Expat Blues

Everyone has a dream, but they don't always come true. My dream, from a young age, was to go to Africa, and whenever I confessed this yearning to anyone, I was ridiculed into silence. But the stars aligned, and the dream did come true. I left New Zealand in my twenties to take up a contract teaching English to adolescent African girls at a small mission school in a charming town, named after David Livingstone, no less, a few kilometers from the legendary Victoria Falls that he named after his English queen. During my thirty-month tour, I struggled to adapt to life as an innocent abroad in an unfamiliar and often bewildering expat culture during a volatile time of transition from imperial colonial rule to independent African nation states. Negotiating a turbulent, war-torn continent was always challenging, often deeply rewarding, frequently dangerous, sometimes terrifying, undeniably fascinating, and uniquely addictive. I learned to love this mystical place of extremes that got under your skin and changed you forever. My African experience will always remain my greatest adventure and the best time of my life. I hope I've done justice to the special memories.