every day but not some
This book was published in 2007. It is available through Amazon.com and through Barnes and Noble.
November 1997
Dear Harriet,
It has been about a year now since you came to visit me, and thinking about our
time together has gotten me reminiscing about my stay here in Sudan. I wondered
if you would mind if I continued our time together by just telling you a few stories
by letter that I didn’t have time to tell you while you were here. You know how it
is when I get home, things are so different and so busy that either I forget or we
don’t have time. I dream about sitting down with my family and regaling them with
all the tales of my adventures in Africa, but it never seems to happen. So, perhaps
this way will give us both a chance to enjoy a visit without the hassles of exit visas,
passports or plane tickets.
Perhaps its best if I start at the beginning. You may recall that I left home to work in
Africa in January of 1982. It had not been my intention to visit, let alone live in the
Sudan, I was really headed for Kenya. However, due to a number of circumstances
after I arrived on the continent, I ended up taking a job in Sudan, which was to last
for about three years. I then planned to move on. However, there was something
about the country, or more precisely the people, that made me change that plan.
The longer I stayed, and the harder it became to stay, the more I wanted to stay.
Life in the Sudan had become, not so much an obsession, as a love. Now, after
spending many years here, I’ve come to look on it as my home. It was nice to hear
you say that after your visit last year. It didn’t always seem like home until I went
“home” to America and found I didn’t belong in America in quite the way that I
used to.
But let’s start at the beginning.
Dear Harriet,
It has been about a year now since you came to visit me, and thinking about our
time together has gotten me reminiscing about my stay here in Sudan. I wondered
if you would mind if I continued our time together by just telling you a few stories
by letter that I didn’t have time to tell you while you were here. You know how it
is when I get home, things are so different and so busy that either I forget or we
don’t have time. I dream about sitting down with my family and regaling them with
all the tales of my adventures in Africa, but it never seems to happen. So, perhaps
this way will give us both a chance to enjoy a visit without the hassles of exit visas,
passports or plane tickets.
Perhaps its best if I start at the beginning. You may recall that I left home to work in
Africa in January of 1982. It had not been my intention to visit, let alone live in the
Sudan, I was really headed for Kenya. However, due to a number of circumstances
after I arrived on the continent, I ended up taking a job in Sudan, which was to last
for about three years. I then planned to move on. However, there was something
about the country, or more precisely the people, that made me change that plan.
The longer I stayed, and the harder it became to stay, the more I wanted to stay.
Life in the Sudan had become, not so much an obsession, as a love. Now, after
spending many years here, I’ve come to look on it as my home. It was nice to hear
you say that after your visit last year. It didn’t always seem like home until I went
“home” to America and found I didn’t belong in America in quite the way that I
used to.
But let’s start at the beginning.
