Awa

I can’t help but be in a reflective mood this week. We have made it through our first year, our first year in Africa. “Rejoice for this accomplishment”, a little voice says inside of me. It really is an accomplishment! To have been uprooted from our abundant Canadian lifestyle and parachuted in Conakry, one of the top 10 failed nation states and have survived it is a major achievement.

School’s out and with it comes an immense sense of relief. As I look back at my year in Conakry I am grateful for all the life lessons learned:

1) The first of these lessons was to experience life in its simplicity. I can live with very few material possessions. I don’t need a bunch of stuff to be happy. I can do without many things. I can live very well with my beautiful, white bare walls in my simple apartment on the sixth floor in Conakry.

2) The second life lesson was to evaluate the way I live my every day life: is a life of high-speed- internet style really that fulfilling? I’ve learned that Africa-slow-down-and-smell-the-roses style has many benefits. The first benefit is a richer, more interesting life and a life with less stress. I am learning from my Guinean brothers that relationships are foremost important. Everything stems from the relationships you have with people. In order to establish relationships, you need to take TIME to connect with people. This means talking to the tailor for 30 minutes before asking him to sew up a new outfit. It also means asking Myriam, the girl at the fruit stand how her life is going, how school is going for her before purchasing the fresh produce she is selling and it means checking in with the clerk at the store on her family and her kids. It all takes time, but it is very important time.

3) Being vs Doing. I have struggled with these two concepts most of my life. My father used to say Avoir et Etre, the two most common verbs in the French language, but they determine how you choose to live your life. He is SO right. I threw myself in a whirlwind activism as I arrived at a new school, new job of teaching Middle School and new place to live in the world. I worked and worked and worked. On the weekends, everything stopped. There was NOTHING TO DO, really nothing to do. This is when the Being started to make its way in my consciousness. It is ok to just Be I would tell myself. So used to moving about and DOING stuff, I struggled with this for most of the year, but I have learned to tame the notion of being comfortable with Being.

It was a very challenging year, an intense experience of dealing with culture shock, poverty, a national election, riots in the streets and living with a curfew and trying to find my place in this place that at times shook me to my core and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d me as a human being. I questioned my values and beliefs and struggled to find an answer to what’s missing in my life (see earlier blog).

In my other overseas experiences I took language courses so I could communicate with the local population. Here I never did. There are so many dialects spoken that it is mind boggling, so I chose none. However there was one word that I kept hearing over and over. The word was “awa”. My curiosity got the best of me and one day I asked ”What does it mean?”. I learned that awa means yes. So now after a year in Africa, I can say awa; it is true that I lived a very enriching, challenging year. Awa it was an intense year, emotionally, physically and intellectually. Awa to the many beautiful people I met at my little school with the big heart. Awa to all the relationships I made with the people in my neighbourhood.

I learned. I grew. I learned more. I grew more. Now after this time of reflection I say awa to another year.