The Idea

Yesterday, I was at this Congolese restaurant where they play salsa and Latin music every week, and I met so many great people that I could no longer resist the idea of writing about my "new normal," now that I've migrated from Germany to Congo.

And here I am, writing my first post after a night of good music, interesting people, meaningful conversations, and a torrential downpour.

Be my guest in joining me on a journey to break stereotypes, better understand the "others", face culture shock, and feel at home together.

Let's go on an adventure.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Night

It was my first night out after two years of pregnancy, breastfeeding, and the baby phase. I even got butterflies in my stomach since I had been out of social life for as long as I could remember. I had discovered this place during my last trip to Congo in 2023, so I had an idea of what to expect. What I didn’t know, however, was that I would return home with an immense need to write about my daily life, the people of Congo, their culture, habits and idiosyncrasies. But also about how many similarities I found between the two countries where I feel rooted: Cuba and Congo. The night started with me meeting up with a friend of mine, who is a local and loves salsa more than me (which is not that difficult, since I am not exactly a salsa lover). She introduced me to a friend of hers, who turn out to know my niece, my French teacher and the only German guy I know in all of Brazzaville. What a small world!, I thought. I ordered a cider -not my first alcoholic drink since finishing breas...
Read more

The Flight

Image
And then April 4th, 2025 arrives -Día de los Niños in Cuba (Children's Day). Couldn't have picked a better day, right? We had booked the tickets in July 2024, nine months earlier. A one-way flight. At 4:00 in the morning, we were heading to the airport with six large suitcases, four carry-ons, two backpacks, and a trolley. All of them overweight, of course -true African style. After a one-and-a-half-hour delay in Düsseldorf, we thought we were going to miss our main flight to Brazzaville. We were literally running through the airport in Paris to reach our gate, and made it just in time, at the last call. What luck! And then the Boeing took off, and we finally let ourselves relax. We enjoyed eight hours of doing absolutely nothing. Something we hadn’t done in ages. The adventure had just begun. After nearly 14 years living in Germany, it was time to say goodbye. Thank you for everything, Düsseldorf!
Read more