Africa Trek Feature
per month, but he hadn’t been paid for six months. I took a $10 bill from my pocket to compensate in some way for the food and he refused it
His salary as a policeman was $30
encountered, and lastly, always stay on the move. And returning to Alex’s original reason for long-term trekking, did the reality match this theory? “We had a Visa card, but we rarely used it and had a rule of having $200 in our pocket in case of an emergency. Sometimes we would have to stop in one place for three or four days to do some fi lming, or an interview, but then we were back on the move”. It is this fi lming, along with books written about the treks that provide Alex and Sonia with an income, but it is does not fund the journey. “We did not want to steal the bread out of people’s mouths, or to be a burden.” Alex explains, “Of course we are fully aware of being western, white people and not to abuse people’s poverty. The only way the relationship could be reversed – rich vs. poor, black vs. white, European vs. African – was to be poor with the poor. We didn’t ask for anything. If people came to us and said “please be my guest” we wouldn’t say “no”. Alex recalls one particular occasion.
“We offered to pay back services or hospitals and it was taken as an offence. In Zimbabwe there was a man, Patrick, who was in absolute turmoil. He had a bag of seed and was waiting for rain. He had lost his wife, his child, his cattle, his life and here we are walking past his door and he said “Please come in, it’s too hot for you outside, be my guest.” So we shared stories, him asking us if we were scared. We said we don’t mind,
we would just go forward and see what happens. He fed us and lets us have a nap in his home and we hit the road again. His salary as a policeman was $30 per month, but he hadn’t been paid for six months. I took a $10 bill from my pocket to compensate in some way for the food and he refused it. “You’ve been my guests and we’ve shared our lives, you’ll need that as you go on – go on, go!” It’s a lesson of hope in terrible situations.” “We were always the fi rst to
take it with you!” We started to hide sugar in the houses that we stayed in before we left, and then ten minutes later, when we were on our way, she would be running after us shouting “Wait!! Take your sugar! You forgot it!” They were heart-breakingly generous.” The daily experiences that Alex and Sonia became a part of were in his own words “the happiest time of our lives”. Thanking this writer, for simply having the chance to recall some of the stories is enough to excite Alex, although one suspects the idyllic French countryside certainly helps. “Every day we were walking was a daily miracle. Afterwards, when we re-read the book, we thought that’s not possible, that’s not true, that didn’t happen. What have I invented!? Now I look at it as a permanent wonder that walking brings.” Wonders aside, such an
arduous journey can’t all be amazing. There must have been occasions when pulling the plug and heading home became
be invited in, we never asked for anything. We were thanked for everything – thank you for being our guest, for eating our food, thank you for sleeping on our fl oor, thank you for not being afraid of us. Their perception of foreign white people was that they were dangerous and violent, and we weren’t the same. “They had corn and wheat, but
never tea, cooking oil or sugar, so we carried sugar. Most of the time the mother of the house would say “no,
incredibly appealing. “We never thought of stopping.” Really? Not once? “Well, only when we were dying of malaria, perhaps.” Which is as good a reason as any. “We were in a Roman Catholic mission and the nuns was taking good care of us. It did reach a point when I thought, we will have to go home and pick up where we left off, but by the time we could have arranged to leave, we were cured. So we carried on.” And just like that the journey continued, but the mind-set
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