to regret'; 4am, we all finally move to baggage claim to collect our bags, but first we had to go through Customs! Some had to pay a visa to enter the country. Fortunately, ours was still valid. We had to push and shove to get our hotel voucher and then head for the Holiday Inn, about 30 minutes away. 430am, check in and wake up call for 630am to eat breakfast & 7am leave for airport to catch 11am flight.

Next morning, no, same morning we got up all 'puffy eyed', ate got to front desk, only to be told that we have til 1pm before we have to get to the airport! Argh! So we all tried to sleep. 1pm we are sitting in a bus, a logistical nightmare! We make it to the airport and findout oour flight leaves at 6pm (or something like that). This meant our 1 day in Dubai was cut to about 5 hours! Never saw the place. I did get to sleep on a sofa bed though! I lost the coin-toss, bummer.

Next day after 2 1/2 hours sleep, we flew off to Hong Kong. We arrived and had about 5-6 hours sleep, magic. And then off to the airport, booked in, only to find that the flight was delayed an hour . . . argh! We could've had another hour of sleep! Oh well, what else do you do in Hong Kong when you are with Anton but shop! It was good fun! This place was shopping heaven - not enough time, really, almost missed the flight!

Qantas flight 30 took off an hour late for home, sweet, home. It was a great flight. Watched 3 movies and they even served ice cream and chilled apples! We arrived home and had to face customs. I lost the animal skin from a drum I bought Ezra, but I'll just have to get it re-skinned. Saw the beautiful family, sight for sore eyes! We are home!

This is the better half - Anton Hardisty

We are coming to the end of our Kenya Safari leg, and it has been amazing, having seen over 30 different animals.
On a trip such as this it is not only the animals that make it great but the whole experience. The staff at our lodge Olonana have been great with five star service second to none.

Well I am missing the family, but we will be home shortly hang in there. Going for a short nap before leaving on a 30 seater to Nairobi and then later tonight on to Dubai.

To Alvecia and the girls, I love you heaps
Dad.

Calling Sharon, Come in Sharon

Hi Sharon,

I have tried to email you but your box is full and it gets returned. I keep hearing Elvis singing: 'Return to sender . . . address unknown...'

Just want the world to know that you are the other side of me and I love you. Gonna call you early Monday morning - have the phone by the bed!!

Love, pete

Hakuna Mitata from Maasai Mara!

Yes they actually say that here! And jambo is hello but they seem to use it like aloha. We have had some incredible game drives and it has been a photographers dream being here. We have seen lions feasting on a kill, a hippo give birth, a female lion trying to hunt while a male lion was trying to mate with her. The females are the hunters by the way and in this situation, the male was always in the way! So they gave up as it got hotter. We tracked them for about an hour - it was fun watching them and they were so close, maybe too close. They followed a herd of wildebeasts. We saw a herd of elephants with babies as young as a month old! We saw hyenas and a serval cat; vultures and eagles. The list goes on and on. The photos are awesome - very happy with them. I love the elephants!!

The camp is full on luxury and if I had a tent like this all the time I would be camping a lot!! The food is gourmet - don't expect us to come back looking slim and in shape - sorry, it is just too good here. Last night we had a bush BBQ around a fire along the bank of the Mara river. We were serenaded by the staff and some are maasai. Our guide and the entire staff are awesome. if you ever get a chance to do this - please come here - it is the best! Just incredible.

Tomorrow we head off from here around 4pm and then to Nairobi for our connecting flight to Dubai. We stay there one day and then off to Hong Kong, have a sleep and then the final trip home to Melbourne. I can't wait to see my family. I miss them heaps! Not sure if I will get a chance to post something in Dubai. We'll see. - Jambo!

Hey Ezra, this is for you!!

Hi Ez, check out the black Rhino. There are only 3 in the Mara triangle and here are 2, mum and son. The third is another son that is older. They are so rare and our guide, Boniface - who is a Masai, tracked them down. We saw them in the early morning but they took off before we could see them closely. So this was amazing to see them so close!! If only we had these shots when you did your project!! The last shot was sunset today!

Miss you son, but will be home soon - give Jude a hug for me!!

Zooropa

More shots from the Safari
Another shot of Aslan the Lion
This is where we had breakfast today! Someone show Marinda!
Pumba's sister, Jumba!
A vulture checking out Anton's legs!

God's Zoo

Greetings From Maasai Mara, Kenya. We got to our tented camp and found out that they have wireless broadband! So here are some images taken from the 2 days we've been here. This place is absolutely amazing and I am having a great time photographing it! I can't believe the amount of animals out there. When we arrived, they told us that the migration to the Serenghetti is late and that many wildebeasts are still around. So we are blessed to see so much.The baby elephant is about a few weeks old!
The Zebra is a younger one.
This lion is about 7 years old and was about a metre away from me!

These cheetahs, just had lunch and we watched them eat their prey - unreal!

Olonana

Here are some shots of the camp we are staying at. Looks pretty good - can't wait! It is situated right on the Mara river and there are hippoes out there! We will be out in 4x4s early morning and late arvo for game drives but inbetween, we'll be here!!

Mambo from Kenya!

We made it to Nairobi and are staing at a great hotel called the Fariview. It is awesome here. The towels are actually soft! And they even have tissues - was getting tired of using toilet paper. Tomorrow we head out to Masai Mara and I am pretty excited. but I do miss home big time. Can't wait to be back with the family. I miss Jude, Ez and my beautiful wife, Sharon. What is that saying? 'Absense makes the heart go fonder'? Well I am experiencing that for sure.

Hey sorry about not getting the comments. But I was doing this quite late at night. I will respond to the comments now too.

Take Luck!

It is hard to believe that we are about to leave Kampala! It was a great time mixed with some harsh reality. I have to say that it was pretty emotional for me at times. It was just hard to see and hear some of the situations that people live through. I was very impressed with what KPC are doing through Watoto - I think the future of this nation will see some radical reform through these future leaders. I was truly blessed to help with what I could do and believe me I am tired from photographing so much! Earlier today we walked around Kampala streets and I just handed the camera to Joz so he could shoot away. I was happy just to go along for the ride.

We leave tomorrow for Nairobi where we will be on a safari in the Masai Mara. I won't be able to post anything new until we get back. So I will post any of the cool animal shots then.

Thanks for reading about the trip and thanks to those who left comments. It was nice to hear that you were reading. Sorry I didn't do more but when I wrote most of them, it was late at night with squinting eyes - just like right now. Honestly, I can' believe I pulled it off! The next 4 days will be a time to recoup and meditate on some of this stuff - a lot to take in.

Some photos of me taken by Anton & Sam. The cute one is Winnie - Think I need to support her. The shot of me showing the kids the photos is at an IDP camp near Gulu.

See you on the 'flip-side'!

- Pete

The Truth about Anne & Moses

Well hopefully that will startle you but unfortunately there's not too much to tell except that their families are beautiful! Olga, Anne's sister, took us for some craft shopping and then we went on to meet Anne's mum who was so beautiful and gracious. We then went over to Moses' parent's house and met Anne's other sister Cathy as well as Moses' brothers Joshua and his wife Julia as well as younger brother Ronnie, his Mum and Dad as well as Olga's husband Norman. Many of the siblings live overseas but we had a great time.

They prepared a huge feast and Moses' mum said we had to try everything out, so we did and it was great! Fortunately for me, Anne had already fed me with some of the local food! It was a great time. Moses mum who is involved in politics gave us a good understanding about the LRA rebels and their demands and also shared some of the atrocities they committed. Pretty bad stuff.

I have a lot of messages for Anne & Moses and I feel like I have an extended family in Kampala Uganda!

God is in the House!

It is sunday here and we had an awesome time at the church. I took heaps of photos for them and it was like being at CityLife - well sort of. I am feeling great about things, releaved I should say because I think I have given them a lot of great shots! You know me, I am always wondering how I even pull this off, being a 'photographer' but the response has ben great. Theya re happy with the results.

After church we got to have lunch at Siiba village with a Watoto family. A mama and 8 kids. We ate traditional food and then I just played with the kids. I wanted to take home a little 5 year old girl named Winnie - she hung on to me once she felt comfortable. She is so cute and I think she would fit right in to our family: Ez 8, Winnie 5, Jude 3 = perfect! Probably won't happen. Also played soccer with the boys and we had a great time. It was all too short!

Afterwards, we went back to the church to watch/photograph a play done by a group called Celebrate Zoe - which had a lot of the uni students we met with last week so it was fun to see them act. They were awesome.

Tomorrow I meet with the marketing dept for Watoto to review the shots to make sure I haven't missed anything. How many have I taken? Well over 2,000 and maybe 1/3 to 1/2 are usable. Yes that is a lot and yes I am tired!

Hope for Northern Uganda

Photos from the top:
1. 'Where the streets have no name' the road to the IDP camp
2. Some boys I met early in the morning. Their mum yelled at me though
3. The Staff at KPC Gulu
4. Boy toy at IDP camp
5. & 6. Downtown Gulu
7. Pastor Joe and me
8. Gulu
9. & 10 IDP camp
11. Former 'Killing Field', future hope!

At the centre of Northern Uganda is the city of Gulu. During the 20 year civil war, Gulu was the place that villagers would run to for safety. And the most affected where young children who were kidnapped and turned into child soldiers. These children would then be trained to kill their own or be killed. Today, the LRA rebels are no longer doing this and in fact, have been hiding in the neighbouring country of the Republic of Congo. Because of these rebels, there are thousands of 'Internally Displaced People' (IDPs) and they all live in camps around Gulu. They ran for safety to get away from the LRA. We visited one camp that held 12,000 and there are many of these camps. Most of the people want to return to their villages but many are still afraid and tired. Many have lost their children while others are searching for displaced relatives.

Watoto are about to begin building a village in Gulu which will help rehabilitate former child soldiers and orphans. They have planted a church initially and only after 3 months, there are over 700 people coming! And half of them are children! We met Pastor Joseph who is heading up the church. If he looks familiar, he was with a Watoto Choir that toured Australia in 2004. He and his wife Jackie are expecting their first child any day now. The place they are planning to build was once a 'killing field' for Idi Amin against anyone who would go against him. He would fly in on a chopper, land on this very field, gather the local school children and people of Gulu; and then he would personally kill the first of those who opposed him and then the soldiers would finish off the group. The locals, including children would watch in horror. And that was the idea - 'go against Amin, and this is your plight.' It is amazing that this may be a place of hope in the near future!

You get a real sense that the people are harder here and that they are tired. Visiting the IDP camps was heart wrenching because they are living on bare minimum. Yet there is a resilience here too. The kids are great and they followed us around everywhere we went.

We went around the town to take photos but I have to say that I was a bit nervous because people didn't like being photographed. So we made very sure to ask before shooting. It didn't help that I looked very white!

We met the staff at KPC Gulu. They are a great group of people. And every weekend there is a team that drives that treacherous road to help do set up and worship. Imagine that! 14 hours of driving in one weekend to help with the meeting!!

We will never forget this part of the trip. It was hard to witness but we are excited to see what will happen in the years to come - hope is returning!