I’ve moved.
From Tanzania to Kenya to Zambia to Kenya and back to Tanzania.
It seems pertinent, given all that moving and shape changing, that this blog morph in empathy.
I’m here now.
And here.
Reluctant Memsahib
the diary of wife, mother and failed domestic goddess in Africa
About Me
My world, words, website …
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Let's wash your hair I say, to Mum one difficult afternoon.Not long after this picture was taken, we relocated to the Outpost and found ourselves often, on our own, Hat and I, heads bent together over 'school', or in a pool, just the two of us, as Hat dived for coins, or in a garden baked crack dry by relentless Outpost sunshine where we observed 'science' in the rising foam of yeast in a glass or the parchment skin of a snake shed on a fence. For three years.Last summer we had a month with my sister. Me, mum, assorted children, my brother, coming and going.Things my Mother has said to me this week:It was such an extraordinary time. Two months between jobs. The luxury of knowing there was something to come back to. What shall we do, Ant asked. Drive to the Cape, said I.Back then: The frustration, the desolation, the loneliness is palpable; her small voice echoes with it. How incongruous: that so tiny a voice could be so loaded with such weight? Skype connects us, but I can’t touch her: I can’t reach out a hand to place on her arm, a small gesture of support. I can’t do anything. Depression is like that. It will go when it goes. And Mum is still sick. So I rail instead. And I intellectualize her illness for I do not know what else to do and doing is better than not. And I have to hope (hope, hope, hope) that by researching, reading, writing I will keep a step ahead. And I flail around looking for answers.Archives
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Reluctant Memsahib 