Friends
Growing up I never understood the story of the prodigal son. I mean, I knew the story, but I always identified more with the son who never strayed. Far from the perfect child, i was – however – the contrast to my sister. She was the popular cheerleader full of potential who was content (at […]
Some people, more than place, are home. The smell of them. The slight laugh, a truncated chuckle with some irony thrown in. the feel and look of them – even though time adds pounds and grays hair. The voice reverberating deep in a chest. The smile not telling everything. He was there when I was […]
I felt the bump. Once. Twice. Maybe three times. I even looked around, irritated and my mind vaguely thinking about someone trying to pick my pocket. But downtown Kampala at dusk, sticking close to my BLB (big little brother) and I didn’t feel unsafe. Even so, something made me feel my bag, run my fingers […]
The air is thick with the ash of trash fires and old engine emissions. It is like breathing gravy and my lungs stretch themselves to capacity to keep me conscious. Walking up the hill to mulago hospital’s other entrance, because the guard wouldn’t let me through the gate, my backpack pulling each step back a […]
It is extortion. Beyond amoral, it is cruel. It is inhuman…not inhumane but actually absent of all humanity. The hospital TeaQueen took our friend to on Monday was holding him hostage with an ever rising ransom disguised as a hospital bill. IHK is known as the best hospital in Uganda. When Shoes and T were […]
I was returned to my college days, my peace corps ones. returned to the joy that a tiny slip of paper in my mailbox can conjure. Yesterday I got a package from my parents. And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, a day more in need of pepping. I almost didn’t trudge down to […]
Kampala, Uganda October 7, 2010 “I haven’t even been proposed to here, I think I’m insulted.” I was half joking but in retrospect I can hear how it must have sounded. No knowledge of my constant proposals in South Africa, no context for “love at first sight” in Liberia, it must have sounded absurd. James, […]
I wanted it to be worthy of him. As if anything would have been worthy of him. As if anything could say to the world, this was my friend. Magnificent. Brilliant. Generous. I wanted it to be worthy of him and found myself angered when the cell phones rang during the service, when the camera […]
She lay there. Still. Mechanical breath raising and lowering her chest with a slight pause – a stutter in the system. The monitors flashed green and red, moaned indecipherably, whirs and screeches that – unmet by rushing attendants – were usual sounds. T’s head bandaged tightly at the crown, odd pinkish coloring against her soft […]
the body of an accident
They were staring. Crowding and staring. When J was finally able to move from where he stood vigil over his cousin’s body, his view obstructed by a set of swinging doors and multiple rows of beds with people languishing in various degrees of care or lack thereof, he was crowded and people stared. Unseeing – […]
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