2006: Chicken in a bag

It's 2:45 AM and I'm sitting here procrastinating so I thought I would post to my blog and do something semi-productive while I listen to some old Bruce Springsteen and sip rooibos tea (and yes, for those rooibos aficionados out there I've added milk and honey!). I was looking through some photos from Lesotho and found this image which pretty much reflects my experience in Lesotho and South Africa over the last year. This freaked out rooster photo is courtesy of a trip from the town of Teyatyaneng to Mapoteng, Lesotho in late October. Several friends and I piled into a mini-bus taxi and while we were chatting and waiting for it to fill up we suddenly noticed this bag start to move next to us. With much trepidation we kept an eyeball (or several eyeballs for that matter) on the bag. Suddenly a rooster popped up his head and we all jumped about a foot providing much amusement for our fellow Basotho passengers! The rooster proceeded to check out all the makhoa (white folks) for the next part of the journey until he and his owner reached the turn off point for Fobane and then we watched the poor bemused rooster and his owner disembark. RIP rooster. The look on the rooster's face (my dear readers, please forgive me as I anthropomorphize this poor specimen of poultry for the purpose of describing my experiences over the last year) was one of curiosity/terror/sad acceptance/defiance (hmm...perhaps I had one too many beers in Teyateyaneng that day!) and that look would pretty much would sum up my life over the last year. There were so many days in Lesotho and South Africa, and even here back home, that I felt like a chicken just popping up its head to check out the surroundings and their inhabitants. I would observe them, curious and slightly alarmed, and then I would try to do 1 of 2 things: 1. squawk and flee; or 2. duck back into the safety of the bag. Working at Maluti and in the surrounding villages brought me face to face with the fragility of life; social, economic, racial, and religious divides that are wider than the Grand Canyon; the hypocrisy of organized religion and some of its adherents; and the simple joy of watching an African sunset with a gin & tonic in one's hand on a dry campus! Looking back over the last year there are some things I regret: mostly people I could have helped more with a few minutes of my time or a comforting word; learning to battle my demon of impatience (that little devil is always looking toward the next goal post or horizon) and losing more often than not with that demon; risking more of myself in relationships (both romantic and friendship wise); and finally the most important lesson of all: learning when I need to pop out of the bag like that rooster and explore my surroundings and their inhabitants a bit more! I hope to act on these lessons in 2007 and explore the sheer juiciness of life (both the sweet and sour)! Hmmm speaking of sweet and sour sauce...fried chicken sounds good right about now!!!!