My temporary
relocation to West Africa was definitely a culture shock! Not just because of
the completely different way of life, but because personally I was miles apart
from my busy London lifestyle, where I am constantly on the go.
In London I
run my own creative business, where I not only coordinate a number of creative
services, but I am responsible for securing new contracts and managing a number
of employees and sub-contractors. Life can be pretty hectic at times and I
often find myself having lunch on the tube, in-between appointments! That
aside, I absolutely love spending time with my family and friends and I’m
always thinking of new fun things we can do together…
A few weeks
after my wedding in Ghana, it was time to get out of holiday mode. The fun and
games had come to an end. My family and friends who had travelled to Ghana for
my wedding had now gone back to the UK and our honeymoon period was also over.
We now had to get back to reality (well, back to my husband’s reality), so we
went back to Togo (where my husband lives) and he started working again.
As my
husband works for himself, he often spends long hours at his shop, finishing
off orders for people. At times he would leave for work late morning and come
back at 10 or 11pm. It was during this time that I began to feel quite lonely.
My husband had his work to keep him busy during the day, but I no longer had my
business to run around for. Although I was still coordinating my UK based business
from here, I had friends and relatives in London helping me out and I would
often only have to go online to check everything was running smoothly. This
meant that within a few hours my “working day” was over. I would then spend
time cleaning and doing my household duties, but they only took up a certain
amount of time too. By 5pm I would find myself sitting in my room watching
French TV, waiting for my husband to come home from work…
On Saturdays,
my husband would try to finish work early and we’d spend quality time together
in the evenings, but on Sundays after church he often wanted to go out with his
friends. When I accompanied him I would feel silly sitting there whilst they
all joked in their local language (which I could not understand a word of at
the time). However, when I chose not to accompany him I would feel slightly
bitter inside that he’d gone out with his friends and left me at home, knowing
I had no friends of my own to go out with. It was in these moments that I realised I had changed. I found myself being needy – I had never been like that
in my entire life!
I had always
prided myself on being a very independent individual. I liked doing things
alone and enjoyed my own company, but now here I was feeling lonely and needy.
I felt like a desperate housewife and I hated it. I needed to do something to
change…
To be continued…
To be continued…
