Finally, blog access!
I’m so happy to have finally arrived here. After a full 24 hours of travelling that included five stops on an Emirati metro on my way to photograph the tallest building in the world, four airports (Chicago, New York, Dubai, Port Louis), three in-flight movies wedged between near-endless hours of animated sitcoms, two checked bags (for two months in a foreign country—BE impressed), and one very tired Yalie, I arrived in Mauritius last Wednesday.
The island is beautiful.
Some things I’ve learned about my new tropical home during my first week here:
1. Speaking French is not the same as speaking Mauritian Creole.
2. Mauritian cuisine has Indian, African, and French influences.
3. Hindu weddings are four days longer than the traditional western wedding.
4. Mauritian cuisine is spicy.
5. Buses will not wait for you to sit down before they take off at high speeds down narrow sugarcane-lined roads.
6. Being well-spiced and diverse in nature, Mauritian cuisine is AMAZING—every meal is delicious.
7. In place of an AMAZING Mauritian meal, papaya and banana trees offer their wares in backyards, fields, schools, and virtually everywhere else.
I’ll need to bear these facts in mind as I settle in for my two month sojourn in Mauritius. Tomorrow is our first day with the kids at our education center. I can hardly believe that they live on this tropical island paradise full-time.