Blogs from Africa - page 3371

Christmas in Egypt 1953 Christmas and the Muslim holiday of Id al Adha occurred at approximately the same time, providing enough time off that I could plan a trip to fulfill my long time wish to see the pyramids. By this time, I had a new roommate. Caroline had arrived from Beirut, where she had been teaching in the American school. She was an American who had studied in an Egyptian university. When Carolyn learned I was going to Egypt, she insisted upon giving me a letter of introduction to her Egyptian friend, Soroya, a fellow student in the university who was now married and teaching in a Cairo university. After I arrived in Cairo, had checked into my hotel, and made arrangements for the following day, I called Soroya, expecting to squeeze in a visit ... read more

I went to live in Middelburg, TVL at the age of 7, did my schooling in Middelburg Primary then went to Witbank high School where I finished Matrice in 1979 and went to Witbank College for my Secretarial Course. Later I worked for BTR Sarmcol which later became VMS Mining Supplies, from there I went to work for Witbank Personnel just for 1 year and before I moved to Portugal. I can say without any doubt that those were truely the best years of my life:)... read more

No travel plans at the moment, so let's start from the beginning. How did my passion for travelling start? My first memories of travel stories? Spending evenings with my god parents showing us slides of their travels and then showing us all the treasures they bought along the way. How I drooled and wished that one day I would be fortunate to do the same. Slides of exotic places that they had been to, being projected on walls. This was in the days when it was more common practice and probably more economical to show slides rather than photographs. With almost life size images, at least to my young eyes, looking so enticing and interesting, I started dreaming of going on my own travels. I still had a long way to go though, as I had ... read more

The ferry from Trapani in Sicily across to Tunis left at 11am, and while the day was overcast, the sea was relatively calm for the trip. We mixed on board with a number of people, including Kiwis Nev & Liz, Ed & Heather, the brothers Leek whose old man worked with my father at the AMP in NZ around 20 years previously (pure coincidence!); German Gert, who didn’t quite seem to know where he was heading; and Brit Martin, also a strange fellow – plotted travels, chatted, and even had a few games of Ricketty Kate. We reached Tunis right on time at 7.30pm to a most unpleasant surprise – we were refused entry as we had no visas. We stayed on board for at least a couple of hours arguing the toss with local Customs ... read more

Diary 19720811 I taught form 1 today which was really exciting. They get so caught up in the lesson once you capture their interest. Someone else started the lesson on oral vocabulary, and I continued just when they discovered there is a French word for everything. They wanted to know the word to name very object in the room. The school held a dance for us tonight. “Emperor Josy Ola and his band” played. This was a band like a Canadian high school group but the music is called “highlife”. It resembled all such dances, except mothers and little kids came! 19720812 This is Saturday but we have to teach anyway, because we need the practice. Wednesday schedule is being followed which is good for me. I had the fifth form (Grade 12) in the afternoon. ... read more