A Mazungu in a Mutatu

We have now been in Kenya for almost a month and practically the entire time has been in Nairobi waiting for the the bike to be good to get back on the road. I hope now that in the next few days the wait will be over and we will no longer be mazungus (white skinned) in a mutatu (mini bus public transport)

The inside experience of a mutatu! blurred as it raced over bumpy roads, and packed to the rafters with people – thankfully it was only a short ride to the local shopping centre!

So what has happened in this last month? From an autism perspective, we have met with a couple of charities in Nairobi. The founder of Autism Society of Kenya and principle advocate in Kenyan government, Felicity, met us for lunch and we found out about the remarkable progress that she has made in the last 10 years in terms of getting recognition for Autism in the Education Ministry, and on the day we met, how she received her first email from the Health Ministry acknowledging the need for a committee to be established to identify the needs presented by autism. Felicity has also been involved with outreach programmes but is constantly struggling to find sufficient funding to continue this work.

Knowing the struggle to get any recognition for autism in Africa, it was nothing short of a miracle to hear her story. She puts much of her success down to her previous involvement within government (from a nutrition education standpoint) which has helped her to understand the process, and effectively identify the contacts, follow the right processes, and use her her existing reputation as an expert to ensure that she is heard. Behind all of this however, is her drive an commitment to establishing an effective support system for autism that springs from her grandson’s diagnosis. Indeed, it was only through taking him physically to the registration office to register the charity, that she was able to convince the registrar that autism was real so that the charity would be registered.

I also had the opportunity to meet (albeit briefly) another star on the autism scene in Nairobi, James. Having worked with children with autism in New York, he returned to Kenya committed to helping families affected by autism. Setting up the Autism Support Centre, James works to help parents by bringing them together, providing information, and helping to apply pressure to get more support for their children. I was kindly invited to attend a parents group on a Saturday morning to speak a little about what Sofia and I were doing. I wasn’t the only speaker, as other parents where also invited to speak with the subject of discussion being Autism and Sexuality.

A full house of parents in attendence

It was a wonderful experience and really interesting to hear about the cultural challenges that parents were facing and wonderful to see a couple of the speakers being fathers, as well as a number of fathers in the the audience. On this particular subject line major concerns included sexual abuse of the child due to their increased vulnerability, and accusations of harassment (perhaps hugging strangers, or staring inappropriately) in a country where very few people outside the community have any knowledge or understanding and the law does not take any account of disability when considering a case should it be brought to court. The primary message however was hope, hope for the mothers who’s husbands refused to be involved, hope for parents concerned about the future and how they will cope, hope that despite autism, that into adult life there was every opportunity for their children to experience normality – as one parent put it: I am still hopeful that my son will find love and get married, even if it means his wife will live with us I will be a very happy man.

 

All in all, this time in Nairobi has been about interesting people. We have been staying at a major overland rest stop and mechanic shop, and whilst Sofia has been doing her utmost to make up for lost TV time both past and future, I have been regaled with wonderful travel stories – from the guy who was asked for the police report for his stolen car because he may have stolen it from himself, to the couple who seemed to have more than their fare share of break downs and improvised solutions like using margarine as grease, draining a pond of water because they were stuck in it, and a ranger vehicle running out petrol on them as it was coming to rescue them from the bush! But the time has definitely come to leave, as I become more frustrated with the stagnation and concerned about the finances, and judgements are starting to be made about my lack of control over Sofia’s TV obsession by the longer term punters of the Jungle Junction establishment. Judgemental strangers is part of what it is to be a parent of autism, as few people take the time to find out more about why things might be the way they are and even less interested to accept autism as a valid reason to any behaviour that they personally disapprove of. Yes I definitely feel it is time to go! 😀

Taking the carburettors apart and fixing the issue of petrol flooding into the cylinders

Please donate to help us raise awareness from autism – with the cost of fixes to the bike we are now very low on funds, so please donate even a couple of dollars and it will see us getting a few extra kilometres down the road – http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1005498

Memories of Sudan

We only left Sudan a week and a half ago, and yet already it feels so distant.  Sadly it is a country of restrictions and I wasn’t able to publish any posts during our time there, so now I am playing catch up and will try to give as much of our experience in one short post.

Top memories included:

Staying with a Nubian family on the banks of the Nile.  It was only for one night, and even though we became the local attraction, it felt like all the people who stopped by to meet us became instant friends even though we didn’t speak the same language!  Our hosts where generous to a fault and will be one of our strongest memories of this trip through Africa.

Visiting JebaBerkal in Karima was like stepping back in time and exploring an Egyptian archaeology site 100 years ago.  The temples were only half excavated and the one cut in a rock needed a torch to see the paintings on the wall.  Karima itself was a lovely town with a colourful market and is where we spent our Christmas day.

Khartoum ended up being a 2 week adventure for us and included such delights as visiting a school for autism (will do a separate blog about it), staying with Hiba, the founder of said school, and her family for several days and going to a pre-wedding party that absolutely rocked

The desert wind was relentless and unfortunately not suitable for desert camping.  We did manage one night, our last night, and Sofia loved it so much she is always looking for an excuse to do it again.  The funniest thing though, was several people passed us and stopped and asked if we would prefer to stay in the local village (at least that is what I surmised) and they just couldn’t understand it when I kept saying no and walk away looking utterly baffled.

There are many things I’ve not included here that won’t be forgotten, like the USD story and the broken wheel rim, which have otherwise been faithfully recorded in Facebook.

In a nutshell though, Sudan is an interesting place that feels like a bit of a time warp.  On the one hand modernised, yet on the other hand, still some where stuck in the 70s and unable to move forward.  What was really nice was the people. So hospitable!  I have never felt so safe anywhere and leaving Sudan I was keenly aware that we would never be so safe again on our journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Worst and The Best of It in 1 Day

We had an amazing ride today from Axum to Mekele in Northern Ethiopia.  However, both literally and metaphorically it had its ups an downs.

My original plan had been to do most of the ride off road so that we could stop at a few rock churches and tick them off the list.  However, as a result of being concerned about the final drive on the bike, I decided to stick to the main paved road for the journey.

It started gently and then we headed into an area of canyons, which initially wasn’t alarming until we started a steep climb and immediately got stuck behind a very heavy lorry that was going so slow that the engine on the bike was sure to struggle.  So, sensibly, I pulled over on the 2nd hair pin which still had a good amount of space and waited a moment.

Breakfast with a Beautiful view 18/1/16

A loud bang a few minutes later, I held my breath, expecting the lorry to come tumbling down on our heads.  But nothing, so when all seemed quiet, I decided to proceed.  This climb was about 15 steep hairpins, about 50m to 100m or less apart.  We made steady progress, until near the top we see said lorry stuck on one of the bends and the men frantically trying to move rocks under its wheels.

I approached slowly, there was a gap on the inside, but in first gear and with so much weight on our back I went round the outside and stopped.  I immediately went into panic attack mode.  Jelly legs the full works.  Not so much vertigo, or perhaps a version of it.  The lack of moving space, absolutely no barriers, and a very long drop to the bottom.  Some how, I managed to find some small rocks to put under the wheels, got Sofia out of the bike, and tried to calm myself.  I knew it was an over reaction, we were not in bad shape, it was purely a height fear issue.

Breakfast with a Beautiful view 17/1/16

The truck finally moved off its rocks and continued to trundle up the incline.  I waited, freaked a little at Sofia for clambering around like a monkey, then suddenly realised that another trunk may well be making its way up!  suddenly we were not in good shape, we were in the way!  There is nothing like fear of something worse motivating one into action.  Suddenly I only had one objective and that was to get moving again.  Sofia back in the chair, started up the bike, in first gear and tried to pull away, and worst nightmare, too heavy on back of side car and it was pulling us to the right towards a ditch – then I remembered 2 wheel drive – what a life saver.  Still it took the bike a bit of convincing to move, but once it decided it went precisely where I needed it to go.  2WD off and up the final hair pins we went.

I could have stopped at one point and taken a photo of that section but to be honest, I didn’t calm down until we had completed the descent and I was certain we were all in one piece still!  Finally the nightmare was over.  We have done several ascents and descents, all have been fairly hair raising in sections with sharp hair pins and steep drops from which there is no protection.  This was the first time I had stopped on one though, and hope that it never happens again! That, I hope, will be worst of it.

The best of it was to come next.  We then had a series of hills, bends and curves, and I had a wonderful ride swinging the bike and chair around them.  It was the longest ride so far of swinging bends, and perfect for getting my mojo back. The scenery never ceases to deliver either.  I was sad I hadn’t enjoyed the ascent and descent more, as the climb had been to 9000ft and the occasional leery eye cast in any direction other than the road filled me with another wave of panic, so whilst vaguely aware of it, I remained more focused on the road.  I didn’t miss out completely though.  After swinging from bend to curve in the road, just coming out of a village, the whole panorama of gorges and escarpments that we had travelled through came into view.

Looking back at the gorged landscape we had just travelled

 

Impressions of Egypt

We have been in Egypt now for almost three weeks, and it would be hard to detail all our experiences as there have been so many.  Even keeping a diary has been hard work as it has been a full time experience as well!  Not a moment has been with out it’s own story and a name to put to it, and to all the people we have met, thank you so much!  We have fallen in love with you all and the country that you represent so well.

Egypt is a land of extreme contrasts, but what is consistent the whole way through is that the people are simply kind and helpful.  However, even with in that that there is contrast, as on the one hand you have your every day person who will bend over backwards to help you, for no other reason than it gives them pleasure to do so.  On the other hand you have the tourist touts, who are the same, but they want to make you pay for it.  Sadly this is tourism the world over, and not exclusive to Egypt.  However, it does let the side down.

A simple example of this was walking down the road in Aswan and a man starts to follow and talk, asking where we are from etc.  I say that I’m not interested in what he is selling, and I say it several times, but he insists that he is not selling anything (making me feel aware even more that I am a mark that he is working on) eventually he says as many will do – I’m only wanting to make you happy, to have a good time in Egypt.  So I replied that it was difficult to do that with someone following me making me feel uncomfortable.  At this point he left us and we could breath again.  What was he selling?  hotel rooms (his friend he knows and an uncle over there and maybe good price if I’m not happy where we are staying right now)

Yet even with in this constant desperation of the tourist worker there is still positive experiences to be found.  Our guide at the pyramids ended up taking us to his home for tea, meeting his lovely wife N’agua, lent some trousers for sofia to wear on the horses and we left with an offer to stay with them should we return.  Just nice easy hospitality that was over and above the call of financial need.

The most amazing welcome and generosity we experienced though, was from the bikers of Egypt which all started with Omar Alfardy offering us a place to stay in Alexandria.  From there came the Alexandria Free Bikers, the Golden Riders, and the Soul Seekers and perhaps most importantly George Spartant, who helped us get our bike out of port, and became organiser extrordinaire buy organising the TV crew in Alexandria, with a ride out and visit to the fort, and escort out of Alex, across Cairo (in rush hour), a place to stay in New Cairo, before our onward journey to Hurgada, where Elena and the Soul Seekers, and Mohamed picked up the riens, with Mohamed seeing us through to Aswan, our final stop before our boarder run down to Abu Simble and Sudan.

Even bikers with out group association were there ready to help when we needed guidance through a town after stopping for fuel, or finding a hotel.  No bakshish required, it was just a pleasure for them to help.

Some may argue that we have been extremely lucky, and yes in many respects we have, however, I don’t think any visitor to this country would need to try very hard to find this kind genuine side to Egypt.  Once you let go of trying to control your experience of the country it opens up into an amazing technicolor of people and lives and relationships, an energy that is constantly moving and can carry you to those places that you really came to see an experience when you imagined travel to distant lands.

 

 

Leaving as Soon as Possible After the 10th November!

Sometimes a fixed date is not what the universe wants, and certainly in our case, leaving on our journey, it is unlikely we are going to know what actual day we leave, possibly until we have left!  What I can say is that we need to be in Africa by Christmas so we can avoid the rains in northern Kenya.

Sofia at Brightona – The bike meet on Brighton sea front

Reasons for the leaving date has become fluid is multiple, and trying to force any of them to comply to a fixed dated feels wrong as they all have their own time to develop.

The first reason to present itself was my riding skills.  Granted, I’ve not see much of the bike over the summer with it being in an out of the workshop all summer and one mechanic holding it for a month for now reason too boot.  Now finally it is stablised! yay!

Out Training with Mick of MPC Ural Motorcycles

This has seen a number of forays into the world of off road, both with and without experienced back up, and I’m pleased to announce that not only have I clearly returned alive, but as a result my confidence and skill has been improving.  My most recent story I posted on our Facebook page – Africa With Autism.  For me what is important (because the expectation to ride like I have 20 yrs experience is not my agenda) is that I am able to work through situations on the road that might occur.  I feel now that I will be able to do that.  The fear and panic has now given way to a proactive approach to problems.  I’m still learning though, as you can see from the post!

Out training with Dave (retired) in the Devils Punch Bowl, Hindhead

Another aspect to the date is Sofia’s school application process for September 2016.  Sofia in now in her transition year, which is effectively her final year of Junior school.  As she has special educational needs, there is a process by which senior schools are applied for.   One of the reasons this trip is possible is that it fits nicely within the process within the process.  We do however, need to ensure that all the paperwork has been done before we leave.  This is something we can’t put a date on as yet especially as the school we are choosing needs to finish its assessment process.

Finally, and perhaps the biggest show stopper of them all is the finances!  We are otherwise ready to go.  We have nearly all the kit, The bike is almost ready, and will make its final trip for tyres and modifications etc next week.  Financially though, we need a lot of money to get this project on the road.  Yes, believe it or not, it is the paper work that costs the most, and there is a lot of paper work that needs to be completed. It is the single biggest reason why many who would love to travel overland, don’t.   So now the project becomes a challenge to win hearts and minds for autism, and help create an amazing story with which to raise funds for autism for years to come.

Please donate to our Charity Foundation – Africa With Autism

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