The vision I had imagined

I'm not sure about other people but ever since I was a kid I imagined how things would look before I actually went there and saw it. It started with my friend's houses as a kid. How it would look, how many rooms, was there a pool?

Then there were other things like new schools (college!), theme parks, vacations, new houses we would make into homes. The more I moved the more I imagined other places that I thought I might like. And heck, with this habit of mine of imagining places before going there, why not imagine the best? (Imagining something terrible doesn't really get me jazzed about going there).

But that often left me slightly disappointed... The actual place and reality being slightly below par of my imagination. And yes, many people have told me to stop doing this but I can't help it! 

Before I moved to Madagascar I imagined rainforests and interesting animals and true "African living" (I still have never seen the Madagascar movies, so they didn't contribute to my imagination). 

I imagined and envisioned this beautiful and delicate environment. Where it was so authentic and real and undisturbed by "luxuries" and big buildings and concrete streets. So, the opposite of what I experienced in the US and how I was raised.

Madagascar is the first place that I have been in my entire life that has stopped me in my tracks, as I'm biking down a dirt road with trees hanging over me and made me think, this is very similar to what I had envisioned it to be. Not to say that every where else was garbage compared to my imagination but I was pretty surprised how well "imagined Madagascar" leveled up to actual Madagascar.

I was quietly biking along on a terrible dirt road, still untouched by man and his concrete. I came along women wearing brightly colored cloth with baskets on their heads and babies on their backs.

With coconut trees and other foliage in the background as omby effortlessly graze. With the river on my right, handmade canoes float past me with a friendly wave from the people inside. 

It was quiet other than birds chirping. 

(*sidenote so that I don't come off as completely oblivious and overly optimistic, I will say that not every road in Mada is dirt and quiet. Not everywhere is rainforest and interesting creatures.)

Coming here two years ago was an easy decision. Staying here for two years was a little bit harder, but I truly do love this country. I won the Peace Corps lottery by being assigned here. (Shout out -Happy Peace Corps week!!!) With all it's flaws, it's gorgeous and even though I'm leaving it soon I know I will come back one day. Because being on an empty road in complete silence in a foreign country made me feel at ease. I felt comfort. I felt a warmth for this country. I felt beauty. I felt like crying. 

"Such a moment does not require less but rather more imagination. For to imagine is not simply to see what does not yet exist or what one wants to exist. It is also a profound act of creativity to see what is." 

I wrote this blog on my phone so, pictures to come soon!