I’m turning 30 next month. The big 3-O is looming. It’s around the turn sitting with its legs crossed, head leaning back against a rocking chair. It’s watching 29 doing the last lap in a 12 month marathon. I can sniff 30. The wind of age is blowing its whiff in my direction. Everything about…
Paris, France
I’m watching the Eiffel Tower glowing with sparkles of silver stars. It is the choreography of lights, a classical composition akin to that of Claude Debussy, a fragrance of Eau de Parfum, a miracle. Those lights are making unforgettable love to my eyes. I don’t want them to stop. I soak that energy into my…
Guten Tag!
The old lady in my building who for about two months was afraid of me finally said hi yesterday. I think she was cornered by her own conscience. She had run out of reasons to be afraid of me. She figured I didn’t bite even though I have vampire teeth. My teeth don’t scare her…
Catherine from Malawi
I’m going down the escalator at Stadhalle to catch a tram to class when Phillip, a four year old boy who has been talking since we were in Bus 612 asks me, “Sprichst du Deutsch?” He wanted to know if I spoke German. This was a good time to test what I know so far,…
Krankenhaus
My right knee has been acting like a cantankerous cry baby. I gave it painkillers. It didn’t give two-hoots. It rolled in the grass with spurts of tears and got itself locked in a thorny shrub. That was another invitation for it to wail even more. It stamped its feet and cried, “I want my…
Happy Dogs
If my writing reads like a child’s doodle, it’s because I feel like a kid again. I’m learning Deutsch, a language I couldn’t say a word in at the beginning of this year. Not even five months ago. I’m doing the a,b,c’s and 1,2,3’s. The do re mi’s and A for Apfel and B for…
Bad Münstereifel
I came to Germany with a half-full suitcase, a UgaBus branded backpack and a mountain of stereotypes. “Those guys are racists. They’ll make you feel like the first piece of sliced bread, unwanted.” I doubted this one. “Their sense of humor is like rotten eggs. It’s smelly. You’ll be walking on egg shells everyday. No…
Newbie in the Neighborhood
I folded my clothes and placed them in my suitcase. It’s a bag that can fit two bunches of matooke, a cook stove, molokony and food that can last a month. It isn’t my case to start with. It’s one of those things that stays with you and eventually, by the natural process of passage…