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I have found after writing a blog for
the last 4.5 years that exceptionally good news and unfortunately bad news and
sad news gets readers to click on the links that I post on Facebook. I guess it is just human physic to read about
other people’s misfortunes, it’s like a car accident that you know you don’t want
to look at but you can’t help yourself and you look. I’m okay with that as I lay my whole life in
my blog writings. I write from the
heart, I am honest and I love to share experiences that people may never get
the chance to experience themselves. Whether
it be visiting countries that weren’t on their bucket list, to countries that
are, to moving overseas, visiting the wonderful continent of Africa or
volunteering, I can take people to places that they would not know about. I am honoured every time I get a click on my
blog, people take the time out of their busy day to read the writings of a crazy Australian
doing sometimes crazy things, then I consider it a privilege. I have said on many, many, occasions that I
am an ordinary person living an extraordinary life, and I still believe that
and I never take any day for granted-you have one life to live so live it to
the fullest.
Now that I reflect on how long have been
keeping a blog, an online diary, and I have always said that it is a labour of
love. There are days that I struggle to
open the laptop and put words on the screen.
Not because I don’t have anything to say, it is just a time intensive
job and it generally will take me a minimum of 2-3 hours to pump out an
entry. Let’s see, I have written 629
entries on my World Odyssey blog and I have currently 265 posts on my African
blog so if I base 2 hours a blog I have spent 1788 hours writing, if I divide
that by an 8 hour day then I have spent 223.5 days writing. It is nearly a full time job!!! But I guess that is over a 4 year period so
maybe a full time job is a little over the top, what about a part time job, an
unpaid part time job. Yes a labour of
love indeed. The most asked question I
get is how long are my blog entries. I
would have to say that I write on average 3-4 pages, which is around 3,000
words and I try to not write an entry longer than 4 pages as it is just a lot
of words and at the end of the day time is money and people are not going to
read anything longer that, heck I wouldn’t and it is my blog. I always thought that I would take some time
after my World Odyssey to read back over my amazing adventures and you know
what 2 years later I am still to find some time.
My blog is hosted by Blogger and it has
an amazing wealth of information at my disposal. It tells me the countries where my hits are
coming from, what entries people are reading, the search engines they are
using, the words people are Googling to have been referred to my site, referring
web sites and even the browsers and page views by operating systems that people
use. I’m not sure why I would need some
of those statistics but I am sure it is pertinent to people that advertise I am
sure, but it is interesting all the same.
My most avid fans are from the United States, followed by the UK, Australia,
Kenya, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand and the
Philippines. It is a big deal naming a
blog entry as you have to make it catchy enough that people will want to click
on the entry to read it and it can sometimes take a few minutes and a few
changes to get what I think is the right heading for the entry.
So what were the top read entries of 2014?
Listed from number 10 down to the most
read are listed below with exerts from each entry and the link should you wish
to read the whole entry.
10
DATE ME KENYA.
This love business is a tough nut to
crack that is for sure at the best of times, let alone in a foreign
country. In saying all that, I am not one to give up or to not give
someone a fair go. I am ready and able to get back on the dating horse
and I was tired of meeting the wrong sort of people. So to be proactive,
and to help myself, I joined an online dating service in January of 2014. I can’t sit around and mope at home wishing I
had that ‘special’ someone, I had to be proactive and help myself. My
thinking was if I joined a dating web site, at least there would be men that
have been vetted to some extent, it was not a free service, so a membership fee
made me feel that firstly they had an income and that ‘they’ would also be
serious in meeting someone. I originally joined for a 6 month membership,
and I received an email from the founder, stating that as the site was still
finding it’s feet, that I was given an additional 3 months free of
charge. This was great and worked in well with the timing of all my trips
where my membership would expire the month that I was due to fly to Australia
for vacation. Have I found true
love? That is a very good question.
9
KENYAN PUBLIC HOLIDAYS-MADARAKA DAY 2013
This is obviously a high Google item and
surprises me that it is in the top 10, I mean I write a lot of good stuff I
would have thought there would have been something more interesting than this
entry! It seemed to me that Kenyans have
a lot of public holidays, but after looking it up on line they have around the
same amount that Australians do. I think it just seems more as I am not
working, public holidays don’t mean as much to me now as they used to when I
was a ‘worker’. My whole life actually is one big, long public holiday
and after nearly 2 years in Kenya, I have to say I am loving my life here. So the 1st of June warrants another
public holiday and this one has a lot of history behind it, so I wanted to
share what Madaraka Day is and what it means to the Kenyans. Madaraka
Day, 1 June, commemorates the day that Kenya attained internal
self-rule in 1963, preceding full independence from the United
Kingdom on 12 December 1963. In the mid-1800s, British settlers arrived in
East Africa and they eventually established the East African Protectorate in
1895, which promoted European settlement in some of the most fertile parts of
Kenya, forcing the native Kenyans from their land. In some areas, especially in
the arid northern half of the country, there were few British settlers.
8
Since my return from West Africa and
Australia last year, Nairobi was a different city to when I left. The
security presence is so much more visible, there always was, but now there are
police from all units around in the shopping centres, the schools, the carparks
and also walking the major roads, with guns slung over their shoulders.
Where there was once a single security check there will now be 2 or 3 and there
is an air of seriousness now in public places. There are have been some
small incidents that have happened in the aftermath of the Westgate Siege and I
think I am safe to say that people are still raw and if want for a better word
a little jumpy, which I think is understandable. I was not here during the
Westgate siege, so my ‘jumpability’ is not as intense and I guess I had the
naïve and unrealistic attitude that something like that would never happen to
me if I am careful and vigilant, which is just plain stupid when you are
dealing with terrorism.
Tuesday’s are my food shopping day at
Village Market. I have lunch, check the post box, printing at the
internet café, banking-all that sort of stuff, I do on Tuesdays. I had
just ordered lunch and sat down when I received a text message from a friend,
who wants to stay anonymous due to work, asking where I was. Straight
away that sent a chill and an immediate sense of something not right. I
replied back that I was at Village Market, a reply back asking how was it
there, a reply back that everything looked normal, and then the reply back that
there were some grumblings that something was or possible could be going down
at the shopping centre and she recommended that I leave immediately and stay
away from the area for the rest of the day. I was asked to keep the
information to myself, as she/I didn’t want to cause a mass panic of people,
and it was after all just some information, nothing may actually happen
either. But with Elsabe’s message last night, the very brief travel
warning from the Australian High Commission, and now this message-I was not
going to ignore all that. So I waited until my lunch was bought over 10
minutes later and I thought I would just eat my lunch and then leave, but you
know what I couldn’t stop looking at people, warily, and my food just didn’t
have any taste. I was scared, the hair’s on my arms was raised and I just
had to get out of there. So I got my lunch in a takeaway container and I
made haste to get to my car. I don’t think I have ever had my personal
safety compromised before, or the thought of it, and as I finally got out of
the traffic line up in the carpark and I was heading home I had to stop myself
from crying and heaved a huge sigh of relief. I got a few messages
from people after I had updated my Facebook status and phone calls from a few
of my Kenyan mates and this highlighted to me that we do need to be viligent,
rely on your friends here and pay heed to warnings that float around out there,
as it is always better to be safe than sorry in my books.
7
GETTING INKED FOR THE 4TH
TIME IN KENYA.
This was in my top 10 last year at
number 5.
I wanted get a Kenyan tattoo to
symbolise my move to my new country in 2013, but I had no idea on what I wanted
to get and it was just on the back burner till something grabbed my attention
and then a few weeks ago something did grab my attention. I was searching
the internet for a picture for my blog when I came across a picture that kept
coming up that meant Hakuna Matata (no worries). The second I saw the
symbol I knew it was exactly what I wanted. When I researched into it a
little further, it does mean Hakuna Matata in an unofficial and non-African
way. It has nothing to do with it being an African symbol as Swahili is not written in symbols. The symbol
I was looking at was made famous in a Korean movie called 200 Pound Beauty and
the symbol was symbolized as Hakuna Matata in the movie, as I haven’t seen the
movie I am not sure in what capacity and after reading what people replied
to in threads in chat rooms as to what it means (very little positive
comments from very negative people), anything you get can be translated into
what you want and I am happy to say it is the unofficial symbol for Hakuna Matata
and if I want to I can also say it is a treble clef, as I LOVE music (LOVE) so
it can have a double meaning to the one tattoo.
So I have now been inked 4 times in 4 different countries and on 3
different continents with 5 tattoos and I am pretty sure that I will certainly
be adding more over time. I LOVE all my tattoos, even the Zeme one and I
have no regrets what so ever.
6
TOP 10 BLOG ENTRIES FOR 2013.
I guess because I do write a lot of
entries and they can be quite long at times, maybe this was a good entry for
the ‘Bernie’ reader to catch up on the most popular posts without having to
sift through all 200+ posts currently on my site.
5
TOGOVILLE-THE HOME TO VOODOO - TOGO
I must say I haven’t read a lot about
the voodoo religion, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but after we
arrived into a small courtyard we were asked to take our shoes off, which was
fine and then the guys were asked to take off their shirts so that they were
bare chested and given a sarong to wrap around their waist. I was
thinking, phew, I am glad that the women don’t have to do anything, when we
were given sarongs and asked to follow Zoe into a small room. We were all
unsure of what was happening, when we were asked to take off our tops as well
and then the sarong was tied around under our arms. We were allowed to
leave our bra on but we had to tuck in the straps so that you couldn’t see
them. Talk about getting thrown into the deep end!!! We were
required to cover our western clothing with a sarong because either Maman, or
the religion, I couldn't work out which, was intolerant of western objects. We
were, however, allowed western cameras and as many candid photos that we
wanted, which seemed fair enough after paying $4 a head. So I packed my
top into my bag and we rejoined the men outside to walk to a building at the
end of a small alley which was called the Sacred House. Here we were to
all line up in a single line outside on our knees and told to clap hands in a
descending crescendo 4 times. Once we had done that (my knees were
killing me) we got up and were allowed to enter the Sacred House, which was
basically a small room around 10mx6m wide. We were asked to sit on mats
along the long wall with our feet stretched out in front of us and we weren’t
allowed to cross our legs or our feet at the ankles and here we waited for
about 15 minutes for Maman Kpounou to arrive.
She is like the High Priestess of the
voodoo in the village and she was a sour looking woman who had the look that we
were wasting her time. The Voodoo Priestess sees her holy role as finding
husbands for some and getting rid of husbands for others, mixed with liberal
doses of psychiatric counseling. Maman Kpounou (name faithfully retained to
check the accuracy of her predictions) consented to an audience with seven
Western mzungus. She was topless and her boobs hung below her waist and
she had two young women who help her with her duties with her and they too we
also topless. We were allowed to take photos, but I feel so bad when
there are half naked women in my photos, like I am some sort of pervert, but it
is the religion, we were allowed so I just toughened up and took some snaps
anyway! It was an interesting experience and I am sure we will be seeing
more of this ‘voodoo’ in the coming weeks. The audience with Maman
Kpounou was well-worth the price of admission.
4
THE STAR OF SIERRA LEONE-DIAMOND MINING
AND IT’S HISTORY.
The 968.9-carat (193.8 g) Star
of Sierra Leone diamond was discovered by miners on
February 14, 1972 in the Diminco alluvial mines in the Koidu area
of Sierra Leone. It ranks as the third-largest gem-quality diamond and the
largest alluvial diamond ever discovered. On October 3, 1972, Sierra
Leone's then-President, Siaka Stevens, announced that Harry Winston,
the New York City jeweler, had purchased the Star of Sierra Leone for under
$2.5 million. The stone was initially cut into an emerald shaped stone
weighing 143.2 carats (28.6 g) but was later re-cut due to an internal
flaw, eventually resulting in 17 separate finished diamonds, of which 13
were deemed to be flawless. The largest single finished stone was a flawless
pear-shaped diamond of 53.96 carats (10.79 g). Six of the diamonds cut
from the original rough were later set by Harry Winston into the
"Star of Sierra Leone" brooch. The rough diamond was an
enormous colorless and transparent crystal, which was subsequently
cut into 17 stones, 13 of which were flawless and “top-color”.
A rare characteristic of the stone is
its perfect chemical purity: it is ranked as a type IIa diamond, a category
which includes less than 1% of all diamonds. It ranks as the
third-largest gem-quality diamond and the largest alluvial diamond ever
discovered. The Star of Sierra Leone is considered as the most famous diamond
unearthed from this place. The largest gem-quality diamond discovered
previously in Sierra Leone was the 620-carat "Sefadu" diamond, found
in 1970.
Sierra Leone's traffic in diamonds has
left a trail of carnage. While they may seem a symbol of happiness, the reality
of the gems is far from that. What are conflict
diamonds? Conflict,
or blood diamonds are mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in
order to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts. The Kimberley Process is a joint government, international
diamond industry and civil society initiative established in 2002 to stem the
flow of conflict diamonds - rough diamonds that are used by rebel movements to
finance wars against legitimate governments. The trade in these illicit stones
has contributed to devastating conflicts in countries such as Angola, Cote
d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. The diamond
industry estimates that conflict diamonds represent 4 percent of the total
trade in rough diamonds. Others have estimated that conflict diamonds could
amount to as high as 15 percent of the total trade. In 2001, the diamond
industry produced rough diamonds with a market value of $7.9 billion. At the
end of the diamond chain, this was converted into jewelry worth $54.1 billion.
3
TRANSFERRING CAR OWNERSHIP KENYAN STYLE.
So I had my car for 8 weeks and I still
had to complete the last step of the purchase and I had 4 weeks left to do
it. There is a process to buying a car
in Kenya. No-one can just buy a car and
have it in their own name unless you have a Kenyan ID (or Alien card) and a pin
number. Kenyans and foreigners alike
must have the required ID and pin number and this not only allows you to buy a
vehicle but also land and housing in Kenya.
Just getting your ID and pin number is a lengthy process. You can’t get a pin number without your Alien
card and you can’t get your Alien card without a Kenyan Permit and they seem to
be harder and harder to obtain than when I applied last July. But I wanted to start my permit process so
that when I got back to Kenya at the start of this year, I had started the
timely process of becoming ‘Kenyan-ized’.
So I got my permit in November, after 4 months in the process, I applied
for my Alien card before I left for Australia at the end of November so that
when I came back to Kenya in January of this year, I would be able to hit the
ground running and start the process of applying for my pin number and finally………….
purchase my own set of wheels. I told
you there is a process and one cannot be done without the other. So into Times
Tower I trekked and 3.5 hours later and I was finally done with the whole
process and the log book with my name would be sent out in the next 4
weeks. I expected the whole process to
take this long and I think when you do finish things like this here in Kenya
you get a sense of accomplishment, especially as I am doing it all myself. A lot of expats have drivers, assistants
and/or companies that do all this leg work for them, but not little ol’ me and
that was highlighted as I waited for the last 3.5 hours, I was the only white
person in the whole building the WHOLE time, only seeing a white business man
on my way out. I didn’t feel unsafe, but
I was certainly a double minority with 97% of the people being male and 100%
being the only white person. On my way
out the queues were getting insanely long and my piece of advice would be to
get there early to get to the top of the lines.
But every time I do these things myself, I learn more on how things work
in this country and that can be a positive I can take out of standing in a
banking line for 2.5 hours!!
2
TWO DAYS OF RELAXATION IN LABE-GUINEA.
I was left to my own devices for 2
days. My laptop was charged, so I got that out and headed to the alfresco
restaurant to type until my computer went flat, which it did around 11.30am, so
I headed back to my room and I was a little sleepy, so after putting the laptop
on charge I had a nana nap, because I could, till 1pm and my computer was all
charged again, so I went back to the restaurant for lunch, which was lasagne
and a coke and typed again until my computer went flat again at 3pm and then I
went back to the room to charge it again and set up Sian’s IPad and started to
watch the TV series House of Cards. It is a White House based series,
which I do enjoy watching, up there with The Fixer and West Wing. Each
one is 50 minute duration and one episode turned into another, and another and
another until I had watched 4 of them before dinner!!! Where did the
afternoon go? I was able to fit in a tepid shower in amongst all that and
headed to dinner at 7.30pm, with my charged laptop to complete my last blog to
be completely up to date!!! You beauty!!!! Dinner was pizza again
and this time I went for toppings that reminded me of the pizzas I used to eat
with my mum every week from our pizza place in Darwin and when it came out it
tasted just about the same as well, it is like an Aussie without the egg.
It was delicious. So I typed until 9pm and then back to my room to
continue watching House of Cards. In the end I watched all 11 episodes
getting to bed at 2.30am this morning. Well it is a good show, what can I
say! Day 2 I was sure was going to be
the same routine! I am not sure why this
blog was so popular as it really had no informational interest at all but it
ranks as the second top read blog for some reason.
AND THE MOST READ BLOG FOR 2014…………………………….
1
WHY DO AFRICAN FLAGS ALL HAVE SIMILAR
COLOURS.
It was a simple question and I would
never have guessed that it would be the most clicked on blog entry for 2013 and
now also for 2014. And I am talking 30
times the amount of the closest clicked blog.
Well it is good for my stats and I think it is an entry that will always
have clicks and I see I am not the only one who was interested in asking the question. I had noticed on previous occasions that a
lot of African countries use the same colours in their national flags. In
the truck, Sam has the nine flags of the countries that we are travelling to
and it made me ask the question on why do they all use the same colours making
their flags look very similar. Well during the Scramble for Africa,
Ethiopia was the only African country beside Liberia that retained its
sovereignty as a recognized independent country, and was one of only four
African members of the League of Nations. Ethiopia then became a founding member
of the UN. When other African nations received their independence
following World War II, many of them adopted the colours of Ethiopia's flag,
and Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations
focused on Africa.
So that is a wrap on the top 10 blog
entries of 2014.
Thankyou to all the people who take the
time to read my meanderings, comment and support me through the tough
times. I am blessed to have people all
over the world I can call friends and for this I am eternally grateful.
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