Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Simply Africa

Spices In Souq (Sudan)
Imagine a neighborhood of brick houses surrounded by lush green gardens, small waterways to irrigate the gardens all over the lawn, a unicorn coming down from the sky ( Oops getting a bit carried away here). Anyway until the unicorn bit its true, imagine being able to navigate the whole neighborhood consisting of more than 100 houses through the bushes. Imagine spending your summer holidays playing
  • Hide and seek,
  • Cambalete( a game where two players stand at each side and their goal is to hit you with a socks ball handmade by an older family member) 
  • Volley ball all day with the neighbor's kids
  • Following paper boats along the waterways 
  • Hunting for fruits from the neighbor's houses ( detective work which house has the best fruits list !!)
As for food, eating fresh organic food (at that time I didn't have a clue how healthy I was eating). My favorites were mangoes, oranges, grapefruit, clementines and guavas(from my own tree), aromatic spices, fresh fish and meat meat meat !!

As soon as the evening would come you it would be time to take a bath, and go outside to water the plants (over hundred pots), wet the brick yard with water to cool down the area, enjoying the fresh scent of wet bricks, earth and mud mixed with a cool gentle breeze while enjoying the sun go down. The sound of your mum preparing the evening tea and biscuits (or cake) and sitting outside in the fresh air to enjoy your tea time which would be pleasantly interrupted by neighbors dropping in and chit chatting which eventually end up in hide and seek game or cops and robbers since at night they are much more fun, since you would be very hard to spot !!!

When I look back at the life I had in Africa, I can easily say it was the best time of my life. I had a childhood which I would have to work very very hard to provide it for my kids (if I ever could). Something that came natural to me or I had it naturally my kids would never have the ability to enjoy a simple relaxed and full of joy childhood, I feel sorry for them !!! But I guess we all do what we can do and they don't know what they are missing !! I am sure they would think of me as some freak of nature if I told them this is how I grew up and they would brush me off and say winningly " BUT you didn't have IPAD'S what a boring life you must have had !!! " and go on with their thing.