By Noel Ihebuzor
At the exit of Mikumi park, a green country side
peopled by boabob trees
huge baobab trees, their naked branches raised in surrender
to the heavens, to a harsh sky begging for rain
standing majestic and proud rushed past
meeting and waving us on as we left them
standing where they have always stood
greeting the wayfaring
and we rolled on, rubber and tarmac
meeting and their interaction pushing us forward and on
past chimpanzees who surveyed us
with amused indifference and who then grudgingly got off the road
to let us progress, and we soon came to a brown river,
which decided to followed our convoy,
rustling and foaming as it rolled towards the waiting confluence
always running ahead till we outran it
outrunning and overtaking slow moving trucks
long and sluggish like overfed millipedes
driving between hills with grey patches on their tops
their cut portions looking like angry reddish dandruff
on the lush green slopes, still standing proud
the face of the hill, gashed and chewed up
by hungry earth eating equipment
The giant teeth of technology biting and transforming,
reaping, ripping and raping
And into the pass and into the mountains
their crests crowned by the floating clouds
the clouds around and above us
floating and drifting like smoke filled amoeba
shapeless balloons hanging on invisible threads
balance of particles and matter held by forces far above us
between earth and the open skies, heaven smiling
the soft palms of the cloud gently brushing our car window
And looking out of the car window
to below to behold the giant snake on which
we rode, this road that wove around and clung on the torso
of the mountain like a lover in the throes of passion
And then the slow descent
dotted huts, dotted communities
scattered among hills
children dotting bellies on tiny limbs,
in their cracked shoes
walking long brown distances on red mud roads
that cracked and spat dust and pebble
to schools with cracking walls
and cracked floors
The convoy drove into a school
a chorus of Karibus and Shikamo
rent the air, as teachers, parents and pupils
came forward to greet us
and as I shook their hands
images of the hills that jogged to meet and greet us
of the winds that laughed and sang for us
and the tall trees that swayed and waved as we passed
receded, replaced by the reality of these young hopeful faces
hungry for education, hungry for life and full of hope for the future
***I jotted these lines down on my first field visit last month to a district we will working in in our current country programme! I am not sure it qualifies as a poem – more like prose and random jottings sitting in a four wheel drive as we did the ten hour trip through a very pleasant country side tot the district!
