Habari or Jambo?

Yes, I am choosing to stay in doors on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Ottawa because if I set out I'd spend money.... besides I feel like I need to make a blog contribution. I've finished yet another Stephen King book, I've packed a Fidel Castro autobiography for the trip (may need a 2nd book too, we'll see) and I'm trying to commit to memory more Swahili phrases. My two bags are more or less packed, one large school size bag (carry-on) which will be my day pack and one large (70L) back pack with supports to be carried also around the chest and hips. Yes, I'm that foolish looking young adult walking the streets of Orleans carrying/testing out the 20lbs duffle. The boots I've chosen for the trip I've had through 2 maybe 3 Ottawa winters, and whatever thinsulate remains in them they are of the utmost comfort and "worn in" that one could hope for.....reinforced with a gel insole and my orthotics (to support my 80 year old parts). There remains only a mosquito net that a colleague of mine will lend me, and some other odds & ends to finish the packing. I'm reminded of a phrase my sister Nancy used to say, "sort out what you think you need for your trip and take half of that."

I've set foot in 4/5 World oceans (Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, Southern....yes the Tasman sea is part of the southern ocean....here in Canada we never learned of a southern ocean, so it's a nod to my Kiwi sisters). I plan on trying to surf, snorkel and/or revel in the Indian Ocean during my three days in Zanzibar. But I may just settle for standing wobbly, or laying in a beach chair from the wrong end of couple (Kilimanjaro, or Tusker whatever the brand) beers. To date I've never been to South America or Asia, but the least I'll have been in ALL 5 Oceans.

Randomly, I cannot WAIT to see Kilimanjaro in the distance and awestruck thinking (I'm gonna summit that this week). Then in Nairobi, I plan to visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant and Rhino orphanage, eat at Carnivore, and then get a local to give me a tour through the shantytown surrounding Nairobi .....atleast 1 million of Nairobi's 3 million inhabitants live in the utmost poverty and conditions (something I have to experience). Then onto the Masai, the open savannah, acacia tree's and gods willing the Big 5 (Elephants, Leopards, Buffalo, Rhinoceros and Lions), I'm taking a Camel riding trek in Tanzania, and I think the biggest things for me- the Gorillas in Rwanda.

People have often asked me why Africa? and apart from thinking selfishly and saying, "well, why not Africa?" I have to say that it's something inherent in my nature that I feel I need to see and be humbled, experience and be surrounded by the culture's and nature of a continent that has held my interest since I cannot remember. Growing up my favourite play-thing, pass time was a globe my parents had. Mindlessly I would spin the globe and close my eyes, and wherever my finger would land was where I'd most like to go (Tell me you've never done this?). Not to say my finger consistently landed on Africa but like my little sisters pull to South America mine is to East Africa. And only in growing up, have I realized that Africa is likely the continent that contains all that is most reverent in my life.....from when I was first aware of the atrocities in Rwanda (and global ambivalence), the need to physically challenge myself (Kilimanjaro) at a time while I know that I am in good health (forget that, I'm in great health thank you very much) but most of all I seek to be humbled. Somewhere along the line I've lost touch with what it is that I need to live. We grew up with only the minimal necessities but from that time I think perhaps I've lost perspective and the essential trait of living within my own means and being COMFORTABLE doing so. Not to want all the excesses, just to HAVE and be grateful for everything that I do enjoy in life.

Valerie and I oftentimes discuss how complex, unnerving and stressful life gets when too caught up in thinking of all that you ought to do, should do or need to do. One never needs to do anything, anything other than what you feel like doing at the instant you think about doing it. Free will is a beautiful thing, just like optimism and the confidence of knowing that everything somehow, anyhow and anytime will ALWAYS work out.

It will be difficult to be away from Val for 5 weeks but the comfort I take in the (long or short) perspective of time is the investment of making the best me for me, and inevitably the best partner for her. My appreciation for Val is that she is the gift I've received from putting my best out in to the world. :)

I've spent most of the summer reading about Africa, it's politics, it's socioeconomics and it's geography. A passage that most impacted me comes from the book "Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles" thoughtfully bought for me by Dan and Lise Leger, Val's parents for my 31st birthday.

"Westerners arriving in Africa for the first time are always struck by its beauty and size- even the sky seems higher. And they often find themselves suddenly cracked open. They lose inhibitions, feel more alive, more themselves and they begin to understand why, until then, they have only half lived. In Africa the essentials of existence- light, earth, water, food, birth, family, love, sickness and death - are more immediate, more intense. Visitors suddenly realize what life is for. To risk a huge generalization: amid our wasteful wealth and time-pressed lives we have lost human values that still abound in Africa."

Peace to all.