Our first speaker was Janice Booth, whose talk on Rwanda was something different. Instead of highlighting the gorillas and monkeys that tourists go to see Janice told us about how she became involved with the country. She began by doing translation work, which then lead to sponsoring a child through Primary school. Janice had kept a distance between the country and herself, but after the genocide she wanted to find out if Peter, the child she had sponsored, had survived. She went ot Kigali not knowing what to expect, but delighted at the peoples integrity, such as the newpaper seller, who went running off with a large denomination note, to return quite a while later beaming with Janice’s change. Janice got in touch with an ex headmaster from one of the schools who told her to come back in a week after he had made enquiries. Janice used the week to explore the country and returned to the news that Peter had been killed, however a brother had survived and one of his sisters, Chantalle, was living in Kigali. Janice got in touch with Chantalle and was able to discover Peter’s fate.Janice has since been able to help Chantalle. Janice is still deeply involved with Rwanda, having lead tours there when the tourist industry was re-emerging and helping with charity projects as well as being the author of the Bradt guide to Rwanda. Globies had a collection on the day raising over £60.
Our second speaker was the ever popular Martin Featherstone! Martin is a Globie and has spoken on a number of occassions. This afternoon’s talk on Morocco was as entertaining and irreverant as ever. Ex soldier Martin started by saying he thought Janice very brave as he wouldn’t go to Kigali without 60 paratroopers behind him! Martin drove through France and Spain and got the ferry across to Tangier. Big mistake he said, as it took him four hours to get through the arabic entry red tape. Once he had escaped he headed out into the desert, visiting Foreign Legion forts. Trying to navigate by GPS and incomprehensible arabic road signs. One Belgian Cafe owner, whose establishment is way out in the desert does not have an address, he advertises in off road magazines just with his gps co-ordinates, Martin’s gps found it ok! The GPS’s map showed bold lines denoting roads, but these turned out to be nothing more than boulder strewn tracks in the desert. Martin also travelled along the coast, which is littered with the rusting hulks of ships wrecked along alongthe beaches. To his surprise the 21st century has reached places like Tantan where Martin was able to visit a cyber cafe and send home that days photo’s to those at home. The locals fascinated watched over his shoulder until he opened an e-mail with a pornographic attachment! Martin’s trip took him to the Algerian border and a run in with the Moroccan military, before heading back to the relative safety of Marakech, where he showed us the goings on in Djem-el-fna, including a picture of a uk school teacher on holiday. (you had to be in the room to get this one!)
By Padmassana
Coming Next:
Saturday, 2nd December
Helena Drysdale will be talking about Strangerland – Travels in the Footsteps of a family at war in 19th century New Zealand Helena discovers her pioneering 19c cousins who leave the East India Co. for backbush NZ. Tales of war, adultery and God – photos paintings / views from Himalayas to the Chatham Islands and John Pilkington will be showing slides on The Heart of the Sahara; in early 2006 John joined a camel caravan from Timbuktu to the notorious salt mines of Taoudenni – a three week/450-mile journey to the very heart of the Sahara. Stunning desert landscapes and a taste of Sahara life as it was a millennium ago, when the Taoudenni mines were first established and salt was worth its weight in gold.
London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk