I am currently sitting in the Emirates Business Class Lounge at Dubai International Airport, en route from San Francisco to Lusaka. Five years ago I was at in this very airport returning home from LA after my masters, excited by what was to come as I transitioned back to living on African soil. Is it coincidence that there are so many parallels to my journey when I started this blog? Methinks not. Methinks the universe is trying to tell me something. I would be foolish not to listen. So thought I would ruminate over a coupla things on Thursday ;}.
I have clearly missed writing, and I am glad I have found my waxing lyrical mojo once more. I am so excited to go back home. I am so at peace with myself, and I am not worried about losing this feeling once I land. When I left Ghana in 2014 I wanted to stay on, as I felt I would not be able to bottle that spirit I found in me there and dose myself every time I needed a pick me up.
What I want to say in this post is, a year on from Zambia's 50th, despite the recent woes with Zesco's crippling, schizophrenic loadshedding, the Kwacha plummeting - further adding to the debilitating situation caused by our energy crisis, and tradition/ religion being twisted to be used as a scapegoat to continue bad practices, to excuse unethical behavior/ decisions, as well as to quell the masses by passing the buck of responsibility on to a higher power/ dogma, I see a bright future. There are still people out there finding a way to be and to do regardless of the situation. I still firmly believe that the way to
survive and thrive is to not base your dreams, goals and route to success on who is in power, whom you have to accept as the people have chosen and respect their decision and just get on with it. And if they haven't, well it is what it is, isn't it, so unless you can do something about it, once again you just have to find a way to live with that too. The same goes for waiting on the perfect conditions arising, or any other fixed parameters that people can use and abuse for their own ends. If all is just right great. More often than not it isn't, so you just have to find way to work with the cards you have been dealt. Zambia is far from stable enough to bank on things being just right and so I continue to adhere to the school of thought of just get it done. Be aware of the current environment, the possibilities and the pitfalls present and the potential for either in the near and distant future. Ultimately work with what you have and innovate perpetually, as being flexible and adaptable, is what is required. If you are in constant evolution, you can ride whatever wave you encounter as you navigate the treacherous sea that is development, the state in which Zambia and much of the world is still in. Even places in the developed world are no longer predictable, stable or giving, even when you do everything right.
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| Being un-CEOrious during #ZambeefInYourTown e18hteam national tour, photobombing a picture with Zambeef Manager and audience members in Lusaka. Photo Credit: PR Girl |
Life is not meant to be easy, or there would be no point in living it as the highs and lows, the extremes and all that lies in between, is what makes it a great ride. Zambia provides that in spades. I like the challenge of it. I now have found a way to thrive in it. I am no longer there to prove a point, that I am meant to be there. I am now there because I choose to be, because it is the only place that affords the life that I cannot escape from, nor do I want to anymore. I was able to reflect on this at the most beautiful sanctuary while at my 10 year Stanford Reunion on Independence Day. I am truly blessed to be able to save to travel to my global family now because I live and work in Zambia, where I do not have to spend much to live a great life. I don't know how I would have survived being away from the majority of the people who make my life worth living without the internet. However, the nuances of communication are largely lost and so in the end, it becomes necessary to see people in the flesh and to feel physical places and reconnect with environments and certain milieus singular to places and congregations of specific people. I have found the beauty, the humour, the work hard play hard balance and the company to make Zambia my permanent base to interact with the world. Here are some more pictures from instagram that illustrate this:
The humour
Work hard play hard
Great company
Can't wait to land in a coupla hours. Hope the heat won't kill me though, it's scorching out there and the temperature differential is over 20C!
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