After eleven and a half months in Africa I would have thought that a blog entry about my thoughts and impressions on my trip would seem to be a daunting task because there would be too much to say. Instead I find that it is a daunting task because I have to really think to find anything to say. At the beginning of my trip everything was new and exciting and seemed worthy of reporting. Now, living my life transiently in Africa, moving to a new place every few days, living out of a backpack, seeing new places, and doing new things seems to be the norm.

What seems odd to me now is cold weather, suburbia, and sleeping in the same bed for days and days on end. Amazing is being able to pick up a phone to call my friends for cheap without first having to find a phone, buy a phonecard, and figure out how to use them. Amazing is the amount of clothes I have. I had thought that having five t-shirts was a bit excessive. Now I have at least a dozen and I know that there are piles more clothes waiting for me in San Diego.

How, then can I sum up my trip? Many people want to know, "How was Africa? What was it like?" The short answer is that it was wonderful, but that is a very inadequate answer. The question, of course, is impossible to answer. My trip covered twelve countries (well, eleven -- I don't really think Botswana counts because I was only there for three days), countless cities, about 15 national parks and reserves (not to mention all the unofficial ones), and I slept (or tried to sleep) in 85 different places, not including planes, trains, busses and the Lake Victoria ferry.

Other than wonderful, I would describe my trip as:

Magical There is no better way to describe your first glimpse of wildlife in the African bush or coming face to face with a silverback gorilla on the edge of the jungle on a mist-shrouded volcanic mountain.

Fun Snorkelling, surfing, quad-biking, sand-boarding, micro-lighting, rafting. Need I say more?

Boring No, this is not a typo. I've spent hundreds of hours on busses and looking out the window was not always interesting. There often was no one to talk to and sometimes I had to sit for hours at the bus station just waiting for the busses to leave, never mind however long the journey took. The two weeks in Itete village were also rather boring. It was a very worthwhile experience, but there really was nothing to do there except talk to the locals and study Swahili and you can only do that for so long. (Especially once the locals figure out you are trying to learn Swahili and stop speaking English to you. Then your only option is study Swahili.)

Frustrating Miscommunication (or total lack of communication) was an everyday occurence. Plus, in Africa efficiency is not something that most people value and then there is "Africa Time" where 7 more than likely means 8 or 9 or 10. Additionally, although now now may mean now, just now means later and now may well mean never. This all adds up to a lot of frustration for Westerners who are used to 7 meaning 7 and now meaning now.

The trip was also challenging, rewarding, tiring, and eye-opening. And, although the negatives took much space than the positives, the positives did easily outweigh the negatives. They just don't take much explaining.

One of the best parts of my travels cannot easily be summed up in a word or two. It is the people I met along the way that really made the trip as wonderful as it was. As many times as there were where didn't have anyone to talk to on public transport there were just as many times where I did meet someone who told me about his or her life and wanted to hear all about America. They would often "adopt" me for the ride and make sure I got off at the right place and that no one one would try to rip me off. I was invited into people's homes just to chat, for dinner, and for tea. I would ask a local person for directions and instead of just telling me how to get somewhere they would walk with me until we arrived, even if my destination wasn't particularly close by.

And all that was just the locals. The other travellers were just as wonderful. Whether we met on the road, on a tour, or in a hostel we all had an instant bond. The other travellers I met all had an interesting story, whether they were on the third year of their round the world trip, volunteering on a water project, working for the UN, or studying assassin bugs or anti-retroviral adherence among IDPs (internally displaced persons). It is the other travellers who give you advice and that you talk with in the evenings that keep you sane when you are on your own and moving from place to place to place every few days.

As for Africa itself, it is a very diverse place. It has mountains and valleys, is often stiflingly hot but sometime cold enough for a winter coat. There are people living in huts in the middle of nowhere without electricity or running water and the biggest shopping mall I have ever seen in Capetown. There are urban jungles that look like home and tropical jungles where you can't see very far in front of you.

What Africa is not, is something that can be easily defined. As the oft-quoted Ghanian leader Kwame Nkrumah (after whom many a road is named) said of Africa "We neither look east nor west. We look forward." Africa clearly isn't East and it clearly isn't West. The problem is, nobody seems to know quite what Africa is. It has all the problems of the third world such as poverty and lack of adequate healthcare. They are also quickly developing many of the problems of the first world such as consumerism and economic disparity. Still, most of the locals I spoke with are optimistic about the future. I didn't run into any racist young South African and most of them seemed to think that racism would be a problem of the past within another generation or two. Amazing for a country where apartheid was law just over a decade ago. The Rwandans will tell you that it does not matter if a person is a Hutu or a Tutsi. Uganda is slowly, slowly winning the battle against AIDS and efforts are being made to bring their winning strategies to other African countries. Tanzanians brag that they are a peaceful country that has never had a war. The African people are generally very friendly and tend to uncomplainingly accept what life gives them. Still, Africa is determined to moderize. Their challenge, which is the hope of many I have talked to, is to modernize while remaining African.