Stranger by sea

I thought I needed some time, time for myself.

That's why I looked for a silent place on the beach where I could sort out my thoughts.

After 5 minutes of looking at the horizon, a man emerged out of the water, heading straight in my direction. He looked friendly. To protect himself from the sharp corals, he was wearing rubber boots. Now at an approximate distance of 5 meters, he smiled at me and said "Jambo". After I also replied with "Jambo", he pointed at his rubber boots and then to the sea - apparently offering me to take his rubber boots to take a bath. As I was still a bit sick, I denied. Then, I asked him how often he would take a bath at the sea. He answered that he does only know a bit of English and asked me whether I can speak Swahili. 

From that point onwards, our communication was a mixture of single words, pointing at stuff, nodding and using facial expressions. Despite the language barrier, we managed to communicate for some minutes: about stuff that was happening around the beach, our families and also our daily life. 

It was a small moment, but this conversation was unique in a way: I feel like it was driven solely by curiosity, and I wish that we could have talked to each other in our mother tongue for some time. 

When the man eventually departed, he left me with questions:

I asked myself on which topics we would agree and where we would not understand each other at all. I asked myself whether I would enjoy his life at Zanzibar, and whether he would enjoy my daily life in Germany.. and more.

In hindsight, I find it strange that this man and I, we will probably never see each other again. We will remain strangers to each other's future journeys and experiences following our brief chat.  Still, I will keep this moment as a precious memory. I believe it is a good example that it is often the little moments that stick in mind. 

Those moments that appear inconspicuous at first glance.