Chasing the Moon

I’m not scared of having nothing, nor am I afraid of having everything: it’s the in-between that harrows me. When you have nothing, you’re more appreciative of the beauty of everywhere. It’s when you have things you spend your life wanting more. That’s the definition of poor: spending your life chasing commodities to feel fulfilled.

Having ventured out of the lifestyle I wasn’t aware I hated, I find it hard to say the people of Tanzania are poor. It’s difficult to see them live in poverty, but I don’t think anyone could find more peace than in the East of Africa. Joshua, who had been rejected from society due to his albinism, would still give the shirt off his back had we asked and wouldn't fight with his family as we did.

It had taken a car, bus, train, ferry and plane to get us this far and now we intended to fill our days searching for the Big Five in munificent game parks. In every continent of the world, however, sibling rivalry works its way into the everyday.

It’s hard to find a solitary moment when you’re in a place that instils your parents with fear, but I managed to find myself able to wander. In that moment I found it. The immense green which had eluded me, having spent my life surrounded by sky scrapers. The animals that lived in this sensitive eco system were left to their own food chain, untouched by opposable thumbs. An infinite panorama of grass spotted with trees was the key to a perfect sensation of 'amani'. In that moment, this was all I had, and it was plenty. It was everything and nothing in that infinite time which seemed as vast as the uncorrupted horizon.

In Zanzibar, the same peace shadowed me in every angle of the transcendent sun. White sands make the perfect contrast with iridescent waters, illuminating the brilliant creatures, shallow and deep. I was able to shake off the Australian summer stereotypes filled with judgement on the scorching Nungwi Beach. The drowning sky washed away the worry that my porcelain, Irish skin would punish me with the early on-set of wrinkles. Superficiality would keep silent this time, 11614kms away from home

In Africa ,everything extends all the way to the horizon without complications. There is an immenseness that allows a person to feel contented in the simple efficiency of nature. It comes as no surprise that power lines ruined the perfect photograph, but I think everyone is in dire need of escape, to find themselves lost under the immense power of the sky.