”Contest| Throwback Moment: Share a Memorable Childhood Story

Today I am participating in the contest Throwback Moment: My Most Memorable Childhood Story. Thanks to @deepak94 for organizing such an interesting contest. It creates such a nostalgic feeling for us to go back to our childhood memories and relive those moments. I hope you all like my entry.

---

^Nostalgia

---

I am going to write about a story of when I was 8 years old. I used to live here in India with my mom and little brother. At that time, my dad had already moved to Africa because of his job. He first wanted to settle down himself there, and then he would call us there with him. The first place he was posted in was Luanda, Angola 🇦🇴 the city is known to be an economic center of oil.

---

^{some of our neighbours}

So it had been 1 year since my dad had moved there. And he used to visit us only in December during Christmas for a month or so. It was for a very short period of time we would meet Dad, as he was always away. So we would always wait for that time of the year. But this time it was going to be a little different. When we had our summer vacations, my dad planned a trip for all of us to visit Angola. Except for my dad, my mom had only been once outside India. For my brother and me, it was going to be the first time ever. We were ecstatic 🤩.

---

^{me and my bro}

---

We were just so happy because it was a surprise from my dad for us kids. Of course maybe my mom was aware, but we kids were totally unaware and surprised. This was in the year 2005, and not many people around us had gotten a chance to travel to a foreign country. I considered myself lucky to have such a wonderful opportunity and thought to myself that I would come back and boast to my friends in school. 😂.

---

^{Fun at the beach}

---

It was going to be a new experience for us all. The first time we reached there, there was a vast difference between the two countries. The people were obviously different, and the atmosphere too. I remember the first day when we stepped out of the house, we saw an ice cream truck come nearby. We saw an ice cream (chocobar) just like how we get in India. As soon as we tasted the ice cream, it was far away from the taste we expected, and we were disappointed at it.

---

Another thing that was missing was some good, tasty food with spices. In India, we normally cook food with various spices, which add to the taste. But the food over there was quite bland compared to our taste buds. We tried mingling with the people around there too, but there was a huge language barrier. Mostly everyone spoke Portuguese over there. English was hardly spoken, which made it very difficult for us to communicate with anyone. All of these experiences together made us feel like outsiders. Even after all this, I would still say that the people over there are very friendly; even if you walk by on the street, people will greet you as a stranger as well. So in that aspect, it was good enough. But that was not enough for us to stay there with Dad and complete our schooling. We were actually home sick by the end of the trip.

---

^{Enjoying our visit}

---

Although we did not enjoy the overall experience, it was truly a memorable episode in my life. And this was one of my best childhood stories. We got to see where my dad worked. And also visit another continent all together for the first time! Indeed, it was memorable!

---

^{Cherishing the moments}

---

Here I come to the end of my story. I would like to invite @mehta, @simonnwigwe and @otisbrown to participate in this contest.

---

Thank You Everyone for reading my post

---