Sasquach

Hello my wonderful and loyal readers!! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write another blog- but it's been a long 3 weeks here in Senegal. I arrived late December, in the evening. When the plane stopped, and the pilot came over the PA system saying 'the traffic controllers have stopped us in the middle of no where, and I have no idea why. You should be met by a bus when they can find us', it was confirmed in my mind: I am back in Africa. Once we were on and off the bus, I entered the arrival hall- not so different to that in Uganda. It was there that I realised no one here speaks english. Like, no one. Here it is either french or a traditional language. Two women in their ... read more

I want to start this blog entry by saying thank you for all of the positive feedback I've been receiving! I'm glad you've been enjoying these entries- and I hope my future ones won't disappoint! Today's blog entry won't be so light hearted though. I'd like to give you a bit of information about how I've been using the money that I raised before I came here. I think I've mentioned before that I wanted to use the money to help the girls at the shelter I've been working at- OPRIFS. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for OPRIFS, they have everything they need. They have food, shelter, medication, toys and stationary- just to mention a few! They have a wonderful philosophy though- they don't want the girls to become accustomed to a 'comfortable' life- many of ... read more

Take yourself back to 29 October 2004... Where were you? What were you doing? I was at the Sheraton, drinking screw drivers, teaching Mary (my host sister) how to swim and getting caught up in an Ethiopian wedding. Oh, that's right- that was yesterday!!! Yes, folks, Ethiopia is quite literally 7 years behind. I'm sitting here with a beer, feeling quite illegal- the drinking age here is 18, and I am apparently 14 years old right now. How rebellious!!! Also, just quietly, perhaps a West Australian calendar for 2012 wasn't the best gift idea? I also planned my stay so that I would be here for Christmas- I am meant to leave on 27 December. Turns out Ethiopia's christmas is in January. Genius, Sarah, pure genius. This isn't an entry to inform you so much of ... read more

SOOO... a week and a bit later, and Egypt is already finished! The time went by so quickly. The ferry across to Aqaba in Jordan took a loonngggg time. We were meant to be on an express one, but we ended up on the slow one- 2 hours turned into 5 hours! We had no idea how long we were going to be on the boat (we were sitting in the port in egypt for 2 hours alone) so we got to entertaining ourselves. I decided to be henna maestro (I guess you don't decide to be a genius- it just comes naturally, no?), and decorated the hands of a few of my group mates. Just quietly, I was awesome. Photo included hehe We FINALLY got to Aqaba and met our new guide, Zuhair, at the ... read more

Me again! This time from the hotel in Luxor. I can't remember where I finished my last blog entry, but I think it would have been around the time the train arrived in Aswan. So we'll start from there! Aswan is beautiful. With the Nile passing through it, and the friendly people, it makes for a big difference to Cairo! The first night there we went to the Nubian village for dinner. How did we get to the village? Car? Boat? No!!! How boring! We took camels. Mine was Mona Lisa (but I think there were about 3 Mona Lisa's)- one of the tallest, but pretty relaxed. We 'trotted' a bit in the soft sand (10 points to the first person who can find out the real word for trotting on a camel) and after photos ... read more