“You’ll also need to shave your head.”
- “Why?”
“It’s easier to pick out the scalp worms that way.”
That was the finishing touches of travel advice that I got before going to Africa. Courtesy of some guy at my job who read the newspaper too much.
Before embarking on the African journey, my imagination of “Africa” placed me hiding behind a grass hut, sharing a banana with my pet monkey, and peering out to see a rebel army roar past in bullet-riddled jeeps. They are chasing a crew from the Discovery Channel, who are in turn chasing a herd of wildebeest.
Honestly, after the frightening images of African war on TV, and YouTube videos of man-eating lions, and all the missionary horror stories they told at church, ‘Africa’ scared me out of my pants. I thought, there’s no point in paying for a return plane ticket back to America, when I’ll probably get burnt alive anyways and you could just ship back my ashes in a nice little FedEx package for $13.95.
Come to find out, the blurbs we see about Africa are only a small fraction of what it really looks like. Our local news headlines also contain stories about violence and death. But how often do those events make it to your doorstep?
Honestly, most of the places I saw were a lot less frightening than expected. Sometimes it felt like the most constant source of danger came from the crazy matatu taxi drivers, who get high on miraa while racing each other down the road.
Africa has wonderful people. Fascinating culture. Beautiful land. I could go back and live for a few years without a second thought.
Looking back, I guess I imagined “Africa” as all being the same country: The Sahara desert ‘in Africa’. There is war ‘in Africa’. There are jungles and bananas and cute typical grass huts ‘in Africa’. (And yes, all those things do exist in specific regions of Africa. I’ll admit that where I was in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya have been slightly more developed than some other countries).
Westernization is seeping into the far corners of the world. Even amongst the Masai of Kenya, many people spoke English, wore t-shirts and jeans, and owned cell phones. (Most don’t have electricity to charge the phone with, but they don’t need to; they walk to town and plug it in at a shop.)
The bottom line? Africa, and perhaps most other places we’re taught to be afraid of, have much more to offer than is assumed from general public knowledge. Sure, it’s not tame, but it’s not inaccessible either.
Danger exists. Get over it. Go anyways. Go to a place that scares you – for me it was Africa, for you it might be different.
Don’t get me wrong here: Africa is wild. Very uniquely wild. But it’s a wildness that I came to love. I’m not denying the bad but pointing out how much good is often overlooked. Africa has a raw, intense, mysterious beauty that embeds itself into those who let it. That’s part of what this blog will be about: making the seemingly foreign become reachable. Stepping out of self-imposed boundaries.
Mother Africa will take you under her wing – if you can get past her claws.
Heck, if you’re with the right people, you’ll probably enjoy yourself tremendously. The days of the ‘stereotypical savage tribal people’ are fading. If you want to venture into some ‘uncharted final frontier’, be an astronaut.
The fuel-up station- for trucks and donkeys
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