There is something that needs to come out of me, therefore I will just start. I am not going to edit, censor, reread or whatever before hitting “publish”.

This is me at home, Melville, Johannesburg, Soth Africa, 2021

So I am just going to go for it. I am just going to write and then hit publish because I must let the writer in me out before she leaves, packs away her gifts and dreams and goes to sit up on that shelf next to the turn tables I received for my 32nd birthday.

Aren’t shelves some of the most beautiful story tellers. You can look at someones bookshelf & know who they were, what their hopes and dreams are, who they want to be, their sorrows, theirs heart aches, what they care about and even their fantasies.

A few years ago I looked at my bookshelf and thought oh wow, it had been through all kinds of fazes, it had been a shelf for just me and housemate and I to show off our very birghtly coloured highheal collection from 2013-15… remeber back then when we werent allowed into clubs without heels? Then When I got married I split my loot, displaying he’s helmets, some pictures, books and odd bits and bobs from travel. As my daughter came home it change again but suddendly in 2022 I looked up and it was a strange display of my inner turmoil. I dont know that anyone would notice it, I dont know that anyone looks at things the way I do. I wonder? Its probably due to my career, I’m in the creative industry so I am always looking, observing, people watching.

Painting at home infront of my bookshelf

I Should probably atleast start by introducing myself.

I’ll do it like a Q&A, the type we used to do in our A4 books and ask our friends to fill out back in the day. Remember those?

Name: Rina Chunga

Age: At the time of publishing hopefully 35… I turn 36 in 2 weeks so lets hope it doesnt take me that long to hit “send” *crossing fingers

Favourite colour: Yellow & pink… I am trying to out some new colours though, really feeling lilac right now

Holy crap I cant believe I’ll be turning 36, but lets leave that for another post cause I am blessed to see another year, last year I did not think I was going to make it to another birthday.

So Why “Bogobe, pap and Nshima” - Well these are all traditional maize meal starch, eaten pretty much all over Africa and called by different names in different places.

Bogobe in Botswana, where I grew up, I moved there when I was just a 9 month little (well very chubby actually) baby and lived there until I was 15. Pap in South Africa where I have lived since, and Nshima in Zambia, what i kind of consider to be my home nation but who knows, well see.

The purpose of this blog is a self exploration but also a storytelling.

I fell in love with stories as a child. My BaShikulu (grandfather) would sit us down as his grandchildren and tell us stories, “Kalulu the hare” was my favourite, he was always up to some kind of mischieve and this could be what sparked some of my own.

My father was Zambian from a Nomadic tribe and my mother, A South African Malawian, Coloured, raised in Zambia who moved us to Botswana and South Africa with dreams but also the itchest of feet not quite making roots anywhere too deeply for too long… or so I felt. Anyway, travel, exploration, creativity and expression are in my blood and this space will be where I share some of the tales and treasures of travel, life and eating bogebe, pap and Nshima…

Me, unedited probably with typos.

There is something that needs to come out of me, therefore I will just start. I am not going to edit, censor, reread or whatever before hitting “publish”.

Bogobe - Pap - Nshima