Kaya
No matter how far you are from your house,
you will keep going until you get home
– African proverb
When we first went to Singapore I saw Kaya advertised at street cafes.
It’s a sweet, sticky spread, made with with sugar, coconut milk, eggs and pandan. In cafes across Singapore it’s generously splattered over warm toast. And it’s delicious!
I can remember thinking then, but kaya means home, a Zulu word for resting place. I was far from home.
We never felt at home in S. E. Asia
It’s not S.E. Asia’s fault, it just wasn’t South Africa. It wasn’t the Mother City. It wasn’t kaya.
Remember the proverb, ‘The wise traveller leaves his heart at home’? Perhaps my head was ruling my heart for once, and I wasn’t going to allow myself to fall for another place.
Over the years so many people ask you ‘where’s home?’ I remember a conversation with a hair stylist in Essex a few years ago:
Stylist: Do you live round here?
Me: No, Nairobi
Stylist: I’d love to go to Africa. Is that home then?
Me: No, that’s Cape Town
Stylist: Oh, are you South African then?
Me: No, from London
Stylist: So are you going anywhere nice in the summer?
Me: Yeah, Indonesia
Stylist: That’s far! Are you going for a couple of weeks?
Me: No, two years! (became three)
When asked “where’s home” we have had an assortment of answers, some short, some longer, others best told over a bottle of wine. It’s been a meandering journey.
Through moves to Zambia, South Africa, Japan, UK, UAE, Kenya, Indonesia and back to SA we’ve moved ‘home’ 14 times. That’s a lot of cardboard boxes!
The packing and unpacking of your life.
Home is a place that’s familiar, right? Hygge. It should make you feel warm, ‘cosy’ and comfortable. It’s the place that you are always happy to return to.
Home is a place where you can re-group, drop anchor and make sense of your world.
Over these years, throughout all the changes, there have been two constants.
The first is this stunning valley on the Cape Peninsula, and the kopje views we enjoy from MAGPIE. It’s the one place that I look at and immediately feel, I’m home.
The other has been the man next to me. Kaya.
Where’s home for you?
©Maggie M /Mother City Time
