Africa: Week One

The bed shifts and I hear a grunt somewhere behind me. I roll over and see the back of someone I don't expect to be there and for a split second I can't remember where I am - I think I must be dreaming. But then I blink and stretch and a worn leathery voice says "Oh sorry Bokkie, did I wake you?" and I remember; I am Home. 

The thing they never tell about about moving countries is that every memory you have doesn't actually feel real, a lot of the time I feel like every memory I have of this place I called home is just made up from some movie I once watched or some dream I had. It's even more bizarre because it's my childhood memories - and they are so vivid yet so water colored that it's hard to believe they actually happened.
Waking up next to my Ma kind of had the same feeling - here was this woman that I hadn't seen in 10 years. She was still the same yet older, more fragile, more worn around the edges. It was like finally meeting your favorite character from a movie or TV show and realizing they are a real breakable human being. 

The sound of splashing water distracts me and I throw my legs over the edge of the bed and parting the blinds I look out the window - Tez is already in the pool and it's only 8.30am. 

Traveling to a different country for me never feels real. Here is this place where I grew up - I spent 12 years of my life here and somehow it doesn't feel like I'm actually there. I'm constantly stuck in this surreal feeling of being out of my body watching what is happening around me yet at the same time experiencing it first hand. Waking up in my Aunty's house, in this place that was once so familiar, had that effect. 

It was like I'd read the book and imagined it all but now I was watching the movie and although everything seemed familiar, things were different - the colours of the walls where different, and the way the hallways twisted and turned had changed. The people were the same but more defined and aged.

I could feel a slow building twist in my stomach and then a low rumble; with that I threw the covers off wandered down the hallway to breakfast.