Finally, after six years in the UK and two months around Asia, I was back on African soil and this time it was for good. No more discussions and debates about whether to go, no more homesick South Africans longing for sunshine, no more disapproving comments about my decision, I had taken the plunge, I had followed by heart and finally I was home!
I remember hanging up my laundry and actually enjoying it. I was outside in the warm sunshine and the sky was a bottomless blue. The saying ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ is so true. So many South Africans, including myself, go far away from home, only to realise what we had all along.
It’s been a wonderful time filled with new beginnings. I have bought my first car, I have worked for the first time in South Africa. I have visited the majestic mountains of the Drakensberg, the untamed bushveld of Mmpumalanga, the vast beaches of the Eastern Cape and the meandering rivers of the Midlands. I have been to my first African wedding, my first Franschoek wine festival and had my first night at a B&B in Soweto.
I’ve accepted that in many respects South Africa is a very complex place with a web of economic and social problems which somedays seem insurmountable. I have also realised that I’m okay with that and I choose to live here despite all the challenges because I know that by being here I am where I belong and I am making a difference to the country and the people I love most. Six years away and one year back home and there is nowhere else I would rather be.
This blog is from Homecoming Revolution, an independent non-profit organisation that encourages and helps South Africans around the world to return home.
