Esengo: October 2007

“Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.” Ps. 116:7

I miss the Fall. There is a saying that African dust can not be washed from your feet – and its true. Africa sticks to you, and try as you might, you will never be able to remove the stains it leaves on your conscience, the smells it leaves lingering in your nostrils and the longing it leaves in your heart. Africa has certainly had that affect on me, but still, there are other places and experiences that have equally left an impression on me. The Fall – I really miss the Fall.
I haven’t experienced too many Falls(Autumns if you wish) in my life, but the few that I have really left me bedazzled. I like waking up one morning and looking out to find the world has changed from green to brilliant reds and oranges. I like watching those leaves fall to the ground until they form a fragile blanket that crunches under food and is ripe for kicking into the air – nature’s confetti. I, of course, like the natural beauty of Fall, but most of all I like the way that Fall makes change beautiful. Life is full of change and somehow Fall makes change worthwhile.
Fall makes me think of change in a different way. It is no longer some cruel uncertainty looming in the future but a beautiful progression from one stage of life to the next. Yes, I miss the Fall. For some reason, at Wake, the Fall always left me very pensive. In October I loved walking to Reynolda Gardens to smell the roses before they cut them back. (It is an experience I highly recommend for all those who have the chance to go there. The best smelling rose is called Secret and it lives it the back right corner of the garden.) I would sit on the nice wooden benches, watching gold fall from the sky and letting the garden’s sweet scents waft around me. And I would think about life and change and how it seems that so often in my life I close my eyes and wake up to find I am in a new place, with new friends, new cultures and new adventures waiting to be had. And I would think that all that beauty just made change worth it.
The seasons are changing here too, though it is much less spectacular. The rains have slowed to the occasional mid-afternoon thunderstorm and by 9am I have already taken a sweat bath, which isn’t hard – sitting at my computer will do the trick. There aren’t any trees here to turn golden red and the grass skipped the gold stage and went straight to brown. During the rains the grass grew six or seven feet tall and now people are hastily cutting it for their thatch roofs before it is set ablaze and the land turns to fire instead of mud. Change here is much harsher than in the US and I suppose that should be expected in a land where several million have died from war, famine and disease over the last two decades. Life is harsher, but the people meet it with a resilience and determination that is an inspiration and challenge to me. Peace in this country is precariously balanced in the hands of the powerful and still people go on with life, with their dreams and hopes for a better future for their children. A whole generation has grown up in refugee camps or the military and now they can only hope and pray that such a fate will not fall to their children.
Change is different here, as it is everywhere, and I miss the Fall. I miss the beauty that Fall makes of change and wish that in places like this change didn’t come in such harsh waves of transformation. But still the change is necessary and even here I am reminded that the Lord has been good me. That even here - especially here, among the poor, the meek, the war-weary – here my King walks the dusty streets of Africa and He has been good to me. And so as the change comes, I will rest in Him and let the longings I have be for Him more so than even the dust of Africa or the golden-red of a Fall evening.

Well, I didn't really do so well at putting up a post from Uganda but here are some pics from my time there. I am back in Sudan again. Right now there are a lot of celebrations going on for Eid (the end of Ramadan). It is a celebration like Christmas, only a slightly different Sudanese version. The rains are slowing down and things are beginning to dry out and get hot. Hope you enjoy the pics.