Donna White Books
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Flowers in Uganda

8/7/2008

 
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I am a sentimental person who loves revisiting memories time and time again. Photos, trinkets, even a small rock found in a pocket placed there when the children were young, stir up many remembrances of what was.

Perhaps that’s why every spring I buy the same flowers at the nursery and every winter I try to keep these spring treasures alive in the company of my other house plants.

When I first saw these flowers it was in Uganda when I went there on a Destination Life Change trip in 2008. They were scattered everywhere. On the fields, by the roadways, dotting landscape with their bright pinks, oranges, and yellows, almost like miniature sunrises bursting from the green grasses. I was told they were common weeds, often uprooted and tossed aside to make way for more purposeful plants like beans, cassava and pineapple. I understood. Didn’t I do the same with the wild daisies and lamb’s quarters that grew in my garden back home in Canada?

So that is why when I saw these same flowers in a nursery at home I had to buy them.
But why the attachment to a common weed? Because it reminds me of all things Ugandan: The beautifulness of its people, so giving and filled with a happiness that is easily transmitted via smiles and strong embraces.

The durability and resistance of its families in their ability to stand up to their many adversaries: war, flood, drought, AIDS, and Kony.

And the colourfulness of Africa, from the brightly dressed women and children to the songs of greetings sang by the children that still play through my mind.

So yes, I am a sentimental person. But when I meet people who have such strong and fine qualities they make a lasting impression on me. And I want to always be able to hold onto, what is all things, Uganda.


2 Comments
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1/3/2019 11:02:46 pm

I miss my childhood. It reminds me of my supportive friends back then. We used to play along the backyard of one of our grandfather's friends. He loves planting and he used to have lively and beautiful flowers in the backyard. It saddens me that when I see his backyard now, it is not the way it is back then. It was really dry and everything is upside down. When he passed away, the back yard was given to one of his sons, which does not know how to take good care of plants.

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3/15/2019 05:24:13 am

I guess that Uganda had really played an important role in your life. You value the memories and treasure them. I cannot believe that there are some people who thinks just like me. Sometimes, I am curious if other people think that same way I do, but you were the proof that I am not the only one in my thoughts. Flowers remind me of happiness and good memories together with my family, just like you, my grandfather loves flowers.

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    Donna White

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