Trespassing a well-worn path
through several yards – through a perpetually open livestock gate a few yards
over I make my way carefully through the deep sand – one eye on the lookout for those slithering things I have been told to be aware of. One of my neighbors is a man who
has set up house in a tent in the backyard of the house adjacent to his
previous residence. I don’t yet know his story, but we wave and mumble greeting
to each other.
A family of goats – not quite a herd (for they have no
herder) wander the brush across the sandy lane, content to
stalk the yards of my little neighborhood, favoring a large outcropping of cactus
planted by a previous tenant at one of the vacant houses..
The walk is a little more than a kilometer each morning, and as I am
often late, I’m usually speed walking, as best as one can in deep sand… West,
down and across the lane through another livestock gate, this one narrow – to
prohibit the entry of undesirable livestock… and elephants, so I’m told. I try
my best not to snag my turtle shell (this damned backpack) on the gate… am not
always successful..
Just a bit farther, the path turns and cuts diagonally through
the field to the northwest, and I barrel into my shadow as I pick up the pace,
glancing at my mobile realizing the time. I tune out the sounds of the morning
as I pass a giant flowering tree with purple blossoms – the tree houses a hive of
… Bees? Wasps? I’m not sure exactly where, but it positively hums from within.
Finally to the sandy soccer field, with its skeletal goal
posts missing their nets, the school is fully visible, and a steady stream of
learners make their way from the ‘Location’ into the school yard. Nearer to the school yard, adjacent to the soccer field, I
pick my way through a minor refuse patch, unnerving the chickens roaming
around, sorting through the waste.
Finally, I arrive... A little winded – to the amusement of
my fellow teachers who laugh at my obvious exertion... They don’t know I’ve
practically been running to avoid being tardy (or at least even later than I
might have been to the 6:45am daily meeting)… I work through the necessary and
inevitable greetings... Then I retreat to the library…
Trying to figure out where to begin.