Little by Little

Standing on the beach today, looking out at the unbelievably blue water, I was stunned by just how lucky I am. How incredible it is to find myself in this exact moment, in this wonderful place. It’s easy to feel this way when the sun is shining and my hair is salty and nothing needs to be done.

I’m reading The Gift, a collection of poems by Hafiz, and one stanza stood out to me today:

“Now is the season to know

That everything you do

Is sacred”

I reflected on this and realized how much time I had been wasting, how much time was spent scrolling and waiting for time to pass. I decided to make an effort to be present and to cherish every action in my day. Why shouldn’t I try to make every moment feel as incredible as staring out at the sea?

When I returned to my home stay, I made an effort of being as involved as possible with my host family. I ate dinner with my host sister who is the same age as me, we chatted as we drank tea. My younger host sister came in, and due to the language barrier, we’ve never spoken. To be honest, I haven’t really bothered to try. Today she taught me the Swahili word for nearly everything in the kitchen—knife, grapes, red, chili—and then tested me on it after. We all moved upstairs and talked some more, with Mama joining. They laughed at how little Swahili I know; I laughed when I understood what we were laughing at. Mama said she loved my hair, that it looked like I had colored it, I said, “...because I did.” She was shocked that my highlights weren’t natural, so at least I fooled one person. I was exhausted from spending the day in the sun (and also very red from the endeavor) so I said goodnight and went to my room. Not five minutes later I hear, “Sami! Sami!” My sister and Mama gave me anklets from Zanzibar, saying I should wear one on each foot. They said they’ll take me to the market to buy a house dress soon.

Since I wrote this at the beginning of the week, my Mama taught me how to cook pilau, which is a mix of rice and potatoes and meat with spices like cloves and cinnamon, and sambusas, which are deep fried triangles with meat and veggies inside. I got to visit Chumbe island, which is a Marine Protected Area where they focus on environmental education for local school children and ecotourism for visitors. I’ve spent almost every day on the beach, enjoying it before we head to the mainland next week. We took a boat to see dolphins, (spoiler: we saw none) and I got sea sick for the first time in my life. I sniffed lemon essential oil (which is supposed to help??) and burnt like a lobster for an hour before making it back to land. Last night I had a girl’s night with two of my host sisters where we ate popcorn and watched Shrek. My Swahili is slowly getting better.

“Haba na haba, hujaza kibaba,” little by little, we fill the container.

All my love,

Sami