Going away...

After close to 15 years in France,
15 years of schooling
of working
of giving birth to number2
of my kid sister coming hear and having to go back home
of living the ecstacy of winning a world cup
of living the blues of losing the world cup final
of only one socialist president
of 3 STRAIGHTright wing presidential victories
of 5 trips to my beloved country Kenya
of some long anyd forlorn winters
of beautiful life bringing springs
of unending blissful summers
of yet again the autumn announcing eminent winter
Of so so many things..
Me and mine have made a bold decision, we're going away!

We're going to the closest that we can come to living in the tropics again. You see, when I came here, 15 years ago, I was like so many in the diaspora, coming to school. I believed it was just gonna be the time it took to do my masters degree, then I'd go back home. Thank God I didn't know how long this road was gonna be. With all the windings , slopes and downhill descents. The going away from Kenya blues, are rantings I've stored on my mental hard drive, for another day. The important thing today is that I'm at long last getting ready to live something, dreamt, thought about, desired, run away from; postponed, for almost the entire 15 years I've been here. The urge to live in Africa again. There were always all sorts of excuses, some valid, some not so valid, for differing this decision. We've at long last reached a consensus, and so is it that in our Abandu safaris,today, we see, dream, and think this!
http://bahari.canalblog.com/archives/les_4_saisons/index.html

Yes, putting aside the practicalities we'll have to go through before finally "sailing" into the Lagoon aboard "Abandu Safaris express", right about now, my head is full of images, colours, fragrances, I look forward to reuniting with. For Mayotte being a tropical island, it's got so many similitudes with our own Kenyan coastal climate and consequently, similar flora and fauna. So is it that I salivate as I think of the embe dodos, the mapera, passion fruits, fenesi aka bread fruit, avocadoes, coconuts,msabibi, litchis..the list is endless. Next on my list are the fragranced plants..the legendry ylang ylang, frangpani (white, yellow anf pink varieties), hibiscus, so many nocturnal plants whose names I don't know...Then after these intoxicating fragrances, the tumbo will be more than happy to eat what we call "exotic" food here in France! Banana (matoke) is said to be the staple food in Mayotte. I won't say no to sweet potaotes, yams, aah roast and boiled maize, yams (tsinduma), and of course a real kuku, not these four legged insipid ones we eat here in Molière's country!All these seasoned with the island spices..vanilla, curmin, , clovers, cinnamon, safron....
The five senses sated, I hope to see what similarities we still have with our Shimaore sisters and brothers, hope to learn their language which is a variant of our own Swahili, and generally "sample" all those Indian ocean islands, with my ultimate dream being going to Zanzibar via the sea like it was done in the days of yonder.
I hope it'll be a worthwhile 2 or 4 years stay, at only 2 hours flight from Nairobi. Meanwhile, all the paper work is only just beginning. Deciding what to do with our "home" which we worked so hard on, "do we sell or rent it out?", fidning school for the totos, and getting ready for me to live as an "expatriate" in what for me is Africa!
The departure will actually only be next year around this time, July 2008 (for practical reasons), but from the many "goings away" I've lived in life, I've learnt one simple lesson: to truly go away, you have to start by "going away" in your head. This is the hardest part. Once oyu've done this, which is like turning the ignition key on, then your "Abandu safaris" is off, and all you need to do is keep pressing on the accelerator!
Wish us luck...Bon vent à nous!