Londoners – no white Zimbabwean has ever heard of it, but for the Shona people, it is the place to be. Outdoor braai (BBQ) where the cool people hang, meat and beer in hand, watching the door like lions waiting for a kill; smoky dancehall busting out the dancehall tunes, jam-packed with women gyrating their […]
Wandering Footsteps: Wandering the World One Step at a Time » A travel journal following a family on their overland trip around the world.
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(This entry was written on June 1st.) Had my laziness not taken over and I had written this blog entry a few days ago, it would have sounded something like this: “Damn, it’s cold! I feel cold all the time. It’s terrible. I don’t want to get out of bed because it’s so cozy and […]     I just finished reading a really nice book of short stories written by an up-and-coming Zimbabwean writer. The book is called “An Elegy for Easterly” by Petina Gappah.I have read a few books by Zimbabwean authors, including “The Crocodile Eats the Sun” by Peter Godwin, and “The Last Resort” by Douglas Rogers. Both of those […] In Africa, death is ubiquitous. Every week, I hear of the passing of someone – one week it’s an 11-year old girl dying from a mysterious disease, another week it’s the headmaster of the school being run over by a car. A few weeks ago, Salathiel the driver’s niece passed away. When he returned to […] A few days ago I stumbled upon the following BBC article about how Viennese people love to grumble about their city. The author’s perspective is interesting because she is not the first to tell me this – even my boss’ mother described Austrians as a people who love to grumble about their country even though […] |
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Lexalot - Yeah, I agree that death is a part of life. It must be such a different perception of life that people of war-torn countries like Zimbabwe feel. Even for us though, without the daily threat of loved-ones’ deaths, it must be important to think about our comfort with this inevitable time. I think the best thing is to feel that if you were to die right in this moment, you would be comfortable with what you had accomplished in this lifetime, and where you would now be going. Perhaps you do not need to know exactly where you would be, but I think you need to feel that you had faith that you would not suffer beyond your means- no matter where you end up. Basically, I try to make sure I live each day without regret- so that if I were to die I could be proud of how I had lived my life. If there is anything which remains that needs to be sorted-sort it!