14-Sep-08

14-Sep-08
I am just. One. Big. Itchy. Mosquito bite.

I went for a wander-around-town today, got totally lost, got myself shoes (handmade, just for me, from recycled tires), got caught in the pouring rain, and had an all-around lovely time.

It started to rain just as I left the Internet café to look for the Kitgum Youth Center. I kept looking. But then it started to pour. I ran underneath a nearby awning. The two men & one woman there were very welcoming and gave me a chair to sit on. I think it was the porch to a pharmacy; the people were clearly educated, and through the window of the building, I saw a man staring into a microscope.

The woman saw my new shoes and laughed. She told a story – once, she was on a bus, and armed bandits stopped the bus and – took the tires. They just wanted the tires, which were new, to make shoes. The woman said: “It’s better to drive around with dirty tires, so the bandits don’t take them! Never clean your tires!” There was a pause. The woman stopped laughing. She shook her head. “I admire their solidarity,” she mused. I didn’t ask, and I still have no idea who she was talking about. The bandits? The shoemakers? The bus drivers?

Kitgum is spectacularly beautiful, even in the pouring rain.

J and I are affable again. It happened the way it always happens with us, by which I mean, nothing happened. I came home today after making friends and having adventures, and J & I talked about how beautiful the sunset was. That’s all.

J, my friend. How difficult we can make our lives.

The power is out and the generator isn’t running. It’s wicked dark in here. All I’ve got is the glow of the computer screen. I KNEW I should have bought myself that oil lamp the other day. I knew it, I knew it.