Desserts are sweet

April 11, 2017

Last night I had my second to last pre port. This morning I got off the ship for the last time before getting off in Germany. I'm currently in a bus in Morocco, the last port before this incredible voyage comes to an end. To say time has been as quick as a blink of an eye would be an understatement. Yet at the same time, I've had enough unreal, once-in-a-lifetime, jaw dropping, beautiful, crazy experiences to last for a lifetime...or seven. I'm sure this is true for most people but if you would've told me when I was 14 that I'd have the kind of life I've had in the last 5 years...I would've put my black hair up in a ponytail, told you that you were crazy, and snuck out of my basement window. Crazy how lives can change sometimes...or the scenery of a country. We got on the bus in Casablanca and I took a nap for a solid hour before waking up to North Dakota fields. I'm not kidding, I thought I was still sleeping when I looked out the window. They're big producers in wheat, barley, and other cereal grains so all I saw was mostly flat land, fields of wheat, telephone poles, and a few animals here or there. The thought only lasted a little while as I could see scoria-red, square, little houses and people working the land with their hands and maybe a horse. We stopped for lunch in Marrakech and then continued on towards the Atlas Mountains. That's where we are now and they're beautiful. They remind me of some of the mountain driving I've done in New Zealand and in the Rockies. Except for the fact that we're in a giant greyhound bus..let's just say my mom's knuckles would be white a couple times on this drive :P we're headed to the entrance city of the Sahara desert which we will be going into tomorrow on camels. As long as I don't think about camel spiders(look them up if you dare) then it should be an extraordinary time.

April 14, 2017 

SOS I've lost a bunch of days. I just realized that it's April 14th and I don't know where the last 100+ days of my life went. It can't possibly have been 100 days since I've been in the US. Wasn't I just planting trees in a windy sandy mess north of Rhame at Germanns?? Now I'm the sandy mess from the Sahara heading to Germany. Soon to be planting trees again. 2 days ago, I spent an hour on a camel named Mark going through the Sahara desert. Let me tell you...it's not a very smooth ride. It's a bit bumpy and half the time it sorta feels like you're about to fall off but it's 100% worth it. We made it to our camp for the night...ok it was our "glamp". We had a bed and running water so we didn't exactly rough it out there. After some good Moroccan food, we gazed at the stars, sat around a crackling bonfire, tried our own hands out at some Moroccan drumming (our best was "We Will Rock You" which the Moroccans did love), and had great conversations and games amongst people that didn't even know each other 4 months ago. The next morning we headed back out on the camels to get back on the bus and over the mountains to grandmothers house again. We spent last night in Marrakech where we had the morning free to explore. After markets of spices, leather, and an array of everything else, we got on this bus I'm on now to go back to the ship in Casablanca. I will say that SAS has a sort of small town feel to it. You know all the people, there's always a bunch of gossip that is occasionally true, but we all take care of each other while traveling in a world that can be harsh and unforgiving. I'm trying not to sound to mushy gushy especially coming to the end of this voyage, but it's amazing the sense of community that comes together in such a short time. Dean Dan always says "who gets to live this life?" It's become a staple saying of our voyage...and to some it might sound conceited or privileged but really it sums up most of our feelings completely. There's really no point in time that I've reached full realization in what we're all doing. If I sit around and think about my last 4 months (or last year really) my mound goes around and around but can't quite circumnavigate wholly. We go into country after country, immersing ourselves into new countries, people, food, languages, structures, political systems, laws, problems, innovations, technology, dance...every couple days our entire environment changes. As I'm about to board the ship for the last time, there are so many thoughts, questions, and rarely answers going through my mind. Who gets to live this life? I guess for a brief moment, we did.