Babies on the Brink

This set of BBC pictures shows babies of endangered species being carefully hand-reared in specialist facilities around the world.

The Coquerel's Sifaka, like all lemurs, is endemic to Madagascar. Madagascar is home to more than 250,000 (5% of the world's plant and animal) species of which 80% are found nowhere else on the globe (including six baobab species).

The Barbary Lion, originally from Morocco, is a Lion sub-species that became extinct in the wild in the 1940s.

The Aye-Aye is also a lemur, the world's largest nocturnal primate, native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker.

The final image is an endearing picture of a baby elephant from Kenya's Dave Sheldrick Shelter.

The Sahara Desert

• The Sahara ("The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert.
• At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe.
• The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean.
• The Sahara divides the continent of Africa into North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• To the south, it is delimited by the Sahel: a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna that comprises the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Sahara covers huge parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
• Here's a beautiful image of the Sahara.
• Read more here.

Inch'allah

Our colleagues in Mauritius were extremely hospitable and helped us truly enjoy and experience the island. Among other things, they made many recommendations, taught us Creole phrases and shared music with us. I was particularly interested in the French numbers and this one is by far my favourite one they shared with me:



MC Solaar is the stage name of Claude M'Barali (born March 5, 1969), a francophone hip hop and rap artist. Claude M'Barali was born in Dakar, Senegal to parents of Chadian origin. When he was six months old his parents immigrated to France. He is famous for his wordplay... his official website is called SolaarSystem!!

Inch'allah is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard and I love the frequent reference to the Maghreban robe, the Djellaba.

Moroccan Harira

Picture from www.spicelines.com

Over the weekend we dined at Jules Bistro, which has some wonderful Live Jazz (they even played my favourite Herbie Hancock number Chameleon from the album Headhunters). The soup du jour was a North African Soup called “Harira” which is the traditional soup of Morocco. Apparently, it is found on almost every Moroccan menu (mental note to add this to my to-do list for Morocco, whenever I finally get to go). I enjoyed the soup very much especially since lamb is among my favorite meats. Here are some recipes from SoupSong, BBC Good Food and Spice Lines. The soup can be prepared without the meat (you can just eliminate it from the recipe!).

I am eager to share this with my French teacher, who is originally from Morocco. She spoke to us with great fondness about the beauty and culture of Morocco while we were covering a chapter about travel. I hope to go soon and cannot wait to ride on the Marrakesh Express. All on board that train!