Sarah and Carlie

So here I am signing off, unless London has some exciting adventures that I can share with you. The operative word being "can". I'm sitting at the Joburg airport waiting for my plane to London and chuckling about the ragger of a cold/flu that just hit me at full force. Ah well, at least I got the Africa part done, now if I have to laze about for a couple days I can do it watching my favorite: British TV! I have had an amazing trip to South Africa, chocker full of great people and exciting adventures. Looking back I can't believe I have done so much in so little time! I guess it also explains why I am under the weather now, stupid tonsils, but for those who thought I was crazy to only come ... read more

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! That’s about where I start my explanation of last night. Wow, holly cow, amazing! What a night, what an experience!!!! I will remember last night until I am old and senile. It started out a grey day so Bri and I hit of the shops for a bit and then she headed out to do a bit of work whilst I finished writing the blogs. A work friend of hers, Leah, showed up from Joburg for the game and we got all dressed in red a gold and organized a ride down to the game. We got dropped off by the owners of Bri’s guest house and started the long walk into the stadium. Along the way we saw all sorts of interesting and strange people, German and Spanish fans alike, with a few BafanaBafana ... read more

The adventure tales are about to begin so sit back in a comfy chair, get a good cup of tea and settle in. Now, where did I leave you last…..oh yes, the night drive. We had decided on the Jo-A-Lize guest house on the main strip in St Lucia based partly on the price and choice of rooms, and mostly on the overwhelming honesty of our host. River boat tours? No, don’t waste your money, they’re rubbish. Just go down to the Ski Club, have a pint and watch the crocs and hippo’s from there. Night drive? A must, and you have to go with Kian, he’s the best around, I’ll book you for tonight. Kian was Kian Barker of Shaka Barker Tours, and we quickly discovered why he was the best. At 8pm sharp we ... read more

So here I am again, setting off on an adventure and reminding myself that I need to be patient with airports. I don't mind planes but airports are one of my least favorite things, especially the over-excitedness of some security people. Really, what exactly do you think I am hiding in this gossamer thin scarf? For those of you who don't find the 50ml's of liquid in a ziplock bag thing a bit silly (because Ziplock bags have special anti-explosive properties?) then you might not want to read the third paragraph. Now, to be fair, I had some great service at the Vancouver Airport, especially since I arrived late.....very late. So late that the check in had already closed and I had to convince a BA worker to still let me on. I took a cue ... read more

You all know I love you but this is going to be a short one because, well, because I am three feet from a hot sandy beach with crashing waves and I have better things to do! So It was a crazy last two weeks in Oaxaca, which luckily was pre empted by a two day trip to the mountains. Ixtapec de Juarez is a little eco-tourism resort run by the local town and the money generated goes back into the community. There is zip-lining, hiking, mountain biking, horse back riding and more. The cabins were lovely and all had fireplaces (which were very welcome all day a night). It was an interesting experience because it was really, really cold! One never thinks of Mexico as a place where it gets bellow zero, but I ... read more

So there I was, deep in thought about deep listening. Thinking hard about how important it is to just listen to people and let them talk without throwing in your own experiences or ideas, when up walked one of my students to ask if I wanted to play snakes and ladders. Well, does one really have to ask?! Of course I want to play snakes and ladders! Only it turns out we didn’t play snakes and ladders, we played a game called “roll the dice and make up the rules”, and it went a little something like this: First we pulled out the board and made playing piece out of erasers, pencil sharpeners and other desk paraphernalia. Two dice were located and the fun began. I noticed that the board didn’t really look like snakes and ... read more

First of all I should say sorry for hitting you all with a very sad poem and then not writing for a few days. Yes, the poem is true, I did lose a student over the weekend to a car accident and it was quite a shock after so many days of celebration. But this blog is not about that and I have been promising to tell all about Muertos in Oaxaca and here it is. Los Dias de los Muertos, or Muertos for short, is all about celebrating with your loved ones that have past from this world to the next. It starts the week prior to November 1st and 2nd , with alter making and bread buying, and on the weekend it all erupts into one gigantic party. All last week alters started going ... read more