The sun is getting stronger as the rains recede back into their far away hiding places until the next time they will come to soak the dusty ground. Early afternoon has become plagued with heat like a heavy blanket which the small winds that whisper through the dry leaves on the trees cannot hope to lift. My eyes try to memorize the greenery of the landscape outside my door before it falls prey to the scalding power of the ray’s from our mother star and turn to orange dust like the rest of the town.
It is easy to lose sight of the green in all the dust sometimes. There are moments when the clouds of red Earth become so thick you feel you can’t walk forward without waving your hands wildly in front of you, trying to create a break for sunlight to stream through and light your way. It is easy sometimes to lose sight of what is to come. To be stuck in the muddy water of the moment, unsure of which way to turn, or how you ended up in this unfortunately damp place to begin with.
But as I fumble through each day, sometimes feeling lost, sometimes feeling on my way to being found there come moments that blow away the dust from my vision and my mind. They appear out of nowhere, I can’t seek them out, but these springs of joy in the desert, my small oases of happiness take as many forms as they can find.
Here is a short list of the fonts of happiness that have taken me by surprise:
1. Finding a fruit at market besides oranges and bananas (hello mangoes, papayas, and pineapple)
2. A child calling me by my name and not “siliminga”, the generic term for a white person
3. My students bringing me a giant bag of spicy peppers that I could never use all of in my two years here
4. My puppy chasing goats on wet concrete and sliding off the end of the school veranda when he can’t stop
5. Riding my bicycle fast enough downhill that I can physically feel my anxietes flying away
6. The electric blue birds that sometimes fly overhead when I am walking Alfie outside
7. The one woman at market who speaks no english but is always excited to see me wall by her small store
8. The small girls who work at my favorite store in the district capital who like to play math and spelling games with me when I stop by
9. Understanding and being able to respond to most of a conversation with anyone in my town in Dagbani and seeing how happy it makes them
10. Waking up to my puppy curled up in the bend of my knee in the morning
11. Cold water
12. Sunsets
Han in Dagombaland 