CANMORE – Laying in the grass during a picnic on a perfect day in Tanzania, his guide checks in on him asking a common question; “poa, poa?”
“Everything is poa, my friend. Everything is poa,” he responds.
It would be a phrase often repeated during his adventures in Africa, and phrase which would later represent a larger narrative.
In Swahili, poa translates to good, cool, or nice.
Unknowingly at the time, the phrase would also become the title of former longtime Canmore resident, author and previous Outlook staffer Jamey Glasnovic’s third travel book, Everything is Poa: One Man’s Search for Peace and Purpose in East Africa, which released this month.
“Despite the challenges and despite the different aspects of what I was trying to accomplish on the trip, I realized all over again that was true, that everything was good,” said Glasnovic.
Glasnovic will be signing his book at Café Books in Canmore on Nov. 1 at noon, and on Nov. 3 at 11:30 a.m. at the Banff Centre’s Kinnear Centre at the Rocky Mountain Books booth. Glasnovic will also be part of the speaker panel for Tales and Ales at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival on Nov. 2 at 4:30 p.m. in the Max Bell Building.
In a 78-day journey through Tanzania and Rwanda, Glasnovic writes on his experience reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro, attempting to navigate through the foreign country on a bike, relying on strangers, and observing Africa’s wildlife, among other countless experiences.
However, it’s the misadventures which often stand out in travel. Like when his route to Kilimanjaro on his bicycle was cut short due to a washed out, muddy impassable road.
It was a roadblock at the time, but an experience that would reflect the narrative that everything is poa, after feeling the generosity of strangers during his struggle.
“It was definitely one of those experiences where you end up having interactions with multiple people that you’ve never met before in your life and you’ll never see again, who help you unravel a problem. And I think that that’s just such an integral part of foreign travel,” said Glasnovic.
“You had an expectation of what it was going to be like, it turned out to be completely different, and at the end of the day you had a beer, and you had a laugh about it, and you got on with the rest of your trip.”
For Glasnovic, pushing himself out of his comfort zone is an “important part of discovering things about yourself and about people”.
“I think the biggest thing for me is that you realize how good other people are,” he said.
“Part of humanity is to allow these kinds of interactions and to be inspired to help other people when they’re in a bit of trouble as well.”
Although not being able to make the route on his bike to Kilmanjaro, Glasnovic was still set on getting some kilometres under his belt, so he travelled 450 km through Rwanda on two wheels later in his trip.
“I brought the bike all this way, I should probably do something substantial with having not done that much in Tanzania,” said Glasnovic.
Even though the idea to bike to the iconic mountain wasn’t seen through, it didn’t damper Glasnovic’s experience.
“I’m not set on a particular destination. I hope for certain things along the way, but it’s not written in stone, and so that’s just how it ended up being,” he said.
“I make you know very loose plans about what I want to accomplish, and then kind of just go and see what I can see and react to how that process evolves.”
When travelling the globe and having unique experiences, Glasnovic quickly journals details or takes photos to help with his detailed writing later at home once he can fully reflect on his experiences.
“The writing process for me, is afterwards and getting home, and now you’ve got time to process the information that you’ve accumulated,” said Glasnovic. “When it’s on the road, you’re just trying to catch the essence of whatever it is that has inspired you, so that later you can revisit it and flesh it out.”
With the book, Glasnovic hopes to inspire people to chase their own experiences outside their comfort zone in whatever that may be for them.
“If they can take something out of the words that I’ve written, then that’s great,” he said.
Everything is Poa: One Man’s Search for Peace and Purpose in East Africa can be bought at Café books in Canmore or online at the Rocky Mountain Books website.
This post was originally published on here
