Raf, Traveler

One of the things I first noticed about Raf was the way he selected his next travel destination ... like a wine connoisseur always searching for that special bottle wine to add to his cellar. And over time it became clear that his cellar is well-stocked with memories and beautiful images taken in places as diverse as the Australian desert and the mountains of Bhutan. 

Ever the wanderer, he can often be found exploring the streets of Brussels with his camera;  maybe eating at his favourite Vietnamese restaurant, discussing life with his Moroccan hairdresser, greeting one of his neighbours in Senagalese or learning Swahili from another ... in preparation for a future trip to Tanzania.  When I asked him to define his feelings about nationality and belonging, he talked of feeling at home wherever he is.  He’s Belgian if cyclist Tom Boonen is winning, he feels a little Flemish if a shopkeeper in Brussels insists on speaking French but after living in Sydney, Australia for a few months he knows that he would be just as comfortable spending the rest of his life in that land downunder.

He is modest about the languages he speaks, despite it being a relatively impressive list that includes fluency in Dutch, French and English, with less fluency in German.  A few sentences in Italian, Spanish, Thai, Japanese and Chinese, and then there’s the Swahili and probably so many others he failed to mention because he ‘only has a few words in them’.

He’s relaxed about learning the language of whatever country he’s visiting.  Laughing, he said ...  I went to Thailand and I couldn’t speak any Thai ... maybe 5 sentences.  I’m not afraid that people won’t understand me and that I won’t understand them ... sign language is universal.

His apartment is centrally-located, an idea dreamt up by the city of Brussels while it was trying to create both ethnic and socio-economic mixes in the inner city.

He explained that the buildings were constructed so that each 6 to 8 apartments shared a common corridor and stairwell which means that you meet your neighbours regularly, creating and maintaining a kind of social control.

Knowing one or two words is enough to start a conversation.  It’s just a matter of being open to people.
The nationalities of his neighbours are almost as diverse as his travels - there are the 2 Belgian families and the East African family, the German journalist and the Moroccan family with 2 kids.  There is the Senegalese guy, the North African couple and a Congolese man with a mixed family.

Raf: I dont feel the need to stay with what I know.
He talked of meeting people he had studied with back in Antwerp and their surprise on learning that he has moved so far from home, living and working less than an hour away in Brussels.  He explained their surprise, saying that Belgians often stay close to the church towers in the place they were born.  He talked of the risk that they run, of not developing an open view of the world, also noting that they often prefer traveling to the big overseas resorts that cater to their desire for Belgian food and conversation.

I like to travel on my own because I realise that waiting 45 minutes until the light is right for
‘that’ photograph is annoying for most people.  However Rebecca, very good friend of mine in Australia, likes to drive and loves to read but never has time so she drives me everywhere I want to go and sits near the car reading while I’m away taking photographs.  It works very well but mostly I travel on my own.

He explains that chance probably played the biggest role in getting him out in the world.  He was 23 when he chaperoned his sister and her friend through France, a trip that didn’t really wake the traveler in him but a year later a South African friend moving to Australia invited him over.

It was that trip across the world on a cheap Air Italia flight that introduced his senses to a world of differences as he passed through Rome, Bombay, Singapore and Melbourne on his way to Sydney.  Landing in Bombay, feeling the heat, seeing things previously unknown to him slowly but surely gave him the desire to want to travel and see more.

Since then Raf has returned to Australia nine times, visited South Africa twice – 6 months before and then 6 months after the landslide election for Nelson Mandela.  He has traveled in Senegal three times,  to Morocco, China, Thailand, India, Bhutan, Patagonia, Argentina, Chile, as well as wandering all over Europe.

I asked Raf how comfortable he was with trying to reconcile his working life in insurance, with his traveling life which seems more directed towards the unusual and slightly extraordinary.  But he believes that the work and the travel are simply aspects of himself.  There’s no huge splitting of self.
Sometimes I wish I could win the lottery, I’d travel, take photographs and nothing else but generally I’m very happy in my travels and with my job.

These days traveling is mostly about landscape photography and a desire to relax ... I don’t think of anything else, all the worries stay behind here and I just enjoy myself.