Our time is coming to an end in Africa, and we’ll be in Southeast Asia in less than one week! What. Africa is definitely a unique place, but it’s hard to put all the things into words.
One of my squad mates had a great idea, listing all the ways you can tell that you’re in Africa. I stole Ashlyn’s idea and some of the things she listed. The first 16 things were things she came up with that I also experienced, and the rest are things I thought of.
Good ole, Africa. Enjoy.
- When you are trying to travel somewhere and your ETA doubles. Special memories involve the 12 hour bus ride that became 24 hours and waiting 5 hours for a combi to actually start moving some of us to South Africa.
- You watch female lions and their baby cubs try to hunt wildebeests in the wild.
- You eat sadsa, nsima, or pop which are all the same African staple maize meal.
- The stars are brilliantly bright and indescribable.
- There are no lines. To anything. Ever.
- You don’t know what’s happening half the time, but it’s happening.
- You end up in so many pictures. At times, they are strangers.
- You find yourself a part of an African dance party. Some even lasting for hours at a picnic that is blaring music out of a car, which then dies because of said dance party. So you all have to push the car part of the way back.
- Locals want to touch your hair or skin. Especially children.
- You sometimes pay for toilet paper or bring your own in order to use the squatty potty, stool, or Western toilet. Or you use the restroom on the side of the road. Literally in a bush.
- You find people that are always willing to help you and be a guide to you.
- You eat a freshly slaughtered goat for Christmas lunch.
- You stumble upon the strangest most interesting insects and creatures.
- You sound silly trying to pronounce the people’s unique, elegant names.
- You jump off a bridge behind one of the greatest wonders of the world.
- Your squad mate plays a game barefoot and contracts horrible parasites (hookworms) in his feet for weeks and can’t walk.
- You fit 11 people in a 5 seater taxi to avoid the taxi making two trips.
- Your banana gets stolen by a baboon while walking down the road.
- Your ministry plans change by the hour, literally.
- Your public transportation doesn’t have a set time to leave, because the only way they’ll leave is when the van fills up. AKA don’t make any secure plans that day.
- The power goes out for a significant amount of hours every single day in Malawi.
- You eat Ramen Noodles almost every single day for a month because you don’t have a kitchen to cook in.
- You email dozens of bus companies to find transportation from one country to the next, but everyone is taking a solid two weeks (if not longer) off for Christmas holiday.
- You have to plan a whole day around getting WiFi.
- Your new norm is having no AC, and having a ceiling fan is gold.
- You ride in a bus with no AC and the locals still don’t want to open the windows, so you produce even more sweat because there’s no air flow. I still don’t get it.
- You ask a random person on the street to point you in the direction of the bus companies, and they willingly walk your group across town to make sure you actually find it.
- You hear beautiful voices from the dirt road and decide to follow the sound, walking into a building uninvited, yet somehow the group is so happy to have you, performs a song for you, and asks for a group photo.
- You appreciate the warm and welcoming people who always seem willing to help you, talk with you, and hear what you have to say.
It’s been real, Africa. On to the next!
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