Prologue

This third volume opens a window onto how our lives finally took shape as fully fledged adults. The two youngest were on the verge of moving out; the two oldest had already flown. Bente—my wife—and I were trying to find our footing again after three hectic, exhilarating years in Bangladesh that had given our lives and our marriage a new, very different pulse.

I was unemployed once more, the house had been sold, and we needed to put down roots somewhere new. At first we squeezed into the little allotment-garden cottage where our furniture had waited in storage while we were away, but before long we found an apartment.

I also landed a remarkable job that, for the next eight years, sent me back out into the wider world. This time, though, we kept an anchor—the apartment in Ringsted. What followed was a marriage and a rhythm of life that were intense when we were together, and tender when Bente was in Denmark and I was living in South Africa.

It was an exciting, unconventional life: countless journeys, extraordinary encounters—experiences born of our new existence in South Africa. That is the story I’m ready to tell you now.