Thursday 24 October 2013

Nakutamani

You know when you wake up from a dream and you're so convinced it's real that you're confused about waking up in your own bedroom? You try to align where you just were in your mind with the reality of life? And you hope to fall back to sleep so you can continue the dream? Except it's a work day and apparently they get angry when you don't show up? I know, so selfish of our employers, eh?

Wednesday morning, I thought I woke up here:


That far bed? For four months, that was my bed in Tanzania. When I awoke on a cold and foggy Wednesday morning to realise that my dream about being back there had been nothing but a dream, my heart ached a little.

Adding to the realism of my dream was the fact that it was about going back to Tanzania to visit. I saw my friends in their new jobs, I brought gifts of items I knew they loved but were hard to come by in Tanzania, and we caught up on our lives over nyama choma at our favourite restaurant. It was so real.

I spent the remainder of the day missing Tanzania.

I missed bartering for food in the markets.
Lushoto Market
(Not my 'normal' market. I don't have any pictures of Tengeru Market.)
I missed my coworkers.
Grace, Hadija, Rachael, me, Mama Musa (Fatima)
Just a few of my awesome coworkers!
I missed holidays that looked like this:
Morning coffee in Nungwi
Or this:
Elephants in Tarangiri NP
I missed seeing Mt. Meru every morning.
Sunset on Mt. Meru
You can keep Kilimanjaro, this is the mountain I long for.
*sigh*

I will be forever grateful that I got to live in Tanzania and that I live in an age where I am able to keep in contact with many of my friends from there through the magic of the internets and social media, but why can't I live in the era of Star Trek where I could just beam over there for some nyama choma and a Tusker beer while I dust off my rusty Swahili and we catch up on the going on in all our lives?

Do you have a place that you miss? What do you miss the most?

Note: The title means is "I miss you".

4 comments:

  1. Well, for obvious reasons, I miss Australia and family most of all. Although I've only been to Tassie once, and only for a few days, I miss it, too. I've been feeling those feels a lot lately - if I hear Peter Allen's 'I Still Call Australia Home' I WILL burst into tears.

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    1. I will make sure not to quote any Banjo Paterson when I'm in your presence ;) Any plans to go back soonish?

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  2. I was going to say something about bolded questions at the end of a post, but I won't.

    I have a bunch of places I miss but this week it has been London. London. The place I would move my family to in an instant because I MISS IT ALL. There isn't one thing or one reason or even a group of things or reasons, it's just always felt like home, from the moment I first stepped out of the underground onto Haverstock Hill, even though it's a huge city and I like small places and crowds make me claustrophobic.

    But yeah. London.

    Gah. Now I'm going to dream about London and be sad when I wake up.

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    1. At least I'm actually interested in the answer to the question I posted :P

      I've been missing London (and England, in general) lately as well. A friend was just there so all sorts of sentimental feels for me at the moment. I hope you are able to get there soon with the girls.

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