There are days when I feel quite challenged by things that happen in my life or don’t happen or those unexpected out-of-left-field happenings or those people we all sometimes wish we didn’t have to run into (excepting of course if we were driving a steam roller) but living in Africa keeps me real. So when people ask me why I moved back to Africa from Australia, I say this: For love And beyond that Maybe living elsewhere for a while helped me understand this place in a different way It’s not for sissies It’s not for naysayers There is nothing easy about living here It is confronting and it is hard at best and it’s getting harder especially for those who already have so much need I keep reminding myself always to be kind and not judge the next person because I have not worn their shoes Nor have I walked barefoot on the scorched earth of Africa I have not carried water miles from a dirty water point In two hours time, I will have electricity I will eat today. Maybe not like a king
More than one hundred lifetimes later and like the alley cat, back on my feet. "Who are you" I ask the precocious seven year old who used to have the answer to everything, "And where are you going?"