Where Do I Even Begin...

Well, its certainly been awhile. I haven't exactly been bored with myself, but internet has been mostly miss. Botswana and the Okavango Delta, Namibia with Spitzkoppe's massive rocks, Swakopmund's sandboarding, quadbiking through the Namib desert and skydiving over that same red sand spectacle on the sea, Stellenbosch and vino, Cape Town with friends and goodbyes with others, and continuing in South Africa with caves, the highest bungy in the world and into Lesotho, the mountain kingdom basically sums up the last month. This morning I awoke in my tent, unzipped the door and looked out into Royal Natal NP in South Africa and realized that it would be the last time I awoke in this tent, on this trip. Goodbyes are always hard. This one has been the toughest. Not only because it is the longest period of time I have spent with a group or consecutively on a continent, but because of the fact that everything you hear about Africa is true. It really does reach down inside you and rip out your heart. There are so many injustices everywhere you look, so many things that could be helped and so many people that are looking for anyway out. But, then it puts back in your heart, but covered with its soil and its soul. It seems to be a stain that will never go away, one that will remind you constantly of what it once was, to be here among its people, engulfed in its culture, its frustrations and its singular blessings. For there is no other place I have been to that has made me feel as I have here. Its at once shame for living in oblivion to the suffering of others, at other times motivating to become better, more involved in the world around me, and more open, more naive and trusting to the random person you meet. It melts the cynicism out of you.

I leave the continent tomorrow, I'm sure changed in ways I haven't yet fully realized. That seems to be the blanket statement for all who come here. Normally there is a good reason for cliched statements. "Africa gets into your blood and never leaves" is one that I keep coming back to frequently. I am infected. I wonder how it will effect my life.

So, I continue on into the islands, leaving Jo'Burg going to the Seychelles and then on to Mauritus and Madagascar. Life is pretty good. But, I will miss the amazing friends I have made along the way, locals and on my tour. It is only those you share the experiences with who can fully understand what you are and have gone through. Pictures can not capture, stories can not encompass fully what Africa is, nor what it means.