African Sunsets

There was that moment of true unadulterated love, and then I was hooked. This moment redefined why I love to travel to new lands, and meet new people, because you will never know when one of them may change you. It was not a scene from a movie, but it was my defining moment of realisation where I left thinking about how lucky I am to have met her.

Finding beauty in Uganda was not a difficult task. There are vast landscapes of greens and mountain ranges that give the impression that they have been etched onto a blue canvas. But it was the humble beauty of its people that turned my world around, and one in particular that stole my heart.

Keletesi. She will never be on the side of a billboard, her triumphs will never earn her much money and there is an almost definite probability that I will never see her again, but she needs a voice, and this is it. If you have ever been privileged enough to see an African sunset, you will know that the sky is bigger, brighter and more colourful than anywhere else. But the day that this sun went down was my hardest sunset I have ever witnessed as it marked the end of my time with her.

Addodoi, Eastern Uganda. In this village there is no electricity and no running water, but there is true happiness in those things that we forget are important in life. She spoke English exceptionally well; a skill she had learnt from her father, and passed onto her 5 children. They all lived together in 3 huts, and farmed groundnuts and maize. At 63 years old, she spent 10 hours a day in the fields, before coming home to cook her entire family a meal. She was absolutely fathomed by the fact that I could not cook and insisted that I spent much of my time learning how to make a maize dish that I would not know how to spell, even if I wanted to.

But it was the moment I left her that my mind cannot stop replaying. Her eyes sparkled and she sauntered towards me, hands behind her back with the most mischievous smile I have ever seen. My heart began to break and I thought about the goodbye that I was about to endure. Her hands reached out for mine, and she laid a bag with an entire days worth of groundnuts into my palm. She apologized for not having more to give me, looking sheepish, as if this was not enough. Warm tears began to run down my cheeks as I realised what she had sacrificed in order to give me this. Her lip trembled as she engulfed me into a hug, effectively strangers, we wept, whispering in my ear, “You are my daughter now too”.