WHY THE SEYCHELLES?
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Thoughts of the Anse Forbans that inspired me
Now the time has come (or am I ready? hmmm...). I've been on the road for over 5 years now, first intermittently and now permanently for over a year. Seychelles and again and again I was and am asked - why? what makes Seychelles special? what is special?
I had been aware of it for a long time, but I never found the exact (and soooo simple) word for it, so I always talked about it a lot and (sometimes even exaggerated) raved about it.
I had been aware of it for a long time, but I never found the exact (and soooo simple) word for it, so I always talked about it a lot and (sometimes even exaggerated) raved about it.
To the story, to the key experience: - today I was once again (this is not meant to sound pretentious, it's just everyday style and therefore "almost" completely normal) at a beach party at the Anse Forbans on the occasion of a birthday, invited.
Invited (we arrived 3 hours late by the way, but that's alright in the Seychelles) I was with Seychellois, who had been almost totally unknown before - I only knew the birthday child and his wife.
But what I noticed once again (as so often before) (even more conscious today), everyone and I mean really everyone, no matter if grandmother, host, friend or toddler is so anxious that I am doing well - and I was not even the birthday child. For understanding, I am more the reserved type here in the Seychelles (it used to be completely different) but I always think (and I live by it), I am "only" a guest here in the Seychelles and I therefore completely withdraw myself, try not to show off (old friends will shake their heads here and laugh out loud), neither with knowledge nor with luxury (what is luxury anyway?). But the people on the Seychelles are only really happy, so I have the impression that when everyone is doing really well.
What I am talking about in these lines - I have often experienced in different situations that the Seychellois are special people, - this starts with traffic, for example, when a vehicle blocks a lane and causes a backwater, just because someone wants to have a little chat with a friend, or someone else takes the right of way without thinking much about it, or simply drives in front of you at 20 km/h although you are in a hurry (why actually?), and/or when you make a driving mistake yourself - and and and and. In Germany or Europe, everyone would shake his head when passing the vehicle, show me or a bird, call it names - in the worst case even instruct/indicate.
Here in the Seychelles it's completely different; although I keep thinking to myself, let's see what's going to happen and how they'll react - imagine myself exploding, reacting, but fortunately I usually have a person in front of me and he shows me how to handle it properly - namely with a smile.
I have either forgotten this for a long time or never really learned it. And this is how it works best: you pass the "culprit", smile or wave to him, "thumbs up" is another popular sign to show that everything is ok and not too bad.
The best thing is that you (and I) feel really good about it. Quite different from what you know from Germany and you still get upset about such situations hours or even days later.
There are still so many other things, which I take for granted, where I just think you could have thought of it yourself and done the same thing, be it helping the fishermen to moor the fishing boat, helping an old lady with her shopping, taking a child who is crying for a short time into your arms (also possible as a stranger without any problems), stopping in case of a car breakdown, To answer people when they ask something (you think that's normal - I know quite a bit about that), maybe just throw a friendly "Hello how are you" (no matter where you are) or better said - friendly - deal with the people around you, don't patronize them, don't be know-it-all, or at worst, even be biased and negative.
In the beginning, when I was in the Seychelles for the first time, many Seychellois told me "be calm" or "be patient my friend" (which I always confused with "passion" in the beginning, because of my poor English knowledge before) and did not understand it correctly.
What I want to say with that, everything simply goes 3 bars slower and much more relaxed and friendly on the Seychelles than you know it from hectic Germany or the western world and here I still have a lot to learn.
By the way, the word I was/is "consideration". (there must be a reason why I couldn't think of it for so long...)
Author: Karl Schnürch
In 2007 I started the website Seychelles.com to write everything I experienced from my head. Since then I have been constantly optimizing and expanding Seychelles.com to eventually present a complete picture of Seychelles on this site.
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