It's by no means a secret that I love Africa, I remember someone telling me before my first trip that you either love it or hate it...I'm not sure if it is quite so clear cut as a marmite moment however. I am yet to find any definite haters and I would have some serious issues to raise if I did, but I genuinely can't get enough of this vast continent and I have met many others who share in these initial feelings of awe and amazement. I simply bask in the daily pleasures that life here can bring.
Today I was thinking about what keeps bringing me back and I realised that there are so many reasons, so many traits that I simply adore. In Ghana I found humour in almost every moment- there were so many reasons to smile and laugh. In Kenya I got many comments regarding the smile that rarely left my face! There is so much enjoyment to be found in the small things- maybe they are present back home too but I am too accustomed to the day to day to appreciate these moments, or perhaps I simply appreciate life a little more when I am roughing it in a village with filthy feet and greasy hair!! Regardless, it is time to show appreciation for the laughter and smiles that Africa provokes.
There are of course the obvious life-enhancing moments of small children grasping at your hands and being welcomed into communities which have had little previous contact with the western world, but I am not for the obvious- today I am considering the alternative! I always think back to stories of goats travelling on my tro-tro (Ghanaian name for a minibus taxi), getting stranded on a hillside because my taxi's run out of petrol, singing along to 90's pop-songs whilst being driven home in the back of a pick-up! These simple happenings, can, if viewed correctly provide amusement in conventionally drab situations!
But are any of these occurrences more general, continent-wide traits? The obvious, striking answer is the time factor- lateness and a general lack of speed has caused me to double over with laughter on may occasions during my travels. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining or criticising, I enjoy this trait, and I enjoy the laidback pace of life, but when you wait for someone for several hours to be told that they are 'on the way coming' throughout- you realised that this phrase can mean anything from them just getting out of bed to get ready to then make the 4 hour journey, to them actually being in some form of transit. The stage of the journey is never specified...but they will usually arrive in the end! In South Africa the term is now- I'll call you now, generally seems to mean I will call you at the next convenient opportunity, whether this be in an hour or two or perhaps on a lengthier scale! I'm yet to completely decipher the now, now-now, and just-now distinctions, but I am working on it!!
I do have to wonder from even this small trait whether these things which make Africa unique and special are actually impacting upon it's development. This is a consideration which I have been undertaking for some time now. Is it possible to run a full-scale successful businesses when nothing runs to a schedule? Do we even need a schedule in life, if things happen eventually is this soon enough? Perhaps it is merely the pace that needs to be quickened- this would speed work and increase efficiency and thus impact upon income generation and productivity and thus development on a nation-wide scale? Is it this important that Africa picks up the pace? Is this even possible or is the culture so deeply embedded that children are growing up with teachers and role-models who shine this trait throughout their lives and merely reiterate it throughout generations? I fear that something I have grown to love (in most circumstances) may actually be hindering the goals that I have been working towards.
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