Today l take you on a journey to my homeland!
A place where nature exudes a peaceful aroma.
A place where nature sings to you all day.
A place where nature is the hallmark of our existence.
Growing up, every holiday we would take that 12 hour journey to travel to my rural home. I looked forward to that journey because the experience was something that l can never trade the world for! On the way,we would see a dozen people parading their homegrown fruits and vegetables on the streets selling them for a decent price. We would see herdsmen cheerfully and patiently waiting for cattles and goats to feed on uncurated grass. We would see old men and women carrying on their heads baskets of their harvested produce. We would see young adults in a line waiting to draw water out of a clean well which they had dug out and built themselves. We would see young girls lighting up the fire in fireplaces they had built themselves.
We did not only see people but the experience that left a treasured mark in my heart was when I would see a zeal of zebras fleeing from a pride of lions. We knew it was a taboo to travel at night because you were most likely not to make it home safely because of the dangerous wildlife. Sometimes we would be stuck in traffic of a herd of elephants that would be having a chit chat in the road for hours! We would be told not to climb trees because you would end up being entangled in a relationship with Mr. Snake.
This is just a snippet of my experiences growing up but the reason why it holds so much importance in my life is because of how nature defined most of our actions. I appreciate how we fed from nature and how we respected it. It was a two way relationship and this is something that every human should have. Before we speak of strengthening our relationships as human beings we should find ways to strengthen our relationship with mother nature!