Another night, another new bed. I laid on a worn mattress staring up at the ceiling. It was just like any other restless night in this mobile carouselle lifestyle that I was living. Yet another new sleeping place on my journey to meet Vietnamese people living all over the world. This time I was in Africa for the first time ever. I found a Vietnamese man who had lived there for years. He was also wide awake on the ground next to me.

Almost a year and a half earlier, the director of the episode of the Travel Channels Bizarre Foods that I appeared on took a picture with a Vietnamese man. The show was shooting in Senegal. I was intrigued and immediately made contact with that man. Almost a year later, the episode aired, but that man in the picture was nowhere seen. I completely forgot about this Vietnamese man living in Senegal as time and my life progressed. But the dream of visiting Africa never left my mind.

I remembered very vividly how I hesitated a bit after collecting my bags at the airport and saw the exit doors. Ive traveled quite a bit on my own. But, this was another level that I didnt have the proper time to mentally prepare for it. My dreams were just outside of those exit doors. I was more nervous than scared. It was the complete unknown. The walk out of the airport towards the taxi area might have been the longest walk in my life so far. I was very happy to see the man in the picture in real life. I shook his hand and introduced myself and he introduced himself as Duong and people there often call him Duong Nem.