Globetrotters Writer Spotlight — Kris Fricke
Hi Globetrotters. My name is…
Soyindaro Oyoyemi Omowale, by the grace of the king of the Yoruba, which means “Maker of honey into wealth” (Soyindaro, the chieftaincy title), and “Our son has returned” (the Oyoyemi Omowale part). Or, more commonly, Kris.
I come from…
…the vast suburban wastelands of Southern California. I like to disparage the endless labyrinths of cookie-cutter houses, but I do fondly recall the many walks in oak-filled arroyos hidden all around Orange County, the road trips up and down the state, camping in the pine forests of the Sierras, and the unrivaled serenity of the redwood forests in the north. And the year-round perfect weather that has left me feeling like anything less than 20c is suffering. I still think Los Angeles is the most overrated city though.
Now I live on the very southern edge of the Australian mainland, amongst the misty rainforests of the Otways. It’s rarely over 20c here but I manage … partially by traveling as much as I can during the winter!
I love to travel because…
There is nothing more interesting than seeing different places, different cultures and environments, and facing the challenges one encounters along the way.
I work as a…
I work alone in the serenity of the forest, the campfire smell of the smoker curling lazily into the air as I lift frames of bees out of beehives and examine them for the story they will tell me. In the winter when it’s too cold and dark for this I typically travel abroad to teach beekeeping in places where the beekeeping industry is underdeveloped.
My number one travel activity is…
I absolutely love going on a walk in a local forest or wetland. I’ve jokingly-not-jokingly said that the purpose of travel is to see waterfalls. I also love to get off the tourist track and hang out with locals.
The best place I’ve been is…
Ethiopia is the most unexpectedly amazing place. “There are starving children in Ethiopia” is a phrase I’d heard all my life, I pictured a barren desert, the poorest of poor places. I arrived to find a green and mountainous place, cities in many ways cleaner, nicer and more comfortable than the strip-mall-plagued modern cities of the States; a rich and vibrant culture; and friendly locals whose dignity is entirely unaffected by the black magic of economics that makes my earnings a hundredfold more than theirs by dint of where we were respectively born (see also: my story The Road to Zenzellma just published here).
If I could live somewhere else, I’d live in…
Before I met my dear fiancée, and before the sad civil war began, I might have said Ethiopia. Now I’d love to live in my love-flamingo’s home country, Venezuela, it seems like a very beautiful place. Unfortunately, the current government has a habit of arresting Americans, imprisoning them in the very interesting post-modernist pyramid-shaped shopping-mall-turned- political-prison known as El Helicoide, whereupon they torture them until they admit to working for the CIA. I already have enough fear of touching the electrical fences near my beehives and have a particular dread of having my fingernails pulled off so I am not about to visit the place. Though I see El Helicoide does have a 2.5-star rating on trip advisor…
(See also: Just a typical first date trip to the Dominican Republic; and Deported from Mexico: A Chase Across the Caribbean in which I face absurd international hurdles in my quest to propose. An engagement intended to be only a few months until the wedding in April 2020 was interrupted by Covid and is now stretching on to its third year due to Covid and then visa problems.
In my spare time, I like to…
read, and write — I’m working on a book about my travels. I think I’m about a quarter through (45,000 words thus far), and I suppose travel fits in this category as I travel as much as I can afford/spare myself from work/visa conditions allow. An interesting fact about what I don’t do in my free time — I don’t own a TV.
My favorite way to travel is…
in the village not the hotel. Using local transport, not a tourist package shuttle. Pitching a tent, not an RV. On foot, by horse or, rarely practical but, I do have a soft spot for by sail.
Three lessons I’ve learned from traveling are…
- When I first began to travel I thought the United States was “normal” life and traveling to say Turkey was to go to some exotic place. I’ve come to feel that the way people live in the lesser-developed world is actually what should be considered normal and returning to the States is to visit the bubble.
- What gives you happiness, self-respect and dignity is all relative. Plenty of people in lesser-developed communities live much happier more satisfying lives than people who are miserable but “rich” living sad lonely lives in their glass and steel towers.
- When “the plan” has gone out the window is often when the best adventures begin.
My top travel tip is…
Learn the doorman’s name. The security guard. The hotel janitor. Learn if they have kids and if your memory can stretch so far their kids’ names. Ask them about their family every time you see them. Most people treat these hotel staff members like furniture, if you show an interest in their life you will find every time you walk through the lobby you are greeted with heartfelt ear-to-ear grins. Security guards have taken me to see their home village on their day off, and receptionists have shown me around their city in their free time. Make their day and they can make your trip.
What am I doing here?
Globetrotters didn’t ask but… I’ve been blogging on Livejournal for 20 years now but it’s become an ever quieter more deserted place. I’m kind of hoping I might find over here the kind of interaction we had on LJ in its heyday. I probably won’t stop making my daily updates there but I’m experimenting with other things here such as more public-facing travel guide-style stories.
