This weekend on the blog we welcome back guest writer Erene Schwarz, aka Mama Bear. She shares about the adventures that took her, Papa Bear, me and two of my sisters to a place in Africa we never thought we would go. Enjoy! Astrid | Founder

I grew up in different places in South Africa, but the town of Somerset West was always constant as it was my birthplace and also the home of my maternal grandparents, so my family always visited there.

My parents settled there again in the 1970’s and it was from there that I was married and moved to our farm in Dundee, KZN in 1975, where my husband was farming with his father.

Twenty-five years and seven children later, my husband and I made the decision to leave the farm and move to the City!

Many may think this is crazy - you live in the country, have all you need on the farm such as fresh vegetables, milk, quiet star filled nights and above all, no noisy neighbours (except for crickets, frogs and a dog barking in the distance).

Maybe we were a bit crazy — or maybe we were open to an adventure —  the city we moved to was not in South Africa, it was not in Europe or Australia; instead we made the dramatic decision to move out of the country to North Africa, you may have heard of it: Khartoum, Sudan.

Temperatures: 32 - 50 degrees in summer and not much cooler in winter!

Two  ‘seasons’ -  hot and very hot! And often we had no electricity which meant: no fans!

In the middle of the Sahara Desert with no mountains, but where the Blue and White Nile’s coming together just outside Khartoum.

Rainfall: around 121.3cm / 4. 7 inches per year, and so naturally the roads were not built to handle rain which turned them into mud pools when the heavens did open up.

Let's not forget the dust storms (also known as a haboob in colloquial Arabic) that hit the city every so often and covered all in fine, desert sand, but on the bright side they would often bring in some cooler weather.

However, despite all the above, we soon settled in and after some months, we joined a small group whose aim was to open an English School. We were appointed head teacher and administrator to get the school up and running.

Our two, then three daughters who went with us, soon made friends and their lives were enriched by the cultural richness of the foreign community in Khartoum. It was a time of openness and a bit more freedom: Sudan was in a period of change as the Government considered more connections to the West.

Our School grew and the thirteen years we were there were 'interesting times' to say the least. We built friendships that have lasted ten years from when we left to today.

The desert trips the young people made were part of their enjoyment - no movie theatres, iPads or even cell phones to keep them busy, but camping trips to the desert and star gazing while they learnt about the stars of the northern hemisphere from a good friend and teacher.

Other forms of entertainment were youth meetings that involved game nights and sleep overs with friends; or getting 6-7 people in a rickshaw meant for 3 at the most just for fun!

Ice cream at Tutti Frutti (a then Italian ice cream owned shop) and later at Ozone (an outside restaurant) was a treat to look forward to.

Friday afternoon picnics on the beach next to the Nile - before a flood washed that local beach we visited away (Bahri beach);  Mud fights and lots of water fun followed by cool watermelon with friends.

Sunday services at 17:00 hours at a church building which was mostly outside, where the ground was covered with many small brown stones which kept toddlers busy during a service. These were and are some of the memories of our  ‘Seasons in the Sun’ which some of our family have from days gone by.

I often reflect on those days and almost wish that my grandchildren could experience them - carefree, fun filled days with the simple joys of life. Nothing fancy or extravagant in the worldly sense, but a richness of culture, food, friendship and desert life which enriched our lives and did play a big part of who the five of us are who spent some years in that country.

For now we have our memories and the reminder that life is precious and each moment is to be treasured.