Love

For most people their stories start with a song – a lyric that make them think of a particular event or story.  A friend of mine told me, that in every part of his life – he’s got music, most of it filled with Smashing Pumpkins.

For me, all my happy memories start with one song: Yori Yori by Bracket. 

It was in 2011 when I stepped off a plane at 03h30 in the morning – when the wave of heat hit me, I realized I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.  I was in Tanzania, a place I later fell in love with.  The people, the history, the palm trees next to the highway...  I’d taken a leap of faith with the trip, it was my first trip and inspired by a friend of mine who told me about Zanzibar, one Saturday morning at work (who knew working over weekends could be this good to you?) She ended her story with: “Why not just go?”

It took me 9 months to save up and plan my trip. But any place new, at 03h30 in the morning, is kinda scary.

Days later, Id met a couple of young men, all of them fairly new in the country – they’d all moved from India to Tanzania for work.  For them, the other side of the world.  We went to the beach one night, all 6 of us squeezing into one taxi.  Yori Yori started playing. And continued. Turns out the taxi driver also really liked the song.

I remember I looked out the window as we were passing the ocean, thinking that I couldn’t be any happier.  This was my adventure: carefully planned, saved for over months and as I found out later, the traveling bug had bitten me. 

The party on the beach was great: had beer, watched a glorious African sunset, danced.  Laughed at the guys. 

I remember my first trip like it was yesterday, because to me it’s the place I fell in love with.  I fell in love with the laughter, the sincerity of its people, the way each day was grasped & filled with energy and dreams and life.  The spirit of people I think of as my own. 

I fell in love with Africa and will spend my days exploring every inch of it, because of how amazingly resilient the people are.