If you don’t live in the U.S. you might have noticed that our American friends are celebrating Independance Day. Even though the situation doesn’t really call for a big celebration, depending on the state, I wish you all a great day, and may your country live much better days very very soon!
For me, July 4th has a very different signification.
Twenty six years ago, I was flying to Montréal with my parents and my little brother. It was the last trip from Conakry (with a short stop in Europe) for all four of us. A very emotional trip home. Definately the turning point defining a before and after Africa timeline for us.
Spending five of my young teenage years in Guinea was life changing to say the least. It showed me that we don’t need half of the comfort we have, in North America. It also taught me, amongst other things, how little liberty children really have in our Canadian society.
We lived without technology. No cable tv, no radio. No link with the rest of the world, other than by mail, and a letter took two weeks to get delivered. But everyday was an adventure. We appreciated what little we had, and used our imagination to make up for what we lacked.
I wouldn’t say these were the best days of my life, it would mean that everything else I did after paled in comparison… But my five years in Guinea sure were enriching, and it made us four better people in general. I’m sure about that.
I am grateful that Dad took the chance to accept this contract. I bet it was really scary to decide to take two children so far away from home, not knowing much about the destination. But my parents took that bet, and I’ll never thank them enough for it.
And twenty six years ago, everything we knew there, became golden memories.
Cyranny's Cove 
A great set of memories. You were lucky!
Sent from my iPad
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Stepping out of our comfort zone can be an enriching experience, provided we are open to learn and enjoy
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❤ Sounds like an amazing experience and one you will always treasure!
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We do miss on life enrichment in todays times. Nice memories
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I am much older than you and know days like you had in your younger years. It is sad that kids today don’t but, good or bad, they are growing up in a different time. I am not sure why you think USA’s Independence Day “doesn’t really call for a big celebration, depending on the state.” Even though our country is divided at this time I think we pretty much agree across the country that we are happy with our indepence from Great Britain and have reason to celebrate.
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Oh, Judy, I didn’t mean that July 4th wasn’t worth celebrating this year… Just that gathering to celebrate it all together, like we’re used to see on tv, didn’t seem like a great idea, because of covid-19. We had Canada Day and Québec’s National Day last week and the week before that, and although we were all in the mood to celebrate, outdoor shows were all cancelled and replaced by a tv presentation.
I truly hope that we’ll all get the chance to party all we want next year, both North and South of the border… And sorry if I gave you a wrong impression 😉
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No worries, glad to hear. I hope so too and truly hope we can celebrate the defeat of Trump in November. BTW there was still a lot of celebrating last night, which shows we aren’t coming out of this any time soon.
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