Before departing the North American continent for the umpteeth time, I had the fortune of meeting my parents’ new neighbors, Carla and Hubert. They were telling me about how easy it had been to move into the neighborhood because of the kindness and openness of my parents. Carla told me the story of the day they spent touring the area and questioning my father about wintertime in the Maritimes.
“Well, you know, you just gotta EMBRACE it,” said my father. “It’s cold, but you know, there are ways to EMBRACE the cold. Go outside, snow shoe, cross-country ski, whatever. I used to have a hot-tub, but well, you know, I didn’t take care of it, so my wife told me to stop using it, but oh well. You just gotta EMBRACE the cold and everything will be ok.”
As Carla and I exchanged information, she wrote the word EMBRACE on the top of the half-sheet of paper bearing her address. With a knowing look in her eye, she told me that that 7-letter word would be a good motto for my upcoming adventure.
It has proven to be already. From the moment I hopped on that airplane, I decided to embrace the journey. I was going to meet a man I had known for less than 3 months and that I had spent a grand total of 17 days with. I was going to join him on his tour of Africa, in his Toyota truck, and share his days, his life, and his journey with him. I couldn’t know what would come of this decision, but I decided to EMBRACE it.
And I am. Despite the nerves I felt on my flight from Johannesburg to Francistown, I have launched myself fully into getting to know Bruno and his life as we share an African adventure together. We have journeyed, first into the barren landscapes of Botswana’s salt-water pans, including a night of bush camping on the stark Kubu Island, and then onwards to Maun, at the foot of the Okavango Delta. We have embraced the dry, hot African sun and the alternately sandy and bumpy roads, turning the music up, singing out loud, and laughing as we traveled. We have embraced the lack of toilets and running water on Kubu Island, fashioning ourselves an outdoor shower and taking care of our business behind the Baobabs of this rocky, sealess island. We have embraced the noise and dust of Botswanean cities and camp sites, and the less-than-stellarly clean waters of the camp site swimming pools. We have embraced living together in the small quarters of Bruno’s Toyoto Land Cruiser, not so easy for someone who has lived for over a decade alone in that space. And most importantly, we have embraced one another, getting to know each other with openness and acceptance, and treating each moment, humorous or not, with a smile.
