Back to You

Being in Kampala the past few days has been "interesting" for me. "Interesting" in the fact that one of my friends and teammates from Congo is leaving as her two-year contract is now up and she is headed home to England. But also in the fact that I have reconnected with some of the MSF people who worked on the plague in our area (as the plague is now finished and they are headed to their respective homes), have connected with the Medair Kampala team here, and Kampala has had a funny way of greatly reminding me of my time in Arusha, Tanzania, three years ago.

Kampala is much bigger, with 10 times the amount of traffic, smog, discoteques, shops, people, pot holes in the road, etc. What Kampala does not have are my cousins like Arusha did, does not have that family connection for me (which I have missed much more than I thought I would). But it does have similar sounds, scents, same products in shops, and is fairly populated with mzungus (foreigners)--- very different from Congo. And everyone is walking around speaking English and Swahili and I continuely want to respond to people in French.

Tonight some friends from MSF and I went to dinner at "Savannah". Now this is not "Savannah" as in Georgia, but they DID play a bit of American music which found me off-guard. The music actually took me back to my early university days, dancing in clubs with friends, singing along to the radio, running to whatever music I had in my tape-player (yes, I said tape-player). Everything from r&b (dating back to the good ol' days of TLC), to John Mayer, to current Stateside alternative music.

Listening to such music, I started to peer around at the different tables of people--- national and international--- and wondered what they thought of this music and what was being held in their conversations. As I sat there at my table with two men from France, a wonderful couple from Switzerland, and myself listening to John Mayer ring out lyrics of "back to you... it always comes back to you..." I found my mind leaving our conversation of how to improve emergency epidemic response and drifting back home for a bit. Personally, I blame the music as I never hear this music back in Isiro.

Upon hearing this music, I immediately thought of people back home--- my aunt who sent me the latest John Mayer cd (and I just happened to receive it today), my sis-n-law Lynn because I believe she and my brother Joe introduced me to John Mayer. Last night I was thinking of one of my best friend's Liz down in Lesotho (Southern Africa) as I danced and sang with one of my teammates here to "Billie Jean, she's not my lover"--- Liz is a ridiculously big Michael Jackson fan. I have pondered over people from home, friends in and around other parts of the world, time with my cousins in Arusha, and just issues close to my heart a great deal since I arrived in Kampala. I have found it a bit difficult to disconnect from work and when I do, I usually feel guilty for not working. Kampala is both civilization and absence for me right now.

So... I am heading out of town for a few days. Going on safari to Murchison Falls on the Nile River--- 3 days, 2 nights, should be fun. There is a group of 4 of us going, I have no idea who the others are but that is fine. The whitewater rafting could have worked, but sounded as if too many people would be involved... and I think I need a bit of solitude and quietness right now. My head seems stuck at work, my heart torn between Congo and home, and all of these little incidences in between to turn my head. Off to safari-land. I'll be in touch next week...