...

"NOTHING THAT'S HAPPENING WILL MAKE MUCH SENSE UNTIL IT HAS FINISHED HAPPENING, WHEREUPON IT WILL YIELD A BURST OF INSIGHT ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR DESTINY."

-

office...

So... just in case you're curious about where I actually, physically work.... Below is the Kivengyere Block at UCU. Mostly its a classroom block, but the USP offices are on the ground level... the four windows you see on the right.

Mine is the first window.
Looking in the doorway, down the hall (very exciting).
My office! This is only just after the first couple of weeks, so its still not exactly how it will be... But its coming! I have a nice window and always a pleasant breeze.... And sometimes a lot of unpleasant construction noise from the library site just a hundred yards away or so. Which also makes for a coating of fine red dust over everything everyday...

Visitors always welcome!

Sunset...

What does one do on a Friday night here, you ask? Enjoy a gentle sunset and a good cup of tea... at least this Friday night. (We'll see what next Friday night brings...)

the tree...

Bottom to top. This at least gives you a better idea of the height of the tree... And just imagine standing right there at the base looking up under this great green umbrella of criss-crossing branches and leafage and full of noisy birds and occasionally red tailed monkeys. WHAT FUN I tell you!

Below is the mysterious white palm nut vulture glowing on a branch... Kind of looks like a seagull or the aflac duck... but no no... White Palm Nut Vulture. There are two that roost in the tree quite regularly. (that I have figured... )

A few more photos...

... to give you a bit more of an idea of my new life. Though, remember, my house is still very much in process..

The kitchen:

Dinner in the 'dining room.' Salad and a boiled egg and toast. Toasted toast.
The living room as seen from the front door. (That big dining room table isn't mine- will be going. And things on the wall just found hooks to hang on temporarily until I can get them properly placed...)
The living room from the other side looking towards the front door:
My room. And my weirdo mosquito net. (suppose its better than the alternative...)
The spare room and bunk beds... this blue will DEFINITELY be going ASAP.
The walk to the office. (This makes me chuckle, because it surely looks like I'm out in the boondox... Really, this is the 'back way' that cuts through my neighbors back yard. They're smart and have filled their back yard with delicious eddibles... unlike the crazy americans who fill their yards with grass.) But what a nice walk to work, hey?

New Diggs...

I have been silent… but I’ve been busy. My world has gone Topsy Turvy really… Mid-June(ish) I was offered a job. In Uganda. I accepted it and began unraveling of life as it had been for the last year (or ten years?)… Back down to the basement to unpack, sort and pile my already compacted ‘stuff' from Baltimore. I made lists of what I needed to do and get, and had many a long email conversation about what was and wasn’t in my soon-to-be beautiful new mostly furnished apartment… we suffered through various odds and ends shopping trips... And then the packing. Oh the agony. And then the worry. Too much? Too little? Impractical? Will all my precious pots make the transatlantic travel, and then survive the subsequent Kenyan/Ugandan roads and boarder crossings?? Oh me. (And should I really be attempting to carry my pots with me??) (Don’t be silly, Of COURSE. They are sweet pieces of my life and my dear dear friends. I'm not leaving them behind…!)

Believe it or not, the most traumatic part of the whole trip was at O’Hare, where the woman at the baggage counter essentially told me, ‘sorry, your trunks are too heavy you can’t take them.’ SLIGHT mis-communication—we could, we later (and thankfully) figured out, we just had to reorder some of the poundage and then pay dearly. BUT… we managed, with the help of some blood, lots of sweat and a few tears, to get that sorted out and on our flight in good time. To Kenya. (or Amsterdam then Nairobi) Where I have to say going back felt a little like I was just there. But fun to be with my parents this go around, meeting up with my brother (sadly missing Kara). We had a few chilly days in Nairobi, reconnecting with friends, going back out to where we had lived 20 years etc. Which was all special. And THEN… the 7 most glorious warm, sunny, sandy, Indian Ocean, pool, henna, swahili seafood, passion fruit juice and coconut filled days spent at the coast… I have to say, dear friends, the Kenyan coast is one of the most spectacular places ON EARTH. (at least that I have had the great good fortune of exploring...) It was glorious I tell you. Glorious. A few photos for your drooling pleasure...

Then back to Nairobi for a few more days and a few more delightful reconnections with old friends. And then the journey west to Uganda. We stayed one night en rout in the Kakamega Forest at a little retreat center called Rondo. It is a rain-forest very much like the one my mom grew up in in Congo, with tall tall old trees FILLED with noisy monkeys and birds, colorful flowers and bright, floaty dancing butterflies. It felt intensely familiar and happy. The following day Than drove us on in his speeding silver bullet to the border, and through the border, and we were met by Vincent, a fellow who works for the program I now work for. He brought us on home. To my new home that is, in Mukono, Uganda. A small (?) town between Jinja and Kampala. We stopped, changed money, picked up a few groceries- namely milk and sugar for that oh-so-necessary life force: tea. (We’d brought the tea from Kenya. Of course). And up the hill to my new home. Up Up Up the bumpy red dirt hill… to a spot that overlooks the town, and the best part… THE best part EVER…?? The tree that will be watching over me while I'm here… Oh it is magnificent. It is a tall old forest tree. Think Avatar tree. Ok, maybe not QUITE… shes sinewy, lankier, but you look up into the underbelly of her branches, which are a way way up there, and it is a spectacular criss-crossing map of places I’d SO like to go... And this old ent is home to raucous clans of turacos, hornbills, parrots and who knows what else… The mornings and evenings are filled with the most delightful cacophony of squabblily, giddy bird chatter you ever heard. This picture does not, simply does not do it justice. I will keep trying to capture it, but for now... and remember it is VERY tall.

So I am slowly unpacking my stuff… Actually, I unpacked pretty quickly and have since been finding the perfect spots for everything. My apartment is spacious and colorful. It seems a little extravagant, honestly. But I'm getting used to the idea of it. I have a living/room dining room space, a kitchen and laundry room, two bedrooms one full bathroom and a half bath. (Did I mention TWO bedrooms? That’s right, and with such delights as I have abovementioned, aren’t you all clamoring to buy your plane tickets?? Yeah, I should THINK so.) My apartment is the on the ground level, my coworker, Gwyn lives above me.

My travels have been wonderful, but after a year of not knowing quite what I was doing, and these last weeks/months of go-go-go it is good to finally stop moving and start finding home again. And yes, I’ve felt guilty and embarrassed at my luggages as I’ve carted them here and there, and dear folk have had to hoist them gently(!) on to and off of roof racks and into pickup beds... (And oh my, what WAS all this nonsense I brought??) But I am thankful. Oh SO thankful for it, because it is pieces of you that I carry with me. And I am so delightfully home in this new place as I pull out my Rita placemats and french press cozy, and my Molly prints, and my Mary Mugs and Ann plate, my Matt seeds, my Kara angel, my Alice knives and bread board, my beautiful Elizabeth Wye Oak piece (which made it!), Auntie Eileen dish towels, Katie necklace, Juan salt and pepper shakers, Allison bag, Marti photo frame, Annie bowl and Raha dudu that has been with me since 10th grade I think... And photos! My fridge was fully adorned the first night with photos of your smiling faces and many a good good time… Zephyr with his mama and papa on his first birthday, Lucia sitting in her sling, Nisha loving the sunshine, mom and dad and the Chicago skyline, Dexter House, my grandparents 3, Hear no evil, see no evil, and what smell no evil?? (hahaha) Yah. I carry all this goodness with me. All these BRILLIANT shining people in my life.

And I feel overwhelmed. And I feel sad to be far away from so many people I love. And I’ll feel super sad when my parents leave (how nice to have them help me move in). And I feel a bit nervous about my new job and all the unknowns, and unsure of myself. But I am excited and grateful too. And ready. For more brilliant shining people… For new places and new things, different things. For Uganda. And eating endless bananas and pineapples, and walks up and down this mighty hill with all my fresh goodies and bags of milk from the market… And for perfectly warm weather 365 days a year.

a lark and a prayer...

Lark

The golden ratio the shell

The stairs ascending round themselves

The trees rustle as if to kneel and listen

To the heartbeat of a lark or the lark in my heartbeat

The oxygen in priestly green

The answers dressed in labyrinthine

The telescopes atop the mountains of ecstatic vision listening

To the heartbeat of a lark or the lark in my heartbeat

I am assured yes, I am assured, yes!

I am assured that peace will come to me

A peace that can yes, surpass the speed yes,

Of my understanding and my need

The meteoric warp and wend

In counterbalance to the sparks ever ascending

The arrow time shoots forward though it moves through repetition

To the heartbeat of a lark or the lark in my heartbeat

What is it that drives the driven snow now?

Upon whose temples will I rest my weary hopes now?

The rain distills down steeples fills the ears of lonely church mice with the

Heartbeat of a lark or the lark in my heartbeat

I am assured yes, I am assured, yes!

I am assured that peace will come to me

A peace that can yes, surpass the speed yes,

Of my understanding and my need

ah, the brilliant Josh Ritter, folks!

Sometimes it is only through others beautiful words and images that we find our own peace and the courage to take a shaky wobbly step out in some semblance of faith... If you haven't heard this song from his new album, you must. It is beautiful.

South...

After a week of reconnections in the great city of Baltimore, I boarded the Amtrak at Penn Station headed down the coast to South Carolina (whoo-wooo), where the trees are grand and old, the land is flat flat flat and the air is thick with heat and history. (It wasn't actually THAT hot while I was there, but it was deliciously warm and the air does have a sultry, bayou, low-country quality to it...) Molly and John have been there just a year and have done a great job of finding some spectacular nooks and crannies to explore.

We checked out the Brookgreens Garden... The grounds of an old rice plantation turned sculpture garden/arboretum.



We spent an afternoon at Huntington beach. Piers, like this one, have been a reoccurring theme in the long history of our friendship.... (or maybe its just inevitable when you hang out with a biologist who loves the water... :)
... Ah yes, the brilliant Dr. L always hunting up fascinating things to show us...
like this itty bitty little crab fella
and this sea urchin-- slightly put out perhaps at the indignity of having his underbelly inspected by three oogling pairs of eyes-- or do they always just flail their little prickles so...? Dr. L? Ah yes, and notice the little tiny tips of some of the bottom-most prickles, split further for pinching and grabbing hold.... Crazy little buggers!
Oh, and check out this huge half-eaten fish head we stumbled upon...

What a day... walking on the beach, falling asleep in the warm sunshine and stopping for yummy pizza on the way home...

We spent another day canoeing up a river just out of town... with these old swampy Cypress trees that tuck their 'knees' up around themselves because of (?) the constant up and down of the water levels. (if you look closely-- those pointy, stumpy things at the base of the trees... are their knees. You can also see the dark line on the trees, where the water level was up to earlier in the season )

Cooling off in the river on a sultry south carolina summer afternoon....


Molly and I picked some delectable strawberries for the strawberry/rhubarb pie we had a hankering for after our soul food dinner of shrimp and grits. They sure don't mess around! Mmmm...
Thanks Molly and John for such a spectacular long weekend... your lovely little home, goofy little dog and delicious hospitality...

more east...

Some more photos from my easterly ventures for you...

After a week and a half with Rita, Juan and la luce I headed up to the greatest city in America. It was a homecoming of sorts. A good homecoming full of good good thins and good good people and absolutely perfect weather!

Walking to the tulip garden... and lazing in the sunshine.

Katie and I spent an afternoon in Elk Neck Park (?) in Delaware... and found ourselves a mini lighthouse, after a mini-hike...


I visited Cinder down in Patterson Park. We happened upon these merry little ducklings...
Cinder has a beautiful booming blooming plot in the Patterson Park community gardens...
...where we harvested daisies...
Rita came up for my last afternoon and the May friends reunited for a Gunpowder hike and some fabulous Zekes coffee....

I don't quite feel like I adequately documented things on this trip... but there was so much more:

- Waverly farmers market with Megan

- TWO brilliant Josh Ritter shows (9:30 Club in DC and Rams Head in Baltimore) with Mary... (his new album, So Runs the World Away is BRILLIANT... and the only thing more brilliant than his album is him in concert.. Ah, LOVE you Josh Ritter!)

- Lunch with Carol and Christy at Carma's in Charles Village

- Going back to Clayworks- good people and beautiful art...

- Lunch with Deb

- Visiting the senior women and Herb at Pimlico

- Bottomless G&Ts with Katie on her lovely breezy, porch

- Good walks

- Jubilee Arts Center

- Lake Montebello...

- A chance meeting with Alice and Emily at Atwaters...

- Gregs Bagels with Lauren and Mary

- The Hamilton Tavern

Ahhh.... it just sort of felt like I'd never left...