These Days

           Lazy days. A fly buzzes by, breaking the ‘silence’. But really, in Africa, it is never silent—if you listen closely. There’s always the comforting hum of the crickets at night and during the day there are layers upon layers of different bird noises coming from all directions. The distant purr of a motorbike, the monotonous dinging from a bell that is tied to the neck of a goat, children laughing wildly. Today, the sun beats down from a cloudless sky onto the brown shoulders of hard-working builders. They are constructing a simple house made of red bricks. Kids are playing soccer on the orange dirt road. People walk leisurely past them in a manner that suggests ‘I don’t have anywhere to be, at least not any time soon’.

            Herds of cows aimlessly roam the village, searching for fresh sprouts of green grass. The people say that they belong to someone, but I’ve never seen them under supervision. The same goes for the wandering groups of goats… and donkeys... and chickens. The town is overrun with livestock. Yarrow and I try to catch them, but never succeed. Yarrow almost caught a chicken, once.
 

            We entertain ourselves by playing guitar, crocheting hats for the people at the center, playing soccer with the locals and wandering. Life is simple here, there’s not too much going on. I think the Africans like it that way. We eat simple, we play simple, we breathe simple. I can’t complain. During the heat of the day, life is stagnant… still, dry, hot. During the night, well, the night is forbidden. We are not allowed to leave the house. ‘It’s too dangerous’ they say, but they will never tell us why. I can only imagine.

            Make-up has become a memory. Showers have gotten more difficult—I call it ‘the third world shower’: where you sit in about an inch of water and splash it over yourself repeatedly. I don’t mind it. We hand wash our clothes. Air conditioners are non-existent. The power goes off at least five times a day (which can be annoying when trying to cook dinner), but at least we have power. It’s a different lifestyle… I could get used to it. It’s remote, but not extremely… I mean, we have (slow and unreliable) wireless internet for crying out loud!