My two best friends

I have just returned from six weeks in the States and being back is strange and good at the same time. Strange because of all the time in America spent talking about what we would do with Kate and Em when they come next summer and with Anna Williams (my best friend) who hopes to come next year sometime. It has made me feel as if I was supposed to bring them with me but have mistakenly forgotten them in America. But I haven’t and that is what must be.


On Monday morning, having been in Uganda for barely three days, I opened my geometry book and forced my jetlagged brain to concentrate. Instead all I can concentrate on is the hum of the termites chewing through the wooden legs of my desk. Not 10 minutes in I hear the familiar shriek “ah Mayhaa!!”So I decide to leave my work for more important things. I hurry outside to the awaiting shrieking kid who is so energetically screaming the same noise over and over again. Akol is the one and a half year old son of our laundress Lucy. She has been bringing him to work with her since he was born. I have watched him learn to sit up, crawl, walk, run, jump, dance and more. My little brother Josh has a “shop” outside in an old shipping container where he set up a show of local crafts like hats and jewelry and stools etc. He likes to bring his ipod shuffle in there and blast the two songs he has on it where no one will yell at him and tell him to shut it off *clears throat*. And every once in a while Akol will wander over there and dance to the music, his chubby little legs bouncing and his adorable laugh ringing through the metal walls of the shipping container. He’s learning how to talk now too. He can say the Karimojong words for candy, food, phone and water. Oh, and the only name he says aside from “Mama”, which is a given, is “ah Mayhaa!” or something to that effect, which is his attempt at pronouncing my name. The adoring screeching noise that is actually produced is of course impossible to accurately represent using our alphabet, but it will have to do because it is the only alphabet I know.

Akol is my second best friend. He runs screaming to me when he sees me coming and tries to suffocate himself in my skirt while in the process of ripping my legs off. He pees on me occasionally and has a lot of fun going around the compound picking up sticks, leaves, stones and random pieces of metal and trash that he finds on the ground and testing to see which one creates the most panicked reaction on my part as he shoves them down his throat. He really is the most considerate of kids. I cannot tell you how many cramps I have gotten in my arms as a result of that little angel’s fickle mind. He can never decide if he wants to be held or put down and shrieks me deaf when I do the wrong thing. See? He is even helping me with practicing patience AND muscle-building at the same time. He really is a good best friend.

As I stand with this boy in my arms, his head nestled comfortably against my neck, I feel how good it is to be back. Every sensation welcoming me home. The smell of the air. The hot sun on my face. The mud between my toes. The buzz of the insects crawling through the rain-enriched earth. The chirping of the crickets clinging to the grass in the fields. The long fingernails of a tiny boy named Akol digging into my neck as he tries to strangle my necklace off me.