An Unsure Path
She sleeps
She eats
She bakes
Her rooms are filled with boxes
unsure about the future.
She questions her worth
She absorbs regrets
She waits for humor and frivolity
to return from their hiatus.
Uganda 2024, Meeting with community members
Transformation is a messy business… have you ever done one before?
I envisioned a partial, not a full-on transformation. Guess what?
“You can’t always get what you want ,
You can’t always get what you want.
But if you try sometime
Well you might just find what you need”
I suppose he’s right, to transform properly it must be done completely.
Divorce stories typically involve sexual transgressions, illicit affairs and the pursuit of desires unattainable within the bonds of marriage; even late-life divorce stories. It’s those salicious details that usually fuel personal accounts of their own break-up.
There isn’t even a remote possibility that I could compete with that sort of divorce story. My account is a raw, personal journey of regrowth.
Facts:
P came to Uganda every 5 months to visit me. This last February he requested that I organize a simple trip. I suggested visiting the Karamoja region, then a guided overland trip to Turkana, Kenya, but this idea didn’t suite P at all. So, I arranged a simple self-drive itinerary, spending our last night together at my favorite guesthouse in Entebbe. A romantic spot with a wood-fired oven in their garden café. That next morning, February 11, Peter told me that our 29-year marriage was over. He pleaded with me to stay in Uganda for a third year, then flew back to Denver.
I arrived at DIA 11 days later. He greeted me at the airport, but it was most certainly over.
My questions of why, when, and who are still ignored. I now struggle to remember our relationship with any accuracy. Our mismatched pairing isn’t cute anymore. It never was.
-July 2026
women in Eastern Uganda
images are from Buweswa, in the mountainous coffee growing region of Eastern Uganda.
Quote from Rolling Stones’ 1969 album Let it Bleed .