Written by Frederick and Cari
Hamjambo! Oli otya?! Amakuru?
Choo kikowapi?! (Where is the bathroom?) is what we often questioned everyone, in a hurry, after we rushed off our never ending buses through East Africa…
Usually we found them in time and hoped that we remembered toilet paper. We say “usually,” because sometimes you get the travel gurgles and you have a whole new experience. The best part was our group is awesome and everyone took everything with a laugh and a grain of salt.
We bussed and flew through three countries, ate copious amounts of ugali, chapati, beans, rice, and yup even sugar pasta…oh and don’t forget the mandazi… gotta love that fried bread. We saw real live giraffes just outside our bus window on the side of the road… and this wasn’t even on safari! We bonded over food poisoning, trekked for ten miles and canoed like it was our own karaoke party on wheels, found Tom’s island, learned how to weave bracelets, lived with many different host families, bathed in buckets, practiced our best Swahili, went on a coffee tour, learned a lot about resources and where our own food comes from, farmed, snorkeled, boated to a sandbank, saw extremely large tortoises, had buses break down, made friends with many cows and goats, and did I mention we even tracked Rhinos, including Obama?
The reality is there are way too many things to list to sum up our trip. To sum everything up would be impossible, because our experiences are in our memories and they are our own. We each had a very unique and special experience that we can only put into words that describe how we felt, how we learned, experimented, challenged our own fears, tested our limits, expanded our perspectives and added questions to our lives to ponder. We grew as individuals and grew together as a very cohesive team. The cultures and communities became a part of us and now they will always be a chapter of our story, as we will be one of theirs. We will return home not just as another Muzungo standing out as a minority in a crowd, but as an outstanding member of our own community because that’s something we hope we all have learned and can take away. You are all leaders, life changers (even if it’s your own), and you have the power and capacity to develop yourself, your community, and create the life you want. This experience will affect us all differently but one thing that won’t change is that we did it all together, we all stuck with it, even when we were way out of our comfort zones and that is pretty epic. Congratulations Nkula on an incredible three months of travel!
Go do you! Keep in touch! Have fun and enjoy your beautiful lives!
“Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome.” – unknown
Big hugs,
Frederick and Cari
