Africa 2019: Echos of Blogposts Past

Annamaria on Monday

My experiences in my recent travels hearken back to topics discussed here on MIE in the past, so by way of an update and a reminder, here are some recent photos that echo past posts.  Follow the links to the originals.

Here are some shots from my visit a couple of weeks ago to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town.  I first read about that fabulous place in Stan's blog years ago.  These are just a few of the denizens of the smallest of the earth's six floral kingdoms.  Read Stan's blog about it here: Kirstenbosch

 

  

This past month, I also saw for the first time a magnificent view of the Rift Valley.  I had written about it and read about it, and didn't even know I was going to see it on my way from Nairobi to Naivasha.  As soon as it came into view outside the car window, I recognized it.  The Kikuyu Escarpment!  Here are a couple of my shots of the view.  You can read all about it here: Rift Valley

No trip to Africa is complete for me without a visit to the Emusoi Center in Arusha, Tanzania.  Here is a snapshot of my friend Nicoletta and me with the current group of new arrivals, and a few of the graduates who are acting as role models.

Bill and Melinda Gates, in their just released annual letter said, "Girls' education, especially,  is among the most powerful forces on the planet...In fact, UNESCO estimates that if all women in low- and middle-income countries finished secondary school, child mortality in those countries would fall by about half."  Here is link to one of my blogs on how Emusoi has been working toward this goal for over twenty years.  You can help too.

Regular readers of MIE may recall several blogs I have written about an inscription on a rock in Longido, Tanzani, made by an Italian prisoner of war.  Since Arusha is not that far from Longido, while I was at Emusoi, I paid a visit and saw the inscription for myself.  Here is how we found the man who made it.    

Speaking of Italian prisoners of war, that corniche road that gave us those magnificent views of the Rift Valley was built by prisoners.  Perhaps Elia was one of them.  When they finished the job, they asked for permission to build a Catholic church along the road.  Nicoletta and I found out about it from an Uber driver in Nairobi, so we asked the driver who took us to Naivasha to stop and let us have a look.

Once I was back in Florence after my sojourn in Africa, I received a most wonderful sculpture.  I have written here about the works of my friend Lorenzo Perrone, who make his works of art from books.  He made this one for me:

 

It is called Le Onde del Destino (The Waves of Desinty).  He said this to me when he delivered it: "The book is the dominant part because you are all about the book.  The little boat is you, sailing on with adventures.  Even though the waves are big, you are sailing on top of them."  What an incredible privilege to have an artist like Lorenzo make such a beautiful thing for me!