What's with Henna and White Hairs ? (Q/A)

The Quran says that men must not use any colours for their white hairs. However, they can use Henna & Katam! This was the answer to my wonders about this. I had heard of it from friends but I wanted to find the real version of the story somewhere, google brought it to me, click here

Illustration, Click Here.

Bana road

I have just spent a two days trip further to the North to install a Radio Room. The place I went to is called Bana. I am not sure it is written on any map as it is small and deep into the core of the Northern Mountains. To get there you have to use some snaky slippery, extremely narrow road built-in the cliff of the mountains. When the mission was submitted, I wanted to arrange myself a trip via Helicopter, it was meant to be much more practical and safe. However, a colleague of mine also wanted to join for this special expedition to this no tourist seen place, so the trip by chopper was cancelled and replaced by a 4x4 road trip.

In order for us to depart, we had to get an escort from the police station. The reasons to these mandatory escorts are still unclear. No one here knows exactly, the real purpose of this escort. It’s meant to be for our protection the police says, but in fact, rumors tells that it could well be that Pakistan does not want certain people to lose themselves in some areas where certain things would be seen ( let free your imagination). This makes it a very intriguing topic, but for my own safety I prefer to not dig into this. Once we got our escort, we started heading north and begin our journey.

It takes 2 solid hours with good road conditions to reach Bana, and good road conditions means: no rain, and no landslides. The road is made of mud and rocks, and is engraved inside the 80% straight cliff! If it rains, you are very likely to get a 4x4 roll-over all the way down the mountain with tones of mud following up. As security is a concern in the ** the trip was prepared accordingly to the state of the road so no problems. However, on the way, we did face a small landslide and had to standby on the edge of the cliff for 20 minutes before the bulldozer made its way through and free the passage for all. The journey to Bana was just one of the most spectacular drive I have ever taken in my life. The road itself, the view, and the incredible people living along the road made it an unforgettable event! Arrival on Bana was a little surprise. We had been climbing up the mountains and reaching the top of some, but yet there was other mountain higher overtaking the one we were on. Bana was sitting in the middle of a valley which itself was on the top of a mountain. The altitude of this valley is only 1300m which does not sound like a lot but does look like it when your there.

Bana is one of the most earthquake affected area from the 2005 quake, and need a lots of support from humanitarian still. Installing a Radio Room there would allow more efficiency in the movement of this mountainous area. Food, Tents, Medical…etc distribution is a lot easier when you can coordinate things. There is no electricity there, no GSM network, and nothing modern like we easily find in big towns. We started working as soon as we arrived there, and the first obstacle on the way was to find good place to set the Radio room tent. Once this was localized, we then started installing the equipment and try to get the job done as soon as we could. We were only given 24 hours to accomplish this installation and return to base. Unfortunately, as the sun fell very behind the high mountains, soon we were in the dark, and no more work was possible. By this time, it was the moment to look for a place to sleep, and we only found this in on of the spare tents which were lying near by. We set our beds, and heated the room with Gas heater.

This was only 7:00 when we were done and ready to sleep, but I wasn’t sleepy, and neither was the Pakistanis driver which took us there so we both decided to head to the center of the village and check out for a place to eat! We went into one of them and there I could not think of me leaving this restaurant (hotel they call it) without having some footage of it. I asked my friend (the driver) Khurram if he thinks they would mind if I was to make a short movie with them, and he said: “They will love it; they have never seen a camera”. He asked them and they enthusiastically given their go ahead! I ran to the tent and got my video camera! It was certainly one of the best footage I had the chance to take since I have started using a camera. There were these men in the kitchen which itself was outside under a porch where they had set some wood fire cookers. The light was provided by the fires and the men where on the spot to make me some delicious local meals. Unfortunately, having been food poisoned the two days before, I was still worried of getting some bad stomach, so didn’t enjoy any of it but the making of it video taped was my pleasure.I guess seeing the video of this would be just self explanatory and certainly much more entertaining that “I” writing but have not found a way yet to share videos. The night went by with some really deep sleep and the morning arrived with its extremely cold and humid clothes! As there was nothing there, we didn’t get the pleasure of a breakfast watching the mountain, and immediately went on with the left out work from the day before. The mission was completed by noon, and soon we were ready to go! Of course, before that, I wanted to enjoy a little more the company of Khurram and his expertise of the place also to get to one of the high point in the mountain further up! It was worth the trip! Only about 15 minutes from the tent, and high up in the mountains was this riz culture and farmers working as hard as ever with for landscape background the entire valley we had taken so much time to come across from! Just stunning, what more can I say! We made our way out with as much pleasure as the way in, and reached Battagram in early afternoon! Mission completed the heart full of amazement and questions about how far can go the wonderfulness of Nature!

To top up the last couple of days event, this morning, while I was just waking up from a deep sleep 7 hours, I heard a massive noise! It was like if you take a bag full of round stones and shake the bag as strong as you can! Stick a microphone in the bag, gradually bring up the volume on the amplifier, and listen!
This was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake right near by our place. As I was lying on the ground I have not felt the vibration, but all the people in the office have ran out, and the one in the kitchen tent literally saw the whole kitchen set bouncing from one side of the huge tent to the other one! (You can check the earthquake status on a daily bases at www.iris.edu (seismic monitor).

What a Blast this week! ;-)

Raimbow!

Yeahhhhh!

Pakistan childrens

So beautiful, so new and entertaining is the moment shared with these naive angels. No talk, no writting, just gestures and mouth games, just an instant where you wonder what the other thinks, complete absence marks, just the gestures and the smile can give you a guide! When leaving them, I gave out 50 Rps (1$), and they started exploding of joyce and jump around. "You share" I pointed out, one of the boy screamed for me to give him more, but the blue little girl grabbed his arm, and told him, I guess :), "We share he said!!".

Manserah, contemplation.

I am now arrived in Manserah (North East) Pakistan where most of the humanitarian traffic passes by. It is located in a beautiful valley and of course surrounded of uncredible mountains. It also has some magnificiant Rice cultures and a beautiful contrast in color with the brown, white, black, and green mountains. The clouds thickness and opacity gives this uncredible 3 dimensional effect to the already so suprising view. I have sat there after finishing a job and stood there for ever so much the Nature around was incredible. Then while observing and breathing fully this amazing moment, I started noticing the peoples. All these people you can freely observe whithout having to be seen. When you are sitting up here, you dont get seen by people, but you see them naturaly behaving and doing their day to day things..... This brought me to remember where I am and to maybe find a meaning to my life at the moment.

In the end, I concluded that my life at the moment, is just a journey through others'e one.

;-)

Number One Gate...

Some people say that passing through a bad moment is taff luck.... I wonder why this is being said! I feel that the worst moment you go through in your life are by the best experiences and lesson you can have. The stuff below that I wrote a few days ago happens on a regular basis. When it happens I really feel low. However, it is something I see like part of this uncredible adventure which Im having fun in, and its here to make it this more special! It also allow me to write in here on a regular basis. Writting is such a great thing when you are in this situations, and Im really loving this writting monologues with myself which after time and long moment of no understanding are in fact just way to balance things up. Being working in the field like this brings you a lots of question about yourself and current situation. The hard part in this is that you have to work out what you really want in a way which does not allow to think of it an othertime. You try to refer to other peoples back home, or about people around you, but you are surrounded of people like you which make it so hard to judge a right balance between home people and yourself. This job is such a tricky one!

Anyway, changing subject, its been a few amazing last days! This Bagh in kasmir is simply breath less experience. After this day of downtime and depress, i woke up the next day on a good vibe! the day was just very proficient, Managed to get a tent from the pakistanese army after 5 hours meeting with lieutnants, colonels, god know who else to sign paper proving that the PK army had given a tent!!! wow, the funny part is that this tent was donated before after the earthquake my us... Anyway, this is not my point in writting tonight.. After this day of good work, I ended at the gate with the guards. The guards are national staff whom make sure the entry of the camp is clear of any threat. I did met a few of them already before that day, but never got into there intimacy of late evenings at the gate. There where they all gather together and talk for ages. That evening two of them, Zen & Kashi decided to take me out the camp for a little walk. We are not allowed normaly to get out the camp after nightfall, but this day, I broke the rule and went with them. We walked only about 3 minutes down to the cliff which dominates the village and its lights! It was an amazing moment where we chatted for so long and where work was not related to any of the conversasion we were having. I was discovering our a Pakistanese live and what are the 30's like for a national person. I havd a simply amazing time, and when we returned we sat all together again at the front gate. These people are beautifull, they are like childs laughing about simple thing such as arguing on about how many continent there is on the planet, and then one would step up and say something funny like "2" and everyone would laugh like kids! Ill try to get a shot of these new friends from the Number one Gate! :)

Oouchh... an other wierd evening...

Its been only a month now in Pakistan, and most of it in the North East (Kasmir). The work progress has so far given good results and I start to feel a little more settled in this new environement. The people here are for most of them Pakistanese. There is about 70% of the staff in this coumpound which are national resident and the rest us are from abroad. The age average is probably around 35+, and the majority are relatively calm and into their work, at least for the expats. The coumpound is relatively small, and there isnt much to do at evening. Unlike when you just arrive in a place and meet people, you get a totally different feeling after some time. The more you remainin in a confined environement, the more you start to feel unsociable with the people whom surrounds you all this time. You react a lot more to the feeling of lonelyness and isolation.Funny enough you generate this atmosphere to yourself, and it kill any hope of seeing things change. You try, get with the rare people (3 or 4) which gather for an evening to have a glass of wine and release the stress accumulated during the day, days, weeks, but then the next time you do this again comes the same scenario, same people, same unfortunate luck of at least having this... One of the most difficult thing which goes with this is that even if you decide to have some "fun" chat and time, you still have to face the problem of living in a very mixte communoty of people which have different moods, different habits and appreciations of the common space we have to share. There is not a place in this coumpound where you can actually talk with anyone without having a hear listening, a person sleepless from your talks, or a local resident from whom you have to hide in case he would not like you to have fun at this time a night.
What I usually do to try and feel better, I retire to my 3m square compartiment in one of the collective tents and try to get away/out from here. This I may try it by surfing the web, waiting for anyone to show up on msn and share a moment of chit chat, or by watching a DVD. Here again, when you have done this again and again, you then just lie and watch the roof hoping for something. At this stage you could think that its the end of this crazzy chain of event, but nope... because then you start thinking about your life, about your friends, about everything.. and there you never know where it goes. I'll confess that most of the time it goes to, what;s next? where is my beloved... what is the family doing....etc. Its just so wierd and hard! In the meantime, what I do is passionating in terms of meeting all these people of the world and seeing them saved from a certain death sometimes, and the children being given something while they've lost all.. How paradoxal is this, while you give all you have in a cause or in a simple feeling of love for them you carry with you, you feel yourself isolated from the love of anyone you know... you feel so alone sometimes... I am still at the stage of wondering if this is just me having a lake of experience in the subject or if its just if its normal time to time to feel like... All I feel so far while doing this job is that you receive more love from these passenger which you are here for, children eldery people and poor victims of aweful disaster/massacre, than from the people you would expect to be the one to care about you. Those you care so much about, for one reason or an other, are those who just never have a nice word for you which would mean so much to you. I guess having a more "rational" life back there in the modern world brings with it, indifference and a lose of value and beleif in universal love. I no more beleive much in this feeling we call love, and trust with all our soul and body... its just doesnt make sense to me no more... I hope one day, it will mean something again as it does in the modern world, but for now, love is just about loving every one who gives you this little bit of time, this little bit of affection and sympatie to make that all this lonelyness becomes easier. Now if you say you should go home and live this more rational life.

I would certainly say right now, if going back home and living there, in this society where you may get loved by some people and get forgotten whenabout you need them the most, I'd rather still think about it. At least here, even if its not paradise, you meet random people with real simple loving energy which gives a sense to your presence here....

anyway, emptied my bag, feeling better.... writting to myself has always turned out to be the best therapie in these moments.

I miss you my "Z"!!

Zzzzz!! I miss you, I wish I could ride the smooth curve of the savage cost with you, I wish I could take good care of you and cudle your beautiful tank with love and tenderness! ...... hmm, hahaha something is going wrong with me!!! ;-)

Travel in Style Or your own way ?

You have the choice! You may choose :
Travel In Style, OR....

Travel your own Way!!!! I promise, it also works!

Beautiful ?

I guess there is not so much I can write here but just that these two man are looking absolutely amazing. This is right at the border near the so called "Line of control" between Kasmir and the disputed area (india/pakistan). The people here dont really seem to have any problem with the territorial issues, it is a lot more to do with finding a supply of food to get their family to survive. It is very high up here, and it is also damn cold! There is not much you can say but that its a pity once again to see the political authorities, have no other occupation than fighting to get more land, which afterall does not have even economical assets. Its purely and simply a stupid political game, looking like two man fighting over who has the nicest car..... Human idiocy is just facinating! All the merit to these mans and woman surviving there, and having to face much more important problem like famine, earthquakes, and winters!

Journey aboard of a Toyota pickup!

Yesterday afternoon, Tuesday 28th/06, was decided to be a chilled out day! Indeed, I had done all the work I had to do, and was waiting for more work to come along. As a result, and being taken over by a feeling of lazyness, I decided that it was time to have a break, and explore elsewhere than the camp! I easily managed to find a my two good friends around the camp who did not hesitate a second to jump into the car and wait with me for the driver to start the ride! Murtaza (on the left) came up with this great idea of making ourselves confortable at the back by integreting in this standard pickup the confortable chairs option. This was just the most brilliant idea of putting camping seats at the back!! yeah! This was just an unreal experience when crossing the town on the back of the pickup with all these pakistanese watching us and smiling! We headed up on of the multiple mountains around here, as you get high, it gets cold, so soon we were no more proud of our brilliant found with the seat at the back! it was freezing, and seeing the edge of the narrow snaky roads was a real scare! Through we made it to the top a along with this amazing view on the vallee! This must have been a little mountain as we only reached about 3000m+ but the spectacle from up there was breath taking, and worth while!
Next, we plan to take a two days trip on the week end and get up a higher mountain which should allow us to see the feets of the K2 mountain chain which are just about the border with China! of course, K2 is a little far to be seen from here, but just to see the feets of it will be an exalting moment! Inshallah, I will get the chance to head up to K2 sometimes when I get a few days off! (K2 is on the border with China and is the second highest mountain in the world at 8611m).

For those with Google Earth check this one out :
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=139207

This last pic here, is the view from the top where we drunk a Thai and had a moment of pure oxygene breafing! :-)

My home, my private space, my identity

Just now, I am writting from this little place, I have, and where I can spend time: sleeping and relaxing, thinking and writting, listening to music, getting away from everything and anyone.... its the place where I only spend so little time, but where I enjoy so much freedom. Of course, im talking about my compartement (bed) in the common tent shared by about 20 other people.

We have those beautiful separations which only isolate you from the other regards, I say, "from the look" because, you still can hear, can smell..etc everything. After all, it is only a thick sheet separation between the neightbourgh and yourself. Itimacy isnt the best thing here, but where your mind goes is pure freedom. Regardless of the noise and smells, when I travel there I then can allow myself all the fantasy and dreams I ever wish to have, I can rewind parts of my life and revisit my experiences, be it pain, be it love, be it anything, its always with an amazing pleasure that meet You in my thought, You, My people, the Ones I have shared something with at any time in my life. Be it Love, be it Friendship or just a random minute, it has been part of my thoughts many times. This is how I feel when isolate from all, and sometimes lonely. It is of course not all green like it looks. For sure I love my work, I love life, but most of all, I love you. you who read my web, my email, or make my journey through life such an extraordinary trip. . And in all this Green, there is the Other Side, this one even Greener, where sometimes I wish I would be, with you my people.

Houses of the world

Tonight, starts a new type of post. I thought it would be interesting to compare peoples homes and living conditions from different countries. I shall hope to keep this updated on a regular bases with new pictures. The first pic will go to Sudan! Since is a place where I have spent my first 8 month on this mission's job, it was needed to honor it! In sudan, these houses are called "Tukels", they are built of dried mud and dried grass/weat? they aren't water proof, and very vulnerable to fire! Inside, you usualy find the most modest furnishement with one/two bed(s) (usualy made of colorful strings) , a large pot , and that is pretty much it! the surrounding is for most made of a little perimeter, in which you might find more beds, a donkey, kids, or plastic bags in a lots of cases! Plastic bags, at least in Darfur states are given with almost anything you may buy. They are extremely thin, and fragile. Unfortunately, also very light, as a result, since litters are not available anywhere, the streets and villages usualy hold a huge population of the plastic bags which migrates along with the wind and eventualy die on one of these houses perimeter.... The "tucool" is a rather popular house, but it may be unaccessible to some who then live under 4 wooden sticks and a roof of dried herbs/grass!

Voila, see you next time for an other house of the world.

Lightray sunset!

Beautiful Sunset on Bagh (Kasmir).

Thanks the welders!

There I am waiting for the brackets to be done. Indeed, despite the tremendous amount of equipment, you still have to make your own stuff sometimes!! In thie case I had to get some brackets and tube welding done! It took a solid 3 hours to get all the parts togethers around town, then i brought them all to the welders for welding (confection of the beautiful brackets).

But here I am with my brand new beautiful red brackets!!! It was worth the wait, after 1 day and an half, I managed to get the very well hand built brackets! The red painting is mine tho! :) An other few hours later and the antenna was up! This made my day and happy day. Thanks to that antenna the NGO's in the district can from now on use our network to get the logistics or what ever needs coordination going! yiiipeee...

Beaten my fears, got the job done!

The climbing of telecom towers is a rather usual task I have to do in this work, up to now I had climbed up to 30 meters at the most, and it had been a real mission at the time. Yesterday, I had o face a new challenging situation and overcome some serious fear. Unfortunately, I am the only person on the camp which is suppose to get up there, and if i dont do it, they would have to send an other technician specificaly for the task!

It took me a few days of thinking before i felt able to get up there. Then, yesterday early morning, I decided that it was the time to go for it and just beat the adrenaline rush! I made the first 25 meters with no big problems, but past that stage, I started sweating a lot and feeling the moves of the tower. It wasn't like properly moving as a tree would do, but it was twisting on it self and all the way through down to the ground! The most interesting part in this is that you should have no reasons to fear anything! The tower is usually well maintained by iron wires on all side, and is designed to support such an event! However, it is the mind which is not design at this stage to just walk up there like on the sandy beach! It took me such an effort to get through this "what about if...... is it going to hold..... am I really abe to......" questions. Eventually I found the motivations to make it up the top and install the required stuff up there! The reward: an absolutely stunning panoramic view on the whole camp and its surrounding which you would not guess from the ground! when you are up there you feel like you are invisible to all, and that you can observe a whole world of activities. Since you have a fairly long distance view, you can choose to live in the view down the tower, or just about over there in the mountains near by! Then, just like it this wasnt enough, once you are down the tower, you feel happy, very happy and it is not because you have been up there watching the view, but it is because you have managed to do something you thought you would not be able to do! This is what I think is the important thing to keep from this! I will always remember this experience and carry it with me as much as I can! Sometimes, its worth a try to fight with yourself to grow!

Who said, oh! you have cold feets baby! 8=)

I'm sure that this man has an extraodinary blood pressure, and a perfect health! I dont know how old is this man, but he is surely well over 50 years old, and yet, he shows an absolutely stunning profile! He shares a house further up on the mountain cliff, with an other douzen of people. The house is small, but surely it can be shared, in the snow, in the cold nights, one would have to be a criminal not to give a home to anyone passing by! I wonder how is a life living away from my world (the world I grew up in anyway). Surely there is a lot to discover living a life like this. Through, you dont choose where you're born, or in which world you will grow... You might be lucky, or you might be very unlucky... the most important is to remember that you are not better or worst than an other, and try to just be humble and good. I cannot avoid thinking how his wife must be emjoying his cold feets when in bed, they surely reach below zero temps!! ;-)

Welcome to Kasmir

K asmir, This is now where I am. I should stay here for another 2 weeks. I arrived yesterday and started my stay here with a strong head pain du to the altitude. I went to sleep all day to try and get it sorted which worked after a solid 6 hours nap! So basically it has been a day for nothing in terms of work! Today, it is raining, and there it makes work a lot more difficult, I am supposed to install antennas on a 45 m mast, and trust me, its not what I like to do the most. Through, its part of the work, so I ll have to challenge myself with this one! At least the view from up there should be even more beautiful than where I am now. Tonight, at 16h00 I wanted to go trekking with a couple of local pakistanese collegues, but I guess I wont have the time for it. Its already 14:45 and I have not yet installed a bolt up there! Thought I would wait a little that the rain stops to get there, meanwhile started writting this little bit. Pakistan keeps on amazing by its amazing beauty! Maybe its the contrast with Sudan which hits me the most, but these high mountains with snow and mist in the morning are just breath taking... Maybe it is also to do with the legend saying that if you get to the highest mountain pic around here, and if the weather is clear! you could see the Hymalaya! I dont beleive yet in this "legend" since the distance between here and there is of about 1400Km!! A hell of a view if you can see it from here. At my current position the altitude is of about 2500m above sea level, which is not that high, but already the breathing is different! No smoking makes it a lot easy and it is good that I have stopped!
Anyway, as things goes, I hope I will have more pictures like the one below to offer you! Until then, I m going back to work. ;-)

MI26: This things is just unreal!

MI-26 I saw this one in Sudan before, but only from far, on the ground on in the Air. But yesterday, before flying out toIslamabad, I decided that I had to go and check it out closely! Indeed, this is the MI26, the largest helicopter ever built! It can carry cargos of up to 20 tonnes! Jumped in the car, headed to the secondlanding field, and there is was! The monster Heli on standby! Tosee the gigantique sizeof it, you have to compare with something! if you look before the Helico, there is a big guy there standing! look at the size of the helico... should give some idea of how huge is the thing!

Media's stupidity vs Protests abuses.

How long to wait before journalists and Protesters grow up to become rational? I wonder if it is only me, or if this is just one of theses ugly things Media's and Politicals like to "play" with. Its been going for far to long, and if you ask me, this is what revolts and frustates me the most at the moment. Im of course talking about these stupid cartoons and those violent protests. This picture is from Peshawar North East of Islamabad. Due to this inccident on a daily basis, we have been mobilised for days, it is seriously irritating to be affected by this "bullshit" from the western world, while being out there trying save lifes. On one side, protests should be peaceful and honest, on the other, imature idiots re-publishing theses cartoons, firing more and more anger from nearly half of the world population, should put to an end there easy scandalous sells.

This would not affect my life I wouldn't give a damn, but unfortunately, it puts the life of a lots of people out here to danger.... Grow up stop selling shit articles for money, it shouldn't be the point for Press & Media's, rather focus on how American democracy suck the world under its control....

Wasting lifes to exterminate other's one?

AK47 for the school bag, eyes full of concerns, on the defencive, ready to kill, very simply! While the teacher sends the donkey hat to the corner of the classroom, the Warrior Child hides in the corner to hide from his enemy, or, for when the time's right, launch an assault and kill a brother, who's like him, ended up in this useless fight for a Genocide he does not even understand...

How come that there are so many inequalities and power abuse around the world right now. I don't understand this useless violence which appears to be the essential reason of life on earth! Fill the human engine with "Money, Religions, Colorants and Power" to get the worst Natural self-destructive animal..

Zanzibar paradise Isl

An other 6 weeks in Zanzibar, and here I am on R&R again, this time I decided to go for the sure value: Zanzibar Isld, its an located North West of the Tanzanian cost, right above Comores Isld. It is not very visited by the regular tourist, and have a lots of charme! The only expates you will find there are the one whom works in Africa (for most). From Darfur, I flew to Khartoum, a little stop for 4 hours, then off to Nairobi, Kenya. Another hours passes by and this is the last flight for Zanzibar! Of course as for all my travels I was alone, and didnot know anything as to where are the right places to go. I just decided that for this late arrival I would spend a day in the capital of the island "Stone Town". It looked very tropical with all the Zing roofs and all the palm trees surrounding the town. People there from the begining appeared to be very attracted by travelers, of course like in every other beautiful places, when the landscape and nature is so rich, the people are the opposite! Travelers means money to them, and there is hundreds of people running after you to offer you service provision, they offer everything, Bike rental, boat trips, drugs, hotels... you name it! After some wondering around town, I found a hotel and decided to drop the bags and start the holidays with a drink and a nice dinner. Alone, in the town, it feels a little bit sad, and lonely, but hey, there is nothing I can do about that.

I was already thinking about the next day for which I had the plan of getting a motorbike and drive around the entire island. Fortunately for me, and for him, I met one of the business seekers in the restaurant where I was having this dinner. He offered me all sorts of things, but somehow, I felt he was an honest and nice person. I gave it a go, and booked a motorbike with him for the next day. That times the feelings were right, he presented me all his family, which all had one business or an other, and I got my bike sorted presto the next day. I should mention that with the bike i received a Tanzanian Driving license signed and approved by the local authorities :-) hihi! There I was off on the bike, and crossing villages and palm forest across the island. I soon reached the South of the island where I was hoping to settle for a while. Though, when I arrived there, it was desert, and none was present. Only the local people were there, I should also say that in April is the start of the rainy season and that tourist, the few there is arent so kind to take showers!

Since there was nobody and that I was seeking for a minimum of a social context, I decided to head off directly up north where it is suppose to be the nicest part of the Island. It took me nearly two hours to reach the place, but when I arrived, I was reward generously by an astonishing sunset, and a beautiful chill out place where i already knew I would settle for the rest of my trip! The perfect spot. just about enough travelers around with who talking about nothing and everything, and an amazing scenary!
I stood there for the 4 following days, and returned to the sand and problems of Darfur :)

After the Calm the storm!

After Cyprus, I went back to my beloved Western Darfur were a lots of work was waiting for me, and I was also looking forward to it. Since I have started this job, it has become a real pleasure to get to "work". Through it has ver rough time, I do love it. The day this picture was taken was a Friday, which in Sudan (like most of the muslim countries) is equivalent to the Saturday in Christian countries. Geneina, the small capital of West Darfur, we use to organise BBQ parties for the Humanitarian workers around the area, and this day was no exception. Me and a good friend of mine, Brian, had already started drinking a few beers while sitting on my prefab balcony. Finding beer is a real challenge, and it is not often that we get them, so when there is, it never last for long. We were already half drunk and talking a lot, when we suddenly saw coming this huge cloud of dust called "Haboub" (sandstorm)! He had the time to finish the beer and clear the BBQ setup before this huge monster swallow the camp into a thick and blinding curten of sand! All inhouse!!!!!

Egypt: A tourist passing by...

Heard so much about it, seen so much about it, would have been a shame not to pass by this track of the ancient world! Impressive, huge, unthinkable, theses pyramides are real monsters of architecture!

I spent two days in Cairo while heading to Cyprus, I did not get see so much, but at least I managed to check out this, like a proper tourist that I am! I also passed by there to visit a friend which I use to hang with in Rome, it was nice meeting there! Cairo looked messy to me, and over-crowded, a lot of cars, gaz, and buildings! Gigantic is what is the word coming to my mind, with a population of about 15M people (including Greater city), you can imagine the diversity there is out there, which makes it very interesting to see.Two days for me there were enough tho, as it wanted a chill and quite place! Cairo was far from it (probably like would have been any major city). Through its worst checking out these pyramides, it brings a lots of questions as to who where these ancestors!!!!