A stroll through Mbita town

Posted on April 13, 2018 by johnageddes

I really enjoy strolling through Mbita town on the shore of Lake Victoria. I have visited Mbita, Kenya about a dozen times in as many years. As you can see from the photos, I am the only muzungu for miles around. I get many greetings and stop to talk with vendors or pikipiki drivers. I feel very safe and welcomed. I love the vibrant color that surrounds me there. The town also has special signficance for me which I will note at the end of this post.

The photos can speak for themselves.

Below is one other reminder of my special connection to this town. In the middle of the local hospital grounds, now behind some trees, is a water tank bearing my name. It was the first infrastructure project that I tackled in Kenya in 2005 and the benefits it gave to this clinic led me to establish the CanAssist African Relief Trust in 2008. Since that time, CanAssist has provided more than a million dollars of infrastructure support to communities throughout East Africa. Little did I know, in 2005, what a profound effect that water tank in Mbita town would have on my life for the next several years.

Bosnia reflections – Part 1 … Rebuilding after a war

Posted on February 9, 2014 by johnageddes

A government office building in 1999 and after reconstruction in 2009.

Actually this is probably more like part 1000 for Bosnia itself. But it is part one of three blogs I am going to post this week reflecting on my experience in Bosnia in the past several years. The opening of the Winter Olympics in Russia may have spurred some of this thought since the Olympics in 1984 were in Sarajevo. So much has happened there since then.

I first went to Bosnia in March 1998. I remember flying into the airport in Sarajevo and looking down at rooftops of houses blown off by war. Others were new and bright orange tile. You could see where things had been somewhat repaired. But the view told the story of a country torn apart by war.

The photos of Syria which have circulated on the internet this past week have reminded me of what I saw in Bosnia. And I was there about 18 months after the war had officially ended. There were still some tanks on the streets and roads and bridges were broken down. Some cities looked like…a war zone.

I took some photos in 1998 and sent them back to the Kingston Whig Standard with an article, one of my first for the newspaper. They suggested that I get some people in the photo for “interest”. The photos were of bombed out houses and deserted desecrated neighbourhoods where no people now lived. They missed the point.

Zetra – the Olympic arena in 1984

The stadium in the centre of Sarajevo that hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics was in ruins. The fields surrounding it turned into graveyards.

So many of my photos of those early trips to Bosnia were of war damage. And it was everywhere.

Digital photography was quite new then and my camera

1984 Olympic fields transformed into graveyards after the Bosnian war.

was a state-of-the-art point and shoot 1 megapixel camera. You likely have 5 times that on your phone now. So the photos are grainy. But I think they make the point.

Over the 11 years I worked and lived in Bosnia I saw a lot of change. It took a while but new buildings sprang up – mosques tended to be the first to appear. The people in Sarajevo, who all wore black and looked very sad on my first few visits, gradually became more animated and even smiled. Some of the buildings that stood as monuments to war were refurbished into shiny new buildings, the windows replaced and the pock-marks on the walls from grenades gradually filled in.

The appearance was that Bosnia was slowly recovering. Unfortunately, underlying ethnic tensions were not too far below the surface and often led to problems of governance. It is hard to forget war.

My last trip to Bosnia was in 2009. New buildings were springing up along the main thoroughfare in Sarajevo. Glass and escalators, clothes from Italy and flat-screen TV’s. On the surface it looked like things were recovering.

Looks can be deceiving. It takes more than new buildings to recover from war.

In March ’98 I stayed in an apartment near the centre of Sarajevo. There were bullet holes in the wood floor and on the walls. The view out the street was of a hill, most buildings damaged. By 2008, these had been restored.

Later we stayed in a house on the west side of town. At the bottom of the hill was the "front line" during the war. I was always intrigued by this house which was eventually torn down and replaced.

Later we stayed in a house on the east side of town. At the bottom of the hill was the “front line” during the war. I was always intrigued by this house which was eventually torn down and replaced.

This neighbourhood was particularly hard hit. It was uninhabitable in 1998 but by 2006, the buildings had been restored and it appeared like a “normal” neighbourhood street.

The Newspaper office on the main street was demolished (although it continued to operate out of the basement throughout the war). Eventually the frame was used to construct an office tower..with a revolving restaurant on the top.

A day in the White Mountains

Posted on July 8, 2013 by johnageddes

I sit in Lincoln New Hamshire this morning having a McBreakfast. The truth is that MacDonalds seems to be the only place open at 7 am in this little town in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and they have coffee, a washroom and Wifi.

I am off on a trek to the East Coast to track down dead relatives who lived from Maine to New Brunswick in the 1700’s and to visit friends who are summering in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

I wakened this morning to the sound of birds but a grey sky and steady drizzling rain. So by 7, I was packed up and looking for a dry place to have some breakfast.

Lafayette Campground near Lincoln New Hampshire

I have brought my tent and the Red Rider with me and yesterday camped at the Lafayette Campground in the White Mountain district of New Hampshire. After several hours in the car, we both enjoyed the bike path along the river and the trails to both The Basin and The Flume Gorge –good exercise and spectacular natural settings for photo ops.

Looking back at 1966

Posted on June 29, 2012 by johnageddes

This week I had a friend, Lorna Harris, send me photos that were taken in June 1966 at my family’s cottage near Goderich, Ontario. She found them tucked between the pages of an old book she was preparing for a garage sale this week. We were both 18 at the time and had just completed first year at UWO. While hippies were smoking dope and drinking coffee in the Yorkville District of Toronto, here I was, a skinny teenager, shivering in the river; she, a coy young woman blowing bubbles on the lawn.

Looking at these photos, I wondered what else was happening in 1966? Not that the bubbles and the rapids weren’t enough to keep me intrigued.

Prime Minister of Canada in 1966.

Lester B. Pearson was the Prime Minister of Canada and Lyndon B. Johnston was President of the United States – a good year to have the middle name “B.”. We gradually went downhill to “W.” as a middle name over the next 40 years.

Obviously in 1966, smoking was thought to make you look “with it”.

The Montreal Canadians beat the Detroit Red Wings in overtime on April 29 win the Stanley Cup – the best of six NHL teams. Gump Worsley and Jean Belliveau were on the team. No helmets, no goalie masks. Now, with 30 teams in the league and a season that stretches to June it is less hockey and more big business.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had Johnny Bower, Frank Mahovolich and Tim Horton. They won the Stanley cup in 1967 but have not come up drinking champagne since. Tim Horton was still known for hockey, not donuts. Imagine a Canada with no Timbits or line-ups for double doubles. Hockey player Horton had one store in Hamilton in 1966. Today there are over 4000 Tim Horton’s Donut shops in Canada.

Album Cover for the Beatles “Revolver” album

The Beatles released the Revolver Album (Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine) in August of 1966. Other musical hits that year included “Monday Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas, “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by the Supremes. Simon and Garfunkel released their “Sounds of Silence” album in 1966. They were little-enough known that I saw them perform at a free concert at UWO that fall.

The average cost of a house was $14,200 ( I bought my first house in 1971 for $17,500) and gasoline cost 32 cents a gallon. (Gallon not Litre).

The War in Viet Nam was going strong but protests against the war were escalating.

The Mini Skirt was a popular “fashion” trend for women. For men it was the paisley shirt. I had one. Black with red and yellow paisleys on it.

The first episode of Star Trek aired on television. And the first broadcast in Canada in colour was made by the CBC. I remember the first colour TV I saw – a big monstrosity in a cabinet with colour that was anything but subtle. But then I also remember my grandparents first Admiral TV in the mid ’50’s. We would sit and watch the test pattern – the one with the Indian on it – waiting for Howdy Doody to come on.

And what was happening in Africa in 1966? The Republic of Kenya was less than two years old, having achieved independence in December 1964. Jomo Kenyatta was the president. The Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian Shillings were introduced as the currency for those countries. Botswana achieved independence in 1966.

Now the cool thing about all this is that the Supremes are long gone, Lester B. Pearson and Jomo Kenyatta are historical figures, the war in Viet Nam is over (but has been replaced by a similar one in Iraq and Afghanistan), the Leafs…well, we won’t go there. But Lorna and I, 46 years later, are still friends. We live in different parts of Ontario but we correspond regularly by email to share ideas and memories and we meet periodically for a catch up dinner. We still learn from each other – she has recently introduced me to the em-dash. Our friendship seems to be like the Eveready bunny – it just keeps going; and that makes me feel very fortunate.