Home Again

I have been home a week and I am trying to decide if I am back to “normal” and before everyone comments that I was never normal I’ll just say that sometimes I feel like I never left Minnesota and my time in Africa was just a dream. I continue to have lots of dreams about Africa, but I had those before I went! Yesterday we hung up some of the items I brought home from Cape Town and the smell in the basket really brought me back – something sort of smokey in them smells like the market or the braii or just the humid air. There are something things I really miss about Africa: the slower pace, the almost skunky vegetation smell on a wet morning, the way people shake hands and hug when they greet each other.

On Thursday I had lunch with Aaron (who designed this class and gave me the opportunity to go in his place this year) and Jane (from Open Arms, who was in Guguletu for six months last year and is going again in September). After only a few minutes we were talking about our mutual friends there and it was if we picked up where a previous conversation left off. Both Aaron and Jane warned me that people would only listen for so long to my stories, and to be ready for that. After leaving them it really did dawn on me that I had gone to a very special place with real people and real concerns. I felt more than ever that I need to do something with what I have learned, although I am still quite uncertain what that will be.

I had my parents and sister’s family over for dinner last night and subjected them to a “slide show” of my pictures. Only 268 of them (I have over 700). They were all interested enough and asked some good questions but I can tell that I can’t fully explain everything and not everyone wants to know everything. As nice as they were about it, I was sort of let down after they left. Marc noticed right away my mood (something about going out to have a beer on the deck by myself might have been a clue) and he helped me to remember that we all have our own interests and understandings and nobody will “get it” quite like those who experienced it. Marc’s mom and sister come for dinner and slide show this evening…we’ll see if I handle that better.

We had a good conversation about “struggle.” Earlier in the week I had wondered aloud how many people struggle on a daily basis: to get food, to make ends meet, to get work, to get along with their family, to fight depression or illness, etc. etc. Marc heard on NPR a new study is out that said that one out of every six people in the world struggle with hunger. This after we “struggled” to find enough room in the refrigerator for the leftovers.

On the positive side, I was able to recreate the malva pudding we had in Cape Town (Emily Smith, remember this was the dessert that came with the warthog ribs!). It was really good but not quite as sweet as the one we had (and how this is possible when it has 2 cups of sugar in it, I’ll never know). Also, Sophia successfully explained how you say, “Molo weni” when greeting a group and only, “Molo” when saying hello to one person. I was proud of her.

People keep saying to me, “You must be so glad to be home!” and yes indeed I am. But I am also so glad I went. It was hard to be away from my family but it was an experience that I believe they have shared with me. Ingrid now says to me, “You can’t go away again unless you take me with you.” I ask her if she’s willing to get immunizations to go and she says “Yes if you’ll take me with you to Africa next time.” When I wished I had brought home four baskets Sophia told me she’d get me one “when I go to Africa.”

So when will we go to Africa? Soon I hope. When you get the chance, I hope you will go. As much as we Americans think Africa must be “so different” from here, it is and it isn’t. Yes they have giraffes and baboons and even penguins, and people say “molo weni” and that they’ll be there “just now” (which is in about 45 minutes). But they also drive Toyotas and eat chicken and go to church and waste time on Facebook and love their families and get frustrated with the weather. I’ve done all of that since returning.

Thank you for reading. This will be my last blog. I leave you with my favorite picture from the whole trip: laundry in the township.