Yesterday I drove down to Entebbe and spent the better part of the afternoon enjoying the lakeside with Meg before dropping her off at the airport. It was a perfect, glowing Entebbe evening as I headed back. The golden scintillating sunlight behind, and in front of me, Kampala-- over which hung dark and heavy clouds. The contrast between where I was and where I was going made me a little giddy. A mass of storm clouds all piled on top of themselves on the horizon is always far more intense than when one is directly under them, but it was still dark overhead in town... dark with the Entebbe evening sun sneaking in from behind making it all absolutely gorgeous.
When driving through Kampala from Entebbe you come into the city on the Entebbe Rd, go through downtown and then head out on the Kampala/Jinja Road. Once you pass Lugogo, you are on your way home. Granted, this last leg (15 miles-ish?) can easily last an hour and a half or more at the wrong time... but on a Sunday afternoon it (usually) only takes 45 minutes. I passed Lugogo and was enjoying relatively clear roads, great music and the weather and I noticed a piece of rainbow to the left. A rainbow!
Now a cynic might say that its not all that surprising to happen upon multiple rainbows during the rainy season. True. However, I don't think they should be taken for granted. In the last month, I have seen some spectacular rainbows. And I have been in need of visible, tangible, beautiful hope. Hope outside of myself, beyond my capacity and regardless of my own ability TO hope, and these rainbows have been that for me. Last weekend in Sipi falls, I saw a beautiful
rainbow. A couple of weeks earlier in Jinja, I saw perhaps the most complete and brilliant
rainbow I've ever seen. I wanted another.
So I was driving home... on the home stretch of going home, and there it was... this sliver of rainbow to my left... I could appreciate that, it didn't have to be full to be hopeful. So, at probably more risk than I ought to admit to (to myself and all others on the road) I got out my camera (yes, while driving) to take a picture or two. And as I drove-- it got brighter and brighter. And it started to extend higher, arcing up and over... I kept snapping with a growing sense of excitement.
To my right was only clear blue skies, but my eye kept tracing the path of the would be full rainbow, and after a while, there on the horizon to my right (exactly where the pot 'o gold should have sat) was the other end of the rainbow. Its not like in itself it was all that shocking, except that it just seemed unreal to want it, to look for it, and to actually find it there. Not only that, but I kept watching it (and the road), and it too started to brighten and stretch upwards.... and somewhere around Seeta- the two halves met and over me stretched a beautiful full rainbow.
I don't know the future. I don't know what lies ahead or on the other side-- but I was heading home, and there it was, a beautiful, hopeful gateway for me to pass through. Not only metaphorically, but quite literally. And right now, when hoping on my own feels shaky, it was remarkably solid.
I strung together the contraband images I took (while driving), and like the rainbow itself, am surprised that they actually tell the full story. (And that I am still alive to post the story...!)
