Tunaalabagana

I touched down in Uganda in February 2007 with too much luggage, airplane hair and many anxieties about the weeks and months ahead.

 

350 days, 20 books, 4 countries, 3 bottles of sunblock, 2 riots and 1 ebola outbreak later, this once foreign land "in the heart of darkness" now triggers memories of countless acts of kindness and cultural faux pas, of good weather and good friends, of red earth and green tea fields, of matooke and posho, of wonder and frustration and laughter.  It has moved out of the shadows of my imagination into my habits, into my humor, into my prayers, into my verbal and facial expressions, into my ipod and photo albums, into my stomach, into my heart.  I think I finally understand, in some small measure, what people mean when they speak of falling in love with Africa, of falling under its spell. 

 

When I board a plane in a few days, I will be both going and leaving home.  Saying goodbye to people I've grown to love in order to return to others who I've deeply missed is a bittersweet affair, but it's part of a larger experience that I would neither trade nor forgo.