No Conclusion

Trip Start Nov 02, 2004
1
8
Trip End Ongoing


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Sunday, April 24, 2005

Well I've been back home now for some time, but since I haven't 'wrapped up' this travel log I've had a few emails from people not (ahem) 'lucky enough' to live in Auckland wondering if I'm dead. Well....as far as I can tell I'm not dead (physically anyway), but the reason I haven't written any conclusion for this African sojourn is that I just haven't really reached one, but for interests sake I'll share with you some smarmy thoughts I set down in my notebook during my last nights stay in Kokrobite, Ghana:

"Last full day in Africa, I'd say now is the time that I'm supposed to hazard a guess as to what all this means. Cynical as I am I'm tempted to say nothing. But really, what have I learnt? Especially about people? The experience itself has become such a part of my blood already that it's hard to seperate what exists now from what was there before. Confusion. I have again felt the complexity & subtle variations of the human beast w/ all its hidden shadows. The flipside of this, of course, is that we are all exactly the same, the same blueprint, we are as predictable as we are complex. But why travel halfway across the world to arrive at such generalisations?

More specifically: Africans - who are they? Again I have difficulty. On this trip I have been asked time and time again about the defining chrarcteristics of the NZ people, but have been unable to clearly identify them. How much less so then, will I be able to identify the defining chrarcteristics of the people of one of the most culturally complex regions of the world w/ only 4 months of simple touristic gawking under my belt & only four countries on my itinery?

Children playing naked on the sand before me. Grey sea. Flabby tourist floating on his back. Fishing boats docked on the shore, looking permanent, resolute, dtermined not to go back to sea. The wind has curved a coconut palm trunk like the beautiful spine of a deep sea creature. Today I say a hermit crab, dead on its back, falling from its doorway, claws outstretched as if struck by sudden catasrophe. Do you know what the part of the crab looks like that stays inside the shell? It's a secret..."
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