Tired.
Did not sleep much on the plane.
Such a surreal experience really. Packed in a plane with loads of strangers, sitting there at 3am, lights low, people sleeping uncomfortably, children softly complaining, air hostesses silently walking up and down the aisles with water and orange juice, the lights on the wings flashing with a reassuring regularity. Far below, the lights of towns and villages in Africa.
And you think of landing, getting out, feeling the African heat and standing on familiar soil, and you remember the sounds of the cities where you were an inconsequential visitor, where you found meaning and intensity in the mundane, where you were neither wanted nor unwanted, but you were there.
You were there.
Cecile Feb 2019
