Helena of the Lake

  When you've been fortunate and blessed to have travelled to other countries your outlook on life changes a lot. You visit other countries, meet new people and explore new cultures that are so different to yours. When you live in a new country for a few years you adopt some of their ways and others make no sense to you. You try new things, you're exposed to new languages and slowly but surely you change. It might not be totally obvious to people who know you well, but you feel different, you think differently and you look at life with new eyes. You no longer live in that comfort zone that you've known for most of your life. It's a really good feeling and then you return home and people try to put you back in that box, the one that they are so comfortable to be in. How can you go back? After everything you've experienced it would be such a waste. Don't fall back in old habits just because it doesn't suit other people. Dare to be different! See you soon, brav

  I've been back in my country for nearly a month now and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the differences I've noticed. I honestly don't know what to make of it all. Where do I belong? I'm not young, but I'm not that old either. Where are the white people working these days? I don't see them in the banks, the shops, I just don't see many of them at all. As you can imagine, everything is way more expensive and I have no idea how the average family survive. Where is this country going? I think now, more than ever it is important who you know and not what you know. Sad, but so true! What will it be like in another seven years? Yes, I have a lot of questions! I'm usually a positive person and yes, there are things that have improved, but there are also things that have not. The corruption is shocking, we have power load-shedding because of incompetent people. There is no light at the end of this tunnel! Keep fighting, Africa!