Welcome to the Bahamas!

Dear Mother, The Bahamas are so much fun! I went to The Cloisters, Fort Fincastle, and The Junkanoo Festival. The cloisters have a funny name but they are really interesting. It is a 14th century French Monastery located on Paradise island. It was beautiful but the guide said they had to ship it from France to the Bahamas and they couldnt build it again, so they started from scratch. Well anyway it was fun there but the Junkanoo festival was crazy. People dressed in crazy out fits, dancing and parading through the Bahamas in the months of June and July. Junkanoo Summer Festival is a Ministry of Tourism event that showcases Bahamian culture and heritage at its best. The last but most definitely not the least place I went to was Fort Fincastle. It was a beautiful view sitting atop Bennets hill overlooking the city. It was built in 1793 by Lord Dunmore, the governor of the island at the time. I climbed to the top of the fort and got to see the cannons and the tiny little rooms that were dug out beneath the lookout. The Bahamas were tons of fun and were amazing to experience. I hope you can come someday too! Sincerely, Emily Walker

The Country of Egypt!

Dear Mother, I am having an AMAZING time in Egypt! I went to see the Sphinx, The Giza Pyramids, and The Nile River! All 3 were amazing, so I am going to tell you about them. The Sphinx was a huge statue of a pharaoh and a cat mixed together, but the nose had fallen off of it! It was supposed to be a sculpture representing the Pharaoh of the time it was built, Pharaoh Khafra. It was very cool ad SO BIG. The tour guide said it was the largest Monolith Statue in the world. The Giza Pyramids were an amazing sight, and I wish I got to go in them because that would have been even cooler. The guide said that the Pharaoh Seneferu built the pyramids and may have had a hand in the building of others. Any ways it was really cool, and I enjoyed it. Last but not least I visited the Nile river. This river was very important to the Egyptians because it supplied water and made the crops bloom at one precise time of year. It was really cool and I got to ride a boat down the river. There was lots of life going one neat the river. All of these places were amazing to see and I enjoyed it a lot. Hope to see you soon Sincerely, Emily Walker

The jewel of west Africas Crown: Mali!

Dear Mother,
I just finished my stop in Mali, where I went to Ancient Ghana, The Dogon Peoples tools and artifacts they used, and The Great Mosque of Djenne. Ancient Ghana was amazing! It was filled with lots of cool attractions from the days when Ancient Ghana was an actual place, instead of part of another empire. I had the best time there, and I wish you could have been there with me when I saw it. It was better than you could have every imagine. The Dogons things are so cool, but the actual people live in 700 different villages. The population just goes over 800,000, and the wooden sculptures, mask dances, architecture and mythology were just magnificent. I toured all the different museums and saw some very interesting artwork It was SUPER cool! The last place I visited in Mali was the Great mosque of Djenne. It was a really cool place, and it is the worlds largest building built entirely out of mud blocks. It was completely amazing! Sincerely, Emily Walker

Paradise in Mexico
Dear Mother, Mexico is beautiful! I went to see the Mayan Ruins, Zocalo, and Tulum. The Mayan ruins were more amazing than I ever learned about in school. They look bigger in person that if for sure, but they also look more advanced than I would have imagined them to be. For that day and age the Mayans were really smart and without them I dont know what life would be like today. But it is mysterious about why they left, how no one knows, how there are just theories. Anyway, they were fun, but Tulum was GREAT! They are located on the shore of a white sandy beach, 12 feet above the sea. They are ruins from the pre-Colombian time! They are walled in and I guess that is how this AMAZING city survived all of these years without being destroyed by natural causes and un-natural causes. Zocalo was amazing also! It is the exact center of Mexicos capital city and thousands upon thousands of people a day pass through buying things from nearby stores, eating, and enjoying the view. There was supposed to be a statue built in the plaza but only the base was built, and it was removed a long time ago. Im so sad my journey is over but I am glad to be coming home. Sincerely, Emily Walker

Citations
http://www.african-tribal-art.net/?page_id=12 http://knightsofimhotepebooklibrary.blogspot.com/2011/10/ancient-ghana-and-mali.html http://anthrocivitas.net/forum/showthread.php?p=104698 http://www.touregypt.net/egypt-info/magazine-mag05012001-magf4a.htm http://archaeology.about.com/od/oldkingdom/ig/Giza-Plateau-Pyramids/The-Sphinx--Old-Kingdom--Egypt.htm http://famouswonders.com/great-pyramids-of-giza/ http://www.bahamasgo.com/treasures/cloisters.htm http://sandyslipper.com/music-mondays-junkanoo-madness/ http://www.hoagland.org/photos/Bahamas01/page6.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%B3calo http://www.travelettes.net/slice-of-paradise-tulum/ http://mayanruins.info/