Much we have been told and just as we read about Africa before leaving for the first time.
On one side of the table, who served us plates filled with anxiety and fear: the most dangerous malaria, carried by a special mosquito who spends his life looking for the wazungu (white men, ed) arriving for the first time on the African continent, for which is absolutely necessary stuffing of pastiglioni for the duration of the trip and over despite the coverage is not 100%.
The terrorists of Al-Shabaab, which diligently await you at the gate as you try to figure out what's inside the Kenyan Samosa sipping your coffee you hoped was a Lavazza espresso, despite the statistics say that the odds of being in the middle of a attack are 1: 25m (being hit by lightning 1: 817mila ..): virtually find themselves in Africa during a thunderstorm is certain death.
"There the black is you, open your eyes and not go out too much, especially at night"; required to program a local escort trusted that accompanies you on the beach from 11 to 17, clearly lunching and dining in restaurants and well-known tourist resort where you will not steal the wallet hard, if not with an account equal to a month of lunches and dinners Simba. I am not to add various side dishes with themed dangerous animals, killer dysentery, fever of all colors, the pager connected to the emergency unit of the Foreign Ministry and the beach boys that captivate and seduce defenseless damsels with magic potions coconut. On the opposite side of the table, who we rose again this sweet dishes serving us depression, elencandoci all the beauties of the place, cuddling and giving us peace of mind and serenity with daily anecdotes worthy of a best seller: pristine beaches (if not the beach boys), delicious food , high quality of life (more 'for us mzungu), friendly and hospitable locals, high level of security, idyllic landscapes .. Finally a glimmer of light had reached our eyes, making us think that ... maybe we had made the right choice. Meanwhile, to dress the sweet and the savory dishes, the relentless media, ruthless mercenaries of information / misinformation, passed by portraying Kenya as a country at risk and as a paradise on alternate days favoring the weather. Well, whatever happens will be a success .. We were the first time in December 2015, due to a bad hardly curable which you work (in our reality of the world ..), a second time over a year later, in January 2017 this time even touching the island of Lamu, where we flirted madness and unconsciousness according hooligans of misinformation.
After twice the African continent, we started to understand what "our Africa".
Ours, and why did then?
Africa is not ours, everyone has his own Africa, paint with different colors and shades depending on how you have lived; He lived, Africa does not feel like a good song with closed eyes dancing barefoot and intoxicated emotion that gives us at every moment.
Africa can 'be the medicine that cures all ills (a bit' like Dr. Rafiki Malindi ..) or imprisonment of those who are afraid of their own fears, of those who persist in wanting to bring along heavy luggage that his part of the civilized world (on this word, I would de doubts ...) the "gently" foisted on the back. In Kenya, she says a close friend who lives in Malindi for years, everything goes pole pole but one thing is always accelerated: the karma..e this is really scary to those who, with it, a belligerent relationship. Here soon discover the person that lives inside you, the real one, the one without clothes as children of the bush; you rake, remove the masks that like it or not you wear every day the same "civilized" world that hardly you leave behind.
He remains "only" a man.
Even this fragility to someone scares. For someone else instead, is pure light.
It evens out and slams you in the face the proof that we are all "Ndugu" (brothers) sitting on the same "dhow" (boat), rowing for the same goal: a life of dignity.
Often there are privileged places and unfortunate places, some rows of more 'and who less but ... if the boat sinks, we sink all.
Although more and for a short time, thanks to the patience and friendship (which I would call more true brotherhood, family ..) of the couple of our friends Italo-malindini, we visited part of Kenya with the eyes and heart of a traveler and not a tourist.
We lived the crowded and busy streets of Nairobi, Mombasa and Malindi where we Italians have taught him well the use of the horn, felt under the feet of the sand beaches of Watamu, Che Shale, Papa Remo and many other, shed a few tears in ' cross the bush or the Tsavo road chased by "gangs" of children "hello candy", tasted the true swahili cuisine in various local restaurants like Simba Dishes that exudes reality and not fiction, shared a great tamarind juice in some remote little bar on the main road and enjoyed a Tusker at sunset sailing; we interacted with people, asked and answered, given and received. We were given the food a couple of times, with the value it has in this country.
We learned so much and much we still want to learn.
This is travel.
"There is no man more 'complete with the one who has traveled, which has changed twenty times the shape of his thinking and his life" (Alphonse de Lamartine).
We were "attacked" by the smiles of the "mama" that split the coral from morning to night, "surrounded" by "watoto" (children) who do not miss an opportunity to say hello and ask you often caramella..o if they are in silently watching you because they think you do not want a return to us soon loro..ma children with two bars and two faces; we were "robbed" from "nyanya" (grandmothers) who have charged the price of the mango as much as 10 shillings, tortured by all "jambo and karibu" of the people we passed we walked everywhere, where a smile is always been reciprocated by equally. If it means "dangerous", bene..ci feel less safe in the progress of the world in which we still live, where perhaps the perception of danger is different because masked and given to us with information from which the pill Let us listen. No longer needed 'to think for themselves, we have those who think for us. But no, we feel in danger because we do not see a future that is not one already programmed indebitandoci a lifetime to have a roof over your head and working from morning to night to earn more '(but also spend more' ..) only to pull off the head from the water and maybe afford a nice car or a nice watch and maybe see each other a couple of hours in the evening if you are not nervous for the day. This is what 'we really scary.
"What surprises me is that men lose health to make money and then lose their money to regain health. They think much about the future that they forget to live the present in such manner that they can not live neither the present nor the future. They live as if they should never die, and die as if they had never lived. "(Dalai Lama)
The rich man is who has time to enjoy family and enjoy what life has to offer, hakuna matata. And then, let us dream to come back soon, maybe more 'tempo..nella, even a little' our, Africa. Still almost a year to the next round in Kenya, so close and so far away, so that we can take off the clothes again and take another trip within ourselves.
As sings Michele Zarrillo, "you do not know what a pain to dream for those who can never."
Kwaheri Kenya, ninakukosa