As the world's poorest continent, Africa unfortunately sometimes has the reputation for being behind-the-times, and not up to speed with the newest technology. But while living here, I have found some instances in which Africa is actually quite innovative with new technologies and progressive ideas, sometimes even more so than other places. And the following are three of those instances:

Since many people in Africa do not have the financial stability to open up a bank account, they've been mostly left out of the financial world of credit cards, ATMs, and other instantaneous forms of transactions. But this deficit only served to inspire the people of Africa to create an ingenious solution which makes using ATMs and credit cards feel archaic - sending money through your phones.

Mpesa has become so popular out here, that now major companies such as Visa have jumped on board with their own versions.

But Mpesa is not a perfect financial solution. When we were in Tanzania, the government decided to freeze all Mpesa accounts one day because there were too many fraudulent users. Overnight, people lost access to all their money, government agencies could no longer make transactions, and businesses ground to a halt. To recover your account, you had to go in to an Mpesa place and prove your identity with your passport, and according to the new rules, foreigners were no longer allowed to have Tanzanian phone numbers. As you can imagine, this was extremely inconvenient for us, since not only could we no longer have a working Tanzanian phone plan, but government fees were only equipped to be paid in Mpesa, which we weren't allowed to have anymore... it was a mess.

But as with any new technology, it's expected to have to work out a few kinks, and overall, Mpesa has proven to be an extremely exciting way for people to pay for things. It has eased the flow of money, and has allowed businesses to prosper in a region of the world that has been mostly forgotten by the global economy. So who knows, maybe one day the rest of the world will catch up and start using Mpesa too!

As I write this in Uganda, the super-slow internet here has stopped working for the second time in a week. So this next innovation is not a continent-wide thing, or even a region-wide thing, but is country specific to Kenya.

Because unlike its neighbors, Kenya has surprisingly good internet, and for very reasonable prices.

When we were living in Kenya, we paid $25 a month for super high-speed unlimited internet, and it worked fantastically. This is because the Kenyan government has recognized that providing people with internet will help the economy in countless ways, and so they've taken efforts to make sure that internet is not only available to nearly every part of the country, but is affordable as well.

This has not gone unnoticed by the international community. Google has even started doing experiments with their newest internet technologies in Kenya because they say the technological infrastructure is perfect for them to complete trials of their "internet balloons". These massive balloons are intended to project internet to rural areas without the need for on-the-ground development. While we were in Nanyuki, we actually saw these huge silver circles hovering in the sky much higher than planes could go, and we thought they were UFOs. Check out the picture we took and tell me it doesn't look like a flying saucer!

Kenya has certainly stepped up to the plate when it comes to providing internet to its citizens. Now if only the electricity would stay on all the time...

Rwanda was the first country in the region to outright ban the usage or sale of single-use plastic bags, and the rest of East Africa quickly followed suit. In 2017, Kenya imposed the world's strictest plastic bag ban, and I can attest to its strictness since we had found a plastic bag in the house we were renting and suggested our landlord use it to carry his belongings in the rain. But he shouted, "No! They will arrest me if they see me walking with this bag!" And it's true. They do arrest people for having plastic bags.

This became the first time in my life that I had to throw away garbage without a garbage bag. Amazingly, garbage bags aren't even sold at stores, because they simply don't exist in Kenya. At first I didn't quite know what to do with all the gross meat containers and leaky things I needed to throw away. I'd horde the plastic packaging used for pasta or toilet paper, and use those for the garbage.

So these were just three ways in which Africa has surprised me with its innovations, but I think it's safe to say that as a whole, the African people are resourceful and persistent, even when they start out at a disadvantage. When they see a problem, they tackle it, and somehow they always seem to do it with a smile on their face.

We've been working hard on our YouTube videos, and I think they're a great way for people to get a more intimate picture of what our crazy lives are like, and I hope they allow you to get to know us even better. So I've put some links below to our videos from this week.

​Enjoy!

This week we'll be flying home, but more about that next Sunday. See you then!
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The hardest part of crossing from Kenya into Uganda was complete - getting through the bureaucracy of the border. It hadn't been easy, but we were finally through and on the road again in Uganda. And it was a glorious feeling to say the least (partially because we were so hot and sweaty, the wind from being on the motorcycle felt oh-so-amazing).

Since we had already spent a good portion of the day at the border, we knew we wouldn't make it all the way to Kampala before nightfall. So we stopped in the next big town called Jinja, a humidly tropical city on the low-altitude shores of Lake Victoria. Because of it's paradise-like setting, and also being on the banks of the source of the Nile River, Jinja was a hotspot for tourism in better times. The place has a whole assortment of hotels and accommodations to choose from, but in general, they tend to be more upscale and would normally be out of our budget.

As with everything here in Africa, it was quite the adventure journeying from Kenya back to Uganda. In order to travel across the border, we had to first get a negative Covid PCR test that would be good for three days. Considering it would take a couple days to get to the Ugandan border from where we were living in Kenya, we had to time things just right.

We had done a similar procedure when moving from Uganda to Kenya six months ago, and I remember getting that swab up my nose, and thinking that it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. I could taste blood afterwards, and my nose (more like my brain) hurt for days. I whimpered a bit while the nurse was doing it, and she said, "It does not hurt. I am the most gentle!"

Luckily, this time was not nearly as bad. So yeah, that first nurse was NOT the most gentle.

As our time in Africa slowly winds down to a close, I find myself thinking about all the incredible experiences we've had here. Some of these times include coming face to face with lions, elephants, rhinos, or delving into the food, cultures, and languages that make up this vast continent. But those are the expected treasures of Africa, the ones you see in brochures, or on instagram, and online travel articles.

Today I'm going to talk about my favorite experiences that came as unexpected surprises, things that I never expected or even dreamed of happening. And even though all of my experiences here have been profound, and some even life-changing, it's the little things that sometimes hit home the hardest. The ones you don't see coming.

Kenya just went under another lockdown yesterday, restricting travel once again. This is due to a new wave of Coronavirus cases, and we're currently not sure what this is going to mean for us to move to Uganda once our Kenyan visas expire in two weeks. But we'll hopefully get that figured out soon.

What this lockdown also hints at is the fact that this part of the world is no longer the best place for us to stay. The US and the UK have had a fantastic vaccine roll-out so far, and their cases are dropping as they start to get control over the virus. But poorer countries have been falling behind. This includes most of Africa.

Dreaming about traveling again? This week I'll go over some of our favorite roads that we've come across in Africa. Obviously there's a lot of Africa we haven't seen, and these are just our humble opinions. But during our travels here, we've come across some real incredible gems that we would like to share with the world.

There's nothing better than being on a motorcycle, drifting down a perfectly twisty mountain road, and being surrounded by stunning views. So if you ever find yourself on the African continent and with a vehicle, these are definitely some places to check out.

​The following are our top 5 roads -

Almost exactly one year ago, we had just arrived in Uganda, and Tim and I began to realize that our traveling life as we knew it was going to change - and possibly come to a complete halt. It felt like every time we had access to internet and looked at our phones, the headlines were getting worse and worse. Airports were shutting down, country borders were closing, and cities were going into lockdown.

But luckily for us, nothing was locked down in Uganda yet, and most people were blissfully unaware of the storm clouds that were brewing on the horizon.

We were traveling with our American friend Leo, and had just spent the night in a hotel from hell (if you missed that story, check out last week's blog here). Needless to say, we hadn't gotten very much sleep, and had woken up early because we had a long day ahead of us - a ride through Queen Elizabeth National Park.

This week I'm taking us back into the past - to March 12, 2020 to be exact. It was one of the last days that borders were still open in Africa, but we didn't know it at the time. We were blissfully ignorant of what was to come.

Tim and I were in Rwanda, planning to head north into Uganda the next day, and we were traveling with our American friend Leo (for a recap of what we did in Rwanda, check out this blog post).

We stayed the night in a bar called One Degree South on the shores of Lake Kivu. We hadn't originally planned on staying in a bar overnight, and had just stopped there for lunch, but after meeting Hicham, the charismatic restaurant owner who was Lebanese/American and grew up in the Central African Republic, we didn't want to leave. Hicham and his wife were fascinating people. She was from Michigan and did charity work every day across the border in the DRC, and so we spent the night entranced by all their incredible stories.

You might have heard a few horror stories about Africa - violence, war zones, corrupt officers and guards, and when it comes to travelers, robberies where people's bikes have been torn apart, and all their stuff stolen. Traveling by motorcycle can always be risky, but we had heard that Africa was on a whole new level. At the same time, we always wanted let the cities and the people within present the truth of the matter, good or bad.

Thankfully, I'm happy to say that so far in Africa, nothing major has happened to us. Someone once tampered with our bike one night in Tanzania (but Tim heard him and scared him away), and there were a few places in South Africa where we didn't feel safe. But besides that, we've been very fortunate. Of course, we're always aware of what could happen, and are always trying to stay one step ahead the game.

This week has been a lesson for many of us on the power of nature. Back home across much of the US, winter storms have been debilitating, sometimes even deadly. And it just goes to show that no matter how much we try to control our surroundings, every once in a while, nature deals a heavy blow.

Here in Kenya, we learned this lesson twice this week, and the first time was with sewage.

We think we have it all under control - we flush our toilets, and it's gone forever. But we don't expect the entire town's sewage line to clog due to storms and washed up debris, and for everything to return to us and back-flow onto our property. But that's exactly what happened.

I was living my life quite happily not ever knowing about the strange things that people flush down their toilets here - batteries, chip bags, large screws, pieces of metal, wires, dirty diapers, and even avocado seeds! Who does that? And how did they manage to flush an entire diaper down the toilet?