The Prodigal Returns

"Tall tree and the eye," Anish Kapoor. At the Royal Academy of Arts, London

I returned to Botswana on Friday, the 9th of October. The stories of my travels are long and convoluted - I think it would be fun to recount the trip purely in terms of ground covered, without any explanation of why, because from that perspective it was an utterly ridiculous journey. Actually, perhaps from any perspective it was an utterly ridiculous journey. Regardless, I had a wonderful time and have returned in the best possible spirits, feeling refreshed from the trip and also happy to be back in D'kar. I feel a renewed sense of confidence - this isn't what I want to do forever, but it is what I want to do right now. I don't want to live in the village forever, but it is where I want to be right now. Visiting old friends reminded me that I'm still the person I've always been - small changes, of course, but essentially the same. That's reassuring. And a large part of that person is an academic. I will be applying for graduate school when I get back from Botswana.

I'd worried that when I stepped off the plane, back into the blistering heat and flatness of Botswana, I wouldn't want to be here - that the afterimages of tall green trees, skyscrapers, mountains, and old friends would fill me with regret. Not so. As I said, I don't want to stay here forever, but I really want to be here right now. I hate to keep restating that, but it's very important to me. I think that the contrast between this arrival and my arrival of a year ago, when I first set foot on Kalahari sand, is also helpful. Everything that was alien then, is familiar now.

Further reflection on that later. As one might expect, I'm busy untangling a giant, messy knot of "things that should have been done by other people while I was away but in fact didn't get done at all," so I haven't had much time to blog. BUT I WILL.