The wonder of Africa

This morning I was driving home from school and Moby came on. As the emotive music from my youth sounded out I looked out the window at the muddy streets. Fleece clad workers tramped to work in the soft drizzle dodging a cacophony of bikes, animals and puddles. And I felt overwhelmed with wellbeing. Not because I was warm and safe in a car, although of course, that too. But because I am so grateful to live this extraordinary life.A life outside of the norm was the life I always wanted and Africa is the most extraordinary of all continents.

The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Kenya is full of extraordinary things but what is wonderful when living here is the extraordinary in the every day.

Snapshots of my drive to school. The giant 8-inch long slug that rests of my doorstep. Women selling mangos dressed in an array of colours, their brightly fluorescent Kangas a beacon of sunshine on a grey sky day. Warthogs and their babies running in the field outside the school. The jewel like confetti of hibiscus and bougainvillea colouring a road. A traffic jam for a herd of cows and their Maasai shepherds.

Women carrying babies on their backs. Men joking with each other as they ride horses to pasture. Matatus each a work of art with their signature graffiti making a simple school journey more akin to a Mario Kart rally. For the people that are born and raised in Kenya, this is life. For an outsider each morning is a gift of new experiences.

The Extraordinary

Without a doubt Kenya is extraordinary. Everything is larger than life. Colours are brighter, animals are scarier, and flowers are alien like in their exotic beauty. In Kenya there is newness around every corner.

Danger and adventure. A volcano here, a giant split in the earth there, a leopard in a bush, a village appearing from the dusty plains, and a buffalo on a motorway.

Taste and smell. Nyama choma in the bush, masala in the cities, fish fresh from the sea cooked on a fire on the beach, a picnic in a park in the company of lions.

Life and laughter. Dancing in the villages, gospel in the churches, clubbing in the early hours.

Persistence and resilience. A culture of hard working and entrepreneurial people, who seize the day and grab every opportunity. Where in more developed countries people focus on what they don’t have, and they have so much. In Kenya people focus on what they do have… or at least how they will work to achieve their dreams. The drive to succeed is second nature here; from the high rise offices to the grandma weaving her baskets.

A life less ordinary

To me the gift of living a life that you weren’t born into is a thing of wonder. A joy to be appreciated each and every day. Since the earliest of time man has wanted to explore, discover new places and people. To learn. Living abroad gives you an opportunity to do this every single day of your life.

The wanderlust gene

But perhaps the true blessing is that I am where I want to be. The urge to travel isn’t present in all people, in fact a wanderlust gene s a proven fact. A gene present in only about 20 % of the population that delivers an urge to travel. We need the homemakers in the world. Without you we would have no home to return to, but we need the wanderers too. The travellers amongst us migrated from the continent of Africa and spread over the globe to create civilization, as we know it today. That gypsy nature remains alive and well in the modern world.

So why this happiness? Why this feeling of utter contentment this morning?

I can only suppose that I carry this gene. My craving for new experiences is a desire that is being met by living in Nairobi. When I drove home this morning I didn’t see grey skies and sullen streets. I saw a land of beauty and chance. No country I’ve ever visited has so embodied the spirit of adventure, of places undiscovered, opportunities not yet grabbed. Of a life well lived.

I remind myself that whilst Kenya faces challenges, whilst we all face challenges in our every day lives. Whilst the sky can sometimes seem eternally grey literally and figuratively there is so much in this glorious world to be thankful for, if we only take a moment to stop and notice.

