African Markets Pulsate with Life (Used with permission.)

Africa has a way of capturing souls. Years ago, I lived in Morocco, in North Africa. The food, the carpets, and landscape enthralled me. Then came Burkina Faso. Sub-Saharan Africa. Hot. Dry. Dusty. Mysterious. And seductive. The two years I lived there, in the capital of Ouagadougou, the name an opening into a world completely unlike anything I’d ever seen. Or even dreamed of.

Although the years I spent in Africa seemed at the time minimal, fleeting, and inconsequential, a bridge to a more exciting future, I know now that a spirit there burrowed into my soul. My heart beats faster, stronger, and happier when I think of Africa.

© 2008 C. Bertelsen