Post-Pandemic Plans (The 3 Ps)

These days I hear a lot of chatter about how we must adapt to this new way of life. It seems as though people are giving up and accepting this as our reality forever. I am holding onto hope that a vaccine will be found. I am looking forward to a day when we may return to living our real lives.

I would like to discuss what I am going to call the Three Ps: Post-Pandemic Plans. I pray and hope that our lives are not compromised for too much longer. Post pandemic, I would love to travel again. This is both a small and large world. There is more to our lovely planet than the place where we currently reside and work.

I plan to visit South Korea and Japan… no surprise to those who know me personally. I have many deep ties to those nations and have spent a considerable amount of time in each. I also plan to visit London, Paris, and perhaps Berlin. The most important place I plan to visit is West Africa.

Most of my multi-ethnic background can be traced to West Africa. This is a fast-growing region of 400-million people. Although I was born in Canada, my parents came from Jamaica. My ethnic make-up consists of Jewish (Iberian Peninsula), Arab (Syria/Lebanon), and West African (Akan, Igbo, Yoruba, Ewe, Efik).

I would also love to visit Spain and Portugal which exist on the Iberian Peninsula. I would also love to visit Syria once that nation stabilizes.

The West African ancestry in Jamaica is comprised of people from several ethnicities, the largest by far being Akan (Ghana) and Igbo (Nigeria). There are also Mandinka, Yoruba, Kongo, Fon, Ibibio, and others. Jamaican patois is comprised of several Akan and Igbo terms.

I love to watch Nollywood movies and have studied West African culture increasingly over the past few years. While I was in high school, I had studied Arab culture upon discovering that my Great-Grandmother was Arab. This past year I also did some research on Iberian Jewish history since my Grandfather was of Iberian Jewish ancestry.

Nigeria and Ghana have bustling entertainment industries. Both countries produce incredible music and entertaining film. The cuisine of West Africa is truly amazing. Jamaican cuisine has a lot in common with West African.

On my West African trip, I plan to spend time in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Warri Nigeria. I also plan to spend time in Accra, Takoradi, and Kumasi Ghana. Future trips will entail visits to Benin and Togo, two smaller nations situated between Ghana and Nigeria. Eventually I would like to visit all the nations in West Africa including Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Gambia, etc.

It would also be quite interesting to visit Sri Lanka in South Asia. I love their cuisine and have had nothing but positive experiences with Sri Lankan people in Toronto. I once went to a Sri Lankan wedding and was treated very warmly. Our group of eleven from work were the only non-Tamil people in a wedding party of 400 people! The bride is a friend from our office. She has taught me a lot about Sri Lanka and the Tamil people. They have a rich culture dating back thousands of years.

Sri Lanka is a lush, green, and beautiful nation which should be a vacation hot-spot. The tourism industry is growing now that political conflict seems to have subsided and the nation is building up its economy.

Speaking of weddings, I attended a wedding in South Korea where I was the only non-Korean person in the entire building! I had a great time and even posed for a photo on stage with the bride and groom and their friends. They took two photos on stage… one consisting of family members and another consiting of friends. I like to refer to the photo that I am in as my Where’s Waldo photo. I am the only non-Korean amongst of throng of 70 Koreans.

I am writing this while sitting on my balcony listening to Afrobeats from Nigeria, drinking Space Invader IPA beer from Toronto’s own Amsterdam Brewery, and looking at the sky wondering when air travel will pick up again. It really does feel strange not seeing airplanes flying overhead.