Lettuce

Last week I unexpectedly found myself hopping through a large field of lettuce. Jumping from bed to bed trying to avoid both the tender leaves and the rivulets of algae and mud. I started off from home going nowhere but somewhere new needing space to ventilate my thoughts. The main roads are paved but all the roads with in the residential area where we live are dirt, some better, others quickly degenerating into narrow bumpy footpaths. From the balcony of our hostel the area at night is filled with lights, buildings seem almost to touch but between them and often in the center of those sitting unfinished there are banana and papaya trees, maize stalks and apparently a couple acres of lettuce. At the time I felt foolish, imagining dozens of unseen eyes fixed on the silly foreign woman hopping through lettuce and mud rather than taking the “obvious” path, which I’m sure ran somewhere nearby. The experience gave me what I needed, it brought my mind down to my feet and then to the bright blue sky.