Toktokkie (Africa I)
for Lourens ("Lolo") Pretorius (@lourens_guiding_life)
toktokkie
what was it about you
the bumps on your pocked shell
sunlit into stripes
tok white tok black tok
one tick all it took to spot
a kindred soul in you
who like me are refreshed
kicking yourself upside down
thick cab on lanky legs
all jocular you race over
red hot sand toktokking
catch me if you can!!
clever you are resourceful
a respectable virtue
thirst slaked by acrobatics
hunger by air currents
thump thump of djembes
click click the Damara tongues
all mimicking your tok
and time’s persistent tick
some are named for ancestors
others for the day they’re born
but you for the sound you make
thunking belly on the floor
for how you communicate
your particular technique
like no other beetle
imitatable incontrovertible
uniquely
tokkly
you
Overwhelmed by Africa
Old friends Rebecca and Paul Mosley, while raising their two sons, have served as missionaries in Burundi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia for sixteen years and are now moving to Kenya. I remember the first time Rebecca returned to the U.S. after months living there. Coming home shocked her. She described a kind of offensive excess—too many bright lights, garish colors, stuff everywhere.
One week into my return from a two-week trip to Africa as parent chaperone with thirteen high school boys and a few teachers, I keep recalling this memory, and relating it to my own disoriented feelings upon reentry.
I’ve been overwhelmed. In a nutshell, I fell in love, as many do, with Africa, especially with Namibia. My urge to share every morsel of the experience in writing has stumped and stalled me. Where to begin?
I’ll take the advice professionals give the overwhelmed: 1. deep breaths 2. parse your task into manageable chunks.
Thank you for bearing with me.
The first chunk is the above dashed-off poem on a tiny but mighty subject—the Toktokkie beetle. This little guy seduced me. I befriended, chased, and photographed him with my Iphone at the bottom of Namibia’s Big Daddy sand dune, a few feet above the Deadvlei. The photo cinched my decision to invest in a real camera before my next big trip
Takeaways
I’ll share a few takeaways now, and more in the days to come.
For starters, I’m more committed to conserving water, to protecting birds and other wildlife, to understanding people different from me, and to leaning into the experience of awe and wonder at creation no matter where I am.
I asked my two sons for their takeaways.
My younger son Alexander was deeply affected by an afternoon spent playing soccer with kids in a Cape Town township where the poverty is such that twelve children share a single bed. In the U.S. he has witnessed poverty but never anything like this. He may never forget a one-on-one conversation with a boy his age. They exchanged questions and observations about their respective countries and lifestyles. They bonded over soccer (apparently the township boys wowed with their skills). But his biggest takeaway was the simple human connection—observing how very similar they are as people.
(Side note: I missed that township visit, spending the afternoon in a Cape Town ER after my morning run-in with a surf board. Fortunately there were no fractures and two silver linings: 1. witnessing the incredible kindness of my roomie Geraldine Barker, school nurse, who stayed with me throughout the ordeal and 2. the four or five thrilling seconds I managed to stand on the board, worth the pain and suffering.)
My older son Asa’s big takeaway is that he wants to cultivate a deeper relationship with the natural environment wherever he lives. We have spent four mornings this week on local hikes, three of them in time for the sunrise. Now we are scheming. We know we have a lot to learn, but we are eager, and our curiosity is piqued.
I’ll leave you with the other photo that reminds me I need a proper camera, taken of another new friend on yesterday’s hike at Connecticut’s Great Hollow Nature Preserve. He was a friendly and most willing model, and got along just fine with my dog Archie:
Take a listen:
Note: This long trip left me behind in thanking and welcoming some new subscribers. I appreciate you! As a reminder, all Substack earnings through next Wednesday, June 26, will go to support the work of Braver Angels, America’s largest grassroots bipartisan effort committed to depolarization. The next day, June 27, I head to their national convention at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI.
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I generally don't enjoy traveling. I like being home. However, this piece you wrote, Toktokkie (Africa I) makes me feel the beauty, the warmth and the depth of your experience, almost to the point of wishing I had been there with you. I loved everything you shared, especially about the small being in all its glory.
Becky,
A very crafty little poem, like the critter itself. And very speakable!