Africa is not for sissies, and I love it! An introduction to the Wild West of the 21st century and why I'm here since 5+ years

Hello from Kenya, Steemit! 

Needless to say that I'm overly excited about this new platform. The potential of the blockchain technology for our future is incredible!

But first things first. 

My name is Torsten, but in 2012, somewhere between Malawi and Mozambique, I was given the nickname Toto and it stuck with me ever since. 

Originally from Germany, I learned and worked as chemical technician in the oil industry for 7 years. After a 6 week trip to Thailand in November 2011 I changed my outlook on life and after only 3 days back in Germany, I decided to quit my settled life and live the adventure. Within 6 month I gave up my apartment, sold everything I owed, including my new car, quit my job, cancelled all the useless monthly subscription services and took a flight to Nairobi, Kenya on the 11th of June 2012.

Since then I've travelled, lived, volunteered and worked in 40+ countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the US with a huge majority of my time spent in Africa. 

I love and live it!

As mentioned above, I'm currently based in Kenya. It's here where my biggest achievement is currently based. The Better Me Foundation which currently supports 253 children with free education, a nutritious diet, healthcare, shelter and most importantly, a family and hope.

How did I get to this point?

After my first few weeks in Kenya I found the Korando Educational Center which my foundation is now supporting. The founder Mama Dolfine touched my with her passionate work to help these children and I raised some funds to support them immediately. But as I just started my travels, I only spent a week and continued my journey into Uganda. 

In Uganda I spent about 4 month. Half of that time with another very inspiring human; at Bery's Place on the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. His work is as incredible as the one of Mama Dolfine and I also kept supporting him ever since. 

After traveling Uganda I made my way through Rwanda, Tanzania (incl. Zanzibar), Malawi, Mozambique, back to Malawi and then to Zambia, with 1+ month in each country. 

In February 2013 I arrived in Zambia and joined a Biogas Project in Livingstone as a volunteer. Livingstone is an amazing little city, right at the mighty Victoria Falls, and I really enjoyed living there. After a few weeks my input into the project got me into the position of construction manager and I stayed 6 month in total. There is so much to tell about just that chapter of my life, that I have to keep it for an extra post. But as a little teaser, here are some photos.

After leaving Zambia in August 2013 I traveled Zimbabwe and Botswana. First by 4x4 and afterwards as tour guide with an adventure tour company.

 In September 2013 I then finally reached Cape Town for the very first time. 

During my time in Zambia I made plenty of friends from Cape Town and had a really easy start in this gorgeous city. I started working with my very good friends from Greenpop, who are on the forefront of the green-movement in Cape Town, planting trees, running awareness events and organizing green festivals.

I fell in love not only with the city, but also with a young, french woman from Reunion Island by the name of Mathilde. A place I never had heard about, but which turned out to be paradise just off the coast of Africa in the Indian ocean. 

My mom visited me in December 2013 for a road trip across South Africa and in January 2014 I left with Mathilde for Reunion Island. 

I'm keeping the stories short, as each of these chapters could probably fill a book. But I shall get into all the detailed stories during the next few weeks :)

We spent a beautiful month on this french island in the Indian ocean until our paths separated again. Being on an island, it was quite a difficult task to plan my next step. I actually wanted to go to South America, but looking at flight tickets made clear that I was only left with 3 options. Back to South Africa, to Paris or to Kuala Lumpur. The decision was easy. Malaysia it was.

And so I made my way to Malaysia in February 2014. It was the perfect place to level up my photography skills and purchase proper equipment. With my new DSLR I traveled to Singapore and across Malaysia. Here it happened that I started living with some Moslems in the jungle on a tiny island, to build a mosque out of recycled materials, driftwood and trees. Really a surreal experience. 

In April 2014 I met Mathilde again. This time on the Philippines. She had started an internship at a 5 star resort in Vietnam for her studies and we now had 2 weeks to travel together. It was her very first backpacking experience and we really made the most of it. Afterwards I couldn't wait to see her again and in May I flew to Vietnam to live with her.

The resort was situated on an island, just off the coast of Nah Trang. We spent a few weeks between the resort and the city, until her internship finished and we finally could travel again.

At that time I became tired of traveling and wanted to do something meaningful. We crossed northern Vietnam and Laos into northern Thailand, where we found a new base in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai was just starting to become a famous Digital Nomad hub at that time and we were excited to join the movement. Within a few months we learned the ins and outs of making money online and eventually in August 2014 I started my first remote business. A drop-shipping shop in Germany. Within 1 month I reached 1000 Euro profit and document every single day with a video blog: Dropship Kickstart on Youtube.

I spent another few month in the digital nomads community in Chiang Mai, before visiting Germany for a few days on my way to the United States, where Mathilde was studying at UCSD.

We lived in San Diego for about 6 weeks and did a roadtrip from LA to Denver.

In December 2014 I returned to Cape Town for my good friends (Greenpop.org) wedding. And just a few weeks later, in the first week of January 2015, Mathilde joined me in Johannesburg. I wanted to show her some parts of Eastern and Southern Africa as I've experienced them. At the same time I had received a help request from Kenya a few months before and really wanted to do something meaningful.

To combine both, we started a project called Cheap Trip - Big Impact, which initially was meant to last about 3 month. We put our travel budget into a fund and committed to bring as much of our money to the center. For this we travelled from Johannesburg, South Africa to Kisumu, Kenya overland, while spending as little as possible and at the same time, raising funds for the Korando Educational Center. It looks us 2 month rough month to reach the center and we received plenty of in-kind support from bus companies, accommodations and even a ferry in Malawi. 

We reached Kenya in March 2015 and our first aim was the construction of a volunteer home to bring more helping hands to Mama Dolfine and the children.

2,5 years later: Our volunteer program has been a beautiful success. Our global family is growing by the day and even though we still struggle financially, things fall into place and slowly but surly we sail into calmer waters.

 

Now, lots happened since March 2015. I've been across Europe and Asia, connected with inspiring entrepreneurs in eastern Europe and had spiritual experiences in China and Myanmar. 

I would love to go into more detail in future posts. 

I will also talk more about where I'm headed for, what made me who I am today and why a better world starts with you and me. With the individual. With all of us.

Before you go...

If you liked what you read, please up vote my post and follow me for future updates. I'm headed to positively change our world and would love to hear from anyone feeling the same drive! :)