The Year, in summary.

• What an absolutely atrocious correspondent I have been!!!
• So much has happened since I last wrote. Damn.
• I was supposed to write a blog about being back in Brazil - I had it all planned in my head already! About how warm and earthy and real Brazilian people are, about how being back across the border from Argentina I was already smiling and feeling a different energy in the air...
• I was supposed to write a blog about Carnaval too! Oh, what an experience that was! In truth, the entire month of February - in the days both preceding and following Carnaval - was thoroughly spectacular. I spent pre-Carnaval weekend in Rio, attending "blocos" (block parties) with a group of local crazy girl friends! We followed trucks spraying water to stave off the 40-degree temperatures, with blaring samba songs coming from the bands perched atop the trucks, dancing in the parades with thousands of locals along the walkways of Ipanema beach...
• And Carnaval itself, which I spent in Salvador de Bahia - WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!! Afro-Brazilian music and energy and vibrancy and electricity!!! SO INCREDIBLE!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! :)
• And now I have just been home to South Africa - the first time in almost 4 and a half years.
• What an overwhelming 3 weeks THAT was!
• Initially, I was delighted. Smiling, warm, friendly African people all around me! Everyone is so nice! So polite! And then I found myself surrounded by white people. Angry, stressed, impatient. How very odd. I have NEVER divided the world racially. And yet, there is such an obvious difference here that it slaps you in the face. HARD.
• I don't count my friends within the aforementioned generalisations, mind. It would be impossible to be objective about people that I know. As a social scientist (!) I base my observations on random people around me. I watch people interacting - in restaurants, shopping centres, bars, on the roads... It's quite jarring.
• I'm not sure I could ever live in SA again. It's become such an ANGRY place. People seem to have lost the spark, the hope, the magic that was so tangible in the years before I left. I won't enter into any political discourse here, but suffice to say that the government has NOT provided the kind of major changes which it promised - and could have delivered on - previously. People work hard, live hard, no real unwind time. It's tough.
• Sooooooo... Africa was difficult for me, but also brilliant. There's nothing quite like touching base again with friends that you haven't seen in years. And I am INCREDIBLY blessed with all the magical beings that I have in my life. This visit was very important for me, for that very reason. And I got to hang out with my mom and my brother again, which was pretty damn special after all these years too... :)
• And now the year is over. I am in the Philippines, beginning the next phase. I'll be writing in the next few days about the new beginning, but right now I'm trying to close a chapter.
• ... and I can't. It feels rather superficial, really - this whole "closing" business! It's all part of life! One wave rolls into the next, I've just started to ride the new one, as the old one races to the shore... and it's GOOD. It's SO GOOD.
• I am so happy. I am so delighted that I have had the opportunity to see the world. I am over-the-moon that I am now living on a beautiful little island where people smile and are chiiiiiiillllllll. My life is vibrant and colourful and magical, and I am LUCKY, LUCKY, LUCKY.

Love you all, and thank you for being a part of the kaleidoscope. xxx