Happy new year!

I'm back in Livingstone now after my last holiday of the year. It was horrible to be away from my family over Christmas, but I had an awesome time on Zanzibar. It's very different again to other parts of Africa - Islamic, so different influences. Also the nicest beaches I've been to anywhere in the world, which as you can see Santa enjoyed playing on on Christmas day.
And here I am with friends having our Christmas lunch, on a spice tour. It was very festive seeing how cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg grow, but definitely made me miss Dad's bread sauce! And Christmas dinner was different again, with a big group of us meeting at a more Middle Eastern restaurant to enjoy spiced fresh fish while curled up on floor cushions.

For new year we headed up to the northern part of Zanzibar which is more of a beach resort. New Year's Eve (I beat the UK to 2011 by 3 hours) saw us at a massive beach party with fireworks over the sea.

All in all much fun, but hard to understand the speed at which 2010 raced by. I've got 6 weeks left in Zambia now, and have started writing my end of placement report. It's pleasing to see that I've achieved more than I thought I had, but there's plenty more to do and I'm pretty sure 6 weeks won't be long enough. Can't wait to see friends and family though...