Under Foreign Skies

Travelling, for me, can be quite a sensual experience. I am always thrilled by the first breath I inhale when I step out of the plane. Like an animal, I sniff the air and try to analyse and define what comes through my nostrils. It can be quite surprising sometimes as it is the scent of flowers or spices, rather than just the smell of dirt. When I came back to Africa last year, I recognised the very peculiar perfume of the African grass although we were miles away from the savannah, and then I heard the birds’ songs and I knew I was back on my favourite continent.

I also look at the sky. The sky is very different if you are in Stockholm or in the Masai Mara. I have never seen a clearer sky than in the Mara, it is crystal clear, pristine, as it were one of the first days of the world. When you live in a city, where the sky is blurred by pollution, by city lights at night, it does not come to your mind to watch the sky, apart from watching the starts or the moon, why would you?


If you are lucky, you hear the sounds of nature - bush or savannah, or even desert - which is in fact very quiet. Animals are quiet most of the time, apart from birds. Human beings are the loudest of all species. Annoyingly loud! In an African capital, the priest of the Orthodox Church would start to pray on the microphone from 3.30 to 5.30 a.m. every morning for two weeks. It turned out that according to their calendar, Easter started two weeks earlier than ours, something difficult to adapt to when you have to get up early and work 14 days in a row. The lion roars in the gardens of the King’s Palace next door, or the bray of rutting female donkeys at night, in the slums next door, sounded like music to our ears.


The landscapes and the colours are the most powerful first impressions. Then I look at the people, at their features¸ their clothes, the way they interact. What strikes me is that people often smile, much more than here in Europe. It seems to me that we have lost that connection, we are all so busy, serious, arrogant and grumpy. We thrive under stress, so full of our own importance, becoming upset when we are not getting what we are asking for at once. We don’t smile so much anymore. And I realise that the notion of time changes depending on where you are, North or South. Time seems to be elastic!


When you travel, ideally you open up to the world and absorb it through all your senses. If you are receptive, it is an incredible lesson of life. You have to accept less comfort, a simpler life, sometimes without electricity and/or water, different food, new spices - another incredibly sensual, almost orgasmic experience - different habits, behaviours, values, or even taboos. It always humbles me.


It makes me live several lives. One time, I am a 6 year old girl walking barefoot on the red dirt road going to school in a torn uniform, my hair pleated, sharing the classroom with children of different grades, with no lunch because the school doesn’t have enough money to feed us at noon. But I do not complain because I learn to read and I will become educated maybe until I am 12, with some luck until I graduate. My mother wakes up at 4.30 a.m. to fetch water from the river, and wood for fuel, an hour or more away from home. She has to be careful with the hyenas that come scavenging into the village at night.

Another time, I am a 23 year old policeman who bribes the owners of small shops selling cheap ethnic paraphernalia to tourists. I have to sustain the whole family since my father was put into jail for some obscure reason. I also sell fake billion dollar bills to tourist, that is how bad the inflation hit the country. I have another job at night, but I don’t want to talk about it.

I am that teenage girl, who was genitally mutilated at 13, who was forced into a marriage with a man 25 years older than her, but who run away from home, and now lives in a centre where she learns to become self-reliant and finishes school.

I am looking forward to travelling again, it is an exhilarating experience. I do feel completely elated.