It is 8:32pm. I am winding down the last hours at work and although I am excited about the time off, I am already overwhelmed with thoughts of the less than two weeks of prepping for my trip to Africa entails. I have what my friend Dave calls "radio-dial-head" where your thoughts just go from station to station with a lot of static in between. So much to do in so little time!
So far I have accomplished vaccinations and visas...Mimi is getting excited. A bit worried too. Last night as she was doing dinner dishes she blurted out, "What if I get bitten by a snake? Will the vaccinations protect me?". Tonton told her, "No, you will die". Then he reminded her that she spent the first ten years of her life in her village in Africa and was she ever bitten by a snake? "No".
Then she worried about being kidnapped on the streets of Dakar...then worried about being sold into marriage....who IS this kid? I forget though that this is her first real voyage, one that is truly meaningful, not like the voyage that brought her to Canada in the first place when she had no control over her destiny and no information about what life lay ahead of her...this time, when she lands in Africa the terms are more about her. She is worried that once I drop her in Dakar with her classmates that I will not make it back from Cote d'Ivoire to meet her for our return. "There are no guarantees in life" I remind her. It is little consolation.
One thing though, we both have our hearts in the right place. It is a bit sad I will not take Mimi back home to Cote d'Ivoire this trip..it can wait...the urgency to get to G'nerefonon is more. I can't wait to arrive in her compound! She will laugh...I can hear the laughter now...to have her white daughter-in-law cruise into her hood will be both amazing and terrifying for her, this I know. But beyond THAT, I know nothing about how my visit will pan out. Again I have to remind myself of my own advice, "There are no guarantees in life".
