I'm back

It's only been 3 weeks since I last posted, but that feels like a lifetime. In blog world as well as Shailja's real world.

Litfest in Nairobi. Star-spattered skies and dhow sails skimming the wind in Lamu. Back in Nairobi, and watching the World Social Forum roll towards me like a - tidal wave? juggernaut? vortex? Can't find the word, but you get the idea.

My life in America seems like a distant dream. I don't recall dropping this quickly, this completely, into Nairobi - immersion before.

Yesterday morning, I watched dawn light of the first day of 2007 gild acacia trees on the shores of Lake Naivasha. Birdsong, of every pitch and timbre, was liquid sunlight raining down on us. A few hours before, at 2.30am, we stood on the Escarpment, looking out across the Great Rift Valley. One of my favourite places in the world. Possibly the place I'd like to die. Such an immensity of space, of beauty, of time, it's impossible not to feel yourself connected, dissolved, into the hugeness of the universe.