Hi everyone 🌸 To those that are not caught up✨ Here’s a little summary in short. I started writing my thoughts on paper recently and it’s been a great way to exercise my creative muscle🤗 So I decided to share some with you all, incase you can relate or just want something real to read. Check out: “My life is not a group project” and “We spend most of our childhood wanting to be adults ” that I shared on here too. Do let me know what you think 😊 Thanks🌻 HERE GOES… On the map, you find us near the bottom. We are placed low because we are the embodiment of bravery, because not only do we carry the African continent on our back, but we are the voices shaped by resilience and hearts formed by unity. From the top it takes a journey to reach us, but the destination is worth it. You will be surprised that before you get to know us, you will be met by empty streets, and you will wonder where we are hiding and question if you have come to a ghost town. You will be greeted by silence and maybe conclude that we are just shy. But by the time you meet one or two of us, you will soon be surrounded by a community, and you will once again be surprised to find out just how loud we are, and you will start to wonder why the whole world doesn’t hear us? And to you I say: welcome to Namibia, the land of the brave — a country like no other. This country is painted with colours of many cultures and when we come together, we create a kind of magic that cannot be found anywhere else. We speak different languages, yet we understand each other through music and our motto: One Namibia, One Nation. We are divided into fourteen regions, we leave home with hopeful dreams, yet we always return — to the north, the south, the east and the west — because our roots cannot be divided. Today we dare to dream because we walk a path crafted for us. Every milestone reminds us that someone sacrificed everything so we could reach it. We move forward not because we are strong alone, but because we are carried by a village. A single mother raising a son. A grandmother raising her grandchildren. A father working at sea. An aunt waking before sunrise to sell tomatoes at the market. They made sacrifices so we could chase opportunities they never had. This country is led by strong women in leadership, reminding us we can enter rooms once never meant for us. Namibia’s first female president was not only a milestone, but proof that we can become the change we wish to see. On Christmas morning our homes are filled with laughter and our hearts feel lighter. Then, on a random Thursday in January, our African mothers wake us at six in the morning shouting why we are still asleep — reminding us that the sun must never rise while we are still in bed. We plan trips to Swakopmund to escape our busy lives and find comfort from the healing nature of the ocean. We travel to see our favourite local boys “Chula Chula” do what they do best, which is win and for some that are not into soccer, they share videos on their WhatsApp status, because peer pressure does unfortunately get the best of us. We go to salons and leave with fresh hairstyles and the latest community gossip. We bond through our love for food and a braai, because you can’t have a gathering in Namibia and not have meat. For 22 years this country has been my home. I’ve seen the beauty and I’ve also seen the dark side. I’ve seen the struggles, but every so often you come across strangers that inspire you and good Samaritans that make someone feel seen and supported. By the time you leave Namibia, you will be able to say, “Mwalalapo”, “Dankie”, “Voetsek”, “Karapo Nawa”, “Penge Ondola”, ‘Moshavi” but most importantly you will be left with an experience of a life time shaped by culture and tradition, and when you leave, you will smile and reflect on you time here and wonder: how does the whole world not hear them when they make the loudest noise? And when people ask, you will simply say, “That is Namibia — the land of the brave, a country like no other.” Oh wait, now you just disclosed our secret!   submitted by   /u/Absolutely_Nobody00 [link]   [comments]