Preparing for Africa, gathering inspiration and courage

In less than a month I will be leaving for Africa. It will be my first visit to the continent. I am super excited and the more I research the more excited I get. Admittedly, I am also nervous as I have never been anywhere like it. I will be visiting friends in Dakar, Senegal who are currently working there. I’ll then be travelling to Cape Town, South Africa!

I’m going to South Africa alone and will be there for 9 days and will then be going back to Dakar for a final few days to break up the long trip home to Toronto.

Did I have some apprehension going to Europe solo? I sure did, especially thinking of Prague as I had heard stories and was warned while in Austria. I took Prague on and off my itinerary several times. Why did I go? I think it was simply because my passion for travel, new things, cultures, people and adventure far outweighed my fear. As for South Africa and Africa in general, I’ve read and heard about it and yes, have been warned about it. It doesn’t help to hear how potentially unsafe South Africa can be everywhere I look in my research. However, with the appropriate precautions, the same ones I practice at home, I feel confident that I will be fine. After 18 days of travelling solo in Europe, I’m happy to report I did not have one single incident. I think it also helps to walk with confidence.

On Preparing For a Trip:

When I prepare for a trip, I engross myself on the internet. I visit sites like Journeywoman that help prepare and inspire me for solo travel. I read and ask questions in travel forums on lonely planet, trip advisor and virtual tourist, tweet and message people on facebook that have gone before me and read reviews on Trip Advisor. It’s almost like a full time job as I like to research and know where I’m going or figure out where I should go in the first place. I follow a lot of travel related people and sites on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest so I am inundated with it on a daily basis and I love that. I am inspired every single day.

Here are a few of my favourite pins and quotes that I have read a few times since booking my plane ticket to Africa.

Inspiration:

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph
over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear — Nelson Mandela

“Passion is what drives us crazy, what makes us do extraordinary things, to discover, to challenge ourselves. Passion is and should always be the heart of courage.” ? Midori Komatsu

When we are afraid we ought not to occupy ourselves with endeavoring to prove that there is no danger, but in strengthening ourselves to go on in spite of the danger. — Mark Rutherford

From caring comes courage. — Lao Tzu

My Inspiration:

Finally, I’ll share my biggest source of inspiration – my beloved grandmother affectionately called Gran. Gran inspires me with her incredible strength, courage, independence, love, zest for adventure, love of travel and faith.  She left her home in Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) in 1965 as a divorced woman with 2 children, my father and my uncle, with only $88 on her person and without a visa to Canada. She went without knowing what the future held, most certainly with fear, but with her overwhelming courage. She stopped in northern India to work and apply for a visa to Canada, and after much perseverance, determination and hard work, 10 months later she got her visa to Canada.

Every time I’m about to embark on a new adventure and especially when stepping out of my comfort zone, I think of her. My gran had dementia for about 10 years and the last 3-4 years she didn’t know me and couldn’t really talk, but she could always giggle. We have always shared a love of travel together and if you read back to my first post, you’ll learn of the very first flight I recall, it was with my Gran on a trip to California at age 5.

I took the photo below of my Gran in May 2003. She already had dementia, but could still have conversations, was mobile, lived on her own, but was forgetting.

Before my trip to Europe this past March, I visited my Gran and told her of my trip to Europe and my plans. For the first time in a long time, I received eye contact and what felt like some lucidity.

Do you want to go on a trip with me?”

Gran nodded and very clearly said “where?”.

I lost my Gran this past May 2012 and though we can no longer laugh and chat, I know she is with me and giving me all the courage I need.