For what did I know?

“And then it’s as if I’ve been struck by lightning. A tall, dark brown, beautiful man lounging on the quayside looking at us, the only white people in this throng, with dark eyes. My God, he’s beautiful, more beautiful than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

This book was amazing. I bought it while on holiday and intended to finish reading it on my plane ride home, but it did not last me that long. Having just spent eight months in Zambia, it was very interesting to read the entirely different experience of a white woman in Africa.

The author falls in love with a Masai warrior while on vacation with her boyfriend in Kenya. Really?! She experiences so many hardships while living in the bush with him as his wife, the least of which was a long bout of malaria. The cultural differences are amazing, beyond what you would even expect. It was extremely clear to me that this relationship was doomed early on. Unfortunately it took the author much longer to come to terms with this fact.

I feel like she went into this experience with almost an air of superiority. I mean, do you really think that you, a white European are going to be able to cope with living a Masai way of life? Don’t even think about trying to make him adapt to yours, because that definitely won’t work. But try she did, and work it didn’t. Eventually she came to terms with the simple fact that she could not adapt to the way of life. Well, she didn’t really try to adapt to their way of life, but whatever.