I don’t know that the why I love Africa post will ever grow old for me.
Last weekend, we had the opportunity to spend the night as part of an Eco-Tourist Community at John Obey beach, which is located about 80km outside of Freetown, where the ship is located. (http://sierraleone.tribewanted.com/). While we didn’t take part in the whole Tribewanted week-long experience as community members, it was an interesting concept to catch a glimpse of, and it provided us with a lovely way to spend the Saturday night of our long weekend. A small group of friends and I ate 3 tasty meals of African food, had a campfire, spent the night in tents, woke up to the sound of crashing waves, played beach volleyball, swam in the ocean, lazed around in hammocks, and enjoyed the serenity of not being on the ship for 24 hours. However none of these things provided my true why I love Africa moment.
It didn’t happen until we were on our way home. Six of us were packed into our second taxi of the trip (which, to be fair, is actually a comparatively decent occupancy). The rains started to come down. It seems to still be rainy season here, which I had always assumed would finish itself up somewhere in the middle of September. Apparently basing all of your big life decisions on what Wikipedia tells you can be misleading. But anyways, back to the point…
We’re in the taxi. The rain starts, and naturally starts coming in the windows. The driver hands us a screwdriver.
There is no explanation provided. Not a person in the vehicle bats an eyelash. Jeff, who had the honour of the “aisleseat”, so-to-speak, just went about the business of jamming the screwdriver into the hunk of metal on the door where the window crank must have lived at some point in the taxi’s life, and starting the process of doing up the window.
Perhaps the thing that truly made this moment for me was the fact that the taxi driver felt no need to tell us what to do with the screwdriver. That he didn't think to apologize for the fact that a screwdriver would be necessary to keep the rain from pouring in the window. That the whole thing happened just so seamlessly and naturally.
We looked around at one another. Smiled. Loved it. Knew without saying any words that it is moments like this one that keep life interesting and keep us coming back for more.