A Spilt Personality, Geography-wise….
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The snow is finally melting in my cozy Northern Idaho home. The moose are no longer cruising in front of my house to nibble on my plum tree. I saw my first robin today, have the windows open; it’s a balmy 45 degrees according to the thermometer on the douglas fir by the back porch. I’m home, yet my mind and heart wanders back to Southern Africa.
I’m getting it all down, all the stories: people, places, adventures, thwarted romances and culinary discoveries. I chose to come back here, the only part of the North American continent I really feel at home. That’s saying something because I am a true geographical mutt: inbred is a healthy restlessness that keeps me from doing anything remotely close to my nation’s idea of a “normal ” life. No house in foreclosure, no husband, no kids. Everything still fits in the smallest U-Haul you can rent. But this is home, I’m putting down roots. My best friend from college is two miles away. My father and closest sibling are a day’s drive south through one of the West’s most beautiful states. I have a freezer full of huckleberries, bing cherries, elk meat and wild trout from last summer’s wanderings. I am once again an Idaho girl.
But Africa, the cradle of humankind. My brain swirls back to seeing the Spingboks beat the All Blacks outside of Pretoria, making fried chicken on the Fourth of July for everyone at the Coffee Shack Backbackers on the Wild Coast, flirting with the dishy South African pilot in Madagascar. I want to go back and say “Hi”. See if the white rhino calf I got to name is doing okay in Swaziland, make sure my room is waiting for me in the toney Afrikaans neighborhood I called home for a good chunk of 2006. I celebrated my birthday there, was a spring baby for the first time in my life. Daffodils and tulips marked early September rather than yellow school buses and the start of the pro football season. My spirit is split. I’m not being Tao, not living in the now. My body is here, my thoughts are there…and I honestly don’t think I want any therapy to bring the two together just now.
4 responses to A Spilt Personality, Geography-wise….
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Cedric Pieterse
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Elizabeth Gartley
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Turner Wright said on March 8, 2008
It’s like that no matter how long we spend in one particular place, isn’t it? The grass is always greener?
N. Chrystine Olson said on March 7, 2008
I am so glad you liked it. One of the purposes of writing about the place, my experiences, is to get some exposure for Mkhaya. Their conservation budget is tight despite the fact that the tourist side of Big Game Parks does very well. Conversations with Mick Reilly on what would be the most help came down to two things: cash to purchase more private land to expand the reserve (rhinos need alot of room) and exposure. Ya’ll are the perfect forum to do just that! More to come…like any good writer I can’t keep the ideas ( and the smiles that go with them ) in single file
Tim Patterson said on March 7, 2008
I can’t wait to publish your rhino article!
Lola Akinmade said on March 6, 2008
As I’m getting older, no matter how far and wide I’ve traveled, having that one place that warms my spirit and instantly becomes my home is something I crave more and more.