Life on the other side

Well I have been thinking about Africa a lot recently, so I thought I would share my African connection with you…..

You will need some background first….. I studied in London, and stayed on after my degree doing various McJobs and ended up living with my boyfriend at the time, now after 4 years our relationship came to a sticky end, it was headed that way anyway, I just didn’t really have a reason to go at the time, said boyfriend helped matters along by me catching him up to no good on our living room floor with another girl, while he thought I was asleep in the next room… (he features in the popular Boyfriend Checklist)

Anyway… back to my story, just after this life changing event, I had to take some holiday from work so I called my dad and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi dad, i have some holiday to take on these dates I was thinking of coming up to see you what are you up to?

Dad: I’ll be in Africa, but I would love you to come?

Me: OK

Dad: call these people for some flights

(short break where I call travel agents and book flight to Africa)

Me: alright I’ll see you at the airport in Gambia then, love you…..

Dad: love you too, see you over there.

Now my flatmate (who I later discover, is slightly deranged, we’ll call her DFM deranged flat mate) returns I tell her what’s just happened and she says can I come, and I say why not? (now hindsight is a wonderful thing, but that story I am saving for another post)

so we fly to Africa, I leave London with an enormous backpack and butterflies in my tummy not knowing what to expect, and land in The Gambia West Africa where everything is very very different…. My dad is already over there and has been for a few weeks, he meets us at the airport and bundles us into the back of a car through s cloud of african taxi drivers and baggage boys…….. I say car (it has 4 wheels and is mostly held together by what looks like kitchen lino.)

We drive for a few hours into Senegal…..

That drive was the flicking of a switch for me, the world is an amazing place and I am quite happy just to be in it, and drink every glorious bit of it in; the embracing heat; the way the tarmac always looks sticky in those temperatures, but the best and everlasting memory was looking behind us out of the car at the clouds of orange dust on the road and just appearing out of the dust were children running after the car and waving and shouting at us because we are white…. from that moment on there has always been a little bit of Africa in my heart.
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The reason that my dad was over there was music, a few years previously he had discovered African drumming and more specifically Sabar drumming and was hooked, and he and some friends were having some intensive lessons with a master drummer and griot from Senegal Modou Diouf. My dad had been to Africa several times before and they were an established feature in the village by the time we arrived, I can just remember all my senses being bombarded with all these amazing sights, sounds and smells I was also trying to decide what to do with my life? After this, when I get back, my old life was going to have to change…..

I decided I needed a fresh start, a new beginning… so I decided to pack up leave my job, my flat, my no good boyfriend and London and move to Nottingham where my good friend Tim would help me rebuild my life…. I distinctly remember DFM telling me I would not be able to do all that as I wasn’t strong enough… hmmmm it shows you how little she actually knew me!

But I came back from Africa a new Woman, and I have never looked back!

I have been back a few times, my dad’s connection grew. Inspired by a festival in Abene the village in Senegal where we stayed on my first visit, my dad instigated another music festival in a village just back over the border in The Gambia called Kartong… you can read more about that here

Kartong Festival in turn has inspired a series of European events called African Linx you can read more about those here.

Africa has coloured my life, with bright, bold, infectious vibrant colours and I am so glad that I have a little piece of africa in my heart……