I am alive and doing very very well!

Merry Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Lenny and I spent a very strange but wonderful Christmas in the desert in Timbuktu. We didnt have much Christmas spirit but we definitely took time to think of home and our families and friends so far away.

We have been having crazy adventures every step of the way. Our trip started out with a 55 hour train ride on a train built in the 1950s...possibly not cleaned since then either...some of the cockroaches looked a little dusty :)

We hadn't planned to stay in Mali so long but we met a fantastic German couple on the train who we decided we wanted to travel with, so we headed north to Timbuktu with them. Part of the journey was on a cargo Pinasse (big boat) for 3 days on the Niger River. That was very relaxing! Unfortunately Nathalie and Ansgar had to head back towards Dakar so we didnt get to spend Christmas with them but instead we spent Christmas with three guys in the desert and a camel.

Two of the guys were our guides. The third owned the camel. It was wonderful. One of them is playing in the Festival du Desert...so he sang a bit for us and we learned some traditional Tuareg dancing. They taught us about Tuareg beliefs about the stars. Quite a special Christmas...I even got to open one present that I have been carrying since September from Adam's parents!! That was a big exciting event in our evening!!!

The guys were really sweet so after our desert trip they invited us to their family's house for a traditional diner on the 25th...their Christmas present to us!

Delicious as it was (rice with goat and camel butter)it must not have sat so well in our stomaches because on our drive back to Mopti (leaving Timbuktu) Lenny and I both were violently ill. First and LAST time - inshallah - that I throw up out the window of a moving van!! :(

We spent a day recovering in Mopti and yesterday we hopped on a bus to Koro (near the Burkina-Mali border) and then on to Ouagiyah in Burkina. Another painful painful bus ride leaving my butt and back seriously bruised :) We were at least 30 people in a van meant for MAX 20....almost impressive, if it wasnt so painful!!

Unfortunatly Lenny's illness seems to have hung on because she is still recovering today so we postponed moving on until tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will grab a bus to Tougan and visit my dear friend Max's host family from her Canada World Youth days. That will be really really neat!!

From there the plan is to head south to a region with pretty waterfalls and hippos - and then spend a week heading back to Saint Louis. Likely with a stop in Dakar!

I probably wont have internet access until I get back to Saint Louis again but I promise an update at that point.

Hope that everyone who follows this had a fantastic Christmas and are still having a great winter break! Happy New Year!!!