Webisode 2 – The Break Down
August 27th, 2010 
admin Germany-Webisode 1
August 20th, 2010 admin The newest webisode, it is a re-do of the first to help things make a little more sense. Not that buying cheap cars and driving across the worlds most dangerous continent makes any sense at all.
World Cup Trek Webisode 1 from Nomadic Nation on Vimeo.
Webisode # 2: Into Africa
July 15th, 2010 admin New! A Little Preview:
July 11th, 2010 admin Recovery
July 7th, 2010 admin First off I apologize for my lack of posts to the blog. Posting in Africa proved difficult for me and with all of the other confusion going on it became less of a priority, as daily living became challenging. I have had a week of recovery time, with a road trip to visit family in San Diego mixed in. Seems as if I spend a lot of time in cars lately!
Fun times in Morocco - Tan Tan
My experience in West Africa was that it can take a long time to accomplish what would be simple tasks in the states. Burkina Faso has a national literacy rate in the 13-18% range, even if streets had names, it was more than likely that a taxi driver could not read the simple maps or directions I had for them. Finding a consistent wi-fi connection was challenging at best, in fact finding somewhere with consistent power was a treat. Celebrating small victories became important.
The other main problem I had was not being able to speak French. So I became good at charades, learned that “poulet” means chicken (ended up ordering lots of chicken), learned to suck every calorie off a chicken bone, and learned to enjoy a much slower pace of life.
Street Food in Ouaga. The bag was a water bag.
I had so many beautiful experiences throughout the trip and over the next few weeks I will fill in the holes in my story, in an attempt to share with you our journey.
Johnny always ready for fun!
I am very grateful for Johnny Lee, or UKJ as he was known on the trek. He had lived in Burkina Faso for three years as the Director of CoachingForHope.org, and is now with Hope-For-Children.org in Haiti. Without his guidance I would have been miserable. He introduced me to his friends, helped me figure out how to get where I needed to go, showed me great places to watch the world cup, and even put me up in his friend’s house for the first few days while I was there.
Mr. McAfee way back in Germany!
It has taken me a week or so to adjust to being home, but I feel as though I am getting back up to speed. I wanted to share a blog post from my friend on the trek Brett McAfee, he is continuing on, and has an update of what I have been missing on his blog:
http://mcpicturemaker.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-panic.html
Please visit it and read the post!
There is a Joan Jett song “I hate myself for loving you”, that goes through my head as I read his post, even though things have gotten worse for the crew, I wish I was able to re-join the crew in Cameroon, and continue on with the trek, but money was the main issue. So I will have to hold on to the memories until the next trip!
Will be posting more soon!
Ouaga
June 11th, 2010 admin In Ouagadougou (wag-a-doo-goo) or simply Ouaga, Burkina Faso The third poorest country in the world. My bank card was taken in Bamako, Mali and I no longer have access to my bank account. I have a bit of money with me but not enough for petrol (gas) and travel visa costs. I needed a few days to figure out how to access my bank account and get $$$.
Katrine Rohde, Me, Mary (volunteer at AMPO)
The group has left to continue the trek while I sort out my finances, and the plan was, if possible I would re-join the trek in a week Cameroon via airplane.
Jonny Lee
My friend and co-world cup trekker, Jonny Lee (Hope for Children, Haiti), who has also left the trek, has introduced me to some of his local friends as he lived here for three years as director of Coaching for Hope. Also he has provided an intro to The AMPO orphanage. I feel my heart leading me to stay here.
Kids at AMPO
The orphanage is finished with exams and the children have no classes for the next few weeks. There is ceramic equipment here that is unused, and I hope to hook it up, help teach them how to use it, and teach some art classes for a week or two, to a few hundred orphans.
AMPO
The trek left me with a GoPro HD video camera, so I will still be able to contribute to the trek with some footage from the work I will do here.
The trekers at AMPO
I am still a bit conflicted, as I feel a bit of failure for not meeting the group in Cameroon, and following through to the end of the trek, but also feel that someone is still carrying the torch for the trek and I know I can make a greater impact here, and logistically it might be a crap shoot to reconnect in Cameroon, in that case it would represent a huge waste of money. The doors are opening here for me and I will follow my heart.
Katrine Rohde at AMPO
In the next few weeks I hope to shine a light on the amazing work done by Katrine Rohde at her AMPO orphanage, as well as Coaching for Hope, who has a partnership with the orphanage. They are doing incredible work and I am honored to be in their presence.
Heading into Mauritania
June 1st, 2010 admin This post is not in our order of travel, as I am over a week behind on blog posts already, due mainly to lack of internet connections and long drive times. I felt the need to get this message out anyway. Oh and please don’t let my mom read this, just tell her I love her.
Leaving Morocco First Attempt
Today we head into Mauritania. I must say I am a bit nervous. The dangerous countries start to line up after that. Apparently we are traveling thru 6 countries that the US dept. of state recommends against visiting.
We will be facing 45 checkpoints in Mauritania. There are Al Qaeda , bandits, corrupt government police, and nasty things like malaria, and other diseases.
The Route to South Africa
We met a French diplomat yesterday who has worked in Africa for over forty years, and he shared with us the dangerous nature of the roads that lie ahead. Children carrying AK-47’s in Nigeria, check point crossings manned by unauthorized but armed details. He suggested our chances of making it to South Africa in one piece were about 20%.
The next two weeks will get real dangerous, real fast, and I will not have internet access for a while. Those of you who know me well, know the level of respect with which I carry myself, and know that in emergency situations I excel. I do not know this crew of twelve well enough to say we are all on the same page.
That being said, we should be off by noon. To my family I love you all very much.
Cut my hair, ready for action!
To my friends and supporters, this trip would not be possible without your help, I love you and will do everything to make you proud. I have every intention of making this a successful journey, and raising the much needed awareness and support for education in Africa.
Say a prayer, light a candle, or do what you do to send good vibes our way…I think we are gonna need every type of support we can get.
Wasteland between Morocco and Mauritania
Barcelona to Tarifa
May 31st, 2010 admin After a night out in Las Ramblas, and sleeping in a cramped hostel, that smelled of twenty four dirty feet, I spent a bit of time getting food at the market, using the cash machine, and returning on the hour to the hostel for meetings that never happened. I want to be a team player, but it seems that few others can get to these meetings on time or if they do the meeting is not ready to happen. There is much to see here, Gaudi architecture, museums, cathedrals, but alas I am tethered almost hourly to a back room of a hostel, for meeting that never happen. I did get a chance to walk down to the waterfront to snap a few pics, which for me was better than nothing.
Mercat de la Boqueria-Las Ramblas
We ended up getting out of Barcelona really late after the production had to unpack and repack their vehicle while the rest of the cast waited for them. The lack of organization is frustrating. The crew either does not have the proper direction or has problems following direction. They are young and in new countries and having new experiences, but they are being paid to work, and I am paying to be here. We drove around Las Ramblas for far too long trying to get shots of the cars driving thru Barca. I was intensely frustrated by traffic and the repeated loops to get the right shot of us leaving town. Driving in Barca is difficult in normal times, but being frustrated made me really short fused. I don’t blow up though, I wish I would, rather than internalizing my frustration.
Barcelona Harbor
We stopped for dinner at a place called Pink Champagne, before leaving town. It was packed ass to elbow, standing room only, and I decided to move to outside the moment I caught someone’s hand going into my bag, trying to pickpocket. I grabbed the hand and extracted it from my bag empty, and pushed myself through to the door. The director of photography(DP) Walter Romeo, suggested that I and another cast member find somewhere less chaotic, and around the corner we found a lovely street side cafe, where we relaxed over some excellent dishes of shellfish and rice.
Relaxing with Walter
I really enjoy the company of our DP. He is Italian, well educated, well traveled, speaks 4 or 5 languages, and has a Jedi Knight directness that I find admirable. When Walter speaks, people listen. We hit the road with plans of driving thru the night to Tarifa, Spain.
Lucy and I got separated from the pack or cars, and it seems that none of our CB radios work correctly and communication between vehicles has broken down. It was our fault, we told everyone that we would pull off at the next gas (petrol) station. We missed the turn as we were engrossed in conversation, but had no idea of what to do next. We pulled off at the next station, bought a map and filled with petrol, and luckily the rest of the caravan arrived. What a relief. I continued driving, till I could no longer see straight, at which time our car camera man took over driving as Lucy does not feel comfortable driving the right side of the road, and does not know how to drive a manual transmission.
Across the straight of Gibralter lies Africa
After a bit of a roadside nap, we continued on to Tarifa and along this drive we caught our first view of Africa, across the straight of Gibraltar. My heart started racing, never in my life did I expect to be looking at Africa across the water. We ended up arriving in Tarifa, a haven for kite surfing, windsurfing, and scuba diving, in the early afternoon. Carlos (a former NomadicNation.org trekker from Barcelona) was unreachable by phone, so a few of us set out to find the dive shop where he works. Can’t believe we actually found him using my broken Spanish. I took a quick swim in the ocean, and returned to the group who were hanging out at a restaurant. We found a nice hostel, took showers, and set out for Tapas and nightlife through the rustic streets that are Tarifa. This town is beautiful, I will definitely return here in the future for a week or two. A pleasant end to an otherwise manic day.
Tarifa
Beziers to Barcelona
May 24th, 2010 admin From Beziers France, to Barcelona. 10 hours
We thought we would have to bypass Barcelona but as it turns out will will be able to make it there if we don’t have any problems along the way. We lost our production vehicle for about 45 minutes, but other than that we had some great driving time through some incredible countryside. We wanted to stay off the toll highways as they were getting rather expensive, so the highways we took drove us straight through a lot of wineries through craggy hills, and mountain roads that remind me a lot of the Santa Cruz mountains in California. 
There are no border checkpoints so we don’t have to do customs at every boarder. Which is nice.
Into barcelona and the traffic gets a bit thicker, once off the freeway, and trying to keep four vehicles together in Barcelona is a huge challenge. I personally love the driving through the city, it is like a game. A pretty aggressive, anything goes type of game. There are loads of scooters and motorcycles that split the lanes will cut across you at the last minute for a right turn. if we do not keep a tight pack, it is super easy to get a car or two in between us and there are plenty of traffic lights that change from green to amber to red quite rapidly. It is kind of interesting that the lights work the same way from a stop, they go from red to amber then green, which is unlike the US where it is simply red to green, sort of like the lights at a racetrack. So we are cruising quite rapidly through the city, feels like a rally race I make every effort to stay within 1-2 feet of the lead cars bumper. It is intense, takes tons of concentration, and lots of stopping and waiting for people who get stuck at lights.
Theft in Barcelona is rampant, pickpockets are common, almost expected. anything that can easily be removed from the exterior of the car could risk being stolen by gangs of young thieves. This is why we have decided to find a pay park lot which has secure 24hr access, it will cost a bit more than we wish to spend but losing out lights on the roofs of the car or the tent on our production vehicle would be a far worse in our book. Constant vigilance is needed when walking thru the city, loss of a hard drive or camera would be devastating.
We find a hostel in Las Ramblas that can accommodate us all, then out for a bite to eat and some drinks through the narrow passages of the city. Young travelers, prostitutes, druggies, and drunks abound, it is definitely interesting. We find a gyro place, then a cool den like bar to chill out in.
At this point of the trip we have done some real long drives to try to make up time. I was told that the trip would be days of 6 to 8 hours of driving on most days, not 20hrs. And I assumed we would be stopping around meal times to get food, but it seems that we have mainly eaten at gas stations. The leader of this trip seams to have a strong desire to create stressful environments, a want for hardcore situations, I am trying to adjust, but find it trying as I adjust to the pace and demands.
France-Beziers
May 21st, 2010 admin We hopped on the autobahn in Hof with the new Renault packed and road ready, we spent some time removing the hood (bonnet) trying to retrofit it to the new car with no success, then finally deciding to strap it to the roof of the production vehicle.We hopped on the autobahn in Hof with the new Renault packed and road ready, and were puled over within 5 minutes our documents checked and cars searched for weapons or drugs. Thank god that no one had made any stupid decisions to bring anything illegal!
Just out of Hof Germany
The entire crew has been driving all thru the night right, now we are at 17 hours continuous driving in shifts. We had rain thru all of Germany and the autobahn wet, cold and dark had us pretty stressed. The sunshine is a welcome change from the cold and wet weather of Germany, and is definitely lifting everyone’s spirits.
We are heading to Beziers, France to find a restaurant, have a much needed stretch, and plan our attack for the remainder of europe. The cars seem to be doing well, the Suzuki has the smallest gas (petrol) tank and it means frequent fuel stops, we may try to figure out an extra tank for Africa. Even though we are tired , life is good and we have logged some good kilometers.
Tony our mechanic-Beziers Cafe
