Season's Greetings from Joanna (2010)

Dear Family and Friends,

As day breaks over the last day of 2010, I pause to reflect and count the many blessings that have taken place this year. More than any year, this has been a year filled with new beginnings, in body, mind, heart and spirit.

You must have many memories to share as well and I thank you for the honour of sharing some of my highlights with you...

• Starting my own business, Five Talents Consulting, in Singapore is a long-cherished dream come true. HR consulting and leadership development programs are the focus and I'm delighted to report that we signed our first deal yesterday! Hip, hip, hooray!
• Celebrating my 40th birthday in style with a champagne brunch at the Ritz Carlton in the embrace of some of my dearest friends and ending the day watching my first ever Formula 1 race live
• Riding a camel into the Sahara desert to spend a magical night under the stars
  
• Wandering around the ancient souks of Marrakech and enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of mysterious Morocco. The men were pretty hot too! ;-)
• Falling in love with my Saviour all over again while attending New Creation Church, believing and enjoying unmerited favour and restful increase
• Spending a week at Date with Destiny with Anthony Robbins in Bali learning about moving towards love and contribution, and channeling abundance into places of scarcity
• Starting a fitness regime by eating properly, joining a gym and exercising with a personal trainer has resulted in a 3-inch loss all round and I'm fitting back into clothes I wore ten years ago! :-)
• Visiting Perth and Melbourne in August and it was wonderful to re-connect with old friends while making new ones
• Showing off sparkling Singapore to a host of visitors who dropped by throughout the year: Rene from Switzerland, Corrine from US, Grace from Australia, my parents from Penang, and the Lums from KL
  
• Spending quality time with all my godkids: Justin and Jared in Singapore, Kiersten and Katelynn in KL and Alyssa in Melbourne

Wow...even as I'm writing this, my heart is so filled with joy and gratefulness, and I'm excited to think that a fresh new year awaits with still more blessings and abundance to enjoy!

So here's wishing you and your family the highest favour, deepest love and greatest blessing for 2011.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Night of a thousand stars

"I sat under a canopy of stars in the Sahara desert and listened to a young Berber man tell me his dreams."

What a magical night it was! Who is this man of mystery? Would you like to know more? Read on...

His name is Muhammad, a Berber guide with beautiful olive green eyes set against a dusky complexion tanned by the desert sun. After dinner and songs by the campfire, he watched quietly as I stood staring at the starry sky for almost an hour before he approached me. We struck up a long conversation that lasted till midnight.

What did I learn that night?

• Muhammad is 25 years old, third in a family of eight children, whose parents live 56 kms away from our camp. They are farmers.
  
• He's never been to school but learnt English, French, Spanish and German from daily conversations with tourists who visit the camps, where he's worked for the last 3 years
• He dreams of getting married before 30 and visiting Switzerland
• "There's no time in the desert!" he said playfully as he pushed my watch away when I tried to see how late it was getting
  
• There are desert Berbers, mountain Berbers and Marrakech Berbers - all of whom have very different customs and languages
  
• There are thousands of stars in the desert sky and the brightest one is called "Taghir" in the Berber language. Muhammad taught me to patiently scout the sky for shooting stars and we were rewarded with two sightings!
  
• It is very quiet in the desert at night. Very quiet. And very beautiful

It's gets very cold at night in the desert but a warm campfire, woollen blanket and gracious companionship is a wonderful antidote.

Shukran Muhammad.

Shadows in the Sand

Reporting Live from onboard Patsy the Camel

Tales from Western Sahara

On Wednesday 1 December 2010, we drove for nine hours out of Marrakech, over the High Atlas mountain ranges, across hot arid valleys before arriving at the oasis town of Zagora. It's situated on the southernmost tip of Morocco and served as our gateway to the Western Sahara desert. And so began our desert adventures...

We arrived at dusk at a small field where a caravan of four camels sat waiting. I've always imagined camels to be white so I headed straight for the largest white camel there and called her "Patsy" (her Berber name is actually Behir but never mind!). I strapped on my large red travel bag, loaded with toiletries and make-up (whatever for!) and climbed up onto Patsy's saddle as elegantly as I could. Screams (mine!) pierced the cool air when the camels rose up on their hind legs. But I recovered quickly enough and settled in for the 6 mile ride to the camp.

It was an exhilarating ride into the desert as night fell. The sights and sounds of the town began to fade as stars came up overhead. We rode in pitch darkness for about an hour and I couldn't see anything! Still, I wasn't at all worried as the guide was leading our camels with gentle clicking sounds to show them the way. Finally, the halt order was given and we clambered down from our camels and made our way to the waiting tents using lights from our cellphones, to the amusement of the Berber guides.

The tents were a sight straight out of my Arabian Nights picture books, laid out with carpets, mattresses and blankets of red, green and gold! Our hosts, Hassan and Muhammad, entered to welcome and serve us black tea before disappearing into the darkness to bring us a dinner of chicken and vegetable tagine.

A magical night followed...which you can read about here - no PG rating required ;-)

The next morning, as we peeked out from our tents, we were greeted by the most beautiful sight. Skies of lilac pink sat above sand dunes, with black and white Berber tents dotting the landscape.

It was very cold that morning and seeing that breakfast had been laid out atop one of the dunes, we quickly made our way to the tables and helped ourselves to the hot coffee and tea (trust the Malaysians to be the first ones to spot food even in the desert!)

We waited for the sunrise and here it is in pictures...