What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

This is exactly what you think it is, another cliche of a title. But wait, there is a catch. You see, sometimes what doesn’t kill you makes you wiser. December was one of those holiday seasons when I got to have a very slow two weeks. I struggled when my life slowed down. It felt odd being so busy, then all of a sudden everything slowed down. 

 To slow down, I worked on my arts and crafts. I made handmade earrings, bracelets, and I made a box from scratch. It was a good me-time that I needed.

Come January, I had a work trip that I needed very much. Traveling to different parts of Tanzania before delving into the busy bee work life. 

It took me falling ill for me to slow down again. My body knew I needed the break, but I cared about my work more. My body chose to say no. I felt like my body was defeating me, but little did I know, my body was telling me to slow down. 

So eventually, I listened. I worked from home, I allowed myself to have afternoon naps. I allowed my cousin to take care of me. I agreed to drink soups and whatever healthy meal I was advised to so that I can feel better. This is when I realized, even though I hated staying home, taking naps in the afternoon, or even eating healthy. I need all that for the next chapter of my life.

My body told me to slow down, because I kept pushing. My body was telling me it’s okay to slow things down, overworking doesn’t mean more happiness, more money or more joy. I am glad I listened to my body and I am now stronger because of it.

What I learned about traveling from my friend

I heard about the Ethiopian flight at Church on Sunday and of course I felt for the those that lost their loved ones, when I got back home around 2 p.m. I remembered Kaka told me he was in Addis Ababa headed to Nairobi. When that memory kicked in I shouted so loud that my sister got scared. I took my phone so fast to look at my chat with Kaka just to make sure he wasn’t on that flight (because we texted a day before the plane crash). I felt a huge relief when I saw his text saying he’ll be leaving Addis on Monday. I can only imagine how those that actually lost their loved ones felt, my condolences to them all. 

As Kaka will be heading to Nairobi, Arusha, Dar and Zanzibar, I wish I was there with him. Our Tanzania adventure holidays involved saving money by staying in non -luxurious hotels (we would search for budget hotels in Tanzania way in advance) and make sure the rest of the cash was used on exploring, enjoy the touristic experiences and eating well. Our travel around TZ taught me a lot of saving skills as a tourist, if I must admit. 

As a tourist one thing to keep an eye on is making sure you eat well yet inexpensive (because you would not want to get sick, nor would you want to go broke half trip). Have enough cash for transportation but also, use the most affordable means of transportation available to you (this way you get the authentic experience of the locals). It's easy to save on accommodation in Tanzania, all you have to do is search for places on online, but also make local friends and find out where they would stay if they were not originally from that specific town. But make sure to keep security as your number one priority regardless of your skin color or nationality, thieves are thieves and anyone is target including the locals.

Enjoy you stay in TZ kaka.

Bisous.