Trip of a lifetime 2011

Trip of a lifetime –South Africa & United Arab Emirates 2011


Recently I was invited to South Africa and United Arab Emirates with my family. It was the trip of a lifetime! We immersed ourselves into two new cultures and were welcomed with open arms by both countries. After a quick 15-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean our first stop was Johannesburg to tour Pretoria, one of three capitol cities. Our guide, Mtendene (which means Got to love him), helped us feel at home right away and gave us a history lesson about South Africa no book could ever fully provide. We stopped in Church Square to mingle with locals, visited vendors in front of the capitol building, visited the Pretoria museum, and roamed through the former president’s living quarters.

In Durban we had the opportunity to visit three schools and witness the great needs of this community. Ziphetele high school has 750 students and 20 teachers and is in need of a computer lab and new textbooks. A rural primary school needs fresh drinking water for daily use. The school site receives four large barrels of water from their local government for cleaning and outhouse toilet uses, but neither is sanitized for body consumption or gardening purposes. This school can only support one meal each day for students. Birches Pre-Primary School is an eco-friendly, self sustaining program that has been operating for 20 years and is looking for global partners to help support visionary planning for students who are not able to afford tuition to attend. School principal and author ‘Scilla Edmonds says the children just ran out of glue for student projects. She sells her books to fundraise for the school -Visit http://www.imaginedurban.com.


Our next stop was to the Middle East in the desert of Dubai, where the streets are lined with marble, a stark contrast from the roaming hills and warmth of South Africa. Dubai is filled with culture and heavy on traditions of their forefathers. It was surprising to see how many who lived under such traditions, women fully veiled, men in control, and prayer five times daily at the local mosques. Even more eye-opening was revelation by one of our cab drivers that Dubai is made up of only 10% natives and 90% workers and tourists from other countries. We met people from Camaroon, Sudan, Birmingham in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and even bumped into a handful of other Americans.

Touring Dubai and Abu Dhabi was exciting! We jumped aboard the Big Bus and took a million photos of the Jumeira Mosque, the Palm, Atlantis on the Palm, the Gold Souk, the Dubai Malls, and the tallest tower in the world, the Burj Khalifa. On one day we ventured out to the Dubai desert for a safari tour, including a little dune bashing (that literally took my breath away), a picnic dinner, some henna painting, photos with camels, and belly dancing entertainment. Dubai knows how to party! Not far away in Abu Dhabi we visited the world’s largest mosque –the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center, where all women entering must drape themselves in black clothes from head to toe, despite the 115 degree temps. So, we wrapped, removed our shoes, and stepped inside the grandest hallway I have ever seen. Inside the hall housed the world’s largest chandelier, the world’s longest carpet, the tallest columns, and room for more than 700 praying Muslims, six visiting Americans, and many other tourists from around the world.






This trip opened my eyes to how diverse our world really is. It has inspired my writing, inspired new ideas, and nudged me to action. What an amazing trip of a lifetime! Thank you to my family for the invitation and for visiting these new worlds with me.