A Wallflower in the middle of a busy road.

Nambi sat at the bus stop waiting for her bus to arrive. She pulled out the tiny mirror that was gifted to her by her sister; she always carried in her purse now. She proceeded to looking at herself to see if there were any traces of African groundnut husks stuck in her teeth. She had a whole tin of roasted groundnuts in her suitcase; her mother had roasted them for her and made sure she packed them before leaving the house. She had packed fried grasshoppers and unripe plantain which was now rip and ready to eat all in a space of spending two days and a night in her suitcase. These were all part of her “favourite foods” list that her mother made her write to see which they could sneak into her luggage and past the check in point at the airport. As she looked herself in the mirror, she noticed her face was white from the baby powder she bought from Mugaga’s shop – the neighborhood corner shop. And in that moment a sudden overwhelming feeling of homesickness hit her – she missed the sound of her chickens in the morning. The bus she was meant to take to her aunt’s house pulled up seconds later. She had never seen such a huge bus in her life before. And the fact that all the lights and side mirrors were still in and not pulled out by robbers amazed her even more.

The smell of cheap perfume lingered behind her as she took her seat on the bus. Something she did not know until the older lady in the seat in front of hers tried but failed to whisper this to the white haired man next to her. Nambi stood at five foot eight with chocolate even skin running from head to toe. She wore her hair short and natural with tight curls that she inherited from her maternal grandmother. Everyone said she looked so much like her mother’s side of the family; the only physical attribute she got from her father’s side were the big wide eyes and long forehead. But now as she sat patiently waiting for the bus to depart, she looked at her legs and noticed a slight resemblance to her father’s sister’s legs; Aunt Benita. Her aunt’s legs were big with feet were tiny, just like hers. And right now they were really shiny from the petroleum jelly she smeared on her limbs in the airport bathroom once the plane landed. From this first experience, she noticed flying dried her skin up and thought to herself how wise it was for her mother to insist she carried the shea butter they extracted from their family farm. Her father had invested in agriculture and shea tree farming when she was 5 and that was how he managed to provide for his family over the years.

The smell of something fried bought her back to reality. The girl next to her was taking a bite into what looked like a burger. It was greasy just like she had seen in movies and TV commercials but what they did not show her was how messy it got while eating this burger. The girl struggled with eating this American delicacy; as she took bites to it some sort of white cream was oozing out from the other side. But the disgusting part was that the girl proceeded to lick this white cream off her fingers; this almost made Nambi sick. She had to look away to keep herself from throwing up, she turned to her side of the window and all she saw were green fields. This reminded her of their family farmhouse in the village. She missed home – Post civil war Uganda, with the smell of dust in the air and her mother’s matoke and fish in groundnut sauce. But she was in America now, and she had always thought America to be so aspirational – The land of the free. This thought bought a smile to her face even amidst her feelings of homesickness, she couldn’t help but dream of all the opportunities that laid ahead.

 

The Great Gatsby

So I just got around to watching “the Great Gatsby”. The book for me is an all time favorite and anyone who is a reader knows to never watch a movie of a classic novel because it is always a big bowl of wrong but yet again anyone who is a reader is always curious. So eight months or so later, here I am 3am blogging about  one of my all time classics…. I just couldn’t go to bed without doing so.

In all honesty as a reader, i was a really pessimistic of the movie. The Jay-Z background music (I am a fan but to me that killed the whole movie genre) and Lana del rey… OH MY GOD, WHY??!!! A little Richard Wanger or Carl Orff – André Rieu wouldn’t have hurt; might be a little cliche but would have been a little more appropriate for a 1925 classic, maybe they were going for an up to day edgy sound but I for one need a classical fiction to stay that way.

Moving on to the movie itself, my heart gave in. Seeing something you read in a book come to life can be both amazing and disappointing, the visual you had can be either a catastrophe or an explosion of the mind. When it came to Gatsby it was a little of both; I love that it was realistic and fictional at the same time, it was like wind on a perfectly sunny day. F. Scott Fitzgerald the writer of the book wrote it with the idea of creating an old school Jazz age which was depicted in the movie. I am an old soul and I loved that this came to life in the movie, the jazz age looking outfits and the parties made me feel like it was really 1925 (regardless of the Jay-Z). The on edge unexpected twists which were not all in the book did somewhat anger me; every reader wants to witness every part of the book when being made into a movie, I however came to a realization and acceptance that that is impossible and will never happen but when it came to the storytelling I still couldn’t help but let a tear roll down my cheek. The love lost in this story left nothing but a trail of disaster and shock waving realizations. Jay Gatsby’s love for Daisy was unfortunate and very sad, he loved her since the day he met her; a penniless war veteran who wanted nothing more in this world than greatness and acknowledgement while daisy came from a prompt rich family. And how one kiss five years ago changed everything for Gatsby, he had to make a name for himself before wedding daisy and she could not wait. Five years later while Daisy’s life moved no; she is now married to a pompous cheating underachieved man, Gatsby has inherited a large sum of money and wants to get Daisy back; to him time has not moved and he still thinks daisy is still his. A tale of how time and money got in the way and made a tragedy of what used to be love. The twisted turn of events and how daisy ended up being a cowardly whore who hid under cheating husband’s trousers landing Gatsby dead but not alone. His only loyal companion Nicholas “Nick” Carraway the first person narrator leaved to tell his story, the legend that was “The Great Gatsby”

This story is a tale of Love, betrayal, loyalty, deceit, passion, ambition, dedication, motivation, childhood, hate and most of all true friendship. I love it; be it a novel or a movie, it is a great teacher and a fantastic read.