Vivienne Mackie has been interested in travel for as long as she can remember and often says. “I think I need to travel like other people need to breathe”. She believes that, after education and health, travel is one of the most important things people can do, as a way of trying to understand the world. This is travel in the broadest sense of the word, from her back yard to exotic places around the world. Vivienne trained as a clinical psychologist in South Africa, but switched to counseling foreign students and their families and teaching ESL, when she moved to the USA. She has been roaming the world since her first trip overseas at age eight with her grandmother, when they went from Rhodesia to England. Even then, she and her grandmother kept a travel journal. She still travels as often as possible, always with a travel journal and camera. She’s always had a passion for reading and writing, so keeping a travel journal and taking (too many) photographs was a pleasure that came naturally and she recently decided to branch out and do freelance travel writing, for the moment in her spare time! Besides learning about different cultures and cuisines (and wines), her other interests are music (ethnic, folk and classical), conservation, and her kids. She and her husband, who is involved with many international research projects, pack their bags in Illinois, USA.

Published in the anthology, "Christmas through a Child's Eyes", Adams Media 2008