It has been exactly 2 months since I concluded my 62 day adventure to West and North Africa and Europe. I arrived home Saturday, November 27th at 11:30pm. Dutifully my dear girlfriend, Dianne, picked up her jet-lagged friend at the airport and somehow we shoved my 54 lb-stuffed-to-the-brim-34″-roller duffel and overloaded backpack into her gold convertible, hard top BMW. Once she made sure I was safe in my apartment, she turned to the door to go home and said, “You owe me one!”. “One” is the least I owe her!
On the flight home I had challenged myself not to sleep during the 10 hour trans-Atlantic jump from Athens to SEA (despite my plush business class seat!) in hopes that once my head hit the pillow that night I would easily and blissfully start jet-lag recovery. Ah, what is it they say about the best laid plans? I don’t think sleep came for 3 days!
During my trip, when I told people about my travels, where I had been and where I was going, it was often met with looks of amazement and inevitably followed up with, “You are very lucky.” I would often smile back and say, “I suppose I am.” Now that I am home I can look back on my trip and recognize that not only was I very lucky to have successfully and safely ventured and returned home from the 8 country sojourn, but so blessed for the unforgettable people I met along the way and the lessons taught me.
My biggest lesson was in Africa…Mali specifically. It was a simple one…perhaps one most people already know. And everyday as I settle back into life back home and look to establish my place in our wonderful world I try hard to practice it.
In Pays Dogon in Mali the word in the local language for “slow” is degue (pronounced DIG-GEE). This word was taught to me within hours of meeting my Dogon Country guide, A.G. (pronounced in French as “Ah Jay“). As A.G. led me to the edge of the Dogon plateau to introduce me to the beautiful, vast land he was a bit surprised and even taken aback with the number of questions I asked him as he was laying the foundation for our 3 day journey together. After the 3rd or 4th question, A.G. looked at me, tilted his head slightly and said, “Jen, degue, deguei. You will learn all the answers to your questions, but degue, degue. Life is degue, degue and so will be our time in Dogon. Now just listen.” Wow! I wasn’t expecting a little lecture from the guide who I was PAYING to be my source of information in this unknown country. I felt jolted…who wants to be scolded by a stranger, especially one that you need to get along with for the next 3 days as you trek village to village in sweltering heat and minimal access to showers. However, not wanting to dwell too long on the uneasy feelings, I decided to heed his instructions, limit my questions, listen and enjoy.
A.G. and I passed an unforgettable 3 days. During the day he would share with me the mud villages of his home land, the history and mysticism of the countryside and the slowness of life that is so characteristic of the people of Dogon. In the evenings we would settle into our campemente and spend the night listening to music from my iphone and enjoy cous cous and conversation to the light of a dying flashlight. After dinner I would go to my roof top bed and count the shooting stars from under my mosquito net while I listened to the burros, chickens and goats all nestle down to bed below me. Life in the Dogon was pure, simple…and indeed slow. Each day I would end it more content than the day before…and, A.G. was right, over the course of our time together all my questions were answered…and they were all worth the wait because I learned them at their intended time making them more meaningful and memorable. Life is degue, deguei….I was starting to understand that. Peaceful is the soul that finds pleasure and purpose in the simplicity of living each day and allows life to provide answers not all at once, but as it unfolds. I left Dogon wanting to approach life more how I had lived for those 3 short days…slowly, in the moment and allowing life’s answers to come to me at their intended time and not when I demanded.
I have wanted to write this wrap-up blog post for sometime, but somehow have found free moments for everything other than this. Part of the procrastination has been finding the right words to articulate a lesson learned that might SOUND important to an anyone who reads this….However, I think much more has been my frustration at myself for not living better what I purport to be the most important lesson of my trip. Life always has its challenges, and this has to be one of the more challenging times of my life. But divorce should never be easy. And as I write this I feel like I am in those first few hours in the Dogon with A.G., and I want him to answer all the questions that are swirling in my head…What happens now? Will crying spontaneously ever stop? How will I make money? How do I make my dreams come true? Will I find my place in this world? Will I ever be truly happy?…I need to know the answers now!
Each time I fall into this pattern, I reach into my memory and pull out the look that A.G. gave me when he told me “degue, degue” that first time. It is a simple lesson. All the all answers I seek will come. I just need to breathe, live each day and listen for them. The hard part is practicing this….but I suppose that will take time too.
So, in conclusion, this girl is wrapping up one adventure only to start another. And as I start on this new journey, I can only hope that I can come out of it as strong, successful and enriched as I did after my 2 months across the Atlantic. Life is degue, degue….as long as I believe in this and myself, the world will continue to be my oyster. I know I can make all my dreams come true.
Speaking of dreams…I have always wanted to live in Europe for an extended period of time. Hmmm, what do you think about Provence? 🙂 My next post may be from there…..stay tuned!
“Sometimes life has more imagination for you than you do for it.”
-Habibi
