Reflections

As Europeans, with our hearts in Africa, it is impossible to simply drive across the continent, and not reflect on just how lucky and privileged we are to be on this road trip.

 

In Europe we have the mental headspace to think about our hopes, our dreams and our aspirations.  We are encouraged to dream big, be anything we want to be, define what makes us ‘special’ (although the latter gets my back up – as a geeky kid, I was always very happy just being ‘normal’ , however in today’s world being ordinary is almost like you have failed at life – we all need to strive to be extraordinary – so much pressure – we can’t all be a Nelson Mandela).

 

Driving through the small villages where you see the majority of people going about their daily activities, you wonder – do they stop to think about their hopes and dreams, or is that concept a luxury? My money says their headspace is all geared about survival.  What will I feed the family today? Where we will get school fees from?  In Zambia, we met someone who explained that in their language the word for tomorrow is the same word used to describe yesterday. So how can you focus on your goals and ambitions for the future, if they also describe the past?  The point is – having dreams is a privilege in itself, and I am incredibly grateful, that we are in a position to put ours into reality.

 

The last couple of months have taught me to appreciate things that, in the past, I have taken for granted, or not even thought about.

 

I appreciate having a European passport, as it literally offers the world in freedom.  Yes – I am guilty of complaining about politics back home, as I don’t feel the current political situation in both the UK, or the Netherlands, are representative of me, or my beliefs. However, I am very grateful to have been born a European, as European passports opens up the world for you.  We are welcome anywhere – we may have to buy a visa but that’s it.  I couldn’t imagine what my life would look like if I was never able to leave the country I was residing in.  Think about that.  Speaking to a Zimbabwean Lady whose husband has a UK passport – but she only has the ‘green mamba’ (Zim passport). She was denied a visa to the UK to join her husband to visit family and friends – as she was told she was a risk of never returning.  It hit home – this is something I will unlikely ever have to worry about. I have the freedom to go anywhere.

 

Something else I never thought about but have learned to appreciate is earning our Salary in a ‘hard currency’. If you earn US Dollars, Euros or Pounds, your money is pretty safe, in the sense that it is highly unlikely that overnight, your savings will literally be worth less than the paper it is printed on, as was the case in Zim a couple of years ago.  Or as has been the case in Malawi recently – that your money devalues overnight by 50%, so whilst the bag of maize meal, that feeds a family of four, for one month, goes up in price to 59,000 kwacha.  The minimum wage at 50,000 kwacha a month, stays the same.  I’m not saying that the situation in the western world is always peachy, and that this would never happen to us (think cost of living crisis, the great depression etc) but we do have a lot more security than most places on the planet, where such occurrences happen multiple times in one’s lifetime.  

 

Lastly – and this may come as to somewhat of a surprise, as I am as technically challenged as they come, I do appreciate the technology (internet) that has allowed us to stay in touch with friends and family whilst on the road, as well as keep ‘Intent on Safari’ up and running.  Without the option to keep ‘Intent on Safari’ alive, I don’t think we would have been comfortable and confident to drop off the radar for 5 months.  Technology has given us the option to work from anywhere (even if it has meant standing in line for hours to get a SIM card 😊).

 

With the end of the year in site, and 80% of our trip behind us, a bit of nostalgia from our end 😊. 

 

We are having Christmas at a little Italian run campsite in Zomba, the highlands of Malawi where we intend to eat our weight in pasta, pizza and gelato.  We will leave here fat and happy and make our way up Lake Malawi and back into Tanzania.

 

Hoping you have all enjoyed the holidays – and that 2024 is filled with good people, good health, and lots of laughs – you don’t need much more than that!