Wandering about the dry island of Mar Lodj, in the Sine Saloum Delta, in Senegal, I found myself separated from my fellow travelling companions, in a place, some sort of village, that consisted of a few poor houses in the exact middle of nowhere.
While walking around those simple African houses, I came across a beautiful and genuine sigh: a whole family having lunch outside the house, under the shade of a tree. Happily, they called me and asked me to join their delicious meal. However, I refused politely and kept walking with a smile on my face. But, like a small imp, from between the legs of all the family a four-year old girl appeared and when laid eyes upon me, showed a huge, incredible and contagious smile.
She started running towards me, screaming Toubab! Toubab! (white man in Wolof, a Senegalese language) and hugged my leg! Toubab, toubab! she said and the happiness on those huge white eyes was beyond human words can describe.
I raised her to my arms and she was in perfect bliss! She touched my face, my skin, my hair with her hand and I let her do so, for her amazement was genuine. She was so happy to see a white person, so similar, yet so different. She touched my glasses, my clothes, everything with a pure and gentle curiosity only found in children from the countryside.
As I raised her to the sky and took a good look at that African child, the surprise and pure gaze in her eyes, I felt an immense, eternal, unforgettable joy within me. And I felt so far away from everything: home, work, family, friends… I was somewhere in this Earth, in a place where a four year old child was amazed to see me.
In that moment that seemed aeons, suddenly my mind was flooded with memories of past jobs, of old discussions and arguments, lost friendships, tears and suffering, all the bad things I came across since a child. All the cracks on my backs and the calluses in my heart I felt that coming in a powerful stream. But, as I looked at that girl’s face, such memories were just erased by that huge white smile and white eyes, between me and that African December sun.
I had arrived to Africa sad and confused. I had quit a terrible job weeks before and I didn’t see an immediate alternative. Thus, I needed something new, to travel, to see old friends and make new ones, so I could ease my mind. I knew that an empty wallet and unemployment was my future, in my crisis ridden country. But because of that smile, and those two words: Toubab! Toubab! I regretted nothing.
Sometimes, in a darker and more somber day, I close my eyes and remember that child in the middle of nowhere, calling and running towards me. And those unforgettable words: toubab… toubab…
World's Little Stories 