My Nomadic Life
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| Sunrise on my first morning back in Ethiopia. |
You also don’t have a history attached to a place, but rather to places and the journey in between. Your family tree is a myriad of blood relatives and those you choose—a tree represented by many grafts into the central unit and pruning to make way for life’s twists and turns.
It isn’t easy.
My personal journey of being a nomad looks more like a dual-citizenship than a true sojourner passing through many parts of the world. I currently cannot drop everything and leave to a different country for any period of time beyond a few weeks, and if I did it would be for travel reasons regarding my current life in Ethiopia, where I reside up to two years at a time. Such is my nomadic life: a pattern of a minimum of 18 months abroad in Ethiopia, then a respite of at least two months in the USA.
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| Life as seen from my living room. |
A nomad struggles with knowing life is short and the average struggle to the top is a vain contest. Does he want stability? Does she imagine a home that become the grandchildren’s home? Does he want to amass riches and live comfortably? Of course. But there is a cold realization that haunts those dreams: by the time all that comes to fruition, old age will set in and the life fantasized will become the life faded away.
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| Me, enjoying a day at the pool. |
My nomadic life is in its early stages. Traveling the world is a goal of mine; the cultures of all the different countries fascinate my soul. However, I have certain responsibilities in Ethiopia which keep me in a sort of limbo going back and forth between the United States and Ethiopia. Future entries will elaborate on these responsibilities, and none of which I would ever change. I’m content setting up temporary roots in a second country where I can always return in the future if I need a layover stop between journeys.
Like a nomad, I like new experiences, new scenery, new people. Things that stay the same for any period of time bore me; I feel trapped in certain lifestyles, in certain mental states, in certain interactions. Living a nine-to-five job or living to work or having a separate work life all fail to allure me. Working to afford a place merely to sleep in aggravates me. Devoting my life to work instead of life appalls me. I’m not anti-work, but there is far more to life than just a job, but I fail to experience that while I’m in the States.
As much as Ethiopia has become a second home to me, I found myself burning out when I was on the fringes of my visa expiring the last time I was in Ethiopia a few months ago. I needed a break from the day-to-day life that had become my own life in Ethiopia. I needed to rearrange my living room, so to speak, and get a fresh look at life. Stay tuned to pick my brain on when home feels like hell, whether that home is Ethiopia or America. What builds up to major annoyance in Ethiopia becomes a breath of fondness after being away for a period of time; the same hold trues on the reverse when I visit America on my visa furloughs.
Therefore, it is a mentality which drives the nomadic life. Perhaps it is a reflection of a desire to be in control for me, and this is one of the only ways I can maintain control of my life--by choosing where to live and for how long at a time. Perhaps it is simply my way of making a life for myself, a life where I can challenge familiarity and inhale a breath of respite from any monotony that I create for myself.
Other entries within this blog will bring tales of what the nomadic life is like in all its intricacies, namely what it is like living in Ethiopia. I’ve always wanted to portray a better picture of Ethiopia, as many times I am met with many uninformed preconceptions on what life really is like in this beautiful country. To preface all future posts: Ethiopia is a land filled with love, beauty, and humanity--even if there are financial, economic, or even ethnic problems. Furthermore, every story is different and every situation sheds a different light on the whole. People I’ve spoken to seem to only recall a “penny a day” type of campaigns for Ethiopia; often overlooked is the fact that Ethiopia contains far more than just poverty--she contains gorgeous landscapes, hospitable humans, breathtaking conversations, and a lively culture of dance, music, coffee, and art.
Whether you are nomadic by nature, my advice to everyone is to travel. It doesn’t have to be to Ethiopia; it doesn’t even have to be overseas. If you live in the United States, visit Canada or Mexico and have a cafe conversation. If you don’t have the finances to travel outside of the States, travel to the opposite side of the country in either direction: East Coast to West Coast or Southern US to Northern US. Seeing the world through the eyes of a person outside of your immediate circle of influence is a vital asset in a world where different ideologies and different cultures are seen from afar at any time of day. Before we say a certain clothing style or a certain way to cook is wrong or inefficient, try out that culinary difference or have a conversation with someone who dresses differently.
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| Kuriftu Lake in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. |
Where do I see myself in 5 years? Probably on the cusp of leaving Ethiopia, but still a ways from returning for good to the States. My wanderlusting nomad of a soul yearns to continue traveling. I have my eyes on Asia, particularly China or maybe even the Philippines. I want to fly into China and then take ground transport to surrounding countries.
Stay tuned for more tales from Africa and how this nomad wannabe is journeying through life one day at a time, even if he is in one country for a day and in a different continent the next. See how I put food on the table and how I’ve handled eating cuisine foreign to the usual American palette (Spoiler Alert: I’ve eaten goat stomach among other delicacies). See how culture shock sets in at various times during my stay in either country and the things I do to decompress.
After all, I have problems just like you, I just experience my crises in new and different places (metaphorically and physically) all the time. I am a nomad and this is my story.
-Kevin the Nomad Wannabe
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