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…
Author: Ernest Tuape
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…