Tag Archives: アフリカ

Learning on Diversity from Rainbow Country Mauritius

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Oh, you lived in a resort country!

That was the typical misunderstanding I kept hearing when I said I lived in Mauritania since 2018, as many people thought it was MAURItius, a country also known as “rainbow country” for its diversity.

And after years of this MAURI*** dichotomy in mind, I finally visited Mauritius, which was truly amazing. “God created Mauritius first, and then created heaven in imitation of Mauritius” as Mark Twain, author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, put it, Mauritius is full of charm. It was not only nice resort, but it also lived with diversity which I believe is a key to the better world to embrace the difference (without that, we might keep having wars and conflicts).

In this post, I would like to share some of the tastes of Mauritius through online info and what I experienced (not available online and several highlight collage photos!), hoping this can contribute to promoting Mauritius and diversity.

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5 Big Lessons Learned by Living in West and East Africa

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Jambo! mambo! Waka waka! hakuna matata!

You might have heard one of the above. I was quite naive to have had a typical image of Africa before my arrival, and after having lived in the West and East Africa for 2+ years, I am confident to say this:

Africa is big and diverse!

Just like any learning, the more I knew about a tiny part of Africa, the more I realized that Africa is too big, diverse and complex to generalize, and I believe everyone has their own “My Africa”. So acknowledging that I can by no means speak for whole Africa, let me share some learnings from my Africa.

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Kenya 3 ー 5 things I learned from going out on the street 6 times during COVID-19 pandemic

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It’s been almost 2 months since I started tele-working in Nairobi, Kenya where there is a curfew between 7pm-5am (semi-lockdown). During this time, I had to go out on the street.

Honestly I didn’t want to, but I had to. So I did it, not once but six days in a row.

As not many people (even residences in Nariobi, let alone people outside Africa) can see what is going on on the street of Narirobi, let me share my experience and learning in this entry.

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Kenya 1 ー 7 learnings from another life turning point in Africa

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Life is full of new encounter and departure, be it with people, items, jobs or places to live.

The reason I said good-bye to Mauritania (Nouakchott) was to say Hello to the new destination, Kenya (Nairobi). This is quite a big move, mentally (change of my work) and physically (west to east of this big African continent).

Since then, more than a month has passed and I already learned some important life lessons, which I would like to share hoping they can be informative and applicable to other situation.

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What to do in Tunisia – country of revolution – within short time

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In April and May, my parents and friends in Japan talked about beautiful spring ー cherry blossom, good weather and foods and new starts (in Japan, school and fiscal year starts in April). At the same time, far away in Africa, I was in a Tunisia, the country well-known for different kind of SpringーArab Spring.

In 2011, it changed some Arabic nations and showed the power of people’s will. For those who are not familiar with Arab Spring, it is a series of anti-government protests movements that began in Tunisia and spread across the Middle East since late 2010 (Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, etc.).

I happened to see this country’s name for the first time through New York Times when I was brushing up my English skill to enter the graduate school 9 years ago. And this time, I had a chance to visit there, just for 1 night 2 days. Despite such a short time, I could see some snapshots of this country, which i would like to share, as Tunis seems to be a nice country to visit (many people also visit there as a hub before traveling somewhere else) but not much information is available.

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Arigato Natto ２ーHow to Make Natto Sustainablly Even in Africa

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It is faire to say everyone wants to be happy, and each one of us tries to achieve something for that (e.g. lose 20kg, get married, have a nice job, etc.). However, the more your objectives are sustainable, the more it will bring value added in general, as the life continues.

That is also why I highlighted the importance of having good habits (continuation) rather than establishing objectives (which have end point) in the previous entry .

More specifically, the other day, I managed to make Natto in Africa for the first time (for the detail, see here). At the moment I tasted it, I felt very happy, just like when you have a good meal. And I wanted to keep feeling that way.

With that in mind, in this entry, I would like to share my experience on how I achieved sustainability with regard to Natto making in Mauritania as well as some learning out of it.

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Mauritania 4ーHow Russian World Cup Empowered Japanese in West Africa

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It’s been 12th year since I left Japan, and the more or less I am used to living in other countries. Having said that, the first 3 months in Mauritania was quite tough (as you can see the detail in the previous blog entries:
Mauritania 1ーLife turning point
Mauritania 2ーRamadan and Life cycle
Mauritania 3ーIs it a private taxi or what

Mauritanie 1, Mauritanie 2, Mauritanie 3 ). Just to show one indicator, within 3 months, I already lost 4 kg and sometimes felt a bit down.

It was the best moment, when worldwide event happened. Ole- Ole- ! Yes, world cup Russia 2018.

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