What’s your favorite season in life?
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October 1993, Dakar, Senegal, West Africa.
It was my first year in Secondary School in “Lycée Lamine Gueye” in Dakar. It was my first taste of autonomy, where I could go to school far from home and without my parents’ supervision.
I had to take the “Sotrac” bus from Dieupeul Terminal to Dakar Plateau, where I used to see the glimpses of big houses behind closed fences.
This is where I met Ansou, Woury, Seydou and Daba and some other people that were my core group of friends.
At that time, we didn’t know that we would become friends for life and that our journey would bring us from a public school with broken windows in Dakar to France, Italy and other western countries.
Meet Ansou, one of my best friends in life.
He’s living in Italy now after a challenging journey. We don’t speak that often over the phone. Yet each time we speak, he’s always positive and teasing me for not calling that often. While people were recovering from their celebration of the new year’s eve, Ansou learned that his father passed away in Dakar, Senegal.
He shared the sad news with me and he told me that he will leave Italy to go to Dakar, Senegal to say goodbye to his beloved father.
Ansou is going through his Winter season in life in the beginning of 2020.
Meet Woury, one of the most mysterious friends in my life.
Woury is now living in Toulouse, in the south of France. We speak often. When he was young, he was fascinated by the magic of flying. He managed to come to France, to do his engineering studies with his own challenges.
Now he’s working in Airbus, he’s happily married and became a father last year. He has his own challenges both personally and professionally. Yet he’s wealthier than he could ever have imagined. Health being the ultimate wealth for him.
Woury is going through his Summer season in life in the beginning of 2020.
Meet Seydou, the most positive friend I’ve ever had.
Whenever I picture Seydou in my mind, I see his smile. Seydou is the kind of friend that you won’t speak to for years. And once you call him, he will not start to complain…
