A Not So Ordinary Dream of Kenya

I dreamed last night of being in Mombasa.  I have never been to Mombasa, but I have been to Kenya.

The dream, like all dreams, was somewhat disjointed and jumped from scene to scene, but was consistently placed in Mombasa.  It was a chaotic place with people closely packed and the presence of foreigners both common and noticeable.  There were several of us together as part of a group that had been dropped off there after taking a Matatu (bush taxi) from Nairobi.  We were searching for lodging and for some reason, I was the defacto leader of the small group.

We entered into a hotel in the heart of the city.  It was an ancient building -- a remainder of the former British Empire of which Kenya was once a part.  People of many nationalities lounged about, engaged in conversations spoken in many languages.  The dull roar filled the lobby area as I approached the desk before suddenly being transmuted into a different locale within the same city.

In my dream I was suddenly negotiating for something -- I don't know what it was -- with a mixture of gestures and words, both in English and the occasional Swahili which I somehow had picked up in the brief time we had been in the country.  The negotiation ended with a shift of scene to the waterfront where ships of many nations were to be seen in the port.  Many were container ships with familiar metal containers often seen on rail cars in our country.

The dream ended with my waking from the view of the harbor.  I've no idea what might have triggered such a dream.  I record it here merely because I found it interesting...

I pay attention to my dreams.  I believe they are clues to unlocking the desires of our heart.  They are efforts by our mind to store and catalog disparate thoughts into an organized pattern that can be a stimulus for creativity, a well of knowledge to inform behavior, or merely a record of our experiences.  Some, like the dream above, might perhaps be a clue to to something we desire to do.  Visiting Mombasa is now on my bucket list.  Maybe some day....