One year!

I have been in Africa for one year! That's one year of living out of a backpack, one year of the same 5 pairs of underwear, one year without stockings, suspenders and heels. One year of meeting and leaving people. I have visited 9 countries in Africa, that's 9 out of 56, I've hardly licked the tip of the iceberg.

Talking about licking, I've been celibate for one year too. One year without any sex, or kissing, not even a lick. Not though lack of opportunity, nor through any restraint. So I haven't been depriving you of any juicy details (like I would), there just haven't been any juicy details to report.

This month is also my 9 year anniversary of being a foreigner. it was on September 16 1998 that I left New Zealand a wide-eyed round-faced 22 year old and haven't been back since. 9 years of being passport dependant. I've been to 34 countries. 34 out of 192, there's still a bit to see and a lot to learn.

So just a quick look back over the past year.


Highlights:

Descending Mount Sinai by Camel at dawn.

Spending a night next to the Sudanese pyramids.

Staying a night in a family mud hut in South Sudan.

Running naked thought the Sahara desert.

Swimming in a massive thunderstorm in Uganda.

Late night swim in the salty Indian Ocean beneath a spectacular sky of stars.

Staying a night on the ridge of a live volcano crater in the Congo.

Getting to see Flic recover from brain surgery and know she is ok.

The utter joy of getting on a train/bus/truck knowing that when I get off I'll be in a whole new world, new faces, new food, new challenges that I can not predict or plan for. It's exhilarating.


Low lights:

Being fired in Sudan which meant losing my job, home and right to stay in the country (re-hired within the hour).

Incredibly painful surgery in sub-standard conditions. eugh.

Bank card dramas in Uganda.

Flic's accident.

Not trusting people, always thinking when someone approaches me that they want something.


Dramatic moments:

Going to the British Embassy to ask their help in getting out passports back while in Sudan.

Getting caught in tear gas at a wrestling match.

A massive drop in a tiny 12 seater plane filled with displaced people during a storm in South Sudan.

There are a few little, random things that I may not have mentioned at the time but I'll mention now.

Skin coloured plasters are not skin coloured on an African (actually they are not skin coloured on me either... in fact who is that pinky orange colour?).

I think sometimes you can tell a lot about a culture from it's language. A basic greeting in Arabic translates into 'Peace be upon you'. By comparison, a typical response to 'How are you?' in Swahili translates into "Crazy cool like a banana."

Mannequins in clothes shops in central and east Africa have big hips and butts. They are often padded up with news papers to make them bigger.

If you look at a night time satellite picture of Africa it is pretty dark compared to the rest of the world. But if you look at the night sky in Africa it is amazingly bright.

Many African men have hot bodies.

In northern Sudan the graveyards are very sad looking. people are buried within hours of their death. they are placed on a stretcher type thing and wrapped in cloth. That is placed on it's side so the dead faces Mecca. then the grave is covered with dirt. The end result is a dry, barren expanse of mounds without markers or identity.

Ethiopian coffins are cool. they are made of wood, then covered in bright, gaudy, floral velvet with gold trims and tassels. I want one.

African women often call me 'Sister' which makes me feel all cool and black and African. African kids sometimes call me 'Mama' which makes me feel old and like I should be in someway responsible for them.

At road blocks, the police sometimes wear mirrored sunglasses, and chew a toothpick or a stick. They kind of swagger up to the car. John Claude Van Damm, Steven Segal and Bruce Lee are idolised here.

In Sudan I was a lot of Albinos, they are often ostracised by society and are beggars. The only place where I saw Albinos treated equally was in Tanzania where there have an Albino drummer in the national football team's band.

Tanzania has the best clouds. They are in layers, little round ones below, longer smooth ones above, and thin streaky ones beyond that. All with plenty of sky in between.

The black market is a place. A bank clerk in Burundi once said to me when I was trying to change the obscure and rare currency of British pounds Stirling "We can't change it here, but go to the black market, it's just around the corner. Oh, wait, it'll be closed now, try again tomorrow."