You Just Think You Are Ready

by Diana Mededovic (Croatia)

I didn't expect to find Tanzania

I just spent 12 days in Tanzania. I thought I was prepared to be amazed and shocked - boy was I wrong! Africa is everything I expected and then some! Africa is a potency. Of itself, vitality, laziness, wasted lives, tastes, smells, garbage, beautiful people, tangled cables, week water pressure... Africa is hectic. My Africa is glaring into the lion's eyes and learning that gnu's nickname is zero-brain. My Africa is playing with the Maasai kids and dancing on the streets with the happiest people. My Africa is Konyagi ("It’s not vodka, it’s not gin, it’s not water and it’s barely legal outside of East Africa...") and working the abs from laughing so hard. And burning my skin (several times). And pineapple. And playing picigin (traditional ball game from Split, Croatia that is played on the beach) with an imaginary ball. My Africa is trying to understand why Tanzanian people don't strive for more. My Africa is accepting that Tanzanian people rather sit down in a shade, waiting for tomorrow and are happy as are. My Africa is trying to understand why people from Zanzibar don't want to learn about the world. My Africa is accepting that people from Zanzibar believe they live in the most beautiful place in the world and are beyond happy with having just about enough. Accepting, not fully understanding... Do you imagine blue when one mentions Africa? Neither did I. But it's pouring all shades of blue as far as you can see. Zanzibar is its own postcard - no filters and no colors enhanced. Blue, azure, dark blue, turquoise... you name it, you'll find it. Do you imagine green when one mentions Africa? Neither did I. But it's flourishing and blossoming to its fullest. Do you like pineapple? Believe me, you don't know what pineapple tastes like until you've tried their pineapple. Don't you hate it when it's humid and sticky? Visit Jozani forest and embrace temporary rain showers. Soak it all in and listen - you'll hear Mother Nature breathing. It turns out I don't mind humid and sticky as I thought I did. My Africa is trying to accept their "pole pole" (slowly in Swahili) way of life. I am a very active person and sluggishness is annoying the hell out of me, but when you have one whole country moving slowly through a day, there's not much room for being nervous because you ain't gonna make them faster. They just couldn't care less. There is nowhere they have to be and tomorrow will come this way or the other. Your mind is not adjusted to Africa. Well, neither is your body. You have to drink bottled water exclusively. Yeah, you've been spending your summers sunbathing along the Adriatic coast, but the African sun will burn your skin. So, everything (you think) you are is completely and utterly perplexed. And while you're trying to realize if it's pleasant or not so pleasant, you'll find yourself smiling and charging your batteries. When it's beautiful, it's beyond beautiful - you can't stop glaring. When it's dirty, you can barely stand the smell. When it's happy, you steal the feeling, hide it deep in your heart and remember it back home. There is no in-between. And that's the beauty of it. Africa hits you hard. It's alive. So vivid, so tangible, so loud, so green, so dirty, so sweaty... Africa stays with you. You become a part of it. You are already planning another trip. You have to come back. It's addictive. Africa makes you love a seemingly ordinary Tuesday, the beauty of the sadness at times, deepened eye wrinkles formed by living this life. Who cares about breathing and blinking? Living, I'm talking about living this life. Africa makes you feel the liveliest ever.