Sunday Morning

I woke up early this morning to a soft rain outside. I pulled off the mosquito netting since I hear no high pitched buzzing. Of course we have lizards climbing the walls inside the house – who doesn’t? Jacob, Halle, and I were the first wake and we read and played games. Jacob and I walked in search of an open market hoping to buy some Zesta jam for our morning feast of French toast that Tona is making. On the way we see people dressed in their finest for Sunday church. Even very small children are all decked out and walking in small groups of two or three without adults. We have our familiar conversations: Jambo… Habari za leo…Nzuri sana. The roads for once are neither dusty nor muddy due to a perfect amount of rain. We stop to examine some strange orange blossoms hanging down from a tropical looking tree. I have been reading “Three Cups of Tea” where the main character reminisces about growing up in Moshi and the lush vegetation. That is perfectly clear this morning. Jacob and I talk at length about places where we have been and where we might want to go. Jacob is ready to move here permanently. I am not quite ready for that commitment but there definitely is a draw. We hear African singing voices through the trees from congregants in a nearby chapel. Glimpses of Kilimanjaro are visible through lifting clouds. We pass a little boy with a balloon. He shows it to us with pride and the huge smile on his face says it all. He is happy and so are we. We experienced a few minutes of paradise this morning. The best part of this experience is being here with Tona and my kids. We have much more time together here without the endless commitments and distractions and “things” we have at home. We all understand that these are special moments. Tomorrow when I head back to the Orthopaedic wards and operating theatre, I will be perhaps less hopeful, but today things seemed really good.