Green Moon

by Beverly Gilbert Stone
Kenya – April 21, 2016

The moon is full and according to Facebook it is the GREEN MOON. But I can’t see it as it is April and the rains have begun. I don’t mind the sleepless full moon energy though it robs me of my sleep. I can lay here in my round mud hut.

I do love it- this little house. It is made of the mud bricks taken from the digging of a cistern.

Mud hut

My tent was my home for years but what to do with those bricks sitting there waiting for a job. So one year it was creation time. “Chege, can you build a mud house with a thatched roof from those bricks?”

“Yup”, was his reply.

So marking out a 14 foot diameter circle, the work began. Bricks about to neck height then screening all the way around, topped off with pole and a thatch roof. A perfect touch was the yellow bamboo grills to protect the screen.

What a marvelous feeling in this little house. Something about round. Something about earth and grass. Something about the rough stone floor.

To appease the Kenyan modesty, a dividing curtain was hung and drawn up to divide the room into two sleeping spaces, when necessary, and another to divide off a small dressing room. Oh how that fabric added another precious touch.

The inside of the bricks have been plastered and painted. The roof is thatch inside and out.

A fresh breeze wafts through the open screens. The rain on the roof tonight is soft and steady. A sweet sound bringing the moist smell of the sprouting beans, maize and sukuma.

I lie here on my mattress with the hole shaped like me and in the dark, listen to the rain in utter relaxation.

I don’t need to think about not sleeping.
I don’t need to think about tomorrow.
I can drink in each moment of NOW.