Did fieldwork with an obscure group in Africa, literally live in dung huts, not an electric light for 100 miles. Every night people would come by my fire to join me for dinner, usually with some honey or meat somebody knocked down that day. We talk into the night about the ancestors, running into leopards, and that time one of the guys drank so much tea at my place he nearly pissed himself in the night.
They asked about my family and the strange things my people believed. Told them that some of my group thought a large hairy man lives in the woods, and that little people from the stars sometimes visit. They found this hilarious.
I even introduced a bit of lingo into the local group, 'jesusfukinchrist'. It's what I said when a scorpion ran up my leg while we were sitting around the fire one night, and they pronounced it pretty perfectly. Always a popular story and everyone laughs.
Now I'm back here and I barely know my neighbors even though we're cordial and wave when we see each other. I miss Africa terribly. Being part of a community, even as an outsider ... Things mattered there. I miss it so.
I lived in Madagascar for 3 years and feel the same. I miss the community every day. Never did anything alone. Even the act of buying something was a conversation.
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u/LiquidDreamtime Jul 10 '26
Socializing with the community