Road to 'a alma'.

by Johne Venter (South Africa)

I didn't expect to find Mozambique

My feet were bare, as they usually were, and I remember how soft the cold-fine sand felt beneath my feet. The sun was setting and rays of orange and yellow was shooting trough the millions of palm tress that seemed to be surrounding me, as if I was an ant in a field of grass. For as long as I can remember I used to love walking barefoot, I guess that was the boer-blood influence that runs through my veins. I can still hear the sound of the wind that flows through palm leaves as the light sea breeze brushes my skin. I can smell the humid salty summer air. When I close my eyes I'm right back there, where 'a alma' belongs, as if the higher part of me is infinitely rooted there. I surely did not expect to find my soul imbedded in a dune surrounded by a lagoon of blue, mixed with the perfect balance of unpredictability and tranquillity. As seventeen-year-olds are, I was in love with the idea of love and that was everything I knew at that stage. I was seventeen pretending to be twenty-two, not knowing that, that girl did not know a half-a-thing about what life would be like at twenty-two. I did not appreciate the magic of what Mystical Mozambique now offers to me. I merely got drunk each night, missing someone who has a complete different life without me now, just to be getting drunk, not long there-after, frustrated because I did not appreciate the moment. The there and now. My family and the people who surrounds me, who has surrounded me and will most probably be surrounding me for the rest of my life. At seventeen my world was surely smaller compared to my world now, understanding that as unknown as Mozambique is to the world so unknown are you. I am not seventeen and planning my own destiny anymore. I accept that, as in Mozambique, I have no signal, occasionally no electricity, fresh water, and that more often than not, nature will take its course and you would have to adapt to it, it won't just simply adapt to you. And now five years later I planted four poles deep in the thick white sands, upon a deck with more than enough chairs for those who dare to sit a long side me and my journey. Those who have and seem to still will, dive into the unknown of the surrounding depths of blue that I am yet to discover. Those who understand that we can plan and dig a road, but here we live by 'lau', the tide decides when its time to drive. So, please do not ask me where I will be in FIVE (years), because I am still captivated by the dark night sky filled with starts that tells a different story every night and white beaches, deep blue oceans and orange-African sunsets that is left to unfold every minute of everyday, as 'a alma' comes alive in every way.