Africa

The Hour I First Believed

In the early days of my pregnancy, I read Loving Frank, historical fiction which details the affair between architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick, a feminist at the turn of the century. It was magnificent. Everything I devour. A story with some truth. Real people from the past. Womanhood. Choices. Tragedy. Bits of my [...]

The morning of the crows

In Rwanda, they always open your soda bottles at the table. This proves they are not poisoning you. In Rwanda, long muddy streams the color of my coffee were lined with Primus beer bottles. I didn’t like it. In Rwanda, we had a beer at the Hotel des Milles Collines. Remember? There was a pool. [...]

Grey and Wandering

What’s Your Greatest Fear?

I once heard a friend of mine relay a conversation he’d had with his wife: Husband: Honey, what’s your greatest fear? Wife: Well, I think it would be that if one of us died and little Sally had to grow up with just one parent. Husband: Oh, I see. Wife: What’s your greatest fear? Husband: [...]

DONE

I am depleted. I don’t know how to address the next room or meal or shower or person or bus or price. I am tired. Of my hairy legs and bug bites and greasy hair. Of dust. Of crazy drivers. Of the children at the window. Of rearranging my backpack. Of conserving toothpaste and treating [...]

Survival

At the market that morning, there was nothing special for sale. It was Goodwill in the shape of a shoe horn along the lake. Fourth-hand dresses and Old Navy sweatshirts and shiny department store shoes minus the box on blankets. Frowning vendors sold tough-skinned tomatoes. Very occasionally a car would roll by entirely too fast [...]

Hopscotch on Sixty Five Furry Heads

There they were. A barn full of Ugandan twelve year olds in thin white shirts and bright purple bottoms, staring at me, the teacher, the white, the female extra terrestrial at the blackboard. Sunlight slipped through the rafters playing hopscotch on sixty five furry heads. We had come to Lake Nkuruba spontaneously at the suggestion [...]

Afraid of the dark

Do you like the dark? I’m not really a fan. I prefer a light switch, even if I don’t need one. Africa doesn’t have a switch. Often, its only teeth enamel and eye-whites which light the way along the lane as they sell fish, walk home, feed a baby or haul their harvest. We’ve had [...]

Naked Eyes

We started this trip with two cameras. We now have none. Yes, the whole stolen thing really sucked. So did the day-long police report experience. There was disbelief, devastation and denial. But there was, eventually, a solemn belief in the idea that this didn’t mean the world was bad, just that two people were bad. [...]

Pringles, Ghetto Kitchens and Bittersweet Red Chilis

We’re in a kitchen again. The most basic of African diners. Her name is Miriam. It was eggs and avocados by Grace in Lake Naivasha. Chapatti and beans by the team at the YWCA in Kisumu. Cabbage, potatoes and blue lantern-light at Mamma Joyce’s in Bujagali Falls. Their food leaves us content, regular and calm. [...]

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