one month with you

It’s been one month of having you in my life and it still sometimes doesn’t seem real.

I often think how different life would have been if I still lived in Joburg; still hanging out at my favourite coffee shop with the guys tasting coffee behind the bar, being with friends who i loved and spoke often about my dreams and aspirations, shabbos dinners at my parents with Ed and Matthew and hugs and licks from Harvey underneath the table. Despite it all there was a continuous void that lingered inside me, and for so long I just don’t think I knew what it was or what it meant or represented. The constant chase to be truly ‘happy’ and fulfilled and thinking I was when I really wasn’t, or perhaps only properly realising how unhappy and alone I felt when acknowledging how far down the rabbit hole I actually was.

But, with neither of us knowing it, we are here now, coming from two very different worlds into one new one.

you in your new home.

me, with a new companion.

we’re both learning how to live with each other.

I thought a few months down the line I had filled the void I once experienced in Joburg. I do without a doubt know and feel that I am happy here; so much more content, grateful and at peace, less anxious and stressed; I feel like I am a better version of myself -specially with new friends, new experiences, and finally a work life I appreciate and feel appreciated at. The immense change of environment; the sea air and seaweed smells, mountain trails and South Easterly winds have completely changed my life; but I didn’t know I could feel happier, more content and at peace, grounded and centred, more fulfilled

until

you

came

along

you showed me how I could be even more grateful, and after so much tsores that there was still place in my heart for someone to make it’s way in. Someone as small as you are has taught me so much about life; moving on from hardships, allowing yourself to shift between experiences and people until being settled in a space where you (hopefully and finally) feel at home, to being strong after your trauma and leaving the past behind you, to no longer cowering when your heart skips a beat as you hear skaters on their boards, cars backfiring or crazies screaming and acting foolish around you. You are strong, and you have taught me how to be stronger and conquer fears, fighting off the night terrors with a husky growl and sneaky cuddle.

It has been one month of early morning bathroom breaks on the promenade, obsessing over how small your teeth are, walking for hours and hours across the Atlantic Seaboard, tagging along for iced americanos and many coffee dates, and an endless amount of reassurance of ‘good girl’ and ‘yes Shoshi’ accrediting how amazing you are and how you’re doing better each and every day.

here’s to one month with you,

the sweetest most precious little lady,

my Shoshi

 

International Women (in coffee) Day

Today I’m remembering the amazing women I met last year while in Rwanda and Burundi.

The ladies who are part of a coffee community who are so often neglected and not appreciated. The ones who bear children, look after their homes, cook, clean, go out into the fields and toil for their livelihoods. The ladies who wear brightly coloured kitenge roaming the small villages outside Kigali and ones wearing their igetenge upcountry in Burundi.

The women who early in the morning go out to pick red ripe cherries off their coffee trees. The ones that gently let the cherries slip through their hands into woven baskets before they’re taken to coffee washing stations to be weighed and processed. The ladies who carry their children on their backs, ripe red cherries in bags on their heads while holding up their igetenge’s making their trudge along the roadside look ever so graceful.

Here’s a shout-out to the ladies who sift through coffee parchment while coffee is on drying tables. The ladies who sing together, laugh together, eat lunch together, dance together, create a livelihood together. The ones who look out for each other and form part of their own coffee community.

The women who work hard to bring coffee to us.

I’m honoured to have met these women, I wish one day you could meet them too.

Happy International Women’s Day to the many women in our world wide coffee community.

Female farmers walking in North Burundi

First Sip

I guess this post has been in the works for quite some time. I’m not quite sure where to begin, and I guess this is where the ‘first sip’ comes from. It’s a bit of an overwhelming feeling taking the plunge, me writing, in essence taking that first sip from a piping hot cup. In more ways than one it’s where this journey begins, it’s where most of mine have begun; with a cup of coffee. Follow my journey, one cup at a time..