there to here

I realized this morning, as I was writing, that one year ago, I was interviewing an 88-year-old man in Kigarama, Tanzania. Two hours with Mzee Lutimba broke open a piece of my research, gave me something complicated and alive - the image that comes to mind is a pomegranate, cracked open, messy and jeweled, and don't even try to get the stains out. And so I feel marked by a week and a half in Bukoba. I spend a part of every day now digging into it again and again, writing and connecting it to another 10 documents, and it may well become the whole project.

Kolz and I were talking last night about our impending move, collecting our collected thoughts and trying to predict the next six days. I have a system, now, where I keep a document open on my laptop with a running list of things to be done, and rather than put it in my planner or scribble a note, into the list it goes, and I get the pleasure of a strike-through when something is completed. It should be familiar, really, and it should work by now, having been tested in moves to Berlin, to Dar, from Dar, to Detroit, and the research trips in between (by our count). There is a part of me that is deeply anxious about this move and all of the unknowns in the next week - I've never had movers pack me up, I've never been responsible for shipping a car*, I've never had to wait 5 days for my stuff to arrive and plan what things are indispensible in the meantime. My whole kitchen is indispensible, folks. I've never tried to manage two major deadlines and an international conference on the heels of an interstate move. But this likely won't be the last time.

And these are normal things, really, and Kolz insists that it will be easier than I think - partly because my last few moves have been with only suitcases and boxes and, well, trans-Atlantic. And we are going home, in a way. Moving back into the neighborhood near Columbia, with Kolz going back to the firm, is like a zoom back in time to 2007, but this time, bigger apartment**, better commute, and the commitment to staying put for at least 2 years.

So we have our last days in Detroit to pack up and do all of the things that we've put off doing. I am cooking down the contents of the fridge and resisting the urge to stock up at Trader Joe's before the movers come, because shipping nonperishables seems like a fabulous idea. Kolz has his last day of work today, we celebrate this weekend, and then start the move in earnest on Monday. My nieces and nephews will be starting school soon, preparations for my sister's wedding will accelerate a bit, and away we go...


* said car is not going to NY, everyone, calm down
** brand new building with roofdeck!!!