a little later than Tuesday afternoon... early AM on Thursday, actually. all is well. a lot of guests passed through here [wum] these past few weeks. a lot. PCVs: Todd/Tate/Robert/Shannon and some HCN [host country national] friends: Saidu (Shawn’s housemate) and my host-mother mira and her two kids. these last 3 most-welcome guests are here right now. they’re all most welcome. you, too!check this out, speaking of guests... saidu was looking at the pictures on my wall. family, friends, PCVs, etc. he picked my mother’s photo off the reed mat on the wall where they’re all hanging [with the photos inserted between the gaps in the mat]. that’s the only one he choose to look at up close.
later that night, while i’m sleeping, i hear this noise above my head... a flutter of some sort. i recognize that it’s coming from the wall where the photos are. i realize a photo must’ve fallen off. they often do as the mat is beside the window... the breeze does it.
anywho... i go back to bed. in the morning, i wake and roll over to find the very same picture of my mother lying right beside me. not very unbelievable as a coincidence. strange, though, because the wall is at an oblique angle to my bed. i told Maggie the story and she’s like “ha! your mom is coming!”
i laughed. she called last night. my mother. she’s thinking about coming here to visit again. phone line got cut off, though. guests... they're all most welcome!
aho!
Mohamad
9/5/2002
Wum
Mohamad
9/5/2002
Wum
IMAGE: a map to my house in wum. it's an insert in my peace and freedom journal (PFJ). for my stage-mates to use when visiting. needless to say, it's not drawn to scale.
ReplyDeleteit should give you a sense for wum's simple layout. perhaps it'll also help give some context for my ramblings in this blog, about my wanderings in wum.
finally, a note about the "white man" comment. while i don't identify as white, i was certainly the only non-black man in wum. so "whiteman" quickly became my nickname/label there. that, however, is a whole 'nother story.