Trip to East Africa (Pictures)

masalma · #1 02-04-2018, 12:15 PM

Hi All,

Left in late December for a month long trip to East Africa with my wife, 3 kids and dog. This is our second time going, last time was back in 2013. It was an awesome experience, we got to do some charity work and went on 3 safaris. Just thought I would share some pictures, on my last night there my phone was stolen and lost about 2000 pictures and videos that weren't backed up, no wifi and everything was over cellular networks so didn't want to eat up my data.

While there called the local SPCA to see how much it would cost to get the dog fixed and remove dewclaws, it was $85 dollars as compared to almost $1000 here, so off he went and lost his nuts in Africa took a week to recover, but he became famous and was called Officer Simba throughout the trip because he was always on guard to protect where we stayed and lots of people were very attached to him. I think he got more goodbyes and hugs than me.

My 3 year old decided he wanted a pet chicken while we were traveling and it ended up travelling with us for about 15 hours until we got back to the capital and received a pardon from turning into dinner, it will spend the rest of its days roaming the garden of the place we were staying.

Food was really good and healthy, everything is fresh. People were very welcoming. So many natural resources it should be one of the richest continents in the world, but the level of corruption and exploitation is beyond belief.

warriorboy10 · #2 02-04-2018, 12:19 PM

Very cool..

roper1 · #3 02-04-2018, 12:22 PM

Very cool part of the world for sure, Thanks for the pics!

Gray Wolf · #4 02-04-2018, 02:23 PM

A big Thanks for telling your story and posting those pics!

trimman99 · #5 02-04-2018, 02:24 PM

very cool

wildbill · #6 02-04-2018, 02:46 PM

Looks like quite the adventure, thanks for sharing

mattthegorby · #7 02-04-2018, 02:54 PM

Sounds like a trip of a lifetime with the family!

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CNP · #8 02-04-2018, 04:03 PM

Awesome!!!

expedition · #9 02-04-2018, 04:06 PM

Nice pics

Smokinyotes · #10 02-04-2018, 04:13 PM

Sounds like everyone enjoyed it -except the dog. Nice pics.

Ken07AOVette · #11 02-04-2018, 04:16 PM

very cool thanks for sharing!!!

Fish along · #12 02-04-2018, 04:36 PM

Exceptional pictures, you're kid with the chicken, great shot.

sns2 · #13 02-04-2018, 04:45 PM

Wow! What an adventure!!

KGB · #14 02-04-2018, 05:22 PM

Wow that’s pretty cool! Too bad you lost the rest of the pictures- I’m sure everybody here would love to see those too!
Feel bad about your dog, poor guy ended up loosing his nuts on this trip,LOL!

2 Tollers · #15 02-04-2018, 05:37 PM

WOW -- looks like an outstanding trip. To bad on the other pictures but your memories will draw you back and the lost pictures will be a reason for another trip. Thanks for taking the time to pull this together.

tirebob · #16 02-04-2018, 05:41 PM

Super jealous!! I hope one day to do a trip like that... Thanks for posting!

260 Rem · #17 02-04-2018, 06:05 PM

Thanks for sharing.

masalma · #18 02-04-2018, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KGB

Wow that’s pretty cool! Too bad you lost the rest of the pictures- I’m sure everybody here would love to see those too!
Feel bad about your dog, poor guy ended up loosing his nuts on this trip,LOL!

Everyone at work is warned never to go on a vacation with me.

fordtruckin · #19 02-04-2018, 06:15 PM

How awesome that must be! I’d love to go on a safari sometime just to see the animals I can only read about in books or see in the zoo.

Immigrant · #20 02-04-2018, 06:37 PM

Nice holiday! I have taken my kids to Africa x2 now. I make a point to expose them to the local culture and customs, so they can appreciate their privileged lives here.
Just to make sure I understand......you took your dog all the way to Uganda to get his nuts cut off !?! Respect!!!

RandyBoBandy · #21 02-04-2018, 06:46 PM

WOW !!

venandi · #22 02-04-2018, 08:17 PM

Awesome adventure

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darren32 · #23 02-05-2018, 11:24 AM

Very cool! What countries did you get to?

I was in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana for a month in 2016. It was a pretty cool experience. I went on a couple of Safaris and well. I really enjoyed my time with the locals, they are great. I spent most of my time near Lusaka in Zambia.

My boss has an orphanage in Zambia and we took a playground from Spruce Grove, packed it in a sea can and went over to set it up. We even sent over a bobcat in the sea can. It was pretty neat ... we had about 500 kids the day we opened it up.

masalma · #24 02-05-2018, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darren32

Very cool! What countries did you get to?

I was in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana for a month in 2016. It was a pretty cool experience. I went on a couple of Safaris and well. I really enjoyed my time with the locals, they are great. I spent most of my time near Lusaka in Zambia.

My boss has an orphanage in Zambia and we took a playground from Spruce Grove, packed it in a sea can and went over to set it up. We even sent over a bobcat in the sea can. It was pretty neat ... we had about 500 kids the day we opened it up.

Wow that is impressive work, this time I only went to Uganda, last time we did Kenya and Uganda. We did go to the border of South Sudan and Congo.

We were in contact with a society that takes kids whose parents don't take care of them out of the slums and enrolls them in school, pays their fees and reintegrates them into society and works with their parents to get them back home. They were taking over a new home and we went in and build a small library and supplied the books who were donated by people and companies right here in Edmonton.

On our travels we noticed that a lot of kids love to play soccer and they had makeshift balls, so picked up a bag of soccer balls and pumps and every time we saw a group we stopped and gave them one and played a little with them. To see how something so small can make their day so much brighter is an awesome experience.

We take a lot for granted, some of the places we stayed at had no power, no clean water, no roads and the size of some those bugs were scary

and people are content with what they have. It really sheds a light on how we mix up the differences between wants and needs, and what we are programmed to want as a society.

masalma · #25 02-05-2018, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Immigrant

Just to make sure I understand......you took your dog all the way to Uganda to get his nuts cut off !?! Respect!!!

He is my kids guardian when I am not around and he did VERY well. He made sure that no monkies came to the place we were staying and chased off the water meter guy.

There are snakes and my kids love to play outside so the dog is very curious, as much as I love the little guy he would be the one to go after the snakes instead of the kids. My wife spotted a black mamba and they brought in an exterminator to try to find it but no luck. My kids were running around for the rest of trip saying how dangerous the black MAMA is.

It was cheaper to bring him with us than to board him here. I had plans to have him fixed when I got back to Canada but for $85 I couldn't say no.

KGB · #26 02-06-2018, 12:02 AM

I know an olderly couple who’s adult daughter and her husband(he is originally from Uganda, left when he was a child) went to Uganda to work under the contract. They also took their two kids there. They lasted about 8 months... said it was too dangerous crime wise. They were living in a capital city but still didn’t feel safe.
Glad everything worked out for you and your family on this trip. Black MAMA scares living Jesus out of me....

darren32 · #27 02-06-2018, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masalma

Wow that is impressive work, this time I only went to Uganda, last time we did Kenya and Uganda. We did go to the border of South Sudan and Congo.

We were in contact with a society that takes kids whose parents don't take care of them out of the slums and enrolls them in school, pays their fees and reintegrates them into society and works with their parents to get them back home. They were taking over a new home and we went in and build a small library and supplied the books who were donated by people and companies right here in Edmonton.

On our travels we noticed that a lot of kids love to play soccer and they had makeshift balls, so picked up a bag of soccer balls and pumps and every time we saw a group we stopped and gave them one and played a little with them. To see how something so small can make their day so much brighter is an awesome experience.

We take a lot for granted, some of the places we stayed at had no power, no clean water, no roads and the size of some those bugs were scary

and people are content with what they have. It really sheds a light on how we mix up the differences between wants and needs, and what we are programmed to want as a society.

Very cool. I agree on the needs and wants. It's a real eye opener for sure and a great experience.

The "people are content with what they have" was the biggest eye opener for me. I first noticed it when I went to Romania to meet my wife's family 6 years ago. They are very poor, no water in the house, no heat other than wood etc. I just assumed they would be "sad" like the commercials ..... but they are not, they are some of the happiest people I have ever met. Same with the people in Africa, very happy, full of love, hope and joy and content with what they have. Not a lot of stress for the most part, no e-mail / voice mails to deal with, schedule, meetings, conference calls, unreasonable clients. It's a different lifestyle for sure and not necessarily in a bad way ...

I had forgotten about the make shift soccer balls. We are sending another sea can over this fall, I will have to remember to throw some in.