Polite notice: am naked and waiting

No, this isn’t a porn email, rather some overall musings on Kenya and Uganda.

You often see public notices here start with ‘Polite notice….’ as in ‘polite notice; please check out by 10 am’. I like that, it’s poetic.

Time runs thicker here. Am measuring time not in seconds or minutes but rather in hours and days.

The air in Kampala (Uganda) is full-bodied and humid, like someone recently cooked a meal and the scent lingers

They’ve skipped phone landlines all together and hopped on the cell phone craze. Even saw an ad to submit your college application via cell phone.

Am trying, without much luck, to resist my natural impulse of which direction to look when crossing the street. As they drive on the other side of the street, I’m always looking in the wrong direction. As a result I must look like a maribou stork, bobbing my head every which way as I weave through traffic.

Speaking of Maribou storks saw no less than 5 up in a tree, supervising the morning rush hour while I was out exercising this morning. Think stork on steriods. They are some 3 or 4 feet tall.

I like that I can give up knowing here. Not only do I not know the answers but sometimes I don’t even get the question. When waiting to board my flight for Kampala for example they announced three times that boarding was to proceed. When I got to the gate however, they politely said, oh not yet. Huh?

Questions and queries are flung about my day; they form a thick tapestry above my head.

I arrived very late in Kampala (flight was delayed 2 1/2 hrs) and felt heavy with fatigue. Got ready to take a shower, debating how I would do that when the shower head was broken. Stripped down to my birthday suit and just then the power went out. Sat on bed naked wondering what do I do now?

Polite notice: how do you take shower in the pitch dark?

Sometimes the best thing to do is realize you don’t know. Stop. And wait. What have you waited for lately? What’s worth waiting for?