Abidjan
Hi BoBbers,
Long time no see, sorry. I was a little busy having a minor existential crisis in Abidjan: whether to continue with the trip, my life plan for the next 10 years, the core problems with all my relationships going back to Liz Stafford back in grade 8 and whether I should be posting on social media at all given how fundamentally addictive it is.
When I’m on the move, life is simple. Eat. Sleep. Talk. Ride. Stopping leaves me with a pile of amorphous priorities and seemingly endless time to dance with my demons.
Luckily, with lots of rest and some lovely people I was able to recharge and left Abidjan about a week ago feeling refreshed and ready for the rest of the journey to South Africa.
All in all, I spent just over three months in Accra and it was huge mix of things. Depression, deep introspection and insight. Loneliness and wonderful company. It was also a taste of my old digital life, with its comforting familiarity but also its subtle disconnection. I worked daily on some projects, built up a routine and made myself scrambled eggs, salad sandwiches and endless cups of tea.
I did a disastrous interview on local tv, ran a 10km race in thongs, got yelled at for changing pants outside of the ministry of interior, learnt korean drinking songs, massively improved my French, ate the best fish of my life, explored an abandoned monument and a house shaped like a crocodile, visited both a tiny recording studio and the largest basilica in the world and spent many glorious hours with BoB in the empty night hours. And honestly, I felt pretty shitty during most of it. Which just goes to show how subjective it all is.
Either way, I was lucky enough to meet some truly wonderful people and had a wonderful send-off where they even bought me a birthday cake in advance, just in case I wasn’t able to celebrate properly in Ghana. Truly kind and generous people. Staying in one place was a great opportunity to see a place in more detail and form a deeper connection.
I left Abidjan full of energy, excitement and a newfound peace; with a heavy heart, but two friends to accompany me to the border.
Refreshed and ready,
J&BoB
