Well, it’s been about 2 years since I wrote on this blog. My last post instructed you all to head over to www.artisticvoyages.com to learn about our new direction in this life.
Of course, this was before Corona Virus came along and derailed the worlds plans, let alone ours. Then, we had planned to spend three months in Africa, then would head up into Europe to poke around, then over to Asia. But with all things Corona related, that plan went to the wayside.
Instead, we ended up being locked down in Morocco for 9 months, then headed to Istanbul, Turkey. There we lavished in the big city life, and took great joy in hanging out at a hostel where we met so many other travellers, not just Moroccans. We had a wonderful time there, and painted 4 different murals at the hostel we were staying at.
Yes, while staying in Istanbul, we started getting serious about our YouTube channel! Please check it out and subscribe!
After 2.5 months there, we made the decision to fly to Egypt as it was getting cold in Turkey, and we wanted to seek out some warmth.
Egypt didn’t turn out to be a lot of fun. We were hassled relentlessly by the locals who were desperate to just make any sort of sale, and we were also ripped off constantly.
While there, we did a partial mural job, but didn’t quite finish as much as we would have wanted as the owner became quite difficult to deal with, and his communication skills were deplorable. He had crazy expectations that we couldn’t seem to keep up with, so we left.
After three weeks we headed south by bus to Sudan. Sudan was definitely a highlight of our time in Africa. I think it was because it dashed all preconceived notions of it that we had. We encountered no danger at all and instead met some of the kindest and most humble people that we have ever come across in our travels.
From Sudan we headed south to Uganda where our life changed a lot! We started out by painting murals for a couple different communities, but after a month of being in the second one, we learned that the nearby village to us was starving. It was then that our life direction took a very different turn.
In no time at all we were able to raise a bunch of money to help pull them out of the desperate situation that they were in, and we fed them and brought them water for 10 weeks. We also started to teach them about composting and soil building so that they could begin replenishing the nutrient depleted soil in their community.
To learn more about this project, visit our Go Fund Me page.
This project would really help us to understand our purpose in the world. Not only are we set on spreading our art around the world, we are now determined to spread our knowledge of soil building and permaculture techniques that is so desperately needed in this part of the world.
After 7 months in Uganda, we decided that it was time for a well needed break. A housesitting job was posted in Botswana and we just couldn’t refuse the opportunity to see more of Africa. We set out from Uganda by bus, and travelled through Tanzania, and Zambia before reaching Botswana, in just 10 days. It was an exhausting whirl wind trip, and we spent most of our 5 weeks housesitting recovering from our ordeal, not too mention the previous 7 months of taxing physical and emotional that work we had done in Uganda.
Having promised our friends in Uganda that we would return to continue helping them when our housesitting was complete, we are now on our way back up there.
Currently we are in Arusha, Tanzania, in the northern part of the country, and steps away from the famed Mt. Kiliminjaro. We hope to at least see the mountain before we leave to head back to Uganda in the next 2-3 days.
When we get to Uganda, our main mission is to help the community that we were working in to get the funds needed to get a bore hole (well) dug so that they can have access to fresh water. They have no water sources now, and they depend heavily on rain. Unfortunately they are experiencing extended droughts, and have to have water trucked in, which is costly. With the economic devastation brought in by Covid, they can barely scrape up the money to even purchase this basic necessity. It is a very grave situation for the community.
If you would like to contribute to this cause, please do so by visiting our GoFundMe link below. All money raised will further help the people of Kikorongo.
Thank you so much for reading this update. Please subscribe to our newsletter by heading to www.artisticvoyages.com. There I send out 1-2 emails per month that outline where we are in the world, and all of the projects that we are working on. Also check out the links below to learn how you can support us on a day to day basis.
Much love to you all from Africa! We truly love it here!
From the beautiful and lush land, to the wonderful people, Africa has been just the medicine that we have needed and has been a wonderful and safe place to be during these terribly troubling times.
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Just Some Wandering 