Elections lakeside

The presidential elections in Uganda are over. As are most of my projects here in the Pearl of Africa. The incumbent won big, fostering some charges of fixing, but the proposed violent response that beset Kenya a few years ago, and that grips Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, is thankfully not evident here. So I can drink my coffee and eat my queen cake in peace.
  I took three days at the lake to wait out the possible turmoil, and only a severe 5 hour morning rainstorm yesterday disturbed the lake's reflection, and mine. Tom, the old watchman, came to me at 7:30 and said, "The rain now will come." Twenty seconds later it came, with force. I sat inside the canteen, overlooking the storm and talked with Simon, a great new friend from England, about his recent romantic trials and that unreasonable pain that accompanies affairs of the heart, and eludes logic. Luckily I had called Lynette the day before and my own emotional status was serene. All these twenty-somethings have these dramas to encounter, while I am deeply contented. As the rain fell, I finished the Lee Child thriller that had entertained me since Rwanda, and finality was in the air.
  Simon and I had cleaned out the nursery storeroom at Bufuka Primary School the day before, finding amazing treasures: an empty french horn case, a case of inflateable waterwings, a good telescope on a tripod, huge stores of plastic sandbox toys, several machetes and knives, a tiny sport coat that now adorns a two-year old (one of the kids who watched us work), and a dozen cans of paint that had been improperly stored and rendered unusable. For three hours the Rolling Stones accompanied our efforts on Simon's powerful little speakers, taking me back to the 60s when these songs had blasted from the VW vans that Bob Metcalf and I had taken on an early European tour. "It's all over now," still as strong today as it was then.
  The Slovenian doctors had concluded their tour at the Bufuka clinic and a huge bonfire and going away party united 50 villagers, volunteers and workers from the Heart of Edirisa. A full moon, a clear sky, and a rich spirit of community embraced us all.
  Today Levi phoned me from Lira, and I made a date to meet him later this week for my final court installation at Longo College. After that, I will return to Kampala and wing home, about a week early, anxious to see Santa Barbara and Lynette, Jansen, Ivy, East Beach and all the wonderful dimensions of life there. Tonight I say goodbye to Brian, the college student, Wilson, the professor, and all of the others who have animated and enriched these wonderful weeks in a southwestern Uganda and Rwanda.

Thanks to all who have written comments on this blog and shared this adventure with me.