Welcome Home to Me!

I landed in NYC yesterday, and will be catching up with old friends for the next few days before heading to my actual home on Monday. I guess it is now time to reflect and be all philosophical about my four months in Africa, huh? It is difficult to begin to recount the many, many things about my trip that were amazing and fabulous, as well as a few things that were annoying, or otherwise unacceptable ;). I visited ten countries, and even so it is hard not to generalize, so I'm just going to try to sum up the things that stood out the most about Africa:

• Over-crowded, broken-down transport, on shoddy, potholed, or entirely unpaved roads. May include live animals and/or people with B.O. that smells like rotting onions.


• Discovering all the things that I will never be able to carry on my head or on the back of my bicycle: all manner of fruits or vegetables (e.g. bushels of plantains or 35 pineapples), or any mass quantity of groceries really, large bundle of logs, jerry cans (full or empty), hay, laundry, other human beings, and many other mystery packages all of which look very heavy.


• Stunning sunsets, especially in southern Africa.


• I hate being called "mzungu" by anyone over the age of 12, but being called "sistah" grew on me.
  


• I managed four months without any illnesses, especially of the intestinal/stomach kind, and am really hoping there is nothing latent in my system (i.e. bilharzia from Lake Malawi).


• The slowest customer service in the world has got to be African. Slow walkers too. I had a blister on my toe and thought I was moving slower than a turtle, yet, I passed many people, none of whom appeared to be handicapped.


• I can manage to pee pretty much anywhere after all the toilets (so-called, sometimes) I encountered along the way.


• I know more about African safari wildlife than ever will be necessary in my life again. But perhaps I will be good entertainment at cocktail parties, despite no animal attack stories. (Or because of it.)
  


• Red dust. Everywhere and on everything.


• Africa is expensive as a tourist. Some of the pricing I understand, to pay for conservation or parks, etc., but damn "mzungu tax" and all that business is irritating.


• I have haggled over the price of a fried plantain, and that sums up just how much is negotiable. Haggling is fun, to a point. Mayhaps I'll try it at home.

The major highlights/favorite memories, if I was really forced to choose my favorites, would be the Kili trek, and the Serengeti safari (actually almost all the various national parks since they were all quite unique), cool souvenirs, meeting my Dragoman pals and some other cool travelers along the way, gorillas, chimps (favorite chimp fact: we share over 98% of the same DNA), and feeding giraffes.

I plan to sort through all my photos soon after I get home, and posting the best of the best somewhere fun. I'll post a link on the blog. Talk to you/see you all soon!