…Mostly because that wasn’t my work assignment. I went there to teach. As did all the lemons that went with me. We always signed up to the same summer (or winter) camp In our early twenties, to fund our otherwise measly existence back in Cape Town for the rest of the year. English camps were always a month long. And we worked morning ‘till night, teaching little South Koreans, who should’ve (in retrospect) actually been spending their summer playing outside. But I was young at the time, without much of an opinion about anything of significance. So I did my job, ate my rice- and said yes to whatever my superior wanted.
Category: Travel Abroad
Zimbabwe, Introducing: Fresh Air
So whats the point then? Well,I suppose not everything is a success story- especially in Zim (lets be honest). Her people and land are beautiful, but she is scarred and possibly forever changed. But who can love the scars, you may ask. My best guess: those who are able to look beyond that which meets the eye. Who sees the heart of the land which reflects itself in her people: humble and kind, but not broken.
Mosi-Oa-Tunya‘The Smoke that Thunders’
According to some authors, Livingstone ‘epitomised the spirit of colonial exploration’ as he spent a total of 33 years traversing the African continent preaching the Word of Christianity, fighting slavery and bringing the beauty of Africa to the attention of the West. So whilst he wasn’t the first person to discover the Falls, and not necessarily even the first European person, the discovery was pinned onto Livingstone simply because he was the first to bring it to the attention of the Western World!
Raft over the River ‘Kwai’
As I clung onto the side of the boat, I thought the journalist from Getaway magazine had done (literally) just that and was trapped beneath the boat (which had tilted to a 90degree angle and was now stuck between a rock and the mighty waters of the Zambezi). The rest of us clung to the raft like monkeys on a swaying branch, and I remember thinking that if I let go, things may not end so well.
An analysis of Wonder.
For about two weeks after my return, one of the only answers I could give about my trip was that it was hot. It’s the truth, and if you were to look at a map you would notice that Malaysiais approximately two degrees north of the Equator. Humid too: which seemed to stunt. My. Thoughts…and promote a general sense of laziness, especially when required to walk anywhere. It’s surprising how a physical feeling or sensation will be the one that your memory records as having the most significance. Now though, sitting in an air-conditioned office, Malaysia is no longer hot. A more apt definition would be ‘tropically wonderful’.
Dubai- for a Second Time…
www.dubai.co.ae: This website is currently under construction. And this is no joke. With 25% of the worlds cranes in this one city alone; Dubai or rather her sheik leadership, have taken it upon themselves to impress all of mankind, The tallest building, the largest airport, the palm island; yes- her makeover is phenomenal.
One Day in Mauritius
Lying in a hammock, you listen to leaves move in the tree above you, as you thank for a cocktail that’s brought by an obliging waiter. The resort is everything you dreamed of and paid for; pristine and untouched…yet what of life beyond the boundaries of your quiet haven?
The Snow Witch and the Drum
Growing up, Switzerland was the countryside and landscape to which everything unique and quaint was compared. ‘Look at that mountain, we ‘maze well be in the Alps’. Swiss beauty thus formed idealistically in my girlhood imagination, and finally the opportunity presented herself like a flower in spring.
Kenya: a Colonial Aftermath
As I write this opening paragraph, I am sitting on my bed, overlooking the Mara River. There are hippo snorting water out their nostrils, and bugs (I’m guessing crickets) calling to one another. A cool breeze passes through my tented room, and the feeling is that of the18th century colonial, having conquered Africa, writing to those back home in an endeavour to paint the picture of a landscape, people and tongue they could never have imagined. Just over the horizon, clouds amass in a bulky fluff, white at the top yet heavy and dark towards the bottom…the condensation of a pending raincloud. Above my head, the tent groans and moves slightly with the wind; as do the leaves, responding to the movement of an African afternoon.
Www.Feel-Argentina.co.ar
Argentina: moving, divinely acute and desperately real. People are so different here, and while you can photograph landscapes and architecture of grandeur; it’s the Argentinians that draw you in. Seeming to have positioned themselves in relation to the ‘elixir of life’, there is an acute awareness of the simplicity thereof as well as its’ importance; pure enjoyment.