My Favorite Things

The bread from OKGrocer: If you time it right, it’s still warm when you buy it. I eat it with butter and strawberry jam almost every day. Instant chocolate pudding: Mix well, land it in the freezer and you’ve almost got yourself some ice cream—watch out Ben and Jerry! The sounds the goats make: Sometimes I mistake their bleating for one of those pompous monocle-clad men circa 1800 clearing his throat. Bonus points if there is a herd right outside my window, or coming towards me on a narrow path. The glass coke bottles: They look like someone stretched them out, maybe in a tug-of-war situation. Makes a nice decorative vase if you stick some dried underbrush in there. My bed: it’s a double, enough said. And finally, last but not least, the smell of African rain. You can usually see it coming from miles away, but it’s much more satisfying to sniff the air and know you have a few minutes—tops—to find shelter. It’s probably the moisture in the wind stirring up the earth and grasses, or maybe it’s the fact that any change from dry sunny heat is going to excite the senses, but there’s no denying: there’s some magical quality in the rain storms of Namibia.