Author Archives: wanderingwelshie95

I am a qualified nurse who has worked in the NHS for the last five years. Pre-covid, I would travel whenever I could, whenever I had a few days off together. For the past two years, I have not travelled at all (like most if the world) but now I have quit my job in order for me to travel freely for awhile. I have always been passionate about travel from a young age and was lucky enough to have gone abroad with my family as a kid. Here I will write about my experiences and observations in various places.

St David’s day Dead Sea soaks

1/3/22

Today we got up early and headed to the Dead Sea. We arrived at the Holiday Inn (lol), which was surprisingly fancy! We had to go to security and then we walked past a load of swimming pools down to the sea. The sea had a turquoise edge and a blue middle. There were a few buckets on the side which were filled with mud from the bottom of the sea which are packed full of minerals. We all did a mud scrub/mask, waited for it to dry before washing it off in the sea. Getting in the sea was quite the experience. Standing in the sea is a challenge, since its soo salty, its incredibly buoyant! This made it perfect for floating around. There was also no waves which made it feel like a lake! (Tried to figure out the difference between a sea and a lake, but still not very clear!)

After floating, we headed up to the pool to actually swim. There was a load of kids playing on floats and a couple of women wearing rash vest material long tops with trousers and turbans. After a couple of lengths, I was out of breath and stopped next to two of the women. I started talking to them and they were a mother and daughter, who was in her twenties who were from Amman, but we enjoying a one day ‘holiday’ to the Dead Sea. They told me the markets in Amman were good and when I asked about Madaba, which was where we were going to next, they said it was known for mosaics. The girl also said her mum worked as a mosaic and tapestry teacher. After that I tried to ask what ‘it was nice to meet you’ was in Arabic, but it was pretty complicated so I gave up. Then I headed for the jacuzzi. In the jacuzzi along with Nancy and the guys from our group was a Jordanian couple. They were being cuddly and interestingly the woman was also covered from top to toe but also very clearly had a boob job – her boobs were very eye-catching! We were a little confused as to why this since she was meant to be modest and hide her body. We left the pool and headed to lunch.

Lunch was a pleasant surprise – it was both tasty and exceptionally large! We had Jordanian tapas followed by soup, followed by a main, which extra kebabs and then very strange pink ‘French pastries’. The French definitely would have disregarded the luminous pink ‘patisseries’ provided. They looked interesting enough but tasted of nothing. Everyone tried a bite of a few before we all gave up! Then we headed to Mount Nebo, a site where Moses was meant to have passed by. By this point, I’d had enough of guided tours, facts and stories so I took some chill time and sat on the side of the mountains overlooking the valley with some tunes on while everyone else stomped around Mount Nebo’s Church and appreciated the mosaic floor. I also enjoyed listening to the call to prayer from way beneath me, from a mosque at the valley bottom. While I was chilling, some guy came up to me to ask if I needed any help. I declined since I was chilling, but he seemed kind and genuine.

After the mount, we headed to a mosaic craft shop which supported disabled people into jobs making mosaics. They had some very impressive mosaics and some fun ones, my favourite being on of Michael Jackson! Of course, after a very short show and tell tour, we were ushered into ‘Ali Baba’ s Cave’ where there were hundreds of things to buy. Since I’m cynical and have bough nearly everything on those shops before from India, I was not super interested in it, but amazingly, someone in our group forked out £1400 on a maybe, maybe not gold necklace with a handmade mosaic in it. I was pleased to enjoy extra complimentary Moroccan mint tea without guilt after this purchase!!! A win for me!!

When we got to our hotel, we chilled a little before I had to have a PCR test along with Lena and Patrick in preparation to leave Jordan. Then we headed to the shop for a mooch before dinner. We (Lena, Patrick, Freddie and I) ended up buying a few bits and having drinks before dinner. Then we met the group and all walked through Madaba past a super old church with a mosaic map of Jordan and Israel in it, to dinner. Since we ate sooo much for lunch, most people were not hungry. I had a leafy salad with grated halloumi and my new fave drink fresh lemon and mint. Since it was the last night, once we returned to the hotel, we all had a few drinks and played throwback uni games Ring of Fire and Ride the Bus. I felt oldddd, but it was pretty fun!

Petra et cetera

27/2/22

We arrived at our hotel in Petra and headed straight to the historical sites which was just a short walk to the entrance. Husam was going to get our tickets and I asked if there was food inside the site. He recommended we get food before and walked us over to a cafe where we proceeded to have a guided tour of the shop and the menu (I wish I was joking!). By doing this, Husam got a free lunch since he ‘referred’ us there. Guess you gotta do what you gotta do ayy, anything to make the daily grind easier?! Either way I was bemused!! The tourist mark up was from £1 to £5 per wrap so it was just as well that my chicken schwarma was darn delicious!! After food, we got our tickets from Husam and headed in. It was a longggg walk from the ticket check point to the main tourist site, the treasury, and we had to pass many hawkers selling anything from donkey rides to postcards. Husam had told us that you must give them an answer otherwise they’ll keep persisting with their questions but that once you say ‘no’, they should leave you be. This was mainly the case aside from a few kids thay knew they had the upper hand!! To get to the treasury, we walked through a long canyon, caused by an earthquake back in the day, making Petra very well protected. It was through the narrow canyon that we first caught a glimpse of Petra’s treasury. It was glorious. So clean and with such intricate carvings so well preserved. We took a few pictures before (Hu)Sam gave us the low-down. It was from 2 AD so was pretty old and everything had been thought about to try to protect it – a system had been devised so that water drained away from the site and the site had also been cut into the rock so there was an overhang on either side protecting it. It had worked, and remained much more intact than any other remains with the whole archaeological site.

We continued walking through the grounds and passed a theatre which was used when a person died and their family had to offer something to the gods. Normally they would kill a few goats and pour the blood from the top of a mountain which was specifically used for these killings and people in the theatre would wait until the blood from the offering arrived through a drainage system into the theatre. Sounds thrilling, right?! Later the Romans used the theatre for entertainment purposes too!

After that we climbed a small rock for a view over the majority of the rest of the site. There was a huge rock face of tombs on one side and a Roman road (cardo) with a ruined Palace and church on the other. There were also dozens of donkeys and camels wandering about with their owners hoping to drum up some business. After admiring the view awhile and listening to more history from Sam, we walked back through the canyon to leave. By this point Nancy and I were starving so we headed straight to a nearby cafe. After rejecting one, we headed to one called Mum’s cuisine restaurant, which had cute decor and Indian vibes. Obviously I was tempted. I ordered a fresh lemon and mint drink which was divine and Nancy ordered hummus and enough freshly baked pittas for both of us. I was pretty happy! We chilled a bit before heading back to the hotel to freshen up before meeting the group for dinner.

After a brief on what tomorrow’s plan was, we headed out for dinner at what Sam promised was the best place to eat in town! On the way, I admitted to Sam that I wasn’t as hungry as I might be since I’d already snacked. He asked where and I told him it was the mum’s place one. He looked bemused and said that was his place and he recommended the lemon and mint. I agreed with him that it was good and I’d already tried it. He was shocked and I told him, maybe I could be a guide now!!

Dinner was insaaane! There was soo much food. We all ordered lots of starters to share and then I had a chicken dish with peppers and onions. Awhile later the lights cut out and I thought there’d been a power cut. Shortly afterwards a cake appeared from across the restaurant and happy birthday played through the speakers. We all started clapping and were looking round to try to see whose birthday it was. The birthday cake was coming towards us! I was still clapping. The birthday cake came to me and I stopped clapping!! Sam had got me a belated birthday cake since he said he couldn’t do much in the desert!! How sweet! And indeed, how sweet the cake was too! 😋

28/2/22

Had a solid buffet breakfast before heading out to hit Petra hard for the second day in a row. Today was the day to ‘hike’ to the monastery. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the monastery, we were just told that it was the next best thing to see after the treasury. The boys headed off early, but us girls (six of us) started out on our mission up the hill together. We started by going completely the wrong way together which we only realised when Nancy checked maps.me against the map of Petra. Ooops! We headed back across the rocks, past a few Bedouin homes, past some goats and a small, very cute puppy and went right down to the bottom of the hill again. Luckily the views from the top of the hill were nice, so we weren’t too put out!

We set back off in the right direction along a valley bottom before cutting up the rocks, some of which were cut into steps and some which were au natural. The thing which made my life a little more difficult was that most of these rocks were lightly dusted in sand, which made them very easy to slip on, and therefore made me a little cautious. We passed some small market stalls lining the route up. Eventually, the path opened up and there was essentially a repeat of the treasury high up in the mountains. It was super impressive!! We admired it before we scrambled up some more rocks to reach a viewpoint where we snacked and drank iced tea. There was a skanky cat which kept trying to snuggle up to us much to our distress!

After awhile, we headed down and got drinks in a cafe overlooking the monastery. I tried cardamon coffee, which wasn’t as nice as cardamon tea (karak chai), but wasn’t bad! Then three of the girls left, including Nancy and I stayed to admire the monastery from the cafe with Tash and Alex.

After an hour or so, we headed down the mountain slowly while trying not to slip and slide too much! Then we headed to the tombs. On the way, a Bedouin guy invited us into his shop for tea and ‘hospitality’. We chatted about his life, tourists and Petra. He had a cave, a house and a shop. He also asked what our favourite colours were and then if ored each one of us and chose a scarf to wrap on each of our heads to ‘suit our complexion’ and then he put kohl round our eyes. It was quite the look!

Once we were down, we made it up to the tombs for a brief look before we walked back to the entrance via the treasury. We chilled in the hotel a little before heading back to ‘Mom’s Place’ for dinner again. I had a delicious chicken dish wrapped in an insane thin bread after our usual shared starters. Mm-mm!

Desert heaven for twenty-seven

25/2/22

Had a hotel breakfast, which got bonus points for having birthday pancakes (a home tradition!), before we loaded up our minibus with stuff and heading across the road to a huge, blue mosque. We (us ladies) got dressed up in black cloaks and hijabs. Six weeks in Somaliland and Asha’s teaching gave me the best hijab tekkers out the group! Nancy wore a brown cloak with a hood and looked like some kind of vicar, which I enjoyed! Then we were ready and we headed inside the main building to start the tour. The mosque was very open and had a very elaborate domed ceiling with fancy lights and carvings in the walls. Husam, our guide, explained a lot about Islam, most of which I had heard on my previous mosque tour, but he also explained that alongside the Qu’ran, which says what you should do to be a good Muslim, there is another book which says how you should do it. For example, the Qu’ran says all Muslims should dress modestly, and the additional book breaks it down and says that for men, that means no shorts nor vests, while for women it means everything should be covered except your hands, face and feet. Husam emphasised that nowhere in Islam does it say that your face should be covered and that that is more of a cultural preference as supposed to a religious one. After the mosque, we headed to a square which Nancy and I had already been to for the others to see the Roman theatre there and we ran off to a cute cafe overlooking the square for coffee. When they were finished, we ran down to the square before we headed to the desert in the van.

It took around five hours to get to the desert so we made a couple of stops along the way. I had forgotten that when you go on tours/day trips on tourist buses, you stop at super pricey places for loos and drinks. At the first stop, I had a glorious karak chai, but at the second one, a small packet of crisps was £2 so I refrained, even though I was hungry! Luckily I remembered that I still had stocking snacks (cashews and cranberries) from ‘Santa’, which I munched on instead! There was a bronze coloured model camel the size of a cat for sale for £750, which our guide told me was a good price if you liked nice things! Ahahaha… Unsurprisingly, it’s still in the shop! We switched from our bus to two jeeps at the visitor centre and headed for our camp.

The desert was insaaane, with loads of red stone ridges meeting red, orange and white sand. The camp was very cute. We were each allocated a hut between two and there was a large chill out/dining room where sage tea was served. After tea, we headed out across the rocks to watch the sunset over Wadi Rum.

Back at the ranch, we were shown the traditional way Bedouins cook. They make a charcoal fire in a barrel, cover it with a steel lid and bury it in the sand. The food that came out of this was truly delicious!! After dinner, we played a game which I realised was the same as Avalon, but without the box!! When we headed back to the tent to sleep, the stars were insaaaane! I spotted Oriens Belt and my favourite which I had been looking for for the past two months but could not find, The Sosban.

26/2/22

Attempted to wake up for sunset – I ran out from the tent to survey the scene but the sky was not very impressive, so I headed back to bed. We woke to a knock at the door to say the walk was leaving in half an hour. We hurried out, breakfasted and then dressed up and brushed teeth! We set off on our walk at 09.00 and headed on a loop through multiple ridges of rocks until eventually we turned a corner to find one of the Bedouin camp hosts had set up a fire under an overhanging rock and had laid out a picnic mat and had prepared tea in a metal teapot. It was glorious. Husam brought out more Jordanian snacks and we tucked in to seconds of both tea and snacks before the fire was extinguished and we continued on on our walk. Each rock has a specific name and the Bedouin people use these rocks as meeting places since there are no cafes or shops to identify places. On returning to camp, I had a surprisingly glorious shower before we had lunch and then I read in the sun in a jumper or two, since it was so darn windy!!!

Our next plan was to do a jeep drive through the desert, which I thought would be tedious and I was tempted to say in the camp and sunbathe. Luckily, I gave it a chance and it was more like a desert jeep tour with lots of stops for panoramic views, canyons and ancient inscriptions in the rocks. It was most definitely worth it!!

We also stopped at the bottom of one the viewpoints at a cafe which served complimentary tea and did henna for free. The guy that did the henna refused to do the boys since henna is ‘not for men’. He also talked about how women should dress and how his wife wears a long black baggy dress (abaya) with a hijab and a niqab (veil) because he was worried that otherwise other men would look at her and then he would get jealous. Nancy and I both separately pointed out that this was a male problem which was not acknowledged at all. The guy said that to be fair to his wife, he would also not look at other women when he was out with his wife so she would also not get jealous – fair is fair, right?!?!

Back at the ranch, we chilled out for a bit before we headed back to our sunset rock and then had another desert feast. Husam told us about the following day and then Nancy headed to bed, before someone asked Husam a question about marriage and everything got a little intense. Husam was trying to convince us, and then more specifically me (after I disagreed) that being a Jordanian housewife was a good deal. Somehow we ended up talking about marriage and essentially division of responsibility across the world and I pointed out that even in Western culture it was typically the woman that took on more of the ‘work’ both around the house as well as regarding childcare. At this point, the Kiwi guy strongly disagreed with me and pretty much called me sexist for saying this and I had to reference maternity leave vs parental leave, the wage gap, the fact that fewer women are in higher powered jobs because they take more time out for their children. I was pleased that Lina, the American backed me up. Husam was also saying that Western men take women for ‘a ride’ since they date only for ‘one thing’ and have no intention of ever being committed to one woman. I also disagreed with this which did not go down well. Somehow the conversation ended not too badly and Alex, a friendly 18 year old smoothed things out for the group!

27/2/22

Tried again to get up for sunrise only to be underwhelmed from our bedroom window. Then we breakfasted and piled into the jeeps to drive out of the desert, meet our minibus which would then take us to Petra. We had a coffee pitstop on the way and one of the guys there promised the best coffee in Jordan. I was skeptical as services normally have dodgy coffee. I was pleasantly surprised with a good strong Americano. We stopped for a couple of view points on the way. It was a very windy affair!!

Round the ruins

22/2/22

I arrived at Amman Airport and paid my visa fee, which because the man charged me in GBP instead of JOD without asking, I paid an extra £5. Whyyyy? Anyway, once making my way through security and trying and failing to get money at the ATM, I was met by one of the hostel owners, who was picking me up. We talked about life things, and he told me about how he’d set up the hostel with a few other people just before covid and then each of them had had to get another job to be able to keep the hostel while everything was on lockdown. I told him about how I’m at a life crossroads and need to figure out what job is best for me next. He welcomed me to Jordan and then Amman at various points on the drive before we arrived at the hostel.

The hostel was very cute and there were quite a few people staying. I met a Brit from Essex, who had moved to Cardiff (ay, ayyy), and who told me about Jirash, a historical site which Gérardo, an Argentinian guy in the Dubai hostel, had recommended to me. I was pretty knackered so I had a tea, ate some snacks, had my first consistently hot long shower and went to bed. I was very excited to see Nancy, who was due to arrive in a few hours, but was also exhausted so the morning would have to do!!

23/2/22

Woke up around 08.30 and went in search of coffee to find one of the volunteers preparing a moka pot. He asked did we want some with our breakfast, which I enthusiastically accepted – it had been a long while since I’d had freshly ground Ethiopian coffee with Mubarak!! We had a right spread for breakfast and it was pretty glorious – lots of unspecified sauces, one of which was a sort of date syrup and was pretty nice!

We set off after breakfast and headed on a vague walking tour of the city as recommended by a volunteer at the hostel. We walked up and down many roads, past a primary school for girls, where they were all playing, pasta insane view over Amman, popped into a cute coffee and book shop, before winding down through narrow streets to hit the main market streets and buzz of the city. We wandered through, before finding a coffee pitstop. We sat on a balcony of a shisha place, filled with men, which was slightly bizarre since it was 2pm on a weekday but maybe people work short hours like Somaliland, who knows?! We watched the world go by overlooking some construction workers having a long lunch break next to some ruins.

We walked along the street and came across a huge plaza with a huge amphitheatre which held 6000 people. It looked a lot more in tact than Caerleon and was a LOT bigger!! We sat in the square and admired the theatre before climbing some steep steps up to the citadel. The place had some epic arches, Roman baths, and a Byzantine church among other things.

There were also epic views from the city of the rest of modern Amman with its mosques’ minarets scattered across the skyline. After doing the ruins enough justice, while avoiding as many catcalling boys as possible, we headed to a nice cafe overlooking Amman, first for a fresh lemon and mint juice, before getting a coffee to go (they had a flat white, eeeep!). We sat on some rocks and watched the sunset through the arches and the golden pink light spread across Amman.

We walked back at dusk, through the markets, stopping at a packed caf, which had no menu, but served fresh Jordanian food – we ordered falafel, hummus, beans, chips and pittas and I had a mint black chai, all for £3.50! Soooo cheap!! We sat in a little room of the main alley, which they then ushered two Germans into too – we joked that it was the tourist wing! We got snacks on the walk home and then chilled at the hostel, blogged and chatted with other hostellers. Two of the other girls in our dorm hoped to also go to Jerash in the morning.

24/2/22

I had a sad coffee, ate my final snacks from the shop (a fancy liquid chocolate with pistachios on top of cake and an OJ) before we packed up and left, getting an Uber to ditch our bags at our next hotel before we continued to the bust station to go Jerash. We found the bus to Jerash easily but it was empty and we had been warned at the hostel that it can take an hour or so to fill up. I left a jumper to dibs our seats and we went in search of a more substantial breakfast. We found £1 falafel baguettes which I was pretty happy about. By the time we went back to the bus, the bus was full, apart from our surprisingly still saved seats! We headed off and arrived in Jerash in less than an hour with only a few near-miss road accidents!

Jerash is a busy place, but we navigated the crazy roads and headed into the ancient city grounds, getting a coffee before hitting the history hard. The grounds were huuuuge. It took us over two hours to see everything and there were some insanely well preserved Roman roads, a plaza, a mosque, a cathedral, two amphitheatre, one of which had drums and a bagpipes playing – I only recently discovered in Dubai that the bagpipes is not only a Scottish instrument, but also an Arab one! We climbed towards the top of the amphitheatre to admire the view, stopping a little from the top due to a group of 5 young boys lurking ahead of us. Awhile later, they started calling to us and then I felt something hit my back. Once again, I had had things thrown at me again (this time it was seeds not rocks, so maybe I should class it as a victory, but why has this happened three times in the last two months while being in Muslim countries?!). My patience had run out and I shouted at them to ‘have some respect’ before a Muslim lady noticed the interaction and scolded them on my behalf. I smiled at her gratefully and they didn’t bother me again.

After Jerash, we walked towards the bus station, noticing a fmacy sweets shop, which we nosed in. I wanted tea and cake but the shop only did cake, but they showed us to a tea shop so we ordered our cake and they took it up to the tea shop for us to enjoy. It was pretty tasty. I had a baklava looking one which had some kind of cream/cheese in the middle as well as a more traditional one with cream and a type of semolina with pistachios, which a girl from our last hostel had recommended. We timed the bus well again and ten minutes after we got on the bus, we headed back to Amman.

Awhile later, we made it back to Amman. Since it was ruahour, it took longer than expected and by the time we’d convinced a taxi to take us to our hotel, we were there only slightly before our welcome talk with our tour group of eight with Intrepid. As expected we are the oldest at 27 for Nancy and 27 tomorrow for me, but most people were in their mid twenties and everyone seed pretty nice. I think I’ve already got a reputation for having too many opinions as I said I didn’t want to go inside an amphitheatre tomorrow which we’ve already seen alongside two others. I did say I was keen to go on another mosque tour though, since our hotel is right opposite a very impressive mosque. We listened to the itinerary and essentially the ground rules and then the guide Husam asked about dinner options. The option the group was keen on was ubering to the best local food joint, which Nancy and I went to yesterday. They went out and we decided to be old and grumpy and stayed in and ordered pizza. I had truffle pizza and it was darn delicious. No regrets. I wanted to buy wine for my birthday to drink in the desert tomorrow, but one of the others on the tour said alcohol is banned in the policy so that’s that. I’d never have known since I’m not good at reading small print, but now I do!

Currently listening to a chilled playlist lying in bed, blogging, chatting with Nance and stuffed full of pizza, so not a bad way to see out 26!

The marina, mosques and maccies

20/2/22

Much to my surprise, I managed to get up at 09.00 after 4.5 hours sleep (and alcohol) to make my guided mosque tour!! I hoped that when I messaged them at 05.30 to confirm details they would think I was up because of the early morning call to prayer! (Yes, I’m still running with the exclamation marks!) Got a taxi to the mosque in the marina since I’d never haveade it for 10.00 otherwise, only to be dropped off at the wrong one, despite the man at the mosque telling the taxi driver on the phone where to go. He simply did not wish to go to the other area, since there was more traffic! After wandering around the outside of a random mosque for awhile, I asked a Careem (a food app) delivery man on a bike to help me. He rang the correct mosque and gave me instructions on how to get there. I hailed another taxi and set off again, getting the taxi driver to re-ring once we were outside a second mosque. After establishing that we were in fact in the right place, I thanked the driver and headed in.

After dressing up in an abaya (second time lucky, since the first one was way too small), I went into the mosque to be welcomed by a man called Mohammed who was the tour guide. The tour was funded by the government and was a way to tell tourists correct information about Islam (to counteract Islamaphobia essentially). He was friendly and didn’t mind all my questions about Islam with references to Somaliland, but also pointed out that there was a difference between religious and cultural practices, which is a fair point! His sister was also working at the mosque along with a white girl from Yorkshire, who had moved to Dubai for work and had found Islam in the process. It was interesting talking to them, and apparently they’re opening a women’s centre soon, to support all women, not just Muslim women. They gave us tea and date cakes while we talked, which was great for me since I hadn’t eaten breakfast!

A pretty new mosque (less than ten years old)

After the tour, I headed out towards the marina, walking along the river, dwarfed by rows and rows of skyscrapers. I tried to head towards the beach, but because everything was so tall, it was difficult to navigate.

I arrived at a mall, Marina Mall, and headed in to see what food was about. I headed to the food floor and after assessing the options, I shamelessly got a maccies. Then I headed to the cinema to watch Death on the Nile – I was too tired for any more walking!! The film was good and a nice way to chill out. Then I got the metro back to have a nap.

After a nap, a shower and some food, I headed out with some hostel peeps and headed back to Rock Bottom bar, the place I went to on the first night. This time though, there were significantly fewer prostitutes and more ‘young’ people. There was also a guy who danced incredibly and pretty much started the party, and then we got up, moved the tables aside and danced. The band was insane as per!

21/2/22

Had more of a chilled day, since I was pretty exhausted from all the walking and partying that is somehow required in Dubai! I had a breakfast of eggs with bread before chatting in the kitchen, and then heading out with some of the hostel guys for food. Bizarrely, we ended up in an English pub, which another one of the hostel guys, Lee, used to gig at. (Small world ayyy?!) I had a chicken caesar salad with parmesan and a G&T before we headed off to a fancier destination. There was discussion about whether my outfit (fun yellow trousers, a crop top and Morrocan sandals) would be appropriate for a posh golf resort but we tried it anyway, and the hippie vibes were not questioned! 🥳🥳🥳

We sat around and had some more drinks and chatted and played some games, namely Banana, Kiwi. We waited until the sunset before heading back to the hostel. Then we joined some other hostel people and chilled on the balcony. I headed out with Lee to get cash, since he did not have his bankcard, and then we went on a hunt for food and beers. The beer shop had closed, but we found plenty of delicious curry at a good price. I had paneer butter masala, with a cheese naan, which was aggressively cheesy, but pretty delicious. I dulled down the cheese with a fresh lemon and mint juice – divine. Then we headed back to the balcony, which was filled with smoke, scary songs and beer. I chatted awhile before escaping all the forementioned things to sleep! 😂😂

22/2/22

On a date, which is essentially the crash call number for emergencies, things did not go to plan.

After I packed for over an hour, fuelled by coffee, I headed out to the beach, with Lee, a guitarist from Hull. We got the metro and made it to the beach with some directions from an Irish girl. We found a bar which served drinks after more directions from a juice bar and settled in to the party scene with a drink. We took in the surroundings and did not much. There were some girls dancing on rollerskates and a DJ. I imagine the nightlife would be pretty good here, and I was a little sad I had not made it sooner!

We headed back around 2pm, and of course, I confidently got the metro in the wrong direction a few stops, before we realised and got off and tried again. Then the lift was not moving back at the hostel so I went up 11 floors two stairs at a time! I said my goodbyes, grabbed my bag, and headed back to the metro to get to the airport.

2 hours later, I was still nowhere near the airport. I had got off the metro at a station called airport free zone, which was apparently nowhere near the airport (logical I know), and then tried to call a taxi from various points on both sides of the road, as directed by locals (when I asked them) for over 40 minutes. Eventually, I asked at a Pakistani restaurant for them to help me get a taxi and a guy came to the roadside and helped. Almost immediately a guy pulled over, though he was not a taxi, he was a Pakistani brother who wanted to help. After a taxi refused to go to terminal 2, I agreed 50 Dinham for the guy. Once I was in his car and flying down the highway, he told me he was a driver and business man, so I felt reassured. I googled the terminal to double check, and it said flydubai was terminal 2. When I walked into terminal 2, I walked over the glossy floor past the Emirates and British Airways check-ins. It didn’t feel right. I asked some guy at an information desk and he informed me that I was indeed at the wrong terminal. I had to go down one floor and hail another taxi to go to the correct terminal. I arrived at the check-in area less than one hour before my flight and despite me pointing this out to the check-in staff, they waved me to the back of the queue. After 15 minutes queuing and minimal progress, I asked one of the staff if I should really be in the queue since my flight was leaving imminently. The man was horrified that I had been put in the queue at all and pulled me to the front. The lady on the desk tried to help me, but since my flight had been closed could not do much. I was taken to another desk where they called management and somehow overruled the system. I asked to skip the queue for security and ran to my gate just in time for the final call. Once I had made it onto the transit bus and sat down (causing the man next to me to stand up and sit somewhere else, lol), I remembered I had not eaten since 10am and was famished! Then I remembered that I had been carrying a bag a snacks all day and tucked into a banana and some Indian snacks. I had nailed the flight, getting a full row to myself on a nearly completely full flight. Protecting/respecting the lone woman perhaps?! I rate flydubai a lot!

Dubai tings

17/2/22

On my first night, I went to a bar with a guy from the hostel, Talha. When we got there, it was 80% men, which meant that women were in demand! As soon as Talha left (he had an early flight), another guy sat in his seat immediately! Half of the women here are prostitutes, one of which sat with me and was absolutely stunning. She even shared her chips with me! But what is this Islamic place, which has no bikini signs around the pool, but enables such prolific prostitution?!

Aside from the strangely high percentage of male punters, the bar was nice – to be honest, my long awaited margarita was terrible, but the band were incredible, a mix of people from around the world, singing a mix of pop, rock and Latin songs. What more could I want?!

18/2/22

On my first full day, I was itching to get to the markets! I found the metro, made it to the right stop after nearly an hour, and passed a pretty riverside, reminiscent of Venice. I asked about where the Spice Souk was since I have no data to check and was waved in the direction of a market by a helpful tourist.

The market was exceptionally clean, and while people were trying to get you into their shops, they were quiet and respectful. The usual bustle and dirt of markets was not there!! There were beautiful Moroccan/Turkish lanterns, Indian pashminas and silks, and hilariously there was UAE soap made with camel’s milk, sold at an extortionate price – the guy wanted £9 for a small bar!! Marketing is pretty tiring so at some point I escaped to a very touristy cafe for a drink. I got a karak chai and after paying in AED, I calculated how much I had spent. £4.50 for a cup of tea – really?!?! What is life 😂😂😂

After the markets, I wandered around a ‘historic’ town, though it looked like it was a set from a film – all a little too perfect, with no actual bustling life, only wandering tourists like myself!! I somehow ended up on a roof top over looking the mosque, having gone through a series of open doors and the view was pretty nice! Afterwards, I walked back past an Italian styled Arab cafe and got a boat to the real Spice Souk. The boat trip was short, sweet and exceptionally cold, and again reminiscent of Venice. I was lucky to be on my own as I got the last seat on the boat, after they’d turned a band of brothers away.

The Spice Souk and the Gold Souk were similar again. Bizarrely, they even had a mattress souk! By this time it was around 4pm and I was starving. People kept calling me, trying to get me to follow them to see some fancy designers bags. I was wearing one of my long Somali dresses with my elephant bag (my fave travel bag) my auntie made me and falling apart sandals from Morocco, so I found it fairly entertaining that so many people wanted to sell me a designer bag! I declined another of the many offers but asked where I could get food. The vendor pointed me in the right direction and I thankfully found food just before the hanger kicked in. I went to a Indian cafe, where a lot of the people eating there were speaking Hindi. I ordered a tandoori chicken paratha and a lemon and mint drink, both of which were divine!!! Then I headed on my way back to the hostel.

The metro takes a long time, but when I got in, I had my dinner of smoked salmon with cream cheese on sourdough and chatted with some of the other hostel peeps. It’s nice to be in a hostel vibe again, since it’s probably been three years since I have stayed in a hostel what with covid and all!

19/2/22

Had a breakfast similar to my dinner before heading out in search of my pre flight covid test. I managed to navigate to the private clinic without data which I was pretty pleased with! I registered, paid and sat down to wait for my test, before counting my remaining days and realising that my days and dates did not add up, and my flight was in fact on Tuesday, not Monday. I told the lady at the counter who was very nice and didn’t treat me like an idiot, and she said I can easily just come back tomorrow!

I continued on my way and headed to the metro to hit the Expo. After nearly an hour on the metro, I arrived and walked with the masses to the entrance, to find my ‘free’ ticket wasn’t valid. I paid an entrance fee and headed in. The entrance was very grand and I was given a VERY detailed map. I headed straight for the street food and ordered falafel bites and a fattoush salad. When it came, it turned out I had ordered two full meals AGAIN!! I always make this mistake with street food! I finished my food and headed in the direction of music. The Angola stand had two violinists who very playing Latin songs as well as the theme tune from Alice in Borderland. I went to the Peru pavilion which had a panoramic screen view of the jungle, before going in search of more live music and finding two Aussie bassoonists – what a novelty – who played Summertime. After that I wandered around lots of different stands with each country showcasing itself – ideally, each stand was meant to show their vision for the future, but some just showed the country and culture as it stands, which was also interesting.

Not quite sure where all the time went, but I grabbed a mid afternoon karak chai and then headed to more stands. I actually queued for New Zealand’s stall because one, its New Zealand, and two, Jacinda Ardern ❤️. Sadly, a Pakistani man followed me into the queue, starting talking to me, which was okay until he kept asking for my number or to take me somewhere in his car. I asked many times for him to leave me alone, which he did not do and when I reached the front of the queue, the security lady asked if we were together as she didn’t want to break up a group. I explained that he had been bothering me after he had gone in and she asked if I was okay, kept me back another group so I wouldn’t see him again and told me to always get any security/volunteer if I had any further issue. I thanked her and went in with the next group, only to find another guy pestering me for my number, who turned out to be the friend of the original guy. After threatening him with security, he left me alone and I could enjoy New Zealand’s pavilion in peace!! The place was epic, they had large screens of rain and wind and their whole concept was being at one with nature and using nature to be powerful. I loved it.

I went to the Spanish stand and then found a band outside the Italian stand. I ordered a macchiato and an biscotti and swayed to an Italian swing band. It was divine!! Then I headed back to the huge stage at the entrance for a mystery performance, which one of the stewards said was Coldplay and was most definitely not (lol), but was a very good dance squad. I headed home on the metro over 20,000 steps later.

Not sure how I managed it, but after returning to the hostel, I went out to a bar/club with one of the guys that works in the hostel and some of his mates. Nearly everyone was first language French, but they spoke English for me, which was kind (since I am an incompetent Brit)! The bar we went to was in a fancy hotel and had a mixture of Latin, RNB and pop songs. We danced, drank and played pool, which I started off as flukily good at and got progressively worse the more gins I had. We stayed out after the bar had closed since the people I was with knew the owner, which meant I didn’t crawl into bed until 05.30!!

Ciao Hargeisa

As I walk towards my plane, to head to Dubai, I feel pretty emotional. My six weeks in Hargeisa have been filled with colour, heat, dust, smiles, lots of sugar, religion, but most importantly friends. I’m nit quite sure how I was expecting my time here to play out, but I don’t think I could’ve predicted how it did. I’ve met some fab people – Mubarak, Asha, Amanda and Kenny, who have absolutely made my time here, as well as Richard and David who welcomed me so warmly and took me out on day one, as well as to see live Somali music for the first time! I also feel so lucky to have met so many strong women here from Dr Shukri, a surgery queeeen, Nora, the head nurse in theatre, to Emily and Becca, two US nurses that have somehow managed to navigate Somali culture for a prolonged time to enable them to work here long-term, to Edna’s nieces, who run a tight ship to in both the hospital and the university, to of course the powerhouse, the iron lady, Mother of Somaliland, Edna herself, who works long and hard for her country, even now at the age of 83! Sadly, I didn’t get to say goodbye to her, since she was in state business in London and the Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), as a government official, Special Advisor for Somaliland. I am so pleased to have met one of my heroes and will never forget my time here!

15/2/22

As with all of my time here, my last day was filled with ups and downs!! We woke up early and had a quick breakfast, since it was outreach day! Then we loaded our supplies into a minibus along with the student nurses, dentists, medical and public health students. We left late after waiting for three students that never appeared, in a separate car (Dr Asha, Dr Abdulahi, a third Dr, Amanda and me) following the bus. Not long down the road, there was quite a commotion. A bus and a car had collided with the car at right angles to the bus!! The two male doctors got out to see what was going on, and I was wondering why, until we realised that it was in fact, our students’ bus!! A great start to the day!! Since accidents here are common and all the cars are battered, noone seems to bother with logging accidents so both drivers merely inspected the damage before heading on their way again!

After reaching the outskirts of Hargeisa, we rang Thomas at the school for directions. Asha handed me the phone since it was a little complicated!! We had to pass the Kuwait charity school, go off the tarmac road, back onto the tarmac road, past a green and white stripey half built petrol station, off the tarmac road once more, and then turn left at the next pile of rubble – there were many!! We made it to the school eventually after realising we had gone past too many piles of rubble nd turning around!

The school had a big outdoor space and 3 classrooms as well as a loo block, kitchen and store rooms. We were to use three rooms for our clinic. Asha did a reccy while I divvied up the students between the rooms, before explaining their different roles and assisting with obs and student flow in one of the rooms. The kids were all pretty adorable. They had been separated into groups to go round in, with each group having a team leader, most of which were girls! 💪🏾 There was one girl who was in charge of two very anxious children, one of which was her brother, and between her and the teachers, we were able to assess these nervy kids too!

Amazingly, we finished all our assessments just about on time – the obs, heights and weights, visual checks and doctors advice as well as running an exercise programme to teach kids about resting heart rates vs post exercise heart rates. Since exercise is not too much of a thing here, some of the kids were huffing and puffing a lot after their three runs back and for to the wall, but they seemed to enjoy it! We played some football with some of the kids – one girl was very good, quicker and more skilled than all the boys – what a queen!

The kids went home and we (the Dr’s, us and the students) had lunch with the school teachers before we were meant to go home. After nearly two hours, the bus which brought the students had still not arrived, and we were wawin the hot sun with no water. Needless to say I was not a happy bunny. Prone to fainting, I do not like to push myself on the how long can you go without water before collapsing game!! I had brought some water to the school, but my two bottles had either been thrown away or drunk by someone else. There was no shop anywhere near and I pondered why such a basic need as water can be so hard to come by here. Welcome to a country of droughts! After awhile Thomas appeared with some filtered water on Asha’s request. Eventually, after waiting in the car in the heat for a long time, I went in search of Asha, who was praying in the shade. Throughout my stay in Hargeisa, I am constantly surprised by just how much of the day is taken up by prayer, waiting for prayer before you can go and do what you want to and ensuring you can be in a suitable place to prayer at the set times. (Since 99% of the population here follows these strict rituals, this is the norm, and everyone else finds my view much stranger!!) Anyway, after prayer, we eventually set off back to Hargeisa. Asha felt bad for making us ‘sunny and thirsty’ and I told her it’d be fine when we had a drink! We went through downtown and I asked Abdilahi if he could drop us near the malls so we could get a drink – I needed sugar and ice!! He obliged and me, Asha and Amanda got out and escaped to a private shaded veranda on a breezy rooftop. I ordered a caramel frappacino with a hugeeee caramel cheesecake, which provided me with more than enough ice and sugar! Balance was restored. We chilled, chatted, Asha took a zoom call from Warwick, since she is hoping to study an obs and gynae masters there, and the Internet played up as is always the way for these things! Then we headed back, and I napped before Mubarak’s finale for my final night!

We left the hospital around 18.30 – Mubarak, Asha, Amanda and me with a traditional Somali guitar in tow. Mubarak had promised me a night of live music and a bonfire but none of us knew what to expect. We stopped to order pizza on the way, before picking up a singer on the way and heading to a gated field. Much to our surprise, a bonfire was already up and running, the flames dancing under a starlit sky with a bright white moon.

Another man, our musician for the evening, had got there early to set up the fire for us! He was a lovely man, and a passionate musician. His whole body breathed music when he strummed the guitar and sang. He was a friend of the singer, who was a friend of Mubarak’s. There had brought a big speaker, and they played various different backing beats, and played and sang over the top. It was divine. I felt very lucky to have my favourite people around me for my last night! We ate pizza, wiggled on our mat and enjoyed the tunes and the stars.

After awhile, the singer dropped Amanda back at the hospital as she had an interview for midwifery on US time. The main musician played some more and I asked him about his life. He had played his guitar for over 25 years. He had never played professionally and preferred to keep it as a hobby. He worked in the government, in the anti-terrorism department and was currently living in Hargeisa alone as his wife and kids had emigrated to Australia, but he had not been able to go with them at the same time as his mother had been sick, so he had stayed to care for her. He absolutely loved his wife and was keen to get to her in Aus. Inshallah, she would return to Hargeisa in May and they would go back to Australia together. A lovely man. It was so nice to see a passionate musician doing it purely for the love of it.

At the end, we put out the fire, with the musician absolutely ensuring there was not a single hot ember left. Then we headed home and I turned my attention to blogging while having coffee and homemade cake (thanks Mubarak), then packing.

Last few days

14/2/22

So today I got up early to see an elective C-section, but as I was getting ready for it, I had a call from Asha to attend a meeting with Dr Amal, alongside Dr Asha, Dr Abdulahi and Muna, who is involved in logistics and finance, together with a guy called Thomas who runs a series of schools here in Hargeisa. Together, the school and the hospital have built a partnership in order to ensure the pupils at the school receive some form of healthcare check ups and provide the opportunity for parents to ask any questions they have as well as to receive general medical advice. I sat in on the meeting, alongside Amanda as we would be participating on the day, as photographers as suggested by Edna herself!!! The outreach would consist of five main parts: clerking each person, height/weight and obs, dental hygiene, a sight test, as well as an overall assessment by one of three doctors who were going. Thomas wanted us to get through effectively triaging all 80 kids in 2 hours, which seems like a tall order, so Asha asked for an extra 30 mins!! Dr Asha is in charge of this outreach work, so I am looking forward to seeing her in action! We will be taking student nurses, dental students, medical students as well as public health students to help carry out these health checks.

After the meeting, I head missed the first C-section, but luckily for me, another was ‘imminent’. Imminent here means, the cleaner will scrub the theatre when they get round to it, then someone at some point will check to see if the theatre is clean, then if it is, they will start what they can for their job role before trying to round up the other healthcare professionals. I had a quick tea with Amanda before heading to theatre to find it had not been cleaned yet. After an hour or so of waiting, a few people wandered in to the theatre. The spinal was prepared and given as the surgeon was scrubbing up. It was the quickest C-section I have seen so far! The baby and the placenta were both out of the mother in less than 10 minutes from when the first incision was made. After that the uterus would not contract, so oxytocin and misoprostol were given and the uterus was massaged while it was being stitched together again. Then it was put back into the abdomen and each layer was stitched one by one. The whole procedure took less than an hour.

I had lunch, before prepping what I needed to for class and chilling with Mubarak and Saeed (a T+O surgeon, with no T+O equipment – apparently a shipment is on its way from China?!)! Then I went to teach with Amanda and we had a pretty successful class. The nurses (and midwives) are definitely improving their English skills, which is promising for their looming test in a few weeks time! After class, we went to Nomad for a quick coffee and cake, before we headed back as Amanda had a uni welcome thing she had to attend. I had dinner and then headed out with Mubarak for a long promised mojito! The first place we went, Assod Hotel, did not have many of the mojitos on the menu, so we upped and left and headed for a hotel with a rooftop and very comfy chairs!! We ordered our strawberry mojitos (no-jitos), which were a whole lotta strawberry and no soda, and enjoyed them with a top-up of Sprite!! We had our own booth, so I could be free from my hijab! Afterwards, we headed back, I tried to help Mubarak with his first blog, before I went to bed!

15/2/22

Had a bit of a lie-in – seems they are becoming a habit – ooops! Then had breakfast and then coffee with Mubarak, missed a suturing class, which I haven’t done since pre-uni at a random nursing course in Nottingham, to make the trip to the government hospital to get my covid test done. Afterwards, I went to find Asha, who wanted to take me to the tailor to get my dress fixed, since they made it super tight on the arms and also so long that it drags on the floor and is a trip hazard! After leaving my dress for alterations (who am I?!), we tried to figure out the logistics of the outreach work we were going to be doing the following day. Originally, Asha wanted to take around 50 students, but logistically, this was difficult, so in the end we took 20, and they needed to be split across a registration station, to record names and ages, a nutrition station, for heights and weights, an observation station, for oxygen sats and pulse and a sight station. There would also be a medical station with both a doctor and medical student. We collected equipment from around the hospital and put it in boxes ready for the morning. I then popped in to check on Mubarak who was baking unsupervised for the first time!! The cake was in the oven and looked good so I just assisted with the icing. All in all a great success – my cake maestro work is done!!

We left the cake cooling and headed out on foot, to go visit Mubarak’s family home. It was very close by to the hospital and only slightly off one of my usual walking routes, but because it was time for the afternoon nap, the streets were empty, with only goats about! His mum welcomed us warmly, before leaving us in the living room with a tray full of popcorn and Somali tea. I met Mubarak’s two cousins who were also living with him and his mum, since their own mum had died. The boy, had graduated uni and was applying to jobs, and the girl was hoping to study engineering at uni, and was waiting for Mubarak to confirm that he had the funds to support her through it. In their house, Mubarak is the only earner, since his mum can no longer work due to diabetes, his dad has left, and his brother has an expensive kat habit! It seems like a big responsibility, which I could not imagine doing myself right now!! Respect! I ate a disgusting amount of popcorn before we left!!

On returning to the hospital, I went to teach my final English class with Amanda where we worked on referral/discharge letter and did some scenario speaking practice. Then one of the students gave me a heartfelt thanks when I said that it was my last class! Afterwards, I met Asha for a walk through the village to get some chapati or Somali bread. We headed our usual route, past the chapati lady up the hill, we walked pretty far and we bumped into Asia, who works in the kitchen in the hospital chilling at a roadside food stall. The owner of the stall, who was cooking simultaneously in five large pots, was her neighbour and friend. The food smelt really good, and we stopped so Asha could pray, and I sat and chatted with Asia and her neighbour with Asia translating when necessary. Then we continued on up the hill, past a baker’s shop, which was still closed for prayer. While we were lurking around the bakery, there were three teenage girls who were shouting at me and Asha in Somali ‘come here, come here’ – they were curious. We eventually turned round and headed back to the bakery. It was open and the guys who ran it were also curious and were nice enough to let me have a look at their bakery on Asha’s request. The oven was a huge dome, like a pizza oven, and they said they could make 1000 breadsticks at one time -craaaazy! We bought six small sticks for $0.25 and I munched two of them on the way home. Then I had a little dinner, before getting ready to go to Jumeira with Mubarak.

We made it to Jumeira around 21.15, to find an almost empty car park – apparently Tuesday is not the day to party! I was lucky to get in, since they had a sign outside showing all of the forbidden things, of which I hit three off – cheap ‘sheet’ dress, flipflops, and a loose hijab, which I was intending to take off!! Kenny and his Swiss friend Nico met us there and we attempted to chat over the very loud live music. Of course, there was the solo strange drunk old man, dancing on stage with the performers as there always seems to be. He looked like a grandad but had hilarious moves that were almost slick!! A few people danced, but they danced behind curtained in booths. Nico asked me about my experience here, as well as asking me what it was like to be a woman here. I answered honestly – it’s terrible! Not everything is terrible, but when you compare life as a woman here vs in Western society, there are so many old-fashioned expectations and so many limitations. With only a day to go, I am very much looking forward to being a little more free again!!

More teachers than students

12/2/22

Yesterday, I had a bit of a lie-in as I was knackered post Friday, before heading down to NICE after breakfast. There were 3 new babies, so it wasn’t as quiet as it had been the few days prior. Two of them were pre-term and were between 1-1.5kg, while the third was a full term biiiiig boy at 6kg, and was admitted for hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is sadly really common here, mainly because antenatal care is not seen as essential, so mothers do not know about the importance of taking folic acid, nor is folic acid part obtained as part of a typical Somali diet. This lack of folic acid can cause spinal bifida, hydrocephalus and meningitis, which in turn causes the family a lot of stress and a lot of money. This is frustrating not only because now the baby’s life will be more difficult, but because folic acid is very cheap as a preventative measure, whereas all the surgeries and post-op care required to manage any of the conditions I have mentioned above are expensive, and since the mother stays with the baby, it also takes the mother away from her other children at home.

Anyway, I read up on the notes for the babies, checked their drugs and fluid prescriptions and did some obs and personal care. A newborn was brought in by a doctor, Abdulahi for monitoring and suctioning. A little while later the new baby was taken back to her mother, once Abdulahi was sure that the airway was entirely patent and the baby was taking sufficient breaths. The way NICU runs here is to me, a little odd. There is one staff nurse in charge and then lots of students who do bits and pieces for all of the babies, instead of getting each student to manage one patient each, with the nurse overseeing them. Apparently, this is cultural and due to the fear of being blamed for a mistake – one of the long term nurses here is American and wanted to change this practice before so nurses are more accountable, but the idea was not liked, so it was dismissed. What happens if a patient is neglected in some way and only one nurse is accountable?! The nurse in question will feel solely responsible and may feel so guilty that they may be unable to practice as a nurse any more, instead of reflecting on the situation and learning from it as we try to do in the West.

In NICU, I bumped into Emily, an American nurse who has lived here for nearly a year, who invited me for coffee with her and Amanda at Nomad. Since NICU was chilled, I went. We had interesting conversations about life here, religion – Muslim vs. Christian vs. nil, as well as just regular chit-chat. After coffee, we headed back as a C-section was about to take place.

I was due shortly to meet with Kenny across town in Jijiga yah (which means little Jijiga), so I got a Dhawaaye (taxi) and headed over. I wasn’t too sure where I was going so kept checking that we were heading the right way on Google maps – so much easier when you have data! I directed the driver a bit, before we found the restaurant Sultan. I told the driver, that this was it, but he continued to drive on. I told him, ‘stop here, finished’ and he asked did I want to go faster! Eventually he understood that I wanted to be let out and that he had gone past where I needed to be. I paid and left, stressed!

Inside Sultan’s gate was fancy, the floor was paved, the outdoor chairs were comfy, there were flowers in the hedgerows and a waiter in a waistcoat welcomed me in perfect English. Kenny spotted me and we went inside. I ordered an iced lemon tea, which was definitely lemon, not lime and was gloriously refreshing, and a lamb biryani which was a special. It was pretty good! Afterwards, we tried to pay, but after waiting over half an hour for the receipt to be printed, Kenny told them we would be in the cafe next door and they could bring the bill there! They obliged and we headed over to Cafe Mocha, which also had a chilled vibe. I ordered an alcohol-free (obviously!) passionfruit mojito, which was SCRUMMY and we chatted about all our experiences in Somaliland. We paid and left and I taxied back to the hospital in time for our 16.30 English class.

On my way back, I got a text from Mohammed, who is a paid teacher, who is meant to be in charge of the class told me that we had another first language English speaker joining the class to help teach. While this normally would have been very helpful to practice speaking and listening, we were going through a mock exam so it seemed a little pointless. Luckily, Mariette, a South African, who I had met once before was friendly and relaxed and didn’t mind mainly observing and joining in where she could!

After class, I wanted to go for a walk, so I asked Amanda if she fancied a village walk via the chapati lady. She joined me, and we headed through the village. We reached the top of the hill around sunset and got the last couple of chapati from the lady near the top of the hill. Then we walked back to the main road and back to the hospital in time for dinner. The walk was mildly eventful with boys pretending to kick a football at us and more stones being thrown, but that’s a story for another post!!

After dinner, I watched another film with Mubarak who was keen to restore his film reputation after I said he had crap taste in films in a previous post! Today we watched a worthy film, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which is based on a true story about a boy in Malawi who builds a turbine and uses it to pump water across his fathers farm in the dry season so they can grow crops, and therefore survive. It was a good film – can’t argue with it!!

Just a Lone Woman

So, I just got back from a walk with Amanda, another white Western woman, around the block more-or-less. It’s one of my usual routes – up past the tailors, right at the mosque, through a dusty street past lots of houses and then left up the hill to watch the sunset over the city. This is one of two regular evening walks I have done while I’m here, and I would like to share my experiences and thoughts on these walks.

When I first arrived in Somaliland, I was welcomed warmly, though some people around the hospital were shocked that I had come here all alone – while they have had various volunteers in the past, apparently volunteers often come together, either as couples or friends. They have had the odd solo person, but I think normally, they are men. Because of the fact that I was one, a woman, and two, alone, people were very worried for my safety, and it felt as if they wanted to keep me safely stowed in a glass box, lined with cotton wool, so I could experience the hospital, without having to step outside of either my comfort zone or the hospital premises.

I went along with this for the first week, before feeling so claustrophobic, that I needed to get out. Having lived with the opinion that the outside world was a dangerous place for a woman, particularly a lone, white woman, I left the hospital grounds for the first time in a week on my own, on foot, feeling nervous, anxious even! I strode out on the dusty main road, crossed the road without trouble and headed up the hill past another hospital, up to a mosque at the top of the hill. I don’t remember any major issues on this walk aside from people staring at me – it seems walking is not a normal thing to do unless you are using it as transport – to get from A to B! I also took some pictures of the sunset trying as hard as I could not to get any people in it after my market parlava!! People in Somaliland hate photos! Some boys even asked why I was taking photos, and I pointed at the sky as it was breaking out in streaks of red, orange, yellow and pink. They looked a little unsure but couldn’t really argue with wanting to take a photo of an insaaaaane sunset!!

I ventured out again a few days later for sunset, this time with Asha in tow. We walked the opposite way, past the tailor, right at the mosque and between the houses. A few people greeted Asha while people merely observed me, didn’t really smile and asked why I was taking photos at sunset – when Asha explained they were happy! We bought chapati on our way back from a chapati lady right outside the hospital and had it with Somali tea from campus.