Too soon

Our last days here are slipping by much too fast, but we're doing our best to make the most of them and to enjoy Mukinge as much as we can. Corey complicated things by spraining his ankle and turning it into a big, swollen, multi-colored mess- forcing us to nix our final saturday morning walk to the boma. But besides that we're doing well. We're enjoying our last few days with the Tompkins, and getting ready for our last visits to the school and he hospital. It's hard to believe we'll be saying goodbye soon....


[The walk home from school]

While Corey has been focusing on bringing his ankle back to a normal size and color, I've been doing my best to soak up the scenery. Yesterday I joined two friends on a walk through the stunning hills of Kasempa. We wandered for a while, following the many different footpaths we stumbled accross, before it started to rain. The downpour wasn't much heavier than the other rains I've experienced here, but it's one thing to admire it from the window, and quite another to be caught in it in the hills, in the midst of a maze of footpaths that quickly turned from dirt, to mud, to streams of water filling my shoes. Needless to say, by the time we found our way home (an hour or two after the rain started) we were pretty waterlogged. But it was still worth it. Yes, these hills are that gorgeous.


[Stream/path]

I've tried my best to take pictures that actually do this place justice, but I have almost come to terms with the fact that that's not going to happen. There is no way to capture the way the sun hits the clouds and reflects the brilliance of the green landscape. Or the way the thick white mist rolls in and blankets the valleys so that only the very tops of the dark, prominent hills are visible. Pictures can't capture and words can't describe the loveliness of this place. So I'll have to be satisfied with my pictures of shadows that only hint at this breathtaking beauty, enjoying it while I'm here, and committing what I can to memory. The rest I'll leave behind me, and, who knows? maybe I'll be back to enjoy it again :)



-Jamie


[The best my camera can do...]