About a month ago we were getting on a city bus with our backpacks, going out to the burbs to stay with my folks for a night or two when Boy B asked: “Mom, are we refugees?” “Nope, we’re economic migrants who are very lucky not to be living in the Jungle,” I replied to amused glances from a couple other riders. Either that or they were smiling with pity at 2boys for their mother’s ranting.
No more empty promises on regular posts. As ever, I am so very grateful for some real encouragement and support to properly make this a regular exercise. What’s different when you land in your hometown among old friends and family after more than 15years away? Everything and nothing. I’m keeping notes and digging through notebooks from a life that I left only 9weeks ago but it feels like a lifetime.
We’ve been moving since 01January this year and it is really good allow ourselves to settle in. We’re feeling very fortunate to have landed and moved very quickly into a comfortable house with an easygoing room mate. Having time to take time to get to know our neighbourhood and settle into housekeeping for ourselves is a blessing that is a challenge to put into practice but we’re getting there.
I had some business cards made up with this picture. The colour is a little washed out in print. The stone in the background is Ugandan granite. It is a grain grinding stone that DH picked up along the highway in Uganda on a route survey trip some years ago. The shell shaped object is called the Shiny Turd or something equally scatologically funny to 9 and 12yr olds. They made it by melting down their fishing weights in one of our last bonfires by the ocean in Dar es Salaam. They poured the molten metal into a shell – which may have been a smallish land snail shell BTW – and then when it had cooled, they broke the shell away. I folded up the boxes from animal print origami paper my sister gave me ages ago. They represent my empathy with every other human being trying to get and keep their shit together. Peace and love to all.
