The next week is supposed to be warm. After a sluggish spring and June and July that let me wear boots to work without discomfort, the Autumn has delayed and we have bright, warm, wonderful sunshine.
Today, Willem returned to his apartment to give a showing and I spent the morning cleaning up and baking cookies. I had a visit from a work colleague and her sons ate the chocolate chip cookies. I visited another work colleague to celebrate his wife's birthday. In the afternoon, after grocery shopping, I painted. A picture of a girl I saw in Tanzania once - in the port city of Dar Es Salaam. She is twelve- or thirteen-years old with thin arms and an inward smile. She wears a white collared shirt with the crest of her school on the left breast pocket, and a pleated black skirt - ridiculous in the Tanzanian heat. Her book bag is slung across her body.
I find it difficult to write about the things that matter to me. Africa matters to me. Last night Willem asked about the work I'd done with APS and, as I discussed the last time Eve and I conducted SAMP in Cameroon, I started crying with the pain of the loss. I still have so many things to say - so many things I saw or understand a little more, or have wanted to capture. But I never seem able to sit and write and articulate.
Work is brutal so I don't often have time to think about the things I wish I was doing. But it does give perspective to remember that I once did something very well that mattered very much.
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