What if you've been in love with a continent you've never seen since you read a book when you were 12 years old? What if you kept reading and reading over 40-some years and the love didn't change but neither did the view outside your window?
Three things happened in 2011 to make me quit waiting for Africa to come to me and plan a journey that will land me in Egypt smack in the middle of its combustible 2012 parliamentary elections:
1. knee surgery knocked me on my derrière for about three months: I'm as healthy right now as I'm ever going to be.
2. The Arab Spring that swept across northern Africa this year simply stole my heart.
3. I came to realize that Western women not only DO travel solo in Muslim countries, the experience and insight they get will never come from a book.
So I'm off for six weeks to the land of the pharaohs. Wish me as-salamu alaykum!
So I'm off for six weeks to the land of the pharaohs. Wish me as-salamu alaykum!
