July 17, 2003

Dear Mom:

......in travel, special experiences become forever engrained in one's mind.  Experiences where one can close his eyes and be right there in that moment – senses fully engulfed by a memory.  This night – the night of the moonrise – was such a moment for me. 

We were walking back from Pangani…..picking our way along the bumpy dirt road with only the light from the stars to guide our steps.  He was singing to me – his songs. Rasta songs.  He would finish each one, and after a split second silence he would say, ‘May I sing another?’  Amid the tunes, we strained our eyes to find the small obscure sign pointing to our home for the night.  I trusted his sense of place; he is a trekker.  When we finally made the turnoff toward the collection of huts, he stopped abruptly in his tracks.  ‘Look’, he said, ‘the moonrise'.  Low in the sky, directly in front of us, shone a brilliant burnt red-orange moon not unlike the color of late afternoon sun.  Only the pure blackness of sky, dotted with stars, revealed its truth.

We breathed in unison, mesmerized by such natural beauty.  Making our way down the path and beyond our hut, we arrived at a bluff above the shoreline.  There, our red-orange flaming ball was majestically rising over the water, pacing itself.  We settled in deep grass to watch.  He, with the long green blades licking at his sweet face.  Me, with my wild hair mischievously obstructing my view.  Salt on our lips, roaring waves in our ears, and the evolving moonrise.  Red-orange.   Orange .  Orange-yellow.  Yellow….then high in the sky.  A full moon.

It was a special occasion for me, this night.  From the onset of my glorious African adventure three weeks prior, I had witnessed a full change within the southern sky.  On July 26, the moon was a small sliver of a smile – quite different from the parenthetical partial moon in Chicago 's northern hemisphere.  Each night it broadened, to mark the passing of time.  A wider smile.  A deeper smile.  An open expressive mouth.  And finally…..a full moon.  On this night, a full moon, filling us with wonder and with hope......