Karmen Meyer 3/16/12 Karmen Meyer 3/16/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 11 | Edmonton & International Photographer

November 12, 2011 | Chitimba, Malawi to Lilongwe, MalawiDay #11- And we are off, leaving lake Malawi much to soon. Part way into the drive we discover we are stopping in Mzuzu, Malawi for a flash mob and mini-concert! As it is with most of the caravan activities, we knew nothing about this, haha. I never really figured out if there was a communication problem or if things were really getting planned this last minute. But either way, it was great little concert, so much more personal then the ones hosted in the capital cities!

Been wondering what the trucks looked like? That's them in the above photo.

TenSing Norway, as well as, the other speakers and performers put on an awesome show for everyone that gathered!

Ryan taught a couple of the boys to use the camera! They were so excited about that.

That was definitely not the only teaching going on. Caravan members were out and about talking to everyone about the purpose of the caravan and, of course, collecting more petitions!

Where you find a group of people, you will definitely find somebody selling something. I am glad to have met this bunch!

After the concert, we piled back on to the trucks and headed to our next campsite. We arrived at the not so fantastic Mybuya Campsite at around sunset. It was in the middle of Lusaka (Malawi's capital) and lacked that gorgeous countryside appeal. Also, they had very little water; it ran out completely only 45minutes after our caravan arrived! But it didn't matter much, everyone was tired from a full day. We had supper, attended some meetings and went to sleep.

Truly,

Karmen

Karmen Meyer 3/14/12 Karmen Meyer 3/14/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 9 | Edmonton & International Photographer

November 10, 2011 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Iringa, TanzaniaDay #9- Another looooong drive day, tents down before sunrise and back up after sunset. Today's twisting, narrow, mountain roads have brought us to a campsite called The Old Farmhouse, it is adorable! No power or electricity, but it is clean and cozy (as far as we can tell in the dark). The showers are warm, heated by a delicious smelling, steamy wood-stove and the 'long-drop' toilets are lit by flickering tapered candles; an ambiance I have certainly never encountered in an outhouse! The only downside…. It is FREEZING! After roasting in the Dar es Salaam heat the past two days, I literally cannot stop shivering. Lucky for me, I have brought a ‘Canada’ sleeping bag so I stay somewhat warm through the night, others not so much =(November 11, 2011 | Iringa, Tanzania to Chitimba MalawiDay #10- I honestly don’t remember much about this day, which means most of it was probably spent on the truck again. We crossed the border into Malawi (obviously) and arrived at Lake Malawi. We are staying overnight in another beautiful campsite nestled into the mountains, called Hakuna Matata Campsite. And would you believe it, they have a free power outlet. I wish I would have taken a picture! There was power-bar, after power-bar plugged into this one poor socket as everybody desperately tried to charge their electronics. Ryan, Ruth and I sat on the steps with our laptops, well, on our laps and try to edit in between power outages. It is quite a funny picture now, but I assure you at the time nerves were beginning to fray and it may have called for our first drink in Africa.The gorgeous Lake Malawi..

The bar, where we found the electricity =) To the right you can see the tents we sleep in every night!

Below is what mealtime around the trucks look like! And yes, we have basically ever meal at the truck.

kmeyerphotography.com….. kmeyerphotography.com/blog….. Twitter.com/KarmenMeyer

Karmen Meyer 3/9/12 Karmen Meyer 3/9/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 8 | Edmonton & International Photographer

November 9, 2011 | Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaDay #8- Rise and Shine, it's a beautiful day! And let me tell you, the view at Kipepeo (Swahili for butterfly) is even more impressive then it was at night; the Indian Ocean is clear, blue and inviting while the beach is made of whitest and softest sand I have ever seen. I think I am ready to just set up camp and never leave. But, the caravan has different plans...Today is our second concert! However due to the available electricity and occasional WiFi, FINALLY, Ruth, Ryan and I decided to stay back to get some work done. For the majority of the day we sit inside a beach hut, enjoying the silence, the view and the work. That being said, we just couldn't resist a couple sea-side walks and my FIRST EVER SWIM IN THE OCEAN!! It was slightly terrifying (upon seeing some jellyfish I refused to go in past my head) and absolutely spectacular. It was during one of these little breaks that Ruth and I encountered some locals selling there handmade jewellery, shells, and dried sea animals. I don't know what it was about these three, normally I would scurry away so not to be guilted into a purchase. But, they were open and kind and it was great to talk to them. And, of course, take their picture! ENJOY!!Truly,Karmen

kmeyerphotography.com….. kmeyerphotography.com/blog….. Twitter.com/KarmenMeyer

Karmen Meyer 3/5/12 Karmen Meyer 3/5/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 6-7 | Edmonton & International Photographer

November 24, 2011 | Mountains to Durban, South AfricaDay #23 - Ok, so here is the deal; I am TERRIBLE at keeping a journal. The minute things start to get busy, writing takes a back seat, which is to bad because my memory is awful! So, I sit here on the ‘last' truck ride to Durban and it is high time I get caught up. Well, actually, it is not so much getting caught up as it is getting it sorted. The busy days and nights of driving, setting up/ taking down camp, concerts and meetings have definitely begun to meld together. Every 3 to 4 days is a new concert, new people and some new experience.To help you get a clearer picture of the experience I think I should explain a general day:-We wake up very early, normally anywhere between 3am and 6am. (yup, I consider waking up a 6am sleeping in these days!)-We have an hour to pack up our tents, eat breakfast, and get loaded onto the big trucks. (In case you don't remember, there are 6 trucks that fit about 28 people each)-Then we hit the road, we drive anywhere between about 8 hours to 15 hours. Most days seem to take about 12hours.-When we finally arrive at camp, we set-up our tents and meet with our groups to do the daily chores of food prep, getting water, cleaning the truck, doing dishes….-The next step for me is usually search for power and internet in hopes of getting some work done. This usually fails, and I join my fellow caravaners in the pool/ocean/lake or play some pool (super popular here!) before going to bed and doing it all over again.Did that help paint a picture? Good, now I can try to get us caught up on all the days I have neglected journaling about. Here we go!November 7, 2011 | Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, TanzaniaDay #6 – FINALLY, we are hitting the road! Our first travel of day was a long one, about 13 hours with a border crossing at Tanzania. We have met our official new truck family, made up of wonderful people from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Norway, Canada, and the United States. As you can imagine, with this many nationalities crammed into one, small space there has some occasional culture clashing. It is taking some adjusting to get used to each others ‘way of doing things’. Perhaps the most noticeable amount of tension is in the morning when half the people are pumped and ready to sing and dance, and then there is the other half who would much rather catch up on the sleep they lost while former half kept them up all night talking, singing and dancing! I will let you guess which nationalities belonged to each half. Haha, yup.... but honestly everyone is getting along so great. I just love learning about all the different cultures. But, moving along, we arrived out our campsite (called Snake Park) after dark and set-up our tents in the rain..... supper, then bed.November 8, 2011 | Arusha, Tanzania to Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaDay #7- It’s time to wake up and pack-up at 4am this morning. It is still raining and we are grumpy! Today our truck travels about 15 hours through the gorgeous and diverse Tanzania. Ok, and when I say gorgeous and diverse know that am NOT doing it justice! Sadly, some of our poor caravaners weren't in the mood to admire the gorgeous landscape; they were really, really sick. For one of the trucks, this turned their 13 hour drive into a 17 hours one, YIKES! I won't get into the details, but let's just say it wasn't pretty... did I mention there are no bathrooms on the truck. I guess that's one way to get up close and personal with Africa, well Africa's roadsides anyways.Fortunately though, everyone did make it to the gorgeous Kipepeo Beach Campsite on the Indian Ocean. We set-up, eat and fall asleep to the sound of the ocean. Here are some shots I snagged out the window of the truck as we were driving! Did mention that Tanzania is soo gorgeous?? ENJOY!!

That cloud covered mountain back on the right hand-side is Mount Kilimanjaro!!!

Sorry about the lack of photos, it was a bit of frustrating task to get any good shot out of the window of a bouncing truck. But I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of Tanzania!

Truly,

Karmen

Karmen Meyer 3/1/12 Karmen Meyer 3/1/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 5 | Edmonton & International Photographer

November 6, 2011 | Nairobi, KenyaDay #5- This lovely day is our first concert! This is what the We Have Faith Caravan is all about; sharing, educating and collecting signed petitions to present to world leaders at COP17 (conference of parties). And, in my opinion, it was a major success. We started fairly early in the morning, piling onto the trucks for the first time ever!!... a little taste of what the upcoming weeks had in store. We arrived outside the park to see many WHFC members already handing out petitions and performing sound checks.There was so much energy and excitement, and even though we started a couple hours late and began to really understand the saying TIA, This is Africa (often accompanied with little shoulder shrug), the concert was amazing. All the performances were filled with passion and got the crowd so excited and engaged. It certainly helped that we had Juliani, a HUGE star in Kenya, along for the ride. And would you believe it when I told you that by the end of the concert WHFC participants had collected over 10,000 petitions!?

It was just amazing to see so many young people from so many different countries coming together for such a hard-to-digest cause. And, in truth, it is amazing to me that the whole thing was pulled off. Just think about it, nearly 200 young people from all over the world travel by truck across Africa, camping, and hosting large concerts along the way with 'big name' artists, as well as, local artists. This was a BIG thing!

And, in case you were wondering, here is a quote from the actual petitions. This what everyone was signing for:

"We call on our leaders to fight for a just and legally binding climate treaty! We call on our negotiators to treat the Earth with respect, resist disorder and live in peace with each other, including embracing a legally binding climate treaty." (www.wehavefaithactnow.org)

The concert had such an amazing turn-out and, I will say it again, the performers were amazing and truly inspiring!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little more of my adventure!!! I can't wait to share even more, still have 34 more crazy days to go. As always, let me know what you think or if you have any questions!

Truly,

Karmen

Karmen Meyer 2/15/12 Karmen Meyer 2/15/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 4 Part 2 | Edmonton & International Photographer

I promised to let you know about the rest of our fantastic day exploring Kenya, so here it is!!November 5, 2011 | Nairobi, KenyaAfter getting our fill of adorable, over-sized baby animals we traveled from the Elephant Orphanage to a place called Kitengela Glass House. We were so happy to have an amazing driver, Martin, to take us there. He safely took us through wonderful villages, across a couple fields and over some very… let’s call them rural roads. When we finally arrived, we were embraced by a secret garden made of glass and concrete.There was so much to see and feel, I actually took very little photos. Quite simply, I didn’t know where to begin. There was building after building, path after path, animal after animal….. everything sparkled and had it’s own texture. There is no way to capture the way it really felt in a photo.But, I did give it a shot, so here is glimpse of what we experienced:Kitengela is a fantastic place where all things wonderful are made of recycled glass. These stunning pieces of jewelry, dishes, sculptures, etc are created by "over fifty local people who have been trained [at Kitengela] and work in various disciplines". And to top it off, Nani, the Glass House's founder "has planted thousands of trees, granted school fees or tried to find sponsors, repaired roads and improved security, as well as, saves raw materials by using recycling glass and other resources" {www.kitengela-glass.com}

Kitengela has some AMAZING, Eco-friendly guest houses that look out across Kenya's National Park! Ruth was so inspired she jumped into the gorgeous pool, clothes and all. Can't say I wasn't tempted join her!

Yes, it is a pretty amazing place. And just in case you haven't had enough, here is an awesome video from Ryan!

kmeyerphotography.com….. kmeyerphotography.com/blog….. Twitter.com/KarmenMeyer

*if you would like to know more about my products and packages feel free to send an email to karmen@kmeyerphotography.com

Karmen Meyer 2/9/12 Karmen Meyer 2/9/12

Africa Journal {WE HAVE FAITH CARAVAN} Day 4 | Edmonton & International Photographer

Day number four, you are a special one! My first time outside of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, or off the University Campus. This day was so especially spectacular and adventurous that I have decided to spread it into two parts. So here comes Part One:November 5, 2011 | Nairobi, KenyaDay #4- The last few days have been filled with overwhelming information sessions, and although interesting they are not quite enough to keep a writer, videographer and photographer interested for 3 straight days. We need to get out there!! We need to see for ourselves what is going on, not only that, we need to show others. So we left the meetings at the convention center to search for some local stories. We started off by visiting the elephant orphanage just down the street!! From the moment we drove in I was in love...The orphanage is called the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and they work very hard to protect the endangered species of elephant and black rhino. Sadly, I think it is fair to say that most of these animals are dying because of mankind; the majority from poaching and the remainder from drought, an increasingly serious problem in Africa. It is hard to believe that such massive, graceful, INCREDIBLE creatures could be destroyed because of our greed and laziness. Here is a little excerpt from an interview Ruth did with Lusichi, one of the orphanage's main men (and pictured below):We Have Faith Media: What motivated you to pursue a career in conservation and animal protection?Lusichi: I think it’s a responsibility because we are God’s creatures. He gave us charge over the animals, so it is our responsibility to offer them every protection. It is unfortunate that it is human beings who cause elephants to be orphaned. We need to come to our senses. God commands us to take care of the animals.We Have Faith Media: How do most elephants become orphans?Lusichi: Increasing human population, ivory trade and drought. Drought has affected lots of animals, including the females who have young ones. We used to be able to tell the seasons—when it would rain and when it would be dry. Lately, you cannot tell the climate.We Have Faith Media: Population growth and natural disasters are complex problems that require comprehensive solutions. Is there anything simple that people can do now to help protect Africa’s elephants?Lusichi: Stop buying things made from ivory, including rhino horns. Then the poachers would not have a market.(check out the rest of the story at www.climatecaravan.com)My goodness, after you see how crazy textured their skin is and how intelligent there eyes are, it is hard not go all environmentalist on you, haha. But seriously, every little bit helps. So I hope as you look at the pictures of these amazing animals and people you might consider how your actions affect the animals, people and environment around you. ENJOY!!Truly,Karmen