Catching you up and running off

Dear beloved family and friends,

Thanks for your email which means a lot especially during the holidays when I miss you terribly.

I've been out of contact for a while (apologies!) and I now find myself owing many emails and pictures for the blog. The pictures will have to wait (again sorry!)

Tonight, unplanned-ly, I am off to Addis Ababa. I fly this evening, sans guidebook due to the wrong messenger. I decided I should arrange my onward travel and here as in many places in the developing world (remember Laos), I have to show up at the airline office in person to buy the plane ticket. There was a flight leaving tonight and so, I go.

Well, this is how traveling unfolds, and as has been my experience repeatedly, despite imperfect planning and wishes to modulate the timing and/or feelings of attachment, the best way is to go where and how the energy propels me. Moving forward always brings me a sense of exhiliration, but I am sad to leave the happy comforts and those who became my friends during my time in Tanzania.

Let me try to catch you up as if I had been writing regularly, so I'll stick to the blogger format and write most recent entries at the top, transcribing from my journal.

"...
The lips of time leech to the fountain head
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
..."