Afrika

As I write this my mother and sister are treading the soil of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
And a week from today Ruben and I will be stepping on the soil of Cape Town, South Africa.
It is a co-incidence that 4 of my family (us Londoners) will all be in Africa at the same time. And yet also there is a link. There is closure and there are new beginnings.
I am going to spend a month - yes a whole month *four weeks* - with a dearest friend on her farm, with her 3 children (including my godson). She is my benefactor, and someone who always seems to catch me when I'm falling. I haven't a clue what I will do out there, except live; eat, run, sleep, talk, swim, sing.... I embrace the unexpected, the unknown and look forward to shedding this stress and weight of my London self. I will finally visit my friend's homeland, a journey ten years in the talking. It all feels quite momentous and life changing.
Did I mention I'm going away for a whole month? Oh, I did.
And I realised last night that perhaps I will accomplish a childhood dream of seeing a whale, as they do pass the Cape. My only other aim is to find cloth and crafts, so if anyone who reads this has any tips or suggestions it would be much appreciated.

My mother's story is more interesting. In 2002 she was due to live in Rwanda for 2-3 years teaching English at an orphanage with VSO. Whilst there she was going to re-visit Ethiopia, where she had worked in the 1960's, and make a pilgrimage, of sorts, to Lalibela. A dream she had held close all her adult life. In August 2002, two weeks before she was due to fly to Kigali, whilst walking home after her "farewell" party, she was mugged and left with a severe head injury. The doctors didn't think she would survive that night. Then they said she wouldn't come out of the coma. When she came out of the coma, that she wouldn't remember her life/family or walk again. And now 5 years later she is a dotting grandmother who has an 80% independent life, learning guitar, doing voluntary work at the Circus Space Library and off travelling in Ethiopia, as she has desired for so long. She will finally visit Lalibela. And perhaps also, she can finally put her injuries and trauma behind her.

There is much to do before I leave, not least a mobile swap that I enthusiastically joined and now still must complete! I adore mobiles and have so many ideas dangling in my head, and yet, timing, timing..There are some great examples already on the flickr group. Some late nights expected. If only I could offer myself hanging from a suitcase. I am mobile, the mobile, at the moment.