REBUILDING LINKS TO MOTHER AFRICA

REMEMBERING WHAT IT IS TO SHARE RECIPROCALLY! Post No.10/IN (A 12 minute read)  

Oh, how I miss sharing reciprocally! I think the greatest need that I have in my life is to share reciprocally in some way with someone. I have always longed to meet other people who could FEEL the same way that I do about what was really important in life. A person who could listen in their turn and also wish to reciprocate by continuing to explore the trains of thought that had been set in motion.

Not as the typical pair of ears that tend to become deafened simply by the starting whistle!!! Those little minds that baulk at the thought of trying to stretch their tiny boundaries even one millimetre. So, whilst I had initially been unsure as to whether my friendly advice would be welcome or not, I FELT compelled to offer it to a human being so obviously in strife!

AN EARLY START TODAY!!

Hello readers, welcome to my blog. Today I am reviewing chapter six of my second book titled ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT. The posts relating to this, my second book, can be differentiated by the forward slash accompanied by IN. (Post No.4/IN). The posts related to my first book ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, are all listed on the ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN PAGES, ONE TO FOUR, which can be found in the left-hand panel.

For any who would like to read my first book, check it out on Amazon. Here are the links: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book

I quote myself from this chapter:

For the first time in decades, I found myself talking of my past life with Mr. K and somehow it seemed as though I was learning once more much that I already knew; I had already lived and learned those things. He knew what I spoke of and at last CONVERSATION was mine! Real two-way reciprocal conversation and the time became irrelevant!

Mr. K was as overjoyed as I was! It FELT so good to him to meet and communicate with a human being at last! He had been out of Africa for a year and three months and had not as yet, met one!! It FELT identical to me! At last I had met a fellow human being like myself!

A communicative, caring, considerate, honest person, who could instantly recognize me as one and the same, in spite of my invisibility cloak!! I enjoyed slipping off my invisibility cloak and taking the gag off my mouth, although the facial masks had to stay on, of course!

With each new meeting we picked up where we left off and continued to learn more about each other and our respective lives as we shared more of our thoughts and FEELINGS with each other. We became each other´s confidante, each other´s breath of fresh air amidst the stifling struggle of that first lean COVID-19 summer of 2020!

I was able to be me again, no taboos, no protecting of male ego´s, just me and I had met a person who thought that I was, as I am, a thoroughly good and righteous person! Which was eactly what I found in him. It was so easy to talk with no European taboos to block our path! End of quote.

A very firm and close relationship became the result of these long conversations and as I outlined in Post No.26 of my ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN review, entitled A CHANCE MEETING HELPS ME FIND MY PATH ANEW, published 11/12/2022, I tell the story in its correct moment in time within my first book writing. Here is the link to that post for you: A Chance Meeting Helps Me Find My Path Anew

I will not re-tell the whole story again here but the long and the short of it was, that Mr. K just had to get out of Spain and back home. There were so many setbacks that we both feared that he would never be able to get away. The spread of COVID-19 was by then so great, that travel restrictions had been introduced but the closure of air spaces to certain nations, was now seriously challenging where a person could travel to and from where and under what conditions.

It was plan D that did see him finally get up in the air and away from what had been a disastrous situation for him. I was able to help this wonderful human being in distress and I will never regret the time spent in doing so. I quote myself again from this chapter:

Oh, yes! He could see my reasoning! He could follow my trains of thought but what he could not understand at all, was why my partner did not have any interest in me and what I had to say. "I would be proud to walk hand-in-hand with you anywhere in the world!" he said. "I am proud to be your friend, I am!"

"Your partner must be mad! He could learn so much from you!" he would say. He showed me so much emotional support and I said to him, "If I ever manage to finish my book, get it all typed up and eventually published, YOU will have the very first copy!" End of quote.

And while it was some long time before I did actually finish writing my first book and getting it all typed up and published, there was then a further spell of some long time before I had an address to send that first book to. But I did send him the very first copy of my book, just as I said I would. It took such a long time to reach him, that I feared it had gone astray somewhere.

"Oh, no!" he said when we spoke by phone, "This is usual! I have sent things from Spain to my family and they can take six weeks, eight weeks, ten weeks, twelve weeks but they do arrive! That is Africa my friend and you know it well!" Some six weeks later, on receiving at long last his copy of my book, he phoned me to acknowledge receipt of it and his thanks to me were so profuse.

What a contrast to my nearest and dearest! I quote myself again from this chapter:

I had already realized that I was op-pressed and sup-pressed rather than de-pressed. I still could not quite believe that WE, the supposedly more advanced nations of the world, were prepared to allow so much avoidable death. Were there any human qualities left in humanoids or has everyone gone over to man-kind´s way of thinking? Life is cheap; far too cheap! It weighs my heart down as it does my conscience!

These are my people, have they changed? Not really! NO, they have never been capable of caring for any other than their own. By re-establishing a close link with Mother Africa via one of her modern sons, I was so aware of the differences between THEM and US!!

I left my people and my nation to search for human beings because I could already see that they were in very short supply in my nation. By contrast, I found them everywhere I went on the African continent. Mr. K had come out of Africa seeking his fortune. That he did not find but he did find a true friend and so did I!

I knew I would miss our conversations, we had learnt so much about each other. I had been able to share so much with him because he was interested in me and I in him. We gave each other our time and understanding and maybe that which had an even greater value, such was the need of both of us at that moment in time, emotional support!! You are not on your own!! End of quote.

Yes, I did notice the void after he had left, I really did. I was comforted to know that he was safely back home with his family which was where he needed to be. His mother passed away not many weeks after his return and I was so grateful that he had been able to be by her side, when her need was so great.

We keep in touch but as yet, I have no opinion regarding my book. Time is what it is and I know that most of the daylight hours are given to finding the means to survive into the next dawn. Electrical shortages and breakdowns in networks, sees many nights with no light either. No, I shall not be pushing him for his views quite yet!!

But it was after he left that I really began to FEEL unhappier than I had rarely ever been. Chapter twenty-two of my first book was titled IN SEARCH OF EARRINGS and that is where I picked up my writing after he had gone. I decided to go back to Africa and write it all down. Here come my memoires!

"I will put this jaded brain of mine to the test. What is my memory like? Can I find my way back to the me that I used to be? She who used to hold her head high and be full of confidence? Where had she got lost?" Starting at the beginning seemed a logical place to begin, oddly enough!! I emptied out my kaleidoscopic memory store and began to shuffle the pieces around!

When you have such happy memories as I have, the recognition of so many pieces is instantaneous. What is more, is that those pieces also remind you which pieces should be surrounding them! Then the trail starts for good! My greatest issue was the chronology actually. I did literally have to count on my fingers to work out what age I was in that year! Was that the year that I turned 20 or 21?

And actually I did slip up!! Yes, I did! Even as I was writing I had a niggle going on! I could have gone back and edited my book but even as that thought crossed my mind, it triggered off a flash of light and my inner eye saw it! Momentarily I could see back five thousand years and suddenly I understood the word HISTORY.

HIS-STORY, yes! It was never OUR-STORY was it? No, the story was not about US was it? No, it was all about HIM and HIS, hence all that has been written by man-kind is no more than a series of edited writings of the exploits of every HIS who has achieved wealth and or, rank possessing!! HE would doctor (edit), all of HIS-STORIES to make them read just the way he wanted them read!

HE set about teaching others and awarding them DOCTORATES. Professional doctors! The surgeons of HIS-STORY. Many nips and tucks there, you can be sure!! Oh, no! I was not about to copy HIS example. HE would like us all to believe in HIS perfection, though if HE were so perfect, why can he not leave the crucial facts for us all to browse??

No, I am not perfect folks, nor do I consider perfection as such. So, I left my blunder, which is not more than the difference between being on one side of the bar or the other!!! And a year earlier than stated! But I correct myself in the next chapter, though humourously enough, the error occurred in the chapter titled `STRUCTURED RAMBLINGS´ of my first book!

Thank you readers for looking my way. I have been joined by viewers from Vietnam, USA, Germany and Switzerland this week. I hope that you will come back another time. I would love to hear any thoughts or comments that you may like to share with regards to my trains of thought. There is a space below the post or you can send me your e-mail address via my contact box.

Happy learning!! My second book is now on sale (26/08/2023), these are the links: ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT e-book and ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT Paperback

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