Beautiful till Dawn

With my Colega driving carefully and sporadically pointing at some old building, explaining what it was some decades back, we drove down a sandy road, silently while big sunflower heads waving at us. One would feel the urge of waving back, but Charles was busy explaining every spot so I had to pay half attention while breathing the serene African breeze that I missed so much. El Regreso, how sweet to back home. We stopped at a primary school and had our meeting under a traditional shelter made of makuti palm leaves.
The chat that was meant to be for solely for data collection turned out to be a homecoming meeting for me. I could feel their hopes as they answer my questions, their togetherness and the sense of belonging. "He is the store man, he takes care of the harvest", Ekuto would say of his younger brother who is not as much eloquent as he is but spots a face of hardworking and sincere man. As we chatted, they quickly drift into village conversation and share news and laugh out loudly. I enjoyed every bit of it.
Our journey back was too short as we passed though small lively villages, men and women in groups sipping the local brew from the same pot using long pipes made of reeds and enjoying the local Ugandan music. Through, Katine, Kamswahili and the "Beautiful till Dawn" Village. It deserves the name, with it's outstanding scenery of palm trees with yellow cocos and the people sending off the sun with the loud Ugandan music and sipping the local brew. The orange sun, that seems to be setting down in the East to me barely can barely illuminate the small villages now. The Beautiful till Dawn Village was ushering darkness now as we drove past it. Sleep well Mama Africa. Your beautiful till dawn!