100 days to go...

In 100 days it’s my birthday. And it’s not just any birthday. On 23 July, I turn 40! Yes, 40! Yikes. Thankfully they say 40 is the new 30, so I am hoping I will be alright! Anyway, since I have never been keen on birthdays, and 40 sounds particularly daunting, I decided the lead up to this birthday needed to be fun. Feeling inspired by something my friend Haley did when she turned 30, I decided to create a 40 before 40 list last September. Basically, it’s a bucket list that I need to achieve by my 40th birthday. Of course, since I only had 10 months to achieve 40 activities, I had to keep it realistic but also fun and challenging. It's not a surprise that brainstorming with close friends and family, led to a great list.

It goes without saying, that my unemployment has proven very useful in terms of getting things checked off of my 40 before 40 list. Good timing! Some of the activities I achieved so far are going to three museums in Freetown (all on the same day), seeing a sunrise on a hill top in Haiti, filming a mannequin challenge in Freetown, making curtains with lappa using the sewing machine I received from my parents, Stefan and Genae in Seattle, learning to make a Moscow Mule in Seattle, a 10 km walk with my sister in Middelburg and a sleepover with my sister and my nieces in their living room. It’s been really fun that friends and family are so keen to help me check items off of my list. I never thought everyone would be so excited about it. Stay tuned for more stories, photos and an amazing video documenting some of the achievements, but first, let me share the complete #40before40 list with you! 

1.  Visit 1 new country

2.  Drive a vehicle in Sierra Leone for the first time

3.  ✔Wear an Africana headpiece in public (4/11/16 – Jayne’s Wedding, Kent, Sierra Leone)

4.  ✔Visit Outamba Kilimi national park in Kamakwie, Sierra Leone (24-26/2/17)

5.  ✔Attend a book club (21/3/17 – Sierra Leone)

6.  ✔Visit Bumbuna Dam  (10-12/3/17)

7.  ✔Take up blogging again (26/10/16)

8.  Swim to the island off of Bureh beach, Sierra Leone

9.  ✔Successfully take an ETAT plus course (24-25/9/16 – Ola During Children’s Hospital)

10. Successfully complete an online course – in progress

11. Get a massage

12. ✔Make something creative with lappa on my own (27/2/17 – Sierra Leone)

13. Run a race

14. Grow something green (and edible!)

15. Improve a foreign language (conversational) – French – in progress via Duolingo

16. Sponsor a child

17. Try 10 new cooking/baking recipes in 10 months – in progress

18. Read 10 books in 10 months – in progress

19. Go 72 hours without social media

20. Get a manicure and pedicure (1/11/16) at Nali, Freetown, Sierra Leone

21. A 30-day challenge – completing acts of kindness or gratefulness

22. ✔Go to the National Museum, Special Court Museum, Train Museum in Sierra Leone (5/12/16)

23. Learn to cook a Sierra Leonean dish

24. Visit Bonthe island, Sierra Leone

25. ✔Visit Haiti again but this time go see where my parents live (9-23/12/16)

26. Picnic at Baw baw (22/10/16), Mama beach (30/10/16), John Obey, Black Johnson beaches, Sierra Leone

27. Walk down Lumley beach making a fashion statement

28. Visit Bomba ice cream factory and discuss new flavours

29. Walk up Leceister peak and have a picnic at the top

30. Swing in a Color Cloud hammock in Sierra Leone (a friend’s enterprise) – hammock purchased 12/16

31. ✔Buy a teapot for myself (5/1/17 – De Efteling, The Netherlands)

32. ✔Attend one ‘Insanity’ exercise session or Aerobics session (25/11/16 – Sierra Leone)

33. ✔Mannequin challenge in Sierra Leone (24/3/17 – New Brookfields Hotel, Sierra Leone)

34. ✔Sleepover with my sister and nieces in their living room (13/1/17 – the Netherlands)

35. Write a short story or a poem

36. ✔Watch the sunrise from a hill top (23/12/16 – Haiti)

37. ✔Walk 10 km with my sister (13/1/17 – the Netherlands)

38. ✔Make Cocktails (multiple times - USA, Sierra Leone)

39. Take a photography lesson

40. Go on a boat adventure along the Western Area peninsula (attempt 27/11/16)

A ✔ means the activity has been accomplished!!

#40before40 #bucketlist #40isthenew30 #sandraturns40 #alwaysanadventure