There's a lot of things in life worth celebrating, like birthdays, holidays and so on and so forth but for a traveler, or for anyone living in a new place, there's a little mandatory celebration that should happen with each new milestone. Like, your first time successfully taking a taxi, in a place that doesn't even recognize your words because their language doesn't use them. And what about the first time you try a new food, that you'd never even smelled before or going to the market for groceries and quickly realizing how much it isn't like home. It's all these little moments that mash together to create your first days, weeks and months and that's about where I'm at right now, one month in and so many milestones already.
It was exactly one month ago that I packed my bags, passed out hugs and kisses to the people I adore the most, and boarded the plane that would take me across the world, into a different life. A place that looked nothing like home but a place that I would soon recognize as a home. Let's get one thing straight, though, I'm not going to sit here and tell you how brave I felt by leaving or that I wasn't scared or better yet, terrified because if I said any of these things, I'd be lying. I think my biggest milestone to date, was boarding that plane, no matter how nervous it made me feel. It's this step that's the most important to me right now because without it, I wouldn't celebrating my first month in Africa.
I wouldn't be celebrating the first moment I walked in my new house and was warmly greeted by the people I would be spending the next year with or my first day of school, when I nervously introduced myself to my new first grade students, who probably didn't even understand the words coming out my mouth because our mother tongue language doesn't compare. It's these little moments that have made all the difference because they confirm that the choice I made to come here was, without a doubt, the right one. The most beautiful part though, is knowing that this is only the beginning.
Throughout this first month, I have seen both good and bad things along the way; things that have made my heart both happy and very sad at the same time. I guess you could say that my life has been some type of emotional roller coaster because I've begun to feel things that I'm not always used to: fear, confusion, inability to express myself and the lack of independence in ordering my own food at a restaurant. I'm almost like a child, so unaware of things, unable to use large sentences, or small words, for that matter and everything seen is so unfamiliar that all I want to do is stare with amazement. I find myself getting overly excited about things, like fresh coconut on the side of the road but, more so, for the way the lady selling them uses her machete to crack them open for me. It's through these lessons that I realize I am becoming the place I am; I am becoming Ivorian.
It's so many things wrapped up into one but like I've said before and will say many times again, it's all so beautiful and it's only just the beginning of such an amazing life adventure. So here's to my new milestones. To surviving my first month in Africa, even if it's not totally like Eliza Thornberry's adventure, it's better than I could have ever imagined.
