Recently, it seems my soul and imagination have wanted to be elsewhere, and I've been trying to figure out where that is. I don't mean anything morbid by that. Just that nostalgic longing you get from time to time, and the feeling that if you could just go back to a certain place or time, things would click, even if you could only do it for a day. As far as I could calculate, the place and time I am longing for today is Sarit Centre, Westlands, Nairobi, roughly 1993, by the popcorn shop that probably isn't there any longer. It was one of the entrances to the mall, and it always signified escape for me, if only for a moment. Video City was straight ahead, but as it was an entrance, all around were options.
Today after lunch I sat at my desk looking at a satellite image of Westlands, and trying to remember exactly what the drive looked like when I would drive from our former home in Westlands to Rusinga School, my elementary school alma mater. I knew it wouldn't work, but I typed in a directions request on Google maps: From: 13800 Biola Ave, La Mirada, CA 90639, To: Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.
Even Google couldn't tell me my way back to where I long to be.