For the original Substack post of this article, click here.

Time has raced since I was in Mozambique at the end of 2024. It’s hard to believe that Q4 of 2025 is already approaching.

I’d like to get caught up with 2025. I wrote in January about “Pain as a call to growth”, where I learned to interpret pain as a being’s response to uncomfortable truths. When a truth is difficult to bear, pain presents us with a question; do we face this truth with our full being, or do we deflect our attention so as not to bear the entirety of it?

That’s how my 2024 ended after Mozambique. A sharp pain confronted me with this question and it took until now to fully come to terms with the truth. I’m not sure I’m proud of the fact that it took eight months to fully accept it, but I’m grateful to be where I am now, and the last eight months have been beautiful for the sake of personal growth and the maturity of relationships in my life.

Therefore, as you can surmise, I chose to deflect my being’s attention in January of this year. I had to take a break from Africa. I was searching for answers, directing my attention abroad in search of refuge while still moving forward with my life’s mission. A “side quest” was afoot. My purpose was to wander me elsewhere, as it were. While I remain well-grounded in Africa, it was time to return to familiar terrain on a different continent.

I’ve written about India in the past. It provides a useful economic contrast to Africa and I have fond memories from traveling there for 6 months during a gap year I took upon graduating University. Since I’ve been in Africa, I’ve kept India in my back pocket, knowing that flights there from Africa are inexpensive and that the cost of living is affordable. It would be useful as a backup plan while gathering information that would continue to serve me back in Africa.

How the game plan evolved to jump to India in January was unexpected. I had been tinkering with AI software development over the holidays with mixed success when I learned that good friends of mine from Canada would be situated in India, staying with family while they work and raise their young toddler. They are both career software developers, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to consult with them on my AI software project while meeting the delightful new addition to their young family. My e-visa was granted within a week and I was on a plane to Mumbai in no time.

Anyone who has been to India knows that India isn’t exactly the easiest place to take a break. You can’t escape the overwhelm of India and its charms, but for me, it has remained a slice of home in a far flung corner of the world. It served as an escape for me back then, too. Four years of University left me more confused than I had ever been in my life, and India is where I regained a taste of what it felt like to be myself.

Here I was, back in India, in an acute sense of the same reason. I stayed in a hostel for a night before being received by my friends. I remember that one night in the hostel vividly. The pain of post-Mozambique was much too fresh, and it’s all-too-easy to feel alone amongst the millions of Mumbai. I arrived after dark and roamed the streets to withdraw some cash and get a bite to eat before settling into that balmy, dark, and mosquito-ridden hostel. Feverish and confusing dreams made for a fitful sleep.

Seeing my friends the following morning was a significant relief. It seemed so unlikely to see familiar faces amongst the infinite strangers of India. The holidays had been an ordeal and this felt like finding water in the desert. I was on the road constantly my first time in India, but this time I had friends welcome me into their family home, showing me a much different perspective of India. I had been enthusiastically welcomed by multiple Indian households my first go around, but I was amongst people who differed from me drastically in language and culture. This time, staying with people I knew gave me a heartwarming insight into modern Indian (Maharashtran) family life.

Time had scarcely eased into a new flow when a conversation with my friend triggered a lightbulb moment. We had gotten to know each other as colleagues in the Bitcoin context. Our conversations revolve around work and ideas that stretch our minds. I would often end up in awe as I puzzled over the conclusions our dialogues would present to us.

We were discussing how to navigate the conundrum of starting a company. Where to start? To this, my friend responded, “start the pressure cooker”. What he meant by this is that the clock starts ticking once you START the company. You can wait forever for everything to be just right, but when the company is in motion, then priorities soon reveal themselves. As soon as he said it, I knew immediately the business I wanted to start.

I stayed with my friends and their family for almost a month before it was time to move on. While in Mozambique, I had learned about Workaway, a travel volunteering website, and I was curious to give it a try in India. Click here (goes to Substack) to read more about my Workaway experience and how I made my way back to Namibia via Eswatini.

Leaving India left me with a new resource in my back pocket. This time, it was a sleek document holder with a magnetic latch and “Republic of Estonia” printed on the cover.

In my search for which jurisdiction to register a company, I narrowed down that Estonia’s e-residency program (goes to Estonia e-residency website), with fast-tracked company registration, would be the best fit for me at this stage in my plans. A friend from Germany was helpful with his recommendation of this option, based on his own positive experiences. The application was quick and easy. All I had to do was make a stop at the Estonian embassy in New Delhi to pick up the e-residency kit before leaving the country, because the nearest Estonian embassy to Namibia is in Nairobi, Kenya. This kit would allow me to register and manage my company remotely, which suits my semi-nomadic lifestyle.

What is the business? Bitcoin mining. What’s the hardest part about it? At this stage, I would argue that getting the visa, as a non-Namibian, to operate in Namibia. That being said, I’ve heard from multiple Bitcoin miners that you don’t want to start this business if you’re not fully committed. I’m sure the hardest part is yet to come.

I didn’t come to this decision overnight. It has been on my mind ever since I’ve been in Africa. My main client for my previous company, a copywriting agency tailored to Bitcoin companies (reach out if you need a writer), was an ASIC broker. It was through this relationship that I had the privilege of interviewing Bitcoin miners from around the world. It involved a lot of research, and it wasn’t until I made certain connections in Africa that I realized that I had all the ingredients I needed to take action.

I haven’t started my Estonian company yet, but I have registered my Namibian company - a requirement for the Namibian visa application and for doing business there. It’s a bit complicated to explain due to legal/tax/corporate jargon, but my operations are intended to be split between the Namibian and Estonian companies.

The requirements for getting registered in Namibia have helped start a fire under my a**. I’ve spent the last month running around Windhoek going to all the different government ministries to obtain official documents required for my application. Namibia, and Africa more broadly, has hardly digitized any formal process. Africa loves paperwork, and the weight of bureaucracy is unlike anything you’ve ever seen - I’ve really had to improve my patience after all the hoops I’ve jumped through lately.

The true pressure cooker is yet to initiate - that will happen when the Estonian company is registered. In the meantime, I’ve jumped back to Canada while I prepare more of my visa documents.

#New Ways to Support Wandering w/ Purpose I’ve been receiving requests to allow one-time credit card donations. This is now possible, thanks to GeyserFund. It’s an interesting feature, because the credit card payment is converted into Bitcoin and deposited as such.

If you’re interested, thank you! Click the following link to be directed to the contribution page:

If you prefer to donate directly to Bitcoin Nakawa, then you now have the same option. You can click the following button.

If you’re reading my posts via email, then you can always donate with Bitcoin or credit card by clicking the “Donate to Wandering w/ Purpose” or “Donate to Bitcoin Nakawa” buttons at the bottom of the email.

Another way to support Ww/P is to use one of my app/websites. Only the first (Zapnotes) and third (Island Turning) offer products in return for payment.

The first is Zapnotes. This is a little encrypted note-taking app I made for myself. It has been quite useful to help me write and keep track of my projects.

The second is Q, The Questions Game, a very simple little game that I helped develop for a friend. Try it to see how people respond to unexpected questions. It’s fun!

The third is Island Turning (still in development), a website I made for my mother. She is incredible with woodcraft; her main focus being wood-turning.

Despite how often I travel, I rarely take time for vacations that aren’t blended with work. That’s the life of an entrepreneur. There’s a quote I like that illustrates this well:

“Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week”

This captures the idea of trading a standard 40-hour workweek for a much longer one to gain autonomy and freedom from working for someone else. This is me. I’ve never been happy, or fully turned-on, by the standard 9-5.

This is why it was a welcome change of pace to link up with my father on two hiking trips (goes to photos of the hiking trips) while he passed through Namibia in June/July. We hiked the Fish River canyon and Königstein (I despise this name) at Brandberg, Namibia’s highest peak. I’m going to have to rant about Germany’s history and ongoing influence in Namibia at a later date. There is still much evil in this world that deserves light.

//

Talk soon,

G