–President Obama, in his speech on the Middle East
I am not sure I any longer qualify as young, but this week was one of reimagining.
This week:
~My new roommate and I also accompanied my painting teacher to a street fair full of painters and art in Kampala, and watched kids get their faces painted.
~I painted a painting on canvass for the first time.
~I emailed to ask life advice from a Voudou/ Interfaith priest in Haiti, who answered my questions with a Zen Koan—and I felt like the mix probably made God chuckle.
~I became obsessed with listening alternately to Jimi Hendrix, Loretta Lynn, Leadbelly, Silvio Rodriguez and Kanye West while I lay in bed and closed my eyes and smelled the Kampala rain. I see no point in picking a genre.
~I came back late from the office to no power at home, and looked up at the stars.
~I fell in love with my work again, when I saw some coworkers in action, changing someone's mind about women, men, violence, and uses of power.
~The space in me that is sure about Haiti grew larger.
~I walked down a busy street from the bus park, behind a traditional Karamajong couple that were dressed as the Karamajong have dressed since the beginning of time, or close to it—and they weaved through modern Kampala, by an electronics store blaring the Gambler.
~I called a Ugandan woman who is apparently an Italian-trained chef, for cooking lessons.
~I took a ferry through Lake Victoria to the Ssese islands to meet a friend who works in a refugee camp in another part of Uganda, for a weekend holiday. We ate S’mores at a bonfire under the full moon.
I wish you could see all this, you all! Africa is wide and tall and diverse. It can fit all this into one week in one country in one person’s life. What a great place! I swear I am going to cough up the $50 it takes to buy Trivial Pursuit-Africa edition one of these days and force you all to play with me, so we can all see how much more there is to know.
