Taking stock

Can’t help but think that I have accomplished something great…. Today, flashbacks of the last 5 months of my life rushed into my consciousness. I am taking a personal inventory  of my African experience. Since July 21, I have been uprooted from my cushy, abundant Vancouver lifestyle and dropped into the Failed Nation State of Guinea. At times, I had to reach at the depths of myself to battle loneliness, despair and culture shock. Accepting  to come here, to live in Conakry, to adapt to Africa and everything that comes with it has been an amazing experience ….can’t find the words really……almost like coming to the finish line of the first leg of an exhilarating marathon….without running, because this is, after all Africa.

 

I think of the TV series The Amazing Race and I smile……I feel I have arrived at the finish line, a first phase in my African experience. Contrary to the famous TV series I did not rush, I did not run. I walked, I strolled and I stopped.  Africa’s heart beats at a different pace, looks in people’s eyes and rests when tired.  C’est comme ça…. I heard these words often….it is like that….just simply stated. That is the way it is, this is life. The African lifestyle is so different from my hamster running wheel, jump to the pump, never ending to-do lists, high speed internet way of life.  

 

At times, the slowness of Africa has irritated me…….what do you mean….il va venir??…..at what time exactly will the plumber come to repair the leaky toilet? I wanted efficiency and I expected it. I have now learned to live at the African tempo.  Things get done here, but at a slower pace. I exercise patience. I have learned to walk too, and if I go back to my warp speed, the humidity and heat remind me to slow down. I’ve accepted that sweating is just part of life here. The more I slow down, the less I sweat and the less I sweat the more comfortable I am. I am learning about life, about relationships, about hope and resiliency.  Through the political and economical despair that reigned over the Guinean people, I have learned that human beings’ aspiration for life prevails. Conversations with my Guinean neighbours have taught me that we human beings are more alike than different. We struggle with injustice, dream for better futures and love our children and families beyond measure. No matter our language and our culture we share a connectedness that makes us all brothers and sisters. 

 

Our two babies from the Orphanage Espoir de Vie, bébé Raymond and bébé Madeleine are a living example of this hope that transcends all despair.